How to Spend One Day in Hanoi, Vietnam - Travel Vlog | Top Things to Do, See, & Eat in Hà Nội! 🇻🇳

I don't know if I was prepared for this. We're going to die crossing this. Our favorite dish. We're Matt and Nat, and we've spent the last three years traveling the world as part time non-remote travelers. After accomplishing our goal of visiting all 50 U.S. states in 2021, we've set out on our next big adventure to see as many of the 1,000 places to see before you die. Well, before we die. In our last video, we were in Ninh Binh, Vietnam, where we took a scenic boat tour through a UNESCO World Heritage Site, hiked in the rain to the top of what was supposed to be the most scenic peak in the area, and spent some time getting to know the locals. This week, we're in Hanoi, Vietnam. Welcome to Hanoi. This is the third video in our Vietnam series, and we are super excited to have made our way to the capital city where we'll be spending the next 24 hours doing, seeing, and eating our way around this beautiful city and taking you along on the adventure. And obviously, there is so much more to experience than we'll be able to fit in in a day. I mean, you could spend a whole month here and still not experience, do and eat all of it. But we do have a blog on our website with even more recommendations with tips and tricks that you won't see in this video. So make sure you guys check that out. We'll link that down in the description. But now, let's get our day started with a traditional Vietnamese breakfast. So yes, if you did not know, pho is a traditional Vietnamese breakfast dish. And if you are unfamiliar with what pho is, it is a beef noodle soup, probably the most popular Vietnamese dish of all. You can find it all around the world, but we've definitely never had it for breakfast in the U.S. I have never had pho ever. So this is going to be very interesting, but we're going to give it a go. Pro tip, just wipe off your chopsticks. That is really good. I'm by no means a pho expert, but this is the best one I've had for sure. Oh, wow. The flavor is really good. We got the half done beef because we usually typically like medium rare meat, not too chewy of a meat. You know what I mean? And this is cooked perfectly. If you guys know, I'm not a huge, like a noodle in soup kind of person, but I'm going for it. So. Way to embrace the culture. I'm doing my best. Oh, that's actually really good. I can't believe I'm about to say this, but I think I'm a fan. Also, we've noticed that there's not a single drink at any one of these tables. When we ordered our food, we were like, oh, wait a second. We forgot to order drinks. And then we looked around and nobody has it. There's not a single thing on the menu. So we're just going to go. I don't I guess that's the normal way to do it. If you have any insight into this, let us know. I mean, I do understand that pho is mostly liquid. So there is that. I could chug a lot of water. But it's OK. Let us know. First off, that was absolutely delicious. It really was. I even finished mine. Totally recommend it when you're in Hanoi. Second, we've been having a debate about this. How do you say the word pho in Vietnamese? There are Americans call it pho. Yeah. In the U.S., you hear pho or pho. But we're noticing here it's more of an between a U.H. sound and an A.H. sound, kind of a pho, maybe a little bit. So let us know down in the comments. I find Vietnamese so interesting. So it's actually like Chinese and the Portuguese letters. Yes. Vietnamese is a tonal language. So one word can mean six different things because they have six different tone markers over their letters. So the word pho, for instance, you could either say it like pho, pho, pho, pho. All of them mean something different. So one of them means prostitute. One of them means street and one of them is the food. So we've probably been ordering a street or a prostitute. We took a free walking tour the other day, which we highly recommend. We'll link it down in the description. Wonderful three hour walking tour. We learned so much. Yes. With a local guide. And she was informing us that the way most Westerners or Americans say it, they're actually ordering a prostitute. So that's what we've been doing this whole time. So, yeah, let us know in the comments how you say it. Now on to the next. So Hanoi is actually a very walkable city, especially if you're staying in the old quarter like we are. Now, there are a few sites outside of the old quarter city center area, which is where we're actually at now, which is why we took a grab. And if you're unfamiliar with Grab, it is the ride share kind of like Uber or Lyft here in Vietnam. And fun fact, as you can see, there are millions, I think like five million motorbikes. Five million was the last estimate. Yep. Wild. And with that many motorbikes, they also offer motorbike grabs. So if you are brave enough or just want to adventure, because we honestly think it would be a really cool experience. Maybe your life would flash before your eyes a handful of times, but you would go home with stories to tell. Please do it and let us know how it was in the comments. We have now made it inside Tran Quoc, which is one of the oldest Buddhist temples in all of Hanoi. I'm honestly glad I don't believe in karma because it says the cause wasting time on traveling for fun. The effect is brings mobility problems when blessing ends. Don't believe in that. I can't believe they put that as a negative thing. So we were trying to go to the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum. Yeah, and Ho Chi Minh is kind of like a founding father icon to the Vietnamese people, because he is kind of looked at as being a large part or even responsible for Vietnam's independence today. Now, when we got there, the lines were crazy long, but it actually was the first time that we've experienced like rude Vietnamese. Yeah, they were really rude and they were very rigid rules, which I understand they have their rules. But we were kind of filming like off to the side a little bit. And they told us no filming, like even around the border of the property. And I was like, so can we not take photos or videos at all on the property? And he said no. So instead of spending like two to three hours not filming anything to see a mummified body under glass, I mean, given the rest of the property could have been cool. Yeah, but so instead we're just going to move on because there is plenty to do here in Hanoi. There is. I will say crossing the street here is way worse than Naples, Italy. It's like an Olympic sport. So much so that that's one of the first things that locals talk to you about is how to cross the street. Walk confidently and don't slow down. Don't stop. Don't back up. Don't back up. You just keep your same pace once you start because they're just going to weave their way around you. They're not going to stop for you. It's honestly wild. We have now made it to the Temple of Literature, which was founded in 1070 as a place to worship and learn more about the Chinese philosopher Confucius. Later, it became the first university in Vietnam, also known as the Imperial Academy. Until the colonial period, it had been open for over 700 years and taught hundreds of renowned scholars. Let's go check it out. Dear visitors, in front of you is the Dai Chung Gate or the Great Middle Gate. The Dai Chung Gate consists of three gates. The big gate in the middle is the Dai Chung. On the left is the Tang Duc Gate, meaning accomplished virtue. And on the right is the Dai Tai Gate, meaning attained talent. It is implied that people should be trained in both virtue and talent. So the only way that I can get Matt to enjoy an experience like this is with an audio guide. It was an extra 100,000 dong per person, but this is worth it. We bought one and are sharing it. Worth it. Otherwise, I wouldn't even know what I'm looking at. Like these stones back behind us, they look kind of like tombstones, but this guy's calling them stele. And they have the names of hundreds of doctors engraved on them. The earliest stele was put in in 1443, I think. I'm learning right now as we speak. Eww, that's what I feel like it's doing. We're twins, get beside it. Super interesting. I love the architecture. And I love getting to learn more about the culture and the history of this area. And this place is full of it. So I'd say it's worth a visit when you're in Hanoi. Now let's go get a snack. As you may know, Vietnam is known for its coffee. And since getting here, I've now tried the coconut coffee and the egg coffee. You can see that in some of the past videos. But now I'm trying salt coffee. And I know before you get all offended saying salt coffee, that sounds disgusting. I think it's going to be delicious because there's actually no salt in the coffee. It's just a salted, frothed, condensed milk that they put in the coffee. So let's give it a try. Also, I should have mentioned that this is served as an iced coffee drink, from what I understand, most everywhere that you get it. Oh man, that is delicious. I thought I was going to like it, but wasn't sure. You know, I mean, obviously, salt coffee, it kind of sounds a little odd. But the foam, the frothed milk is absolutely delicious. It's got a sweetness to it still, but there's a saltiness that hits on the front. It's a nice balance of the kind of robust coffee that Vietnam is known for. I'm a huge fan of that. You almost convinced me to try it, but I already know that I'm not going to like it. I know you're not going to like it, but I'm going to keep making her try coffee. He makes me try it everywhere we go, and it still just tastes like coffee to me. And that's the whole point I can't get over. Smelling it is amazing. It is really delicious. I love it if they took the coffee part away. This is my favorite coffee that I've had so far. Oh, interesting. I got a tea. I got their chilled tea, which is orange, lemongrass, and peach tea. And we also got a butter croissant because, you know, the French were here for a while and left some of their influence behind in the form of bread. Oh, my gosh. Their teas are very light and refreshing. This one obviously is iced. They do a lot of like fruity and mild green tea flavors. I'm usually like a black tea kind of gal, but I am a fan of this. And I'm just happy they have tea. I think this place is a win. I like it. That place was so good. We literally had two of everything. I finished my first coffee way too fast. Yeah, he was like, can I have another one, please? And the croissants were warm butter croissants. So good. But now, we're on to the next stop. Oh, gosh. So, we have a green arrow to walk. And as you can see... All right, we just walked. Okay, we're just going. Oh, gosh, oh, gosh, oh, gosh. Okay, we did it. So, we're here at Maison Central. Also known as Hanoi. Probably butchering that pronunciation. Also known as the Hanoi Hilton. It is a prisoner museum that was used by the French colonists for political prisoners back during the French resistance. Then it was later used by the Vietnamese to house US prisoners of war, including the likes of the most famous US prisoner of war, which was John McCain, who was imprisoned here for five years. The price is 50,000 dong per person. And then if you want the audio guide, it's another 100,000 per person. So, 150 total per person. Let's go check it out. Also, the correct pronunciation is... Hoa Long. Definitely had it wrong earlier. But that's what we came here for, to learn. That's okay, we're learning. Wow, that was really moving and so interesting. Especially hearing the, you know, as Americans, obviously, we came in most interested in what we call the Vietnam War, what locals call the American War. But hearing the history before that war, and how just terribly treated the Vietnamese prisoners were treated here. Oh my gosh. Compared to what the Americans got treated when they were here. I mean, like Natalie said earlier, it gained the name the Hanoi Hilton for a reason. I mean, they played volleyball and got suntans, but it also was really interesting how they treated the Americans. And the Americans had the ability to learn about the Vietnam independence and like what they wanted. And the Vietnamese culture and just the people. So it was so interesting. Yeah, very interesting. And like Natalie said, moving experience, to be honest. We've been here for an hour and a half. And it's definitely not enough time. I think two hours, you'd probably be good if you came. Definitely recommend the audio guide. It really brings so much to it. If I didn't have the audio guide, I'd have probably moved through a lot quicker. You would have been done in 30 minutes. But having these keeps my attention a little more. Let's head to lunch. Let's do it. We're now at lunch at Bun Cha Hoang Linh. I think I'm saying that at least kind of close. The reason we came here is because it is the same place that two American icons came and ate when they were both in Hanoi together and sat down and had the traditional Vietnamese dish of Bun Cha. And those two icons are former U.S. President Barack Obama and legendary travel journalist Anthony Bourdain. We already know those two are not going to steer us wrong. So we are super excited about this. They even have an Obama special, which is 120,000 dongs. It comes with a Hanoi beer. It's like literally exactly what they ate. So that is what we're doing today. It is Bun Cha and fried spring rolls with a Hanoi beer. For those wondering what Bun Cha is like, we were when we first came here because we've actually never had it. This will be our first time. Bun Cha is almost exclusively a lunch dish, and it combines chargrilled pork belly and patties with diluted vinegar fish sauce. It comes with rice noodles on the side. Add some spices and herbs and then try to get a little bit of all of it in one bite. So let's give it a try. All right, here we go. It's a sad bite, I don't have a lot of noodles in there. That is delicious, really good. This is hard. Yeah, it's tough. I lost my lettuce. I'm struggling right now. OK, I'm ready, I'm ready, I'm ready. Matt really sold me on it, so this better be good. Oh, wow, the flavor in this. I knew Barack and Anthony would not have steered me wrong. Tony, like I like to call him. Oh, man. Epic. I'm about to eat all of this. Let's try one of the fried rolls. What do you do? I think you just eat it. You just eat it? They do have some sauce over there, but I'll try it without anything first. Amazing, so good. Greasy, flaky. The flavor is really good. It looks like there's whole shrimp in there. It's not too fishy, though. Do you know what I mean? Really perfectly done. I love this place. Let's go eat. Obama, if you're watching this, thank you so much for the recommendation. That truly has become our favorite dish here in Vietnam. Like, it was that good. Yeah, definitely my top Vietnamese dish so far. Just can't speak highly enough of it. Now we're going to head back to the old quarter and explore. So we're doing something very touristy. We weren't sure if we were going to do it here. It's called a cyclo. We're going to get pedaled to our next destination. This is wild. Highly recommend this experience. Especially during rush hour, around 4.30 is when we're doing it. And it's insane. Oh, thank you. We survived. That was so intense. I was like white knuckling it the whole time, apologizing to people. I was like, sorry, sorry, excuse me. That was quite the experience. So normally you would book one of those cyclos for an hour tour of the old quarter. We didn't want to spend a full hour doing it. So we just got him to take us like 15 minutes up another spot we wanted to see in the old quarter. And it was totally worth it. I could see why people do the hour. So if you have time, make sure you do it. And where are we at now? I think it's called the Dong Xuan market. Could be wrong. We'll put the name right below because I'm sure I'm saying it wrong. Regardless, it is the largest market in Hanoi. They sell everything here, guys. We got to walk through here on our free walking tour that we took. And she recommended us to come here. Yeah, and we'll link the tour down below. But yeah, she recommended we come back and actually spend some good time here. And it's massive. And there is just so much stuff. So let's go. You could definitely spend hours here buying so much stuff. Oh, yeah. And if you do come, remember, you can negotiate on prices and it is recommended to negotiate on prices. The one thing we did buy is postcards and prizes for our patrons. If you're interested in supporting us in a greater way and becoming part of our Patreon family, we'll put a link down in the description to our Patreon page. Now, let's see what else we can get into. We're going to die crossing this. Oh, I'm going to hold my hand up. We made it. They somehow miss us every time. Another cool thing about this market is they do a night market. It starts at six. So they're like setting up now. And I think it happens every night from what we understand. So, yeah, they're getting cranked up for the night. I got distracted. There's a cute little dog. Can I pet that dog? Oh, my gosh, stop. There are 36 different streets in the Old Quarter here in Hanoi, and a lot of them are like the garment district, but it's just one street. So here right now, we're on like the packaging street. We've been by the hardware street today. There's also like a shoe street. There's a camera street. So it's super, super cool. So something to know before visiting Hanoi, the sidewalks are used for anything but walking. Practically, you'll see every vendor set up on motorbikes, parked fires, made all sorts of things happen on sidewalks. Pretty much other than walking. So I broke my headband when I got here in my suitcase, and I've been wanting a headband. Hence why we went to the other market, but I couldn't find one. This lady on the side of the street was selling them to the people eating dinner. So I went up, I said, how much is headband? Of course, we negotiated. We said, this is all we got. And she said, that's OK. She was so sweet. I don't even know what we ended up paying. What was it? 80. So I don't know, three bucks or so. Yeah, compared to the hundred that she wanted. But guys, I'm so excited. The lady laughed so loud when Matt pulled out his like money belt wallet from his pants. Yeah, so I keep it like inside my belt during travels just to be safe. It was like a magic trick for her when I whipped out my travel money wallet attached to my belt. She loved it. We've made it to the cafe that created egg coffee. Let's go grab a seat. It is a long way down from my butt to get down to these tiny stools they provide. All right. So I went with the traditional egg coffee, except for this time I got it iced since I got it hot the first time I tried it in Ninh Binh. And if you don't know what egg coffee is, it is a very robust, strong coffee. But instead of milk froth, they use egg yolks, condensed milk and sugar. So it is a sweet and frothy, almost like a eggnog kind of consistency. A thick eggnog. I really enjoyed it hot. So I'm excited to try it iced. Although it doesn't look like there's a whole lot of coffee in this version. It's actually really nice. I like it because I was able to mix it up more than I was able to mix up my hot one the last time. So I was able to get more balanced flavor. Thankfully, they use a very, very strong coffee. So it doesn't take a lot of coffee to get a lot of coffee flavor. And I'm a fan of that. As you guys know, I don't like coffee, but I didn't know that they had Oreo egg, so that's what I got. It's like a custard with Oreo. This might be the first thing that I crave back in America. So that was by far my favorite dessert I've had here yet. It was my favorite egg coffee, but I'm still more of a salt coffee fan, I believe. Well, you guys remember how we said there are 36 distinct streets here in the Old Quarter. So now we're going to check out Beer Street. Let's go do it. I don't know if I was prepared for this. It's only like seven o'clock and it is a chaos. It is. And coming to Beer Street, you get bombarded with people. Everybody's like, come to our table, come to our table. And so what's great is you can price match. You know what I mean? You can be like, I just had it over there for 25. I will say we we did choose to pay a little more for beer for the viewing spot so we can people watch better. Because we're literally on a corner with Beer Street in the background. We're at a four way cross here. So you get all the action. Technically, we're on a sidewalk. So people have to walk around me. Beers were $25,000, which is around a dollar. And we haven't had this one yet. Yeah, we did see beers about, I don't know, five stalls or restaurants down for $10,000, which is like way less than a dollar. That's like 40 cents. I don't know, something like that. But it didn't have the view. So there are definitely cheap, cheap options here. Cheers. Oh, I like that one. Nice. And I will say it's overwhelming in the best of ways, to be honest. Yeah, like we're going to show you this view. It is. Yeah, this is a fun city. Vendors continue to set out more tables, so the street gets smaller and smaller and the crowds and the traffic get more and more. It's crazy. People are about to get run over all the time. Like we almost saw a child get run over. Who lives here? Yeah, she's just like wandering. Definitely recommend coming and doing some people watching on Beer Street. We could honestly sit here for hours, just people watching, enjoying the views, taking in the sights and smells, because there are lots of them to take in. But we're actually headed to one of the top attractions, which is a water puppet show. We're pretty excited about it. Let's go. In Hanoi, every street is a pedestrian street. So the one thing that I was really looking forward to when I came to Vietnam was getting a massage. Oh, yeah. So we did that yesterday on our day off. There are spas everywhere, by the way. Oh, my gosh. We are so sore. So if you see at any point us wincing in pain today, it's because we're incredibly sore from our massages. Y'all, she like stood on me. That was the first thing she did was stood on my body. There were a few defining moments for mine. First, he was just supposed to get a back shoulder. And then feet. And when he looked at me, told me to take my shirt off. Cool. Got it. Then he looked at me and said something I didn't understand. I look confused. And he decided to start trying to take my pants off for me. And I was like, I don't know why my pants need to be off for a neck massage. But, you know, long story short, he got a full body massage, full body, which started with him walking on my back, ended with me. And like the like, have you ever seen videos where they're like, here, show them. So my spirit is leaving their body like this. You know, I was on in the air, fully on his knees, on the table, up in the air. She stretched me. Oh, my gosh. It was a lot. It was not, I wouldn't say relaxing, but we apparently had a lot of knots in our body that needed to be worked out. Oh, just sitting down hurts so bad. But anyways, definitely recommend the experience. This is a lot of fun. Also forgot to mention that the massage places are open till like almost midnight. Oh, yeah. And they're pretty affordable. Yeah, we got a 60 minute massage and it was 20 bucks. I had them wash and blow dry my hair. Ten dollars. I was like, I can live here. Can't beat that. Granted, we wouldn't be able to do the massages every week. I got beat up for 90 minutes. He put me in some wrestling moves I had never been put in. And I only had to pay like, what, 40 bucks for it? Honestly, I mean, it was worth it. Be sure to buy your tickets ahead of time, because this is a popular tourist attraction and sells out pretty much every night. Once again, they were not prepared for a six foot plus tall man in here. That was so interesting. It was like nothing I've ever been to or experienced before. And I love that they had a live band that were like doing the music to the motion. And I loved the authentic Vietnamese instruments because quite a few of them are some that I've never really seen before. So, yeah, I found it super interesting. Definitely recommend the audio guide. Oh, yes. Just so you know a little bit about the folklore and stuff. Oh, yeah. And we'll link tickets for how we booked through Get Your Guide down in the description of this video. But you will have to buy your audio guide when you get here. Now let's go do one more famous thing here in Hanoi. So if you couldn't tell, we're at Train Street. No, we're good. Thank you. We're at Train Street and we are so excited about it. I think we got the closest seats we possibly could. Like, look, we came to Railway Cafe. We'll put their information in the blog. They have a WhatsApp number that you can text. They give you the train times, when to come, all that stuff. So it just takes all of the guesswork out of this. And that's what we're all about. So now we're going to order some beers and some food and wait for the train. So we're catching an early train. We thought we had to wait like 40 more minutes till it got here. It's here now. This is awesome. I mean, I can touch it. I can reach out and touch this tummy. Whoa! We didn't even get to crack our beers open yet. Look, we had to move from our seats. Oh my gosh, that was so fun. For food, we also got their shrimp spring rolls because the owner of the shop said it is the best that they do and you won't get them better anywhere else. So, you know, we had to try it. We also got the chicken skewers and french fries. Oh wow. Really really good. I love how crunchy they are. Not too fishy. And I like the sauce. The sauce is like a sweet and spicy with a little bit of vinegar tang to it. Super crispy. I actually like the ratio of like filling to crispy shell. I'm a fan. I had my first bite off camera. This is absolutely delicious. Spicy cooked to perfection. I want like eight orders of these. So good. Hot. You didn't warn me. Sorry. Use your teeth. Oh yeah. That is juicy. Nice and crisp on the outside. Doesn't get cooked much better than that. That is really good. I will say you definitely pay tourist prices when you come to Train Street. Naturally, it's a tourist spot, but I can't complain too much because when tourist prices are two dollars for beer, it ain't bad. We got a third train coming. We came prepared to see one and now there's a third one coming. We can't think of a more epic way to end our time here in Hanoi. Train Street is such a unique experience that you really should check off of your bucket list when you visit this city. Now we were a little nervous coming to Hanoi because it is a bit chaotic and this is the first time that we've ever been to Southeast Asia, so we really didn't know what to expect, but we truly love this city. We really do. It's quickly become one of our favorites for many reasons. The people are absolutely genuinely kind, the food is delicious, and there's such awesome and unique experiences like Train Street, and we definitely recommend checking this city out if you haven't done so yet. If you guys like this vlog as much as we enjoyed making it, make sure you give it a big thumbs up and also hit the subscribe button. And we'll see you in our next adventure. High step to get out of here. Hoa Lo. Hoa Lo? Yes. Hoa Lo. No, we're okay. Thank you. No, thank you. No, we're good. Thank you. No, we're good. Thank you. No, we're good. Thank you. No, we're good. Thank you. Alright, so cheers. A little overwhelming. Look! So, if you've been watching our channel for a while, you know I got pooped on by a bird in Leavenworth, Washington. Well, time number two, I got pooped on, it's in my hair somewhere. I reached up, thought it was water, touched it, it's bird poop. So strike two for me, or loss two for me, birds win twice, however that goes.