Living on $20/day in VIETNAM (World’s Cheapest Country)

For the next 24 hours, I'm going to try and live off $20 here in Vietnam. Covering everything from food, transportation, activities, and even accommodation. But luckily, Vietnam is one of the most affordable countries. And when I was 21 years old, I had just started my first business and traveled here to Vietnam to work remotely and live off of pretty much $20 per day. So years later, let's see if we can still do it. Okay, so our biggest expense is most likely going to be our accommodation. So trying to bank that out first. And I did just find a place that for $7.50, you get a bed where you sleep for the night, free breakfast, and then free beer for 30 minutes. So let's go see what $7.50 per night gets you here in Hoi An. So this is where we're going to be staying for the night at the Mad Monkey Hoi An. Does look pretty nice from the outside. Let's see how it is on the inside. So for $7.50, I will be sleeping in a dorm room tonight, which is why I actually paid extra for this room so I could have my own curtain. But for the bed itself, it actually was pretty comfortable. And then for the rest of the property, it was great. Not bad, not bad at all. They have a pool table with a bar, a restaurant, a lot of space too with these benches outside overlooking the rice fields, and even this pool. All right, so I've been meeting a lot of fellow travelers here at the Mad Monkey. This is Oscar. Hello. Oscar, where are you from? I'm from England, Leicester. And what do you love about Vietnam? I think it's got to be the people in Vietnam. Everyone's so amazing, everyone's smiling at you, super friendly. And of course, the price. I mean, everything's so cheap, so you can't go wrong with that, really. What do you do for work that allows you to travel to places like here in Vietnam? Just mostly crypto, to be honest, trying to get more into the online space. But I've been doing crypto for about a year now, and it's been going pretty good. So now I'm free just to travel the world and do Southeast Asia and see what's next. All right, so I was right. They really do make this place feel like you're inside of an amusement park, where they even have this fairytale-like music just playing all throughout the streets. Anyway, now the plan is to see how much a coffee is here in Hoi An. Okay, and I think the place I'm looking for is right here. What a cool little hidden alley of a coffee shop. All right, guys, we have a very special guest, Miss Elena Tabor. Hello, surprise! The last time we saw each other was in Tanzania, and we're like, oh, we'll for sure hang in New York the next time that we reconnect. And instead, I got a text message, he's like, are you in Hoi An, Vietnam, this tiny town? I was like, yes, I am. And so, here we are. I guess it makes sense. We're both such big travelers that there's just as high of a chance of meeting in a random central city in Vietnam than in New York City. It's still insane, though. I was like, of course you're here. Like, this is nuts. We got some Vietnamese iced coffees for $1.25. Let's see how these are. Honestly, best iced coffee in the world. And I'm an iced coffee snob. Vietnam, it's the best, 100%. Do you know why that is? It's the condensed milk. Condensed milk. But yeah, there's only two types of coffee beans. There's Arabica, which most places like Starbucks and Huge Chains use. And then in Vietnam, they use Robusta. And there's a lot more caffeine, if you haven't been able to tell. Yeah, I'm literally the whole time like, it's perfect. So now for lunch, we are going to get a banh mi. Since Vietnam was actually colonized by the French, and there is still a huge influence of French culture here in Vietnam. So this is a spot called Banh Mi Chai, where you can get a banh mi for 75 cents. And it looks pretty darn delicious, too. One banh mi? Yeah, one. Everything? Yeah. Vietnam is worth coming all the way to just for how good their food is. So this banh mi right here has all these delicious ingredients. It was only 75 cents. Alayna already chowed hers down. I'm guessing it was good. That's how good it is. Yeah, it's amazing. I couldn't resist. I could have this every single lunch. It's crazy. All right. Well, bon appetit. Hell yeah. It's got like a spicy kick to it. Wow. Absolutely. Yum. So far, really big fan of Hoi An. The old town, very beautiful, really cool. All the history that it has as well. But I know that Hoi An has a lot more to offer, where there's all this beautiful nature and rice fields, and then not too far away, a beach. So for a dollar, got some wheels. I'm gonna go cruise around the nature part of Hoi An. I always knew of Hoi An for the lanterns and the old town, but very excited to see what this beach is like here in Hoi An. Wow. This is beautiful. Wow. It's only about a 10-minute ride outside of the old town. I made it to this beautiful street that is just surrounded by rice fields. Oh, wow. Look at that. They even got a cafe out here too. So I just made here to the Roving Restaurant, where I went with a hibiscus tea for $2. But do get this view while I'm working. Not a bad office for the day. So I just worked for about three hours at that awesome cafe, which was called the Roving Chill House. Highly recommend if you are here in Hoi An. And also, I am still on my way to the beach. And this is like an African safari. Look at this guy right here. The adventure continues. We're off to a place called the Hidden Beach. This bike is not meant for a big American man. All the Vietnamese people are laughing at me. This bike is gonna snap in half. One of the things that I love most about working remotely and traveling to cool places like here in Hoi An is that it gives me the impetus to be as efficient as possible. Since maybe some of the tests that I did today in just two hours, I would get done in one full day of work back home. Since here, I try to eliminate all distractions, get what I need to done, and then get out here and explore. Like right now, I just made it here to the Hidden Beach. And it must actually be pretty hidden because not really anyone else here. Being able to travel the world is something that I worked many years to be able to achieve. And honestly, a big part of that came from being smart with my money and creating multiple streams of income. From starting a clothing brand, then a skateboard brand, a pizza business in NYC, YouTube, and now launching my wellness tea company, Belief. From there, investing into stocks, bonds, crypto, and now even looking into real estate and fine arts. Fine arts actually been a go-to investment for high net worth individuals, but now it's not just for the ultra rich. And thanks to today's sponsor, Masterworks, anyone can invest in shares of high value art. They handle the research, acquire the art, and make it easy for you to get started. And Masterworks does have over a billion dollars invested from over 60,000 users with past offerings featuring legends like Picasso, Basquiat, and even Banksy. New offerings can sell out fast, but with my link down below and at masterworks.art.com, you can skip the wait list and get started today. I did also want to add that I am not a financial advisor, and I encourage you to always do your own research. Since past performance isn't indicative of future results, and investing does involve risk. Now back to Vietnam. So I just made it back here to the hostel, dropped off the bikes, and now I just called a grab to go back to the old town. This is about a 25 minute walk, so I called the grab for about 75 cents since this day is definitely starting to tire me out. I think here's our guy. For Brett, that is me. Safety first. How's it look? Good? Good to go. So I made it back here to the old town, and now trying to find some dinner. Vietnam truly is one of my favorite cuisines out of any country in the world. And I did get some banh mi for lunch, so now for dinner, gonna try and find some pho. Do you have any pho? Pho? No. No pho? Do you know where I could get some good pho around here? So I ended up walking about 15 minutes outside of the old town, because I heard this place has some delicious pho. Never mind, it's closed. I am so exhausted, but we're gonna find some pho. Crazy that I am still gonna go back to a hostel and party tonight. Okay, I just found this place called Pho Bo Pho Co. Let's see how it is. So for a $1.25, I just got this massive pho. It comes with some beef, some brisket, we have some greens, and then of course, the noodles. I am starving, so let's give this beef pho a try. What the pho? That is some good pho. I don't know if it's just from a very long day of adventuring around Hoi An, but this pho is really hitting the spot. So as you guys can see, Hoi An is filled with tens of thousands of lanterns. That is because hundreds of years ago, Hoi An was a massive trading port for the Chinese and the Japanese, where they would bring as gifts lanterns. And now they have become the city with the most expensive electric bill. Just joking about that last part, but could be true. Anyway, now it is time to head back to the hostel and go experience what this 30 minutes of free alcohol is like. I haven't drank in a couple months, so it will be interesting for this experience. Doing it for the vlog. So I just made it back to the hostel, where they are currently having 30 minutes of free beer. All you can drink, all the beer you want, all for free. Thank you, thank you. So we then headed to a bar where I got a beer for $1, then got a grab ride home for 50 cents. So for a hostel, I got a pretty solid night's sleep. It may have only been six hours, but it was still a solid six hours of sleep. And now I just got the free breakfast, and I still can't believe that for $7.50, we got our night stay, we got free beer for 30 minutes, a couple of shots, and now what looks like a delicious free breakfast. Man, I love Vietnam. So one of my favorite ways to explore a new place is to run through it. It's just such a great way to get a feeling for a new city. And also, it is completely free. So let this Brett Conte Running Tour of Hoi An begin. Let's do this. So many cool shops, so many cool food spots. Definitely gonna have to come back here. So while I was on my run, I was doing a lot of reflecting. What would the conversation look like if I could talk to 21-year-old Brett? And the first thing I could think of, maybe it is because I was on a run, but I would say, start running now. Let me explain. So when you're 21, you have a lot of uncertainty in your life, and also your mind starts having a lot of doubts about what your career is going to look like, what your future is going to look like. And why I love running is not just for the physical benefits of burning calories, but for the mental benefits and all the endorphins you get. So if 21-year-old Brett was here in Vietnam right now, I would tell him, wake up before the sun and go on a run. Anyway, that's it for this Brett Conte Running Elance. So over the past couple of years, with my job, I have been fortunate enough to stay at some of the best hotels around the world. From Mykonos, Dubai, even the Four Seasons Serengeti. And this may be an unpopular opinion, but I would say that staying at that $7 per night hostel last night was arguably just as fun of an experience. It was so great meeting so many other travelers and just brought me back to my younger, early backpacking days. Also, it's pretty cool that there were so many people who were staying there that were fans of the channel. And after about 23 hours, we have only spent $16. So now the plan is to go back into the old town and see what we can get with our remaining $4. So Hoi An is known for being a place where you can get custom leather jackets, suits, leather bags, even cowboy boots, all very high quality and for very cheap. So right now, I just made it to the Hoi An Central Market to see what we can get for $4. As someone who leans more towards being a minimalist, it's insane just to be surrounded by so much stuff. No idea what to get. So many options. Even the quality of these just looks so good. So those pair of shoes, they would custom make them to fit my foot exactly, as well as whatever color I want. It would only come out to $32. Probably can negotiate them down a little bit too. But man, if you're in the market for some men's shoes, some cowboy boots, this is the place for you. So I wasn't able to find anything I liked at the Hoi An Market that was within my budget. So I figured, what better way to end this video than with a good old burger. We did get the banh mi and the pho yesterday, but wanted to see how much a burger here in Hoi An was. I got lucky where this place had a deal, where I got some fries and a double smash burger with some barbecue sauce and some onions, all for $4. So after successfully living on $20 a day in Vietnam, it made me realize how I arguably had just as good as a day than if I had $200 for the day. Creating a lifestyle that allows you to travel and work remotely isn't as expensive as one may think, and is more possible than ever before. And if you do want to see more videos like this one, hit that subscribe button, since we are getting so close to hitting a million subscribers. Until next week, let's get out and get busy for the next one.