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Welcome to the Ho Chi Min City or Saigon and welcome to the beginning of on the craziest thing I’ve ever done in my life…motorbike across Vietnam!! We landed in Ho Chi Min City (HCM from now) full of anticipation for our bike trip. None of us had ever ridden a motorcycle before and we were just about to spend a month driving through a completely foreign country. It’s dangerous and something very few people do but in our minds there was no doubt that this would be the trip of a lifetime.

It’s a bit of a process to find and buy a motorbike in Vietnam so we gave ourselves a few days. We joined several facebook groups where people buy and sell stuff in Vietnam, mostly motorbikes but some other stuff too. We knew absolutely nothing about motorbikes, how to test them, what to look for and how to tell which we’re in good shape. We got a little bit of help from friends and we’re better off than when we started.

Our first full day in Ho Chi Minh City was spent rest driving and learning how to drive these manual motorbikes. We met up with the first guy who was selling two pretty shitty bikes, we didn’t know much about bikes but we knew those were shitty ones. I got the hang of the manual bike though and understood how it worked. We then met up with a local mechanic who had a couple bikes for sale. He was really nice and offered to teach us how to drive the bikes so he took us to a nicely paved and quiet strip of road with no traffic. To get there I had to ride the manual bike for the first time ever through Ho Chi Min traffic. It was fuckin insane...but not as bad as people hype it up to be. It’s complete lawlessness on the roads but everyone’s going so slow because there’s so much traffic so it’s not that hard to maneuver around. I had survived my first test on the roads and got the hang of the manual transmission. So we spent the next little while practicing on the manual bike. We didn’t end up buying those bikes because we didn’t want to buy the first ones we saw. Later that day we went to a bike rental place that does one way rentals. There was a big difference in the quality of the bikes, they were all newer and we could feel the difference. Dan and Zach decided they were going to rent these bikes but I wanted to buy mine! I had one guy that I was going to meet the next day and if the bike was good I would buy it and if not I would rent like Dan and Zach.

Luckily for me the bike was in great shape, a 2017 Honda Win Detech with all the electronics working which was super rare. I paid $350 USD which was a bit expensive but I knew it would be worth it and that I’d be able to make most of my money back selling the bike. And just like that I bought my very first motorcycle!!! It’s been my dream since second year university where I said to myself that I would buy a motorcycle for my graduation gift to myself. That dream came true...just not how I expected it to! At that point Dan and Zach has picked up their bikes and we were ready to go! We drove around a bit that day gathering some supplies we would need for the trip and planned our first day of our road trip!!

Our first day got off to a bit of a rough start...at least for me. I had a flat tire right off the bat so I had to sit around for an hour waiting for a mechanic to open up. I finally got on the road and eventually caught up with Dan and Zach so we made our way to Mui Ne, a small beach town. Google maps said it would be a 4 hour drive and by the time we checked into the hostel it was almost a 10 hour day. Kind of expected since things started slowly and it was our first day of riding. Anyways we made it safely...next stop Dalat! Thanks for watching!

Welcome to Cambodia and more specifically the Siem Reap vlog! I only did one vlog for Cambodia, 50% because I needed a break after filming almost everyday in Thailand and 50% because it didn’t feel vlog worthy. Siem Reap though, I highly recommend.

When I say our first day in these descriptions I always mean the first day that we went out and actually did something. So our first day we were trying to figure out what to do for the day and while Dan was up at reception trying to figure that out (Zach and I just sit back and let him do his thing) Donna introduced herself. She was basically third wheeling her friends and was planning on going to a floating village and she asked if we wanted to join. We said fuck it and hopped in a tuk tuk with her. The floating village was really cool…I’ve never seen anything like it in my life. All these houses and buildings are built on stilts that are several metres high. They’re built this way to accommodate the rainy season where the water level can go from 0 metres up to 4 metres during the wet season! We were right in the middle of wet season which made the experience so much cooler. To finish off the day our tuk tuk driver Sem drove us to an unreal lookout point to catch the sunset. It was a bit of a trek and he decided to wait for us at the bottom. Crazy view from the top seeing how flooded the country had become during the wet season.

The next day we decided to take a day tour to Battambang, a historic city about a 3 hour drive away from Siem Reap. We got dropped off and met our tour guide Kim.

***If you ever go to Battambang I highly recommend Kim’s tuk tuk tour

Kim took us to some awesome places and his english was really good so he was able to tell us a lot about the history of Battambang and the reign of the Khmer Rouge. The whole history of Cambodia is pretty horrendous and I’d recommend looking into it whether you’re a history buff or not. Our first stop was the bamboo train, it was a cool experience and kind of like Cambodia’s craziest rollercoaster lol. We drove a bit more through some villages and the beautiful Cambodian countryside. We stopped to take a couple photos and I got into the draw to get that sick photo and started feeling these little pricks on my legs. At first I just thought it was the grass brushing up on my legs and then it kept happening so I looked down and my feet and calves we’re covered in these little red ants and it fucking hurt!!! I frantically did my best to brush them off my legs and shoes while our tour guide, Kim, laughed like he see’s this shit everyday. Honestly, a bit of an overreaction on my part lol. Then we made our way towards the temple at the top of the mountain and the Killing Caves. The Killing Caves got their name from what they were used for. The Khmer Rouge under the command of Pol Pot, a revolutionary army, basically pushed people off a ledge into this cave to kill politicians, educated people, teachers, doctors, etc. in order to save bullets. This is part of the messed up history I was talking about earlier. There are also the killing fields in Phenom Penh where they excited millions of Cambodians. To give you an idea of the scale of this genocide the Khmer Rouge wiped out nearly half of the Cambodian population, over 3 million Cambodians were killed during this time. It may not be as many people as the Holocaust, however proportionately it’s very close which is even more messed up since it was even more recent than WWII and I’ve never learned about it until that point. Kim got somewhat emotional at this point as he had close family members who disappeared during this time and left us to explore the killing caves ourselves.

On a happier note we caught the sunset and the famous bats exiting the cave at the end of the day. The millions of bats pouring over the countryside skyline looked epic and I’ve never seen so many bats at once! We finished off the day eating dinner with Kim at his house while his family bustled around cooking a food and somewhat gawking at us. They were super friendly and we had an awesome dinner. Easily the most local and authentic experience we had in Cambodia.

Our last day in Siem Reap we hired our Sem, the same tuk tuk driver we had for the floating village to take us around the temples in Siem Reap. Angkor Wat was the main attraction which we hit first for sunrise. Never seen so many other tourists at one time but still a really cool sunrise. After that we hit up a couple more temples but at this point temples are temples and honestly they kind of get boring at a certain point. The sunrise was still epic though!!

Welcome to the Vang Vieng vlog! There's a ton to do in Vang Vieng including a hot air balloon, tubing and visiting the blue lagoon! We did as much as we could.

We took a minivan from Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng through terrible mountain roads. The road was only paved in certain sections and a lot of it was covered in debris from recent landslides...kind of a scary ride. We stayed at Nana Backpackers which is a great party hostel in Vang Vieng. The first day we rented some mopeds and visited one of the blue lagoons. It was a gnarly ride through dirt roads that had huge potholes filled with water but it was a fun experience and good preparation for our Vietnam trip!

The next day we woke up early for the hot air balloon ride. It's one of the big things to do in Vang Vieng and it's somewhat famous for it and it's relatively cheap, only $90 US. We didn't get the sunrise because it was too cloudy although the fog hanging over the mountains was just as epic! We got back to the hostel, napped and chilled out for the rest of the day before heading out. Nana is a party hostel so they give you A LOT of free shots..great way to save money.

Our last day in Vang Vieng we went TUBING!!! Another thing Vang Vieng is kind of famous for. You get a tube, tube down the river and stop at a few bars, get drunk and party! It was a really fun time but kind of sketchy when I got caught in the dark on the river while drunk. A group floating down the river caught up with me and I stuck with them to get back lol.

Welcome to the slow boat/Luang Prabang vlog! So there are several way to get from Thailand to Laos and we decided to take the longest possible option...the slow boat! The slow boat is a 2 day boat ride down the Mekong river that takes you from Chiang Kong to Luang Prabang. We were all initially pretty excited for the experience. Turns out it was a very long and kind of boring ride. We stopped overnight in a town called Pak Beng that exists solely for the purpose of an overnight stop for the slow boat and then made our way down the Mekong again the next day. At the time it felt like a horrible experience but looking back on it, it really wasn’t. Once we decided to get a bit more social it made the time go by quicker.

We finally arrived in Luang Prabang which is a neat little town and a UNESCO world heritage site. Our first full day we decided to go to Kuang Si waterfall and like I said in the vlog it was the coolest waterfall of Asia so far. At the top we had a beer and went for a swim and I kid you not the water felt like glacier water but it felt soooo nice, especially after the trek up to the top. A bunch of people on the slow boat were staying at the same hostel so we all ended up going drunk bowling that night. It’s literally a thing to do and recommended on Trip Advisor. I don’t remember leaving the hostel that night but apparently I went bowling!!

The next day got off to a really slow and unmotivated start for all three of us. The original plan of going to the caves fell through and we ended up just wandering the city and came across the mountain right in the middle that overlooks all of Luang Prabang. Not a bad hungover adventure! That’s all for this vlog, thanks for watching!

Welcome to the Chiang Rai vlog! Our last stop in Thailand was an awesome one! A lot of people say it's not really worth to go to Chiang Rai but that's because they didn't do the right things!

Our second day we rented some mopeds again, from a Newfie! We took the scooters to the famous White Temple which was super crowded with tourists. The outside is really impressive it's super white and intricate, however the inside was kind of underwhelming...I guess that's why you never see pictures of the inside!

We headed to a national park after that to check out a waterfall, unfortunately it was closed because of rainy season and the water levels were too high. So a bit of a bust. Then we went to Singha Park which is waaay bigger than we thought and we were too lazy to walk around so we made our way back to the hostel.

Now for the highlight of Chiang Rai and one of the top highlights of the whole trip so far. We took our scooters 3 hours outside of Chiang Rai to Phu Chi Fa. The ride was unreal with awesome landscapes along each side of the road before getting to the mountain road which is even more epic. It was a tough ride up and we just made it for sunset and the view was absolutely incredible...I've never seen anything like it. We headed down the mountain in the dark shortly after the sunset. Now we needed to find a place to stay lol. We ended up finding a homestay which wasn't too bad...our standards are extremely low at this point in our trip but that was probably the grimiest place we've stayed so far. But it was an experience! We had dinner cooked for us by the owners wife and we're pretty sure it was their little girls birthday or at least she likes the birthday song.

We got up just after 4am the next day to catch the sunrise at the top of the mountain. By the time we got up there it was still pitch black absolutely no light except for the flashes on our phones. The long exposures I took turned out siiiick though so I was stoked about that. Eventually we saw a little light just over the horizon and shortly after the sun finally started to come up...for sure the most beautiful sunrise I've ever seen. This was definitely my favourite part of the trip so far, the drive, catching the sunset, the local experience and catching the sunrise the next day. An amazing way to cap off our time in Thailand!

Thanks for watching!

Our first night in Chiang Mai we took a gander around the massive Sunday market in the old city. Then a group of people from the our hostel, Stamps, went to a jazz bar where Zach and I snuck in beers from 7/1 because we're living that cheap backpacker life.

The next day I explored all of the old city myself...Dan and Zach had some technical difficulties. There were around 5 or 6 temples that I visited and I didn't even see them all. It was nice to take my time and get a few hyperlapses...although they didn't turn out too great...slightly disappointed. After exploring the several temples we signed up to go to a Muay Thai fight with our hostel. It was a crazy experience! It was the first fight that I've ever been to and it was unreal. The first fighters couldn't have been more than 10 years old and it felt weird watching these kids especially since locals were placing bets! As the fights went on the fighters got older and more skilled and the grand finale was two 6 year olds absolutely whaling on each other with zero regard for their own well being...honestly was the most entertaining fight of the night!

We got up super early the next morning to catch sunrise at the temple on top of the mountain just outside Chiang Mai. It was a failed attempt although it was definitely cool to have that view of Chiang Mai! After crashing hard for a few hours we headed to our cooking class. I wasn't really feeling it because I'm just not that into cooking but once we got started it was a ton of fun and I have to say I'm an amazing cook! The food we cooked was unreal!! And we got the complete recipe book so we'll see if I can recreate some of those dishes when I get home.

We got off to a slow start the next day but eventually Zach and I got moving (Dan was dying at this point). We signed up for a Muay Thai class and after the first hour we decided to sign up for the remaining hour! I've never done any sort of martial arts and it was a ton of fun! Great exercise and a great way to release some stress lol. That night we went to the infamous ladyboy show...and what happens there stays there. Just kidding...it honestly was pretty classy, not too raunchy. We had an awesome time and some laughs with new friends from the hostel.

Our last day in Chiang Mai we did one of the most popular things to do in Chiang Mai...the elephant sanctuary!!! After a long sweaty ride we arrived with no elephants in sight...until one came running down the path! Around 10 more followed so we each got a bunch of bananas and went to feed the elephants! There were two ways to feed them, just holding the banana out and they would grab it with their trunk or say bon bon! and they would lift their trunk, open their mouth and you'd put the banana in their mouth! They have really weird mouths, that's all I can say. It was a fun day playing with them in the mud/poop and bathing with them in the river.

Overall our trip to Chiang Mai was unreal! And definitely a close second to Pai for my favourite place in Thailand to date! I'd recommend 4 to 5 nights there which would give you time to do everything at a slower pace. And stay at Stamps hostel! Canadian owned, clean and the staff are always planning nights out for the guests! 10/10 would recommend, there's a ton of stuff to do in and around the city!

Welcome to the Pai, Thailand vlog!! We stayed one night in Chiang May after flying from Bangkok and promptly headed to Pai. The 3 hour drive was full of twists and turns…762 turns to be exact! We arrived in the small town of Pai and settled in before hitting the night market. The town is pretty small and the main street is where all the food stalls open up at night and there is some unreal street food there. Safe to eat for sure! We went out after that and the hostel keeps track of “shots for you country” and we all did a shot for Canada. Two other Canadians we met did a suicide shot with me which counted as 15 shots for your country…GO CANADA GO! I had no clue what a suicide shot was so this is what it is, snorting a line of salt, shot of tequila, then squeezing lime juice in your eyes. Absolutely f$^&%d up and it burned all night.

The next day we rented mopeds and ripped around to a bunch of different places. Mopeds are definitely the way to get around because everything is outside of the town. We continued along the windy mountain road to Lod Cave which was about an hour away. At the end of the hour we were all feeling pretty confident on the mopeds and it’s a ton of fun!! I want a motorcycle so bad now lol. The cave was pretty cool, we had to take a short bamboo raft ride to get into the massive cave. Guided by the small lantern of our guide we made our way around the cave. The video doesn’t really do it justice because it’s so dark but it was really cool! On the way back I was pushing the moped but could only get up to around 95 km/h…I wanna go fast!! We finished off the day with a sunset at the massive White Buddha. At first it was cloudy and we didn’t think we’d see much of a sunset but a little while later the sky was lit up completely orange!

Third day there we moved hostels to Pai Circus another party hostel…wish we stayed at the first one we booked still a good time though. We renewed the rental on our mopeds and went for more adventures! We stopped at a little cafe for some chai tea then made our way to the land split and a waterfall. The land split was a nice short hike to explore the area. Then we went to the waterfall and I went full on photo mode as I was getting daytime long exposures of the waterfalls. It was my first time doing that and it was soooo sick…really enjoyed trying something new. We had to get out of there quickly as dark clouds starting rolling in. We ended up getting caught in the rain and stopped at the same cafe to wait out the rain and have dinner. Safe to say there was no sunset that night.

We did some more exploring the next day too a hot spring and another waterfall with our friend Ernesto who we met in Bangkok! We went back to the same viewpoint as the first day on the mopeds where I had to fill up with gas. I bought the bottle from some local with a stand at the viewpoint…that gas didn’t last me very long lol. Then we made it to the Pai canyon for sunset or maybe that was the day before it’s hard to remember at this point.

If you go to Pai you’ll hear about two different bars that are infamous for certain things. I recommend going to Sunset and then chilling at Paradise. That evening we saw the most picturesque sunset I’ve ever seen in my life. The sun was going down over the mountains and we were standing on the side of a road as a farmer was leading his cow through his rice field with a couple sitting in the middle of the field. Literally right out of a story book. Just soaked in the perfect ending to our trip in Pai.

Pai was unreal and we all agreed that it was our favourite stop in Thailand and my favourite stop to this point in our trip. Chiang Mai was a close second. 100% go to Pai if you ever go to Thailand and spend a good 4 to 5 days there.

The flight to the destination is always one of my favourite parts because of all the anticipation and honestly for me, the 24 hour trip wasn’t too bad! I passed out at 9PM after mucking the best Pad Thai I’ve ever had and woke up the next day not feeling jet lagged at all!

The second day in Bangkok we decided to go around to all the major temples, which were within walking distance of our hostel. We visited the Grand Palace, where I had to get a new shirt (no beaters allowed), Wat Arun, we had to cross the river to get there, also my personal favourite, and Wat Pho, home of the massive Reclining Buddha. That night we went out with some people from our hostel to Khao San Road, a strip of bars, street food and street vendors that’s kind of a tourist trap but also a really fun time! And that’s when it happened…the next morning my laptop wouldn’t turn on and long story short it got water damaged.…don’t ask how.

We moved hostels that day to a party hostel called Slumber Party where we met a bunch of Canadians, an American and a Panamanian and partied with them for 3 nights straight. During those few days we honestly didn’t get much done…obviously. Two cool things we did do was the Chatachuk Market, the largest market in Asia and it IS massive and Nana Plaza, the red light district of Bangkok.

Our last day in Bangkok we said bye to our new friends and parted ways…everyone was leaving on the same day. We were a bit more productive that day as we drug our hungover asses through Lumphini Park, Bangkok’s less impressive Central Park and then went to Chinatown to experience another part of Asia while in Bangkok lol. Also we had our first Tuk Tuk ride…a great and slightly terrifying experience!

Overall it was a great stay in Bangkok other than the laptop thing but I got it back now so the past is in the past! Hope you guys can bare with me as I get back into the swing of vlogging and that’s it for this one! I’ll be hopping back on the every Wednesday schedule plus maybe another video here and there to keep you guys updated! Hope you enjoyed it and thanks for watching!!