Into the Valley of Fire | Overlanding Outback Laos E03

Added: 2026-06-01

[00:00:04]In this episode, we leave Bulipar behind and make our way down a road that was once part of the Ho Chi Min trails, deep into an area known by US pilots as the Valley of Fire, one of the most intensely bombed places on Earth during the Secret War. taking our time to hand out donations to the isolated villages and look for a suitable campsite for the night.

[00:00:35]>> I like it. You break down. No appointment needed. Just do your thing.

[00:00:38]Do >> Yeah, you can just pull up. They'll stop everything and fix it for you.

[00:00:42]>> On the fly and leave the other [ __ ] behind.

[00:00:44]>> 100,000 kip. Thanks.

[00:00:47]Five bucks.

[00:00:52]We need to pick up some supplies and fuel up before we leave.

[00:00:58]Bullar markets. The meat will be down the back. No doubt. Hey, don't tell somebody.

[00:01:21]What have we got?

[00:01:23]Any back straps?

[00:01:28]Oh, yeah. Okay. She probably needs to trim.

[00:01:31]>> Yeah, we'll get her to trim the fat off.

[00:01:33]But there we go.

[00:01:35]>> Right there. Yeah.

[00:01:36]>> We might even get her to cut it into slices. And this piece of >> Yeah. Yeah.

[00:01:45]>> We just want, >> as you can see, me and Eddie having a rough time trying to explain to us that we don't want the fat on it. You hold this. I'm the butcher.

[00:01:59]>> Okay. Okay.

[00:02:00]>> Can I?

[00:02:01]>> Yeah. Go over there. He he cow. He cow.

[00:02:07]>> I do this. Thank you.

[00:02:09]>> Right there. Right there. Todd.

[00:02:13]>> Oh, here you go.

[00:02:18]>> First ever job, guys. I was a butcher for about seven years.

[00:02:22]>> Hey, Todd. She wants to give you the apron.

[00:02:24]>> Oh, I got I got to put the apron on.

[00:02:30]that go in there. Ah, not lie.

[00:02:35]>> Oh my god.

[00:02:40]>> Hey, Todd, that one's sharper. The the the one she uses.

[00:02:44]>> If you want it, if you want the the cleaver sharper, she she give me a sharper knife.

[00:02:58]Oh, heck. Oh, yeah.

[00:03:08]>> So, there was seven nice juicy lean backstrap pork steaks there. About nine bucks for them.

[00:03:20]Just over a dollar each. She's still almost a kilo. It's still about 2 lb.

[00:03:23]>> But that was the weight of all the fat and everything on it.

[00:03:26]>> Yeah, >> we left her the good the good what they call the good stuff.

[00:03:32]>> She'll be talking about that for months.

[00:03:33]Her grandkids will be talking about that.

[00:03:36]>> Hello, Sebie.

[00:03:38]>> This is the pork dried pork.

[00:03:41]>> Yeah, we call them meat bracelets.

[00:03:46]Just a couple of those. Hey, just a nibble on the way. Anita >> sa pan >> sa pan. So a dollar each.

[00:03:55]Okay, that should be enough. Um cowal bar.

[00:04:03]>> Um cow hop. Cal pan. You know >> you have cow bar.

[00:04:08]>> Cal.

[00:04:10]>> Yeah.

[00:04:11]>> Yeah. Calan.

[00:04:13]I think we shock them sometimes that they're hearing it but they they think it's just a >> a word that sounds similar to sticky rice.

[00:04:22]>> The same thing back.

[00:04:23]>> Yeah. Cow Neil like a cow and Neil a bloke >> is sticky rice. Cow Neil bar sticky rice. There's a question on the end of it.

[00:04:36]>> Me cow Neil B. Do you have sticky rice?

[00:04:41]>> Yeah. I'm going to go ahead and get one for you, one for me, cuz I just like moing.

[00:04:45]>> I don't like your fingers in my sticky rice, mate.

[00:04:48]>> Why would you say that?

[00:04:51]>> Oh, hey, I'm on video.

[00:04:52]>> You're on video, mate.

[00:04:55]>> That's all right.

[00:04:57]>> Told you he was a sick bastard.

[00:04:59]>> I made it even.

[00:05:01]>> Yeah.

[00:05:02]>> A meat bracelet each and a bag of sticky rice each. 25,000 kip.

[00:05:10]Here's about a dollar $120.

[00:05:14]>> We're going to eat all day. We eat it dinner.

[00:05:17]>> That's our travel food. That's our lunch on the way down there.

[00:05:20]>> Yeah.

[00:05:21]>> Don't have to stop cuz it That's what's good about it. It doesn't You don't get crumbs everywhere. It sticks to your sticky rice.

[00:05:31]I invented it for traveling.

[00:05:35]I'm full of [ __ ] I know. But >> so I'm this way because of Eddie.

[00:05:43]>> See how short it belong.

[00:05:45]>> Travel all over the countryside now and Lao and Eddie.

[00:05:52]>> You don't even know the song. I don't know what you're laughing at.

[00:05:56]>> Oh, >> that's his goto. Says something in blow.

[00:06:03]just did that just to outdo me. Where is he?

[00:06:10]The lady.

[00:06:12]The hair on these dudes here put Elvis to shame. I'm jealous. I'm jealous.

[00:06:20]Fly under loaded up. That's a baby.

[00:06:32]A lady in the shop.

[00:06:36]>> Yeah. Had a little newborn gave her um a onesie. Oh, had to get a photo taken with us.

[00:06:46]Couldn't believe it.

[00:06:49]gave her onesie cuz she has ice creams there.

[00:06:54]Oh, good.

[00:06:57]Eating cornettos out the middle of nowhere.

[00:07:04]Right guys, if you're in um Bullipo, you've been out to Sebangfire Cave and the waterfall out there, you want to head down to some of the best natural spring swimming holes in Lao. Come back over the bridge and it's your first turn left here. If you go to the village gate up there, you've gone too far. Come back here and you'll be straight onto a trail from the old Ho Chi Min trails.

[00:07:31]It wasn't one track, it was many tracks.

[00:07:35]We're on it now.

[00:07:43]It's been just on 2 years since we were last on this track. this trail and that was with Nene and Mina during the big loop tour during the rainy season.

[00:07:54]Beautiful drive down through here and all Mina was concerned about was swimming. No, I I I will tell you in the morning I I change my clothes and I and you go check and make up and I stand in the outside and I find food WATER >> AND I can count on one hand how many vehicles we passed. There was no trucks along here then.

[00:08:29]Boy, have things changed.

[00:08:31]You don't go 5 minutes without passing a truck now. And that coupled with the dry season that we're in has just turned this road to 6 in of bulldust.

[00:08:49]And it was at this point we knew we had stuffed up.

[00:09:03]God.

[00:09:11]Check out this dust again.

[00:09:14]We're back in Bulipar.

[00:09:18]We forgot to fuel up.

[00:09:21]We wouldn't have made it to Papa John's or Papa Joe, whoever he is. Tappa jail.

[00:09:27]Tappa John's. I don't know. But we will once we fuel up, mate. Wouldn't that have been a catastrophe?

[00:09:41]I don't know how much fuel is here. Just for those people who wonder how much fuel is here. to which is about a dollar US a liter. So we're looking about $150 oz a liter. And I know we're all fueled up. Look at the dust coming off the front of this thing. That bulldust was so bad it was coming up over the front.

[00:10:08]There's no other way down there unless we went back to Route 13. So we're not doing that. But >> we're going to try again.

[00:10:21]Have a go at this dust. We are I'll not wind in the window down for you. It's just too dusty.

[00:10:29]I've never been in a car with two old Jesus bars. Look at these bars right here. We call them old Jesus bars. Like old Jesus.

[00:10:40]Sweet children.

[00:10:54]Yeah, just there we're at um I will mark it below Tupper John or Tupper Joe is how you say it. scene of a lot of fighting during the late 60s and that >> looking around the quiet emerald cast landscape between Bulipart and Sapon today it's almost impossible to picture the apocalypse that once rained down here but we're driving straight through the spine of the Ho Chi Min trail survey Right.

[00:11:36]We could have made it, but I didn't want to risk them running out of dirty fuel or what.

[00:11:46]We're going to get oursel a broom while we're here to sweep all the dust off our u off the seals and everything of the car. As the road dips into the valley around Barn Tapper John, we enter what wartime pilots and soldiers called the valley of fire.

[00:12:12]This narrow corridor was a critical choke point on the West Truongan supply route because the rugged mountains and rivers forced North Vietnamese convoys and troops through this exact bottleneck. It became the prime target for the most intense air campaign in human history. See the black man shooting at the world taking if you feel bad Lord I bet you and you >> this was um it was in the Lashian Times just recently I sent a a link to Eddie showing him they had the roadblock, the neigh barn and everyone because of these bloody trucks. They just wanted uh want him to water the road, which they're doing here, but you've seen the state of the road just outside of the village. They had actually blocked the road with rocks, stopping the trucks coming through until they did something about it. It's one thing keeping the dust down in the village, but you seen the state of it outside the village.

[00:13:29]People still need access in and out of here. And we've got to stop when a truck goes past cuz you just cannot see the amount of dust that would be coming into the snorkel of the vehicle.

[00:13:42]It is incredible. The roads reopen because they are watering the village, but nowhere else.

[00:13:50]Look at the colors here. Hey, it is like the outback of ours. Outback LA. When the bombs started falling around the clock every 8 minutes for 9 years, survival meant going underground.

[00:14:07]The people of Barn Tappa John adapted by living in the surrounding limestone caves, cooking only at night to hide the smoke, and moving under the jungle canopy.

[00:14:18]>> You better close your eyes.

[00:14:26]by your head ricochet.

[00:14:33]on the ricochet.

[00:14:47]I'm going across the board.

[00:15:08]Use two roads.

[00:15:11]Two roads going up.

[00:15:26]It's not as Yeah, we were. We're after a broom. The other place didn't have it. Probably sold out because of all the dust. So, baby, >> me boy >> for me.

[00:15:48]>> Up the next one. Okay. Open.

[00:15:51]>> We've been learning, huh?

[00:15:53]>> Those guys were just laughing at us when they found out the road we took instead of this one. Both roads run parallel with the river. So if you plan on doing this trip, you're going to have to cross here anyway. But to get to this village, go across the bridge at Bullar and take the uh route on the eastern side.

[00:16:19]You're going to miss the trucks for a good part of the trip.

[00:16:28]That's a shot.

[00:16:30]That's what you got to remember. You don't just sit in your car like me mom and and look out the window. That's not going to get you content, is it? You got to get out more me.

[00:16:52]Look at all the dust.

[00:16:55]The the trucks big bamboon.

[00:17:01]>> Oh, trucks. Bull.

[00:17:05]>> Check out this gate. It made a ladder.

[00:17:11]>> Yeah, I've seen them before. But okay, you you do have a gate there, but so you when you don't too lazy to open that up. the baby.

[00:17:26]Oh, you get out now. Too late. I'm driving away now.

[00:17:29]>> It's universal. That's draw bars.

[00:17:31]>> I know. Oh, the draw bars. I'm looking at this.

[00:17:34]>> That's for >> for when you're too lazy to open the gate up.

[00:17:37]>> That's an equestrian steps.

[00:17:39]>> Equestrian.

[00:17:40]>> So, the horse jumps over the draw bars.

[00:17:43]>> Okay.

[00:17:43]>> And the people walk.

[00:17:45]>> Look at this. School's out. Must be 11:00.

[00:17:49]>> Hello. See, she just went in the hunt country where horses you sitt all in all fences. Horses typically jump across.

[00:18:03]>> I know, mate. I know. If I let you go, we're going to be here for half an hour.

[00:18:06]>> No, I don't think so. Hey, come on.

[00:18:09]>> You can't let him loose. You can't something.

[00:18:26]>> Believe it or not, this was a nice trail, nice road, narrow forest road, beautiful landscape last time we're here. Damn, >> there's a man with a gun.

[00:18:42]He's telling me I got to be >> That's smart.

[00:18:52]>> We just passed a truck who would have overtaken them. Just covered them in dust.

[00:19:00]She's in the back trying to protect herself with an umbrella >> and a a full helmet on.

[00:19:06]>> Yeah, he's got a full helmet on trying to help.

[00:19:18]He's coming down.

[00:19:21]It's just down here the little swimming hole.

[00:19:24]We are going to go back down there.

[00:19:29]Plus it out. See if the spring is still flowing. But it'll be a good chance to get some lunch.

[00:19:38]Not be driving in this [ __ ] with the trucks. Listen to that.

[00:19:44]The thunder collapse. Snot truck. Oh, casino truck. I thought it said snot truck. They are freaking snot trucks.

[00:20:13]I'll have one with you.

[00:20:20]Okay. I love that.

[00:20:25]Is that cold?

[00:20:27]This is that.

[00:20:31]Okay.

[00:20:38]Ah, excellent. No, you're getting wet out there.

[00:20:47]Thank you. Capt. Anyway, guys, cheer and enjoy the view. Hey, cheers.

[00:20:59]Nice tidy little shop here.

[00:21:02]>> Just a small shop.

[00:21:03]>> Um um >> karaoke box there, of course.

[00:21:10]>> Oh, just a little kitchen here.

[00:21:16]>> Washing machine. It's a tidy little shop. No doubt that would be a bedroom, I'd say. And she lives here.

[00:21:21]>> I taught I asked her to tie >> Todd. Yeah, >> we've learned that cut, chop is Todd.

[00:21:30]But look at this kitchen, washing machine, all your utensils, mate.

[00:21:41]>> Oh, and why wait?

[00:21:44]>> The bloody trucks are headless, aren't they?

[00:21:47]>> I think we will stay here for the rest of the day since we've had that storm.

[00:21:50]It's going to keep the dust down. We'll be able to reverse up in there near the spring and not get smashed with the dust. Just chill for the ara. Cook up a barbie.

[00:22:03]Asked her to chop this up and she has completely peeled it >> and chopping it for us.

[00:22:10]>> Yeah.

[00:22:14]>> Yeah. Oh, she's deseeding it for us.

[00:22:17]>> Eddie's over there asking her for salt for his watermelon.

[00:22:25]Bloody hell.

[00:22:26]>> Hey, don't put it on mine.

[00:22:29]>> I don't want sold on it.

[00:22:32]>> I don't want sold on it. You've just ruined it.

[00:22:38]>> Like even she's thinking he's a weird weirdo.

[00:22:41]>> Oh, no. For him.

[00:22:43]>> Yeah.

[00:22:55]Thank you.

[00:22:58]>> Yeah. Look at you. Yeah. It's showing off. And you look at the amount of salt.

[00:23:10]>> He's over there teaching how to cook his noodles, right, too? I'm surprised he hasn't poured beer in with his watermelon.

[00:23:18]>> Yeah, she she agrees. She thinks she thinks he's crazy, too. But >> his little watermelon.

[00:23:28]>> Okay.

[00:23:29]>> So bloody good.

[00:23:33]I >> think we might be staying here. So just getting the mud off this so we don't get filthy getting our barbecue out.

[00:23:42]This is where the spring is over here.

[00:23:44]Got a couple of people doing their washing and that here.

[00:23:49]It's still nice and clear. Hey, and flowing. If it wasn't a spring, it this would all be dried up now. So cooling through here. This is where it comes from. You can see it from there. How clear that is. Hey.

[00:24:10]And they've got like a spirit house here. Might go for a walk up in the town. Not sure if we'll um stay here.

[00:24:18]This being the main water source for the village. I don't think it's real polite to be camping here when everybody comes down of an afternoon and washes and collects water for the next day and things like that.

[00:24:34]It's the last thing you want, isn't it?

[00:24:36]know as a family or something. Somebody camping right next to your bathtub.

[00:24:42]>> If you guys remember, you went down into the river here. They've filled it up for the trucks.

[00:24:50]Bloody trucks.

[00:24:52]I keep saying it, but they've just changed this whole road. It's It's not pretty anymore. Not sharing it with them. As soon as the the wet season comes, this will just get destroyed, washed away.

[00:25:08]They don't care.

[00:25:11]People were reversing their ttoks down in here, gathering water. They can't do that now.

[00:25:17]>> No, it's stagnant.

[00:25:29]in the middle of the day. Let me hear you say everything's okay.

[00:25:35]>> Yeah, it's not flowing like it was.

[00:25:37]>> Is that the only bridge?

[00:25:39]>> Well, we had to cross that. I It would have been the troopy would have handled the water crossing.

[00:25:45]>> Oh, okay. That's too narrow for regular traffic, right? But that bridge has always been there. Well, it was there when we came here through here and it's what we used rather than go in the water and disturb the people who had their talks and everything in there. Nobody was using it. There was no trucks on it.

[00:26:02]Eddie was just saying that um when I shot through on it, a lady come down here with some clothes and some soap and that to wash, but as soon as she seen the vehicle, she turned around and went home. So, won't hang around and disturb them.

[00:26:19]There's other springs we can stop at.

[00:26:23]>> And did you see the first daughter walked out here? She had shampoo, soap, the whole >> I had everything, mate. Yeah.

[00:26:28]>> Yeah. Like a regular like this is her shower.

[00:26:30]>> Yeah.

[00:26:31]>> Well, that's what the whole village does, mate.

[00:26:33]>> That house doesn't have water. The other ones didn't have water.

[00:26:36]>> None of these houses have plumbing or water.

[00:26:39]>> Look at this hog. There's It's a spring here coming up out of the road.

[00:26:46]this old guy here. You got the spot, but it's all getting chopped up because of the trucks.

[00:27:04]This is a poor village. We can't come through here and not give these guys something.

[00:27:11]Some Yeah.

[00:27:13]Yeah.

[00:27:14]And for the kitties kangjac >> that is here. Okay.

[00:27:46]This is all we've got for me.

[00:27:50]>> Bunnings doesn't come with any sausages, dude.

[00:27:54]>> Okay, man. Man, >> number He's already got his pants on.

[00:28:22]>> They're loving them. They're loving them, Eddie.

[00:28:25]They love the shirts. The little girl up there.

[00:28:33]Little girl here.

[00:28:37]Her jeans. Some of them are just taking way too much.

[00:28:43]>> They need them. I know. But >> everything's in this box.

[00:28:53]>> One of one of the first words we should have learned was share. I think we're just looking you up now because some Bye-bye. That's okay. You're all right.

[00:29:03]Bye-bye.

[00:29:05]Yeah, >> that >> they're going to put it to use. They go Yeah, some of them were just tearing through it and hoarding it. And uh this man here, I'll get him saving the hats for somewhere else cuz they've wiped us out of a lot of things there, mate. We just stopped on the edge of town at this little house and the bush telegraph. They were coming out of the woodwork. Old mate over here was late to the show. So, >> yeah. Another little girl.

[00:29:37]>> Look at this.

[00:29:42]>> Everybody got something. But some are not happy cuz they didn't get a hat and others did, but they got a lot of other things.

[00:29:52]None of them read loud. I tried to get them for equal in chair.

[00:29:56]>> Huh?

[00:29:56]>> I tried to get I tried the word chair and I tried the word equal. They didn't they they can't read loud.

[00:30:03]>> Ah. And they're not they're not >> Google Translate. If you put it in there, >> put No, I put it in there, but they said they they couldn't read it. They don't read >> days like this.

[00:30:21]There'll be days like this when everything falls into place like the flick of a switch.

[00:30:30]When my m There'll be days like this when you don't need to worry. There'll be days like this when no one's in a hurry. There be days like this when you don't get betrayed by that old Judas kiss when my mama told me being days like this when you don't answer days like this when you don't meet a chance like this And all the parts of the puzzle start to look like they fit.

[00:31:24]Then I must remember days like this.