This is a travel vlog transcript of Nate and Kara Buchanan documenting their trip from Bangkok to Hanoi. The video follows their journey through airport transfers and lounges, a flight that arrives around 6pm, immigration/visa entry, problems with a lost ATM/boarding pass, a confusing local bus transfer, a taxi to their hotel (where they received a room upgrade), and their first pho in Vietnam at a sidewalk restaurant. The hosts discuss costs, logistics, and their reactions to food and accommodations.
Questions this video answers
March 28, 2016
About 6:00 pm (they say "Our flight got in at 6pm").
They exchanged $100 and received approximately 2,000,000 dong.
About $4 for both.
They say they were on the 10th floor and got an upgrade to a suite.
Chapters
And that is, everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you.
So the hot and sweaty journey to the Skytrain begins today.
We fly no more buses or overnight trains for a long time.
Lounges are back in our life.
We are going somewhere that we've been looking forward to for a long time.
Vietnam.
If this train is as crowded as it was yesterday and we have to get our bags on there, this is going to become very interesting, very quick. Does not look like we're making it on that one with the bags. The moment of truth.
So nervous.
Have we picked the right door?
I don't think so.
We are getting on.
Okay. Yeah, people are getting off.
It's been a while since I've had to chase Nate through the airport.
I don't mind doing it though, because it means we get to the lounge sooner.
There you have put together a feast.
All of these clocks say that we spent way too much time in the lounge and we should have left a lot earlier. Run.
You're gonna be in shape for Everest. Our gate closes in about 14 minutes. If I've done my calculations correctly, this should make it in about 12.
Hopefully.
Fine. Uh oh, hold the plane for me.
My boarding pass is in mine.
Oh, that's good.
Cup and cup.
It's gone. My boarding pass is fine.
Cara left her boarding pass in the lounge. I'm getting on this flight with or without you.
Smooth. How did you manage that?
I pulled it out to give them at the lounge, but they never asked for it, so I just put it back in my purse. So I guess we found a lounge.
But we made it. We're going to Vietnam.
We're in Vietnam.
Slept the whole flight. I slept most of the flight. Kara definitely slept the whole flight. We got our visa through some online company. They gave us like two sheets of paper to print out that looked like semi official. So let's see if we get into the country.
Our flight got in at 6pm and we just made it through immigration.
Our worst nightmare has occurred.
I lost the magic card that we used to get all our money out of the ATMs. But who normal people do to get.
How do you use an ATM without the magic card?
I have a little bit of US money we can exchange.
No luck with the atm.
Got all three of them. It's cash. Well, we exchanged a hundred of our $200 that we have left remaining. We now have 2 million dong. I don't think it's gonna get far. I have no earthly idea why that Guy tried to run over me with this cart. I have no earthly idea what we're gonna do when we run out of our other hundred dollars. Car's being a good sport about it, though. And that's the bus we want to be on. I'm gonna say we're not making this one.
We've gotten really good at squeezing onto transportation today.
There are 100 people on this bus right now. Kara, what's the plan going to.
To want to get on the local bus to take us to our hotel?
Not to our hotel. We're going to the local bus to take us to some random bus stop. Then we're supposed to take a taxi to our hotel.
Going to be a blast.
All of those people were waiting in line before us. And now to find a local bus. Any thoughts on what's occurring right now?
No.
Trying to think of something positive.
This is quickly becoming one of the most challenging airport transfers that we've had. They didn't do any research on where we should actually go to catch the bus. I thought it'd be obvious, and it's not, and we found it. Now we get on and figure out how to pay later.
Do you know when they get off.
Again?
You know, it was like a little 17 on the back of this bus, but for all we know, this thing could be going anywhere. We literally just jumped off.
Surely.
How long were we supposed to be, Alistair?
An hour.
An hour?
If we are going in the wrong direction. We'll figure that out in about an hour.
Welcome aboard. Come on, join us. More the merrier. She's feeling car sick. This is reminding me of the Philippines.
If she throws up and this makes it into the vlog, we'll link the Philippines video right here. You appear to be some type of bus stop. The man that took our money motioned us to get off.
We're currently trying to figure out where our hotel is with all these very nice people. Nate's writing in his phone. He's writing in his phone our hotel name, and they're all talking about.
He thinks it's funny.
This is hilarious. I hope we got on the right bus.
We could very easily be in the wrong city.
Not looking good.
Okay.
Okay.
Thank you for.
That.
One's my favorite.
Goodbye.
They're so cute. What is your name?
What percent chance do you think that we have of making it to the hotel?
There are a lot of collaborators figuring out where we were going. So I have, like, a 70% confidence.
Okay. I like 70%. Now cut that in half because there's two Hiltons slowing down. That looks like the opera.
One if Hilton guard him in.
Yeah, yeah. All right.
One.
Each. It's a cab. That's not what you said. That is too much. Apparently in Vietnam, they charge per person in the taxi. I'm sure that's not the case, but.
It was fine for the Americans. It is.
We're on the 10th of floor. Cause we got an upgrade to the suite.
Your mood changed very quickly.
I'm not car sick anymore. Our taxi driver took us to the right hotel.
We did get a little ripped off.
Was super nice. Ripped off by $5 when it was only going to be three in the first place.
Let's check it.
Oh, we have a living room. What?
Two rooms. Can we extend our stay?
Oh, my gosh. Look at this bath.
We've heard the thing to eat here is the. So we're going to Pacifo. Hello. This appears to be the popular restaurant.
Literally sitting on the sidewalk.
Yes.
There's only one thing to get here.
She held up two fingers and we shook our head yes.
Oh, this is gonna be so nice for a change. Eating hot noodles when I'm not already, like, sweating like crazy.
It's really delicious.
I would say that we did pretty good on our pho.
We put this, like, mystery salt in there.
I'm gonna say there's like a 99% chance that somebody watching our videos knows what this is. Let us know behind Khao soi, because I don't think anything else will beat it. I think pho is my second favorite noodle dish.
There it is. Delicious stuff. Looks really good. Thank you. Come on.
That was adorable. How much was it?
I'd say like a little over $4.
For both?
Yeah, for both. Back to the Hilton. We have about seven vlogs to edit. And by we, I mean Kara.
Nice. Look like you've been somewhere nice before.
