What Can $50 Get in VIETNAM (World's Cheapest Country)

In today's video, I'm here in the center of Hanoi, Vietnam, which is known to be one of the cheapest countries in the world and especially Hanoi, maybe even being one of the cheapest cities in the world. So in today's video, I have one point two million dong, which equates to about 50 US dollars. And I'm going to see what I can get for this amount of money in this city. Let's see what we can get up to. We are going to start our day off in Hanoi with what Hanoi probably does best, and that is food. We are starting here with a iced coconut coffee. Now, for those of you that know me know that I'm not a coffee drinker, but this is mostly iced coconut. So ice cream and a little bit of coffee. So I really, really like these here in Vietnam. And at just over a dollar per serving. Oh, so refreshing in this hot weather. It's a chicken, cheese, chicken, avocado and beef. Thank you. All right. Now I'm going to be diving into a banh mi sandwich, which if you've spent any time in Vietnam, you'll know that these are super popular sandwich that is served on a French baguette. Great for lunches, great for potentially even breakfast. This one today, I got a chicken and cheese one, which is probably not traditional, but tastes amazing. And on there you have some cucumbers, some spices, some carrots and things like that. That was at a place called Banh Mi 25. Now, if you've ever heard of that place, you'll know that it's super popular and probably a lot of the locals would say that it's a little bit touristy, which to be completely honest with you, it is, but it still tastes really good. And it still has great prices at a little over a dollar per item. Super affordable. So that whole meal with the banh mi and the iced coffee was about three dollars and 20 cents in US. Eighty thousand dong. Great meal. Great way to start the day. Just got myself a little gift, a little souvenir. I got two magnets here. One's actually pretty cool. It's made out of bamboo. They were like twenty thousand dong a piece, which is like sixty five cents or something like that. So super cheap and a great way to remember our time here in Hanoi. Made our way into a store here that has these beautiful paintings that were done by hand by a local here. My mom's picking up a little gift for her house as well as for my sister at a very affordable prices. I would highly recommend when you're walking around in the old quarter in Hanoi, taking some time to just stop in some of the stores that have some real gems. People are super talented. I mean, look at these paintings. And they're they're about like twenty five US dollars for a single painting, which is not bad for something made by hand. I have made my way to Hong Kim Lake, which is here in the center of the old quarter in Hanoi. And which, by the way, if you're looking for a place to stay, look no further than the old quarter here in Hanoi. You're going to be super close to all the best food spots as well as all the great tourist attractions. So make sure you find a place to stay here in the old quarter. I'm here at the lake, which is a beautiful spot. Like I said, right in the center of Hanoi. It provides a great opportunity for a nice walk around the lake or even a run. They have a nice huge sidewalk with plenty of space to get some exercise in while you're here in Hanoi. Hanoi offers a ton of free options if you're looking for things to do. So don't always look to pay for items when you're here in Hanoi. There's plenty to do, including walking around this lake for free. So we have made our way to a little coffee shop here and it is called The Note. And as you can see, maybe behind me, it is very appropriately named. It's a little bit more of a touristy place here in the center of Hanoi, but a great spot to get whether it's a classic egg coffee, Vietnamese egg coffee or a smoothie. And I paid fifty nine thousand for this smoothie, which is a little over two dollars, which is not bad at all for a fresh, cold smoothie. So behind me here, we have made our way to Hala Prison, which forgive me if I'm pronouncing that incorrectly. This is right in the center of Hanoi. And in the 1960s, this is where a lot of American prisoners were held during the Vietnam War. So it'll be really interesting to catch up on some not only Vietnam history, but American history as well. Let's go check it out. This prison was also nicknamed the Hanoi Hilton and was host to far more prisoners than it was originally built for. In fact, it was built for 450 people, but ended up hosting over 2,000 prisoners that made for very harsh living conditions. I think I did mispronounce the name earlier. It's Hoa Lo Prison. Whatever I said earlier, just forget that. Hoa Lo Prison. One interesting fact is that this prison hosted famous U.S. Senator John McCain. It is always a very eye opening experience to be walking around a place that is painted in so much Vietnam and American history. Well, that was super interesting. Learned a ton and at only 30,000 dong, which is just over a dollar. It's definitely well worth your time if you like history stuff. We also paid an extra hundred thousand. So another three dollars for the audio guide, which was very extensive. And I highly recommend it because they go through a lot of the stories of things that happened in this prison and added a lot to the experience, but a great cheap activity for a beautiful afternoon. Can you believe it? So far today, we've only spent about 14 dollars, which is just it blows my mind. We're going to cut into that budget a little bit more here with something called a water puppet show. Now, I know you might be thinking, what the heck is a water puppet show? Well, my goal is to try to show you. But in general, it is a show with water puppets displaying some of Vietnam's history. And because this is a formal performance, it comes with a little bit steeper price at 18 dollars per ticket. But for like an hour long show, hopefully it's worth our money and worth our time. OK, final verdict on the water puppet show, if you're looking for just a nice activity to take up some time in your night, I would definitely check it out, especially if you like live music, live band with local instruments, definitely worth your 18 dollars. And there's even a cheaper ticket for, I think, like ten dollars. So it might be something you want to add into your itinerary. In my opinion, the best way to get around Hanoi is by walking just because you get to experience so much more of the city, but if you aren't a fan of walking, you can easily catch a ride with an app called Grab. So make sure you download that before you come. You can get a ride basically anywhere in the city for under two dollars. And if you're comfortable enough, you can even hop on a motorbike and get a ride for as low as like 20 or 30 cents. It's pretty crazy. Another thing that's also very cheap here in Hanoi is the massages. You can get an hour long massage for like seven or eight US dollars. And the massages are actually really, really good. So I highly recommend if you do spend some time in Vietnam, Hanoi specifically, book yourself a massage. It's well worth it. Food, food, food, food, because we still have money left to spend. We came to a spot for some pho, which, as you know, is a Vietnamese classic. We got some beef, some noodles. And what makes a good pho is the broth. They spend hours and hours and hours making their broth. And that's what makes this so good. I'm sure. I think it's really hard to learn. Pretty much tapped it here, almost finished, but at just sixty five thousand dong, which is a little over two dollars per serving. We can't end the night without getting a little dessert. So we stopped at this local dessert place. I'll just show you what it looks like to. This is our dessert. Some more coconut ice cream now on the top. They have this kind of like creamy coconut ice cream on the bottom. It's shaved ice cream with a ton of fresh mango. Can't beat it. And it's 60 K, meaning a little over two dollars for one serving. Not a bad price. It's funny how they give me three spoons as if I'm going to share. Thanks for joining me in today's video to try to spend 50 dollars here in what might be one of the cheapest cities in the world, though we still have 14 dollars left and we didn't quite spend all the money. I think the point was proven that your money can go a long way in the city, especially if you enjoy local street food. I hope you enjoyed this video. If you did, I would suggest checking out some of the other videos we made of our time here in Vietnam. We got a lot of cool adventures on our channel. I'll make sure to link that playlist below. If you enjoyed this video, please give it a thumbs up as well. Subscribe to our channel for more content like this. We will see you in the next video.