Our FIRST Time in Vietnam: SO CHEAP It Feels ILLEGAL!

Good morning and welcome to Da Nang, Vietnam. It's actually our very first time in the country and we've been here for about a week but we already have so much to say about this place. Yeah so we're going to be showing you what it's like here right now, how much things cost, also how much we spend in a day and what a typical day could look like in Da Nang. Right now we're on Mayan beach, right behind us is Maiki beach, the very famous Maiki beach and that is actually one of the main reasons why people come to Da Nang. You've got that backdrop of the city, the sand is so lovely, really clean and the ocean is beautiful. And it's coming up to about 10 o'clock right now so I need to get some coffee into Yaz otherwise I'm going to be in some serious trouble right now. And there's a particular one that we have to try in Vietnam. Now one of the main things that you notice about Da Nang as soon as you set foot in the main part of the city is the sheer amount of construction work and it is everywhere, you cannot escape it. And that's a good thing and a bad thing I guess because it means that they're obviously developing it because there's an increase of tourism and increase of demand but then if you want a nice quiet coffee outside that's probably not going to happen unless you go somewhere like we're going right now which is a bit outside of the center. And also unlike other countries the construction here doesn't necessarily end at night. We've got a construction site just opposite from our hotel and they were still working until one o'clock in the morning. Alright here we go crossing a road in Vietnam. Admittedly not a road like in Ho Chi Minh City or Hanoi but still pretty busy nonetheless. So what you do is you step out into the road really confidently, head held up high, hold your hand up so the drivers can see you, pray to whatever god it is that you believe in and step over to the other side with a newfound appreciation for life. To be fair that road actually wasn't quite bad. Up there it's a lot worse, down here it's a bit chill and also it's early. So we're at a cafe called Karumi. It's in the central part of Da Nang but kind of at the bottom so out of the way of everything else, out of the way of most of the construction work and it's very kind of barley vibes, very hippie, very plant-based and we can't wait for this coffee. It's going to be amazing I think hopefully. Hopefully, hope I like it. Okay so what we have here is what I'm hoping is going to be my new favourite thing because I've been waiting ages to try this. This is the famous Vietnamese salted coffee. It's supposed to be condensed milk, sweetened condensed milk, and salty cream on the top. So we've got whatever is the plant-based version of that. And we've waited a whole week to try this. Yes. I'm a bit like I don't know if I'm gonna like it which is why I haven't actually ordered it yet but I was like I actually have to try it and I do want to try it. It's nice. It's quite strong but it's actually quite nice. The Vietnamese coffee is insanely strong that's one thing we've noticed for sure. Oh it tastes like a coffee mocha milkshake. It's like a mocha kind of coffee milkshake. It's salted coffee so it's actually not that salty. I think the saltiness is just bringing out more of the sweetness. That's actually really really nice. Yeah and I love like the thickness on the top. It is literally like a creamy milkshake. So to go along with that incredibly strong Vietnamese coffee we've got a very Vietnamese breakfast here as you can see. It's oat pancakes with fruit, peanut butter, chia seeds, all that good stuff. And Yaz has got what is that chickpea omelette. Yeah it looks so good and the portions here so far have been so big like double what we have at home. Those coffees easy nine out of ten. My pancakes nine out of ten. Your omelette meh. Six out of ten probably. Six out of ten. The taste was good the texture was a little bit funny. And the price for all of that three hundred and nine thousand well dong yeah Vietnamese dong. I don't even know what currency I'm in anymore. Three hundred and nine thousand which if you think that is cheap wait until lunch. Also speaking of coffee and coffee culture that's one of the main things that you notice as a first timer in Vietnam. We can't believe it every single night there are people sitting outside coffee shops here drinking coffee until 10 o'clock I think. Some of the coffee shops are open till 11 pm and there are people there drinking coffee like Vietnamese people when do you actually sleep? Okay so right now we are in what I'd like to say the main kind of touristy area of Da Nang. So if you're looking for a place to stay that's full of coffee shops, massage parlors, restaurants this right here is the perfect place. I just like the way they incorporate the trees still. It's only about a minute walk to the beach. We're actually staying like a one minute walk from here and so far it's been absolutely perfect. So just behind me here we've got Roots plant-based cafe. We have been about five times out of seven days so far. They have the most healthy delicious food. Also the prices are unbelievable. A delicious huge smoothie bowl it's going to cost you about three dollars. Highly recommend Roots cafe. They've got these taxis everywhere around here and I'm just obsessed with the colour of this car. Loads of them are this colour. That's actually an electric Uber. I have no idea how you pronounce that name. Is it San? Literally as simple as San SM. But I tried downloading the app so that we could use it instead of Grab and I couldn't figure out a way to make it into English. So sadly no electric Ubers for us. All right one more little quirk about Da Nang or maybe actually Vietnam in general. We don't know because we haven't been yet. But the pavements or the sidewalk if you're American in most countries that's for pedestrians to use to walk on. But as far as we can tell here they are either for driving your motorbike, parking your motorbike, seats for restaurants or more construction work. Unless of course you're on the beach like we are and you've got a nice pathway to share with those motorbikes. Like we said we're seven days in here and we still come across places that just blow our minds and they're just so beautifully done. Like this restaurant here. I don't know why there's no one sitting here. Probably something to do with the fact that it's only 11am and they serve beer mainly. Especially when the sun's shining. I think it's a grey day. It's a bit different. But when the sun's shining everything just looks so bright and wonderful. We've been really lucky with the weather here. We had one cloudy day that was actually verging on I don't want to say chilly because especially because we're British. But it was sweater weather and now it's the complete opposite. It's so hot. The lady did say here when we went to eat that night that it's like winter today. We're like really? She's like yeah it really is. To be fair it does feel a bit colder today but that was the only day it was like an odd one and now it's like back to summer again. So they've got a bunch of water sports available here. There are people doing parasailing and jet skiing and we have just come at the perfect time because it looks like two people are going to take off on the parasailing. They're standing on the beach with the parachute behind them. Oh they're attached to the speedboat. I've just seen it and they're just running along the beach. Oh my god. The parachute just lifts them straight up and they're already so high. That was cool. Yaz has found her ultimate automobile. So we've seen so many of these around and they are the cutest cars. I think they're fully electric and they look like toys. The colour is perfect. It's so cute. I can see myself cruising down Da Nang in one of them you know. Just needs a little pop top and then we're good. We just had to grab a little pit stop at this beautiful bar along the beach. Get a nice cold lemonade, get out of the sun for a bit. Well I say we, I mean Yaz is over there living her best life. Feet in the sand, feet in the water and then I'm going to grab some lunch because we're actually getting hungry again. We've done about 10,000 steps which probably doesn't look like it. Yaz are you in heaven here or what? It's just so nice. Quick pit stop to get a drink with this view. I just had a little dip in the water. It's got a refreshing temperature to it. It's not rocky or seaweedy or dirty. It's just so clean. I love it. I love it so much. All right it's our favourite time of the day again. The time when we get to eat once again. And what else do you eat in Vietnam when it's lunchtime? Banh Mi. Xin chào. Can I have a Banh Mi with everything? Everything. Thank you. Adam's not very fussy like me so he can just be like yeah I'll take everything that's included but me on the other hand might just leave out a couple of things. Although to be fair I can't see any coriander which is always a win. She takes the bread, slices it open, puts in the mushrooms I think that is and in goes the soy sauce. Then we have some cucumber, really thinly sliced cucumber, Vietnamese spinach or mint. Okay and then we have some radish and finally the tofu, chilli oil, chilli sauce and finally peanuts. Some of you watching this are going to think I'm really weird and crazy but to me this is absolute heaven. Plastic chairs, small plastic chairs or actually a metal chair in this case on the side of the road. Sunny, hot, humid weather and a Banh Mi on the way. Basically just local style. The only thing that'll make it better is a Vietnamese beer. Okay full disclosure we've had a Banh Mi pretty much every single day that we've been here but we're in the less touristy area now and these are much much cheaper. It's a much smaller stall, it's not a restaurant. And these cost $15,000. And the ones we've been having have been closer to the $40,000 which is still like ridiculously cheap but let's see how these stack up. Cheers. The bread is so fresh. That is straight out of the oven as well so it's really warm and mint leaves as well. It's just really fresh, that's the only way to describe it and this bread is really what makes it because it's super crunchy on the outside but really fluffy on the inside. Some of the ones we've had that have been not quite as good they're just really crunchy and you don't get the softness of the bread. This one is unbelievably good. I like crunchy though, Adam prefers soft so it depends what you like. This is the kind of thing that just it just doesn't get old at all. Oh we just got some peanut as well in there. Quite spicy but not too spicy. We were so desperate to try this we even forgot to get a shot of the inside for you guys. So you're gonna get a nice half-eaten shot now. Oh my god this is so unbelievably good. I don't want it to end. Should we move here? We should move here. Just when you think this place can't get any better a dog dressed in pajamas comes out of nowhere. Hello mister. Hello. Come here. Yeah okay bye-bye. That's a great example of one of those places that if you're not looking for it you're not going to know it's there you're not going to find it and it's genuinely one of the best banh mi's i've had in the last week i know it's only been a week but that's a big statement that's a big thing because we've had a fair few of them already i think she's very very clever that lady because she makes her banh mi's so good but she makes them a little bit smaller than average so it makes you maybe order a second one which a couple of the people there did and to be honest i was pretty close myself but for me one was enough and you say a bit smaller they're still a really good size the other ones we've had in other places are a bit bigger but this is for me enough 50k for two banh mi's and a fresh orange juice how much is that we'll put it here such good value unbelievable so right now we are still kind of in the center of Da Nang but we're outside of the touristy area more in the back streets what we're going to do is head to the very north of the city and see what is apparently the Santorini or the Mykonos of Vietnam which is not something i ever thought i would say but seeing is believing so let's get in a Grab and let's get over there. Xin chào. The Grab situation here in Vietnam is also really astonishing so if you don't know what Grab is it's very similar to Uber in Europe but it's mainly in Asia, Vietnam, Philippines, Thailand. Here they are so fast when you order one they always seem to be just around the corner or even next to you sometimes then when you want to order some food for delivery to your hotel we did that yesterday didn't we we got lunch and it was delivered in nine minutes flat this was cooked food not just like cold food or whatever coming off of a shelf and he doesn't mean delivered as in left the restaurant to our hotel he means when the order's in the kitchen to your door but it just makes things so so convenient if you want food ordered bam it's right there if you want to get somewhere like we are now bam they're right here to pick you up come on bye bye that was a really pleasant little 15 minute trip in the Grab taxi only 90,000 dong unbelievable value once again this is going to be the theme of this video wow okay uh i do suddenly feel like we are in Europe like Mykonos just as it was just as it was described we're in the road we need to move out of the way okay Santorini of Vietnam might be a little bit of a stretch it's absolutely stunning i thought it was going to be more of like a village that they've made to look like Santorini or just naturally happened to look like it it's actually a restaurant in order to get in you have to either book a table or if the tables are fully booked which they are at the moment you have to order a takeaway so we had no option if we wanted to come in here to get a takeaway drink and it's really reasonable this was 55k and we're able to walk around freely it's basically a photo opportunity spot to make it look like you're in Santorini why you'd want to do that when you're in Vietnam and not entirely sure but there is a really nice marina here and a harbor with all the fishing boats tons of Vietnamese flags by the way for those of you that are new here hi i'm adam i'm a flag nerd vietnamese flag one of my top three in the world i love the simplicity red yellow star what's not to like so like adam said this place is pretty touristy and most of the time you are trying to dodge someone's instagram photo but i do think this is actually a really nice place to come out for dinner the scenery is beautiful and the surroundings are very unique especially for Vietnam so i think if you're passing by and you want to come and see it it's definitely worth getting a drink i wouldn't travel too far just to come and get a drink uh yas this place just got a whole lot better there is a monkey on the other balcony oh my god there's actually a monkey just gotta dodge someone's instagram picture first what's there oh it's so cute that guy got a shock of his life oh okay this place definitely just got better it's like this where are the others that's what i want to know it's a baby it's not even like it's the mom or the dad it's like a baby on its own okay so we are back at the hotel now it's a few hours later we left santorini or mykonos whatever it was and we actually decided to have a little bit of a pamper session so i went and got a haircut for 70 000 vietnamese dong which is officially the second cheapest haircut i've ever had and it looks so good looks pretty darn good right did a really job like two us dollars for a haircut and you got a uh hands face shoulders everything shoulder neck back massage for 150k i had that first and it was just done so well and amazingly i was like oh i don't want this to end so i asked for a foot massage for 30 minutes and that was 100k and at the end of the massage i got a free drink i could have had a coffee anything it was so good and so professional so right now it is 6 23 and it's pretty dark outside but we want to go out and grab an early ish dinner we actually found this place on google maps that looks pretty authentic vietnamese or as authentic as it can get for vegetarian food and the reviews are really really good but it looks really really tiny so hopefully fingers crossed we can actually get in because i'm really fancying a pho for the first time as well and then next to that is the famous dragon bridge here in danang and every weekend there is a fire show however there are very mixed reviews about this fire show online so it's either amazing or it's terrible and we're curious creatures so we kind of want to find out for ourselves also some people say that the fire doesn't even happen yeah so we could be in for a major disappointment or we could be really really happy about it so we're going to get in another grab right now and we will see you over on the other side of town yes it's open so they have seats though yes they do have seats they have yes plastic chairs on the side of the road my favorite hello i'm so excited this is exactly the kind of vibe that i was after we've been talking about this vibe for so long like the plastic chairs as soon as we sat down the owner it's a lovely sweet lady she came up to us and she was like hello she was helping us with what to choose she showed us the best items on the menu just a really warm welcome basically you know it's good when you've got almost empty bottle of chili sauce here in some soy sauce and a plastic tub of lime and chilies i'm literally i think this is the most excited i've ever been for a meal i really had a long time i really hope the food's good because we've never been here before so so i've got chicken rice it's not real chicken vegetarian chicken and that's 50 000 vietnamese dong and adam's got the pho which is also 50 000 my first time having pho in danang in vietnam even for that matter that's exciting are you ready i hope it's going to live up to the expectation me too i have a feeling it will because in a place like this you would imagine it would if you went to somewhere that's a bit more commercialized probably not we've also got two beers coming vietnamese beers called larue i forgot about that yes it's the best day ever and this is our view for dinner super local vibes right on the road so we do actually just eat one of these chilies is that a challenge yes actually it is here goes nothing why did i do that it's literally just a pot of chunks of chili and lime why did i do that where's this beer regrets oh there's red ones too yeah no i'm not touching them why am i eating it again oh my pho has arrived thank you my good sir that is a good looking bowl of food right there all right before any of this food we've got to try this authentic beer from danang itself actually what do you think good not bad not bad at all the beer we've been enjoying until now is called huda and it's from hui which is a city just north of here and this is the one that's actually from danang do you prefer who do i would say over this but this is still really nice and refreshing yeah this is really nice are you not even slightly tempted by this pho i can smell the coriander from here no thanks okay so my massive bowl of food has arrived that is huge it looks really it looks really juicy actually there's lots of different textures on there and there's a bed of rice underneath it's like yellow rice it looks really flavorful don't know which part to start let me try the rice actually oh wow that's just how good can rice be yeah pretty damn good i could eat that on its own oh wow i'll try a bit of this tofu skin chicken i wasn't expecting it to be cold but it's really nice and it's got a really good texture and a really nice flavor i'm i really like it i wasn't really sure at first so far so good gotta be honest i'm kind of a little bit jealous of yaz right now because after tasting that the flavor is unbelievable honestly so savory like there might be a little bit of msg in there not gonna lie moment of truth for me though i've got some corn on the cob carrot radish loads of seaweed i don't know how much of this is really authentic as a pho but it's as close as we're gonna get and we have some of that mock meat as well that is so good and the broth itself i wasn't expecting it to be that flavorful because it's but gotta say she's managed to pack in some flavor in there somehow seaweed oh my god that's very fishy and of course the all-important rice noodles this is an easy eight and a half maybe a nine out of ten similar to that ban me earlier that's three meals today that's been absolutely amazing so so surprised actually come on that was amazing thank thank you what was the total for that 140 000 dong 140 000 dong we did have to leave pretty much as soon as we finished our food because while we were enjoying it the mosquitoes were enjoying us they were the cheapest restaurant beers we've had so far 20k each 20k that's less than a dollar for a beer so before we head to the dragon bridge for the fire show there is apparently a big night market right next to it alongside the bridge so we're going to go there and check it out because we've got a little bit of time to spare before the show what is this this is a night market it's absolutely ginormous there's pretty much everything you could possibly imagine there to be in a southeast asian night market here we're good for ice cream for the moment my friend thank you hello oh the people are so friendly more ice cream maybe later maybe later got a load of handbags here they're definitely real what did you just say as someone let one rip can you smell it i can smell something in a confined space like this there are a lot of intense smells and then sadly that is one of them right now it's gone already now but that was quite intense it's also very very hot and at the other end there's some type of concert going on as well as a draft beer place kind of wish we came to the space a little bit earlier not gonna lie it's really fun but if you don't like cramped spaces intense humidity and potentially other people's maybe this place isn't for you oh wait it's not flatulence it's just durian so this is my first purchase of the night i bought some sunglasses they were 130 000 so pretty good value a lot of them had like the fake designer logos on them and these ones are plain which is what i wanted so i'm super happy with these so i have been tempted and subsequently swayed to purchase this man's ice cream here yeah bro he has assured me in his perfect english that it is 100 plant based but i don't know he might just be trying to make a sale we'll find out in a couple of hours though i never thought my first time trying ice cream rolls would be in vietnam so i've got lychee mint and i've got oreos you could see he crushed them oreos right up and he made a little heart out of the chocolate sauce which was cute cheers oh my god that's really good you can taste the coconut in it there is definitely coconut milk the mint is not overpowering they've got more lychee coming through so it's really sweet oh this is no longer an ice cream roll it is now just ice cream but really good ice cream at that i recommend the oreo oh i've got chest freeze i didn't even know that was possible so we're now standing right on the river next to the dragon's head and supposedly that's where all the fire comes out of during the show we do also have the option of sitting in a restaurant just opposite us on the other side of the road you have to buy a drink for that which we don't mind but at the same time look at this view behind us on the riverfront it looks insane and you're not going to get that sat over there yeah this feels so much better because there's a huge space here and you've got the river right there and an amazing view and also you can actually see the dragon way better than you can from over there on that corner i tell you what though if there isn't a fire show tonight there's going to be a lot of disappointed people we are not the only ones here as you can imagine and if there is a show the ones standing on the bridge itself are going to get a little bit of a surprise if they okay it's 8 59 and it's about to start because the music at the bar has gone off oh there we go wow you can feel the heat all the way over here but is that literally it though is it just going to intermittently blow fire out of its mouth that was pretty cool though i felt that heat all the way from down here yeah like we needed any more heat it's so hot all the boats have gathered up along the river along the bridge oh oh it's starting again oh it must be so hot for them up there that is the most surreal thing to have on a bridge it's a pretty cool bridge okay so it's turned from a fire-breathing dragon into a water-breathing dragon now everyone on the bridge is getting absolutely soaked well the reviews were kind of half right on that because it was really unique and kind of cool but after three minutes you kind of saw everything you needed to see and there was no music i actually really enjoyed that i think that was really cool and i'm glad that we saw it as well it was the most unique bridge we've ever seen that's true it's probably not something you come out of your way for but if you are here on a friday saturday or sunday night come down here and check it out definitely come and check it out it's a really cool atmosphere as well all these people here and the amount of water that comes out of that dragon's mouth is crazy the people up there would have got soaked so thank you guys so much for joining us on this day in danang we hope you enjoyed it just as much as we did and also youtube thinks you're going to love this video right here so make sure you give it a click and we'll see you over there okay bye