Arriving in Vietnam! Hanoi Old Quarter - Walking Tour, Street Food Tour & AMAZING Vietnamese Coffee

Hello everyone! We made it to our next destination here in Southeast Asia, Vietnam. Our first stop is Hanoi, which we have been looking forward to visiting. Hanoi, the capital and arguably the most vibrant city in the country, is the perfect gateway to start your Vietnam trip. The city blends Southeast Asian, French and Chinese influences with the Old Quarter at its heart. This bustling district, filled with narrow winding streets, is a haven for street food lovers and those wanting to experience authentic Vietnamese life. In today's video, we will take you along on a walking tour of the Old Quarter, which is our favorite part of Hanoi and a place that can easily captivate you for days. Beyond the historic charm and colonial architecture, coffee lovers will enjoy Hanoi's cozy cafes. Most of the city is best explored on foot, letting you fully soak in the atmosphere. We arrived in Hanoi from Vientiane Laos by plane. Getting to the city center is easy and affordable with bus 86, which costs just around 45,000 dong. We chose a place close to the Old Quarter and Hoan Kiem Lake, perfect for exploring all the central attractions by foot. There are many beautiful boutique hotels around here, offering great quality at affordable prices. So we just arrived in the new country, which is Vietnam. We're in Hanoi and this is our room. We got a free upgrade. It's a junior suite. It's way bigger because, yeah, we were thinking, oh, it's gonna be like a city-size hotel. But look at this. So it's already evening, but you can't really see much. But it's typical for Vietnam, supposedly, that the balconies are full of ACs, so you can't really use them. And there's like see-through glass through the shower. But you think like modern that you have a window in here. Yeah. So this is our bathroom, really beautiful, like stone. After checking in late, we still went outside to roam the streets, checked local stores for some snacks and ordered our first bowl of pure heaven pho bo with quai, which are breadsticks traditionally eaten with the soup and along with some local tea. We love trying side street stalls like these, filled with locals to truly get a sense of the city's atmosphere. So we're officially in Vietnam right now. We arrived yesterday by plane, which we took from Vientiane. And so far, it's been a blast. It's such a difference. You're like really in a million people city, I guess. Yeah, it's so not overwhelming, but there's so much to look at. We're super excited. Yeah. There's so many cafes, cute little places to eat. I don't know where to look first, obviously. So many beautiful... And we're starting exploring right now. Yeah, we're starting our day. So we already had our breakfast at a cute little cafe, Am Cafe. And we had our first Vietnamese coffee, which was amazing. And Moritz had his first banh mi right away. Super delicious. I know what I'm going to have for breakfast from now on. So it's super busy and loud here, so we're going to get going. But we ended up in a group full of Chinese tourists. As you can tell, we're like here at the cathedral right now. And we're doing like a little bit of a walking tour from the Lonely Planet, which we saw. Just to explore the old quarter a bit. And we love it already. The little alleys, little nooks and everything. Everything is so photogenic. It's insane. Like the combination of like the greenery, the trees, the architecture, everything. The noises. Lanterns, flags. And then you have these city vibe streets. But then in the middle, you have these trees, these lush trees. It's all fun. Okay, so we're going to get going now. Our walking tour of the old quarter started at the square in front of St. Joseph's Cathedral. This place is filled with cozy cafes, like the popular Kong Café. And some nice cocktail bars for in the evening. From there, we headed north, where the streets are packed with souvenir shops. You can find everything here from beautiful ceramics to art and textiles. Like t-shirts with the Vietnamese flag on it or Hanoi. We could easily fill our suitcases with all the decorations that you can find here. Of course, we also went on the hunt for the perfect fridge magnet, our go-to souvenir. And you can never have too many magnets. This whole area is buzzling with vibrant colors. The buildings are unique, often decorated with lanterns and bold signs. The streets are full of scooters, making it a challenge to cross. And you'll see red cyclos pulling tourists, people with conical hats carrying fruit baskets, and many vendors lining the streets. This was exactly how we imagined Vietnam would be like. As there is so much to take in, we spent the first two hours just wandering around this part of the Old Quarter to get a feel for it before heading towards Hoan Kiem Lake. On the way, we passed by this square, which is often called the Times Square of Hanoi. At night, it becomes pedestrian-friendly, filled with casual eats and street vendors selling snacks. We walked towards the Nhop Son Temple. This temple is located on an island in the middle of the lake, accessible by a bridge. The name means Temple of the Jade Mountain, and it's Hanoi's most visited temple, which you can see here. It is built in classical Vietnamese style, and it's dedicated to General Trang Hung Dao, who defeated the Mongols in the 13th century. She wants to take pictures of her. See, she's posing. Make sure to keep your eyes open for another side in the middle of Hoan Kiem Lake, namely the Turtle Tower, one of the most iconic and symbolic structures in Hanoi and is often seen as the emblem of the city. On the other side of the street, you can see the Martyrs' Monument, depicting a woman and two men holding a sword, gun, and torch, symbolizing the struggle for Vietnamese independence. From here, we headed north again, where the area is filled with even more shops and local handicraft stores. Several heritage houses are located here, as well as the Bach Ma Temple. Most notably, you can find the infamous Da Hien Corner here, or Hanoi Beer Street. It comes alive at night when the street is packed with people enjoying a refreshing Bia Hoi, Vietnamese very own draught beer. So, we're in the heart of Hanoi, of the Old Quarter. It's super hectic. It's crazy. The bikes come from everywhere. Like, crossing a street is quite an endeavor. We just had lunch, and it was amazing. We had... I had my first Banh Mi, second for morning. It was delicious with a Kung Pao drink. And we're just doing a tour now of the Old Quarter. So, tonight, we're looking forward to a street food tour. So, come on. We definitely got our steps in on our first day in Hanoi. We also decided to still walk through the Dong Xuan Market, a large non-touristy market in the northern part of the Old Quarter. There are hundreds of stalls here selling all kinds of household items. It's a fascinating place to explore if you want to get a taste of local Hanoi life. The area around the market is also filled with shopping streets, each dedicated to certain items. For example, we saw one street fully lined with blacksmiths, and another one with herb merchants. It was time to take a break from all the walking, so we went for a well-deserved coffee break. We found our way to Loading Tea Cafe, located on the second floor of a charming French colonial house that looks a bit abandoned at first glance. We came here to try Hanoi's famous egg coffee, and let me tell you, it didn't disappoint. We got addicted right away and had to order a second one. Egg coffee is a blend of egg yolks, condensed milk, and robusta coffee. At first, it reminded us a little bit of tiramisu, so very sweet, and we definitely recommend trying this one when you're in Hanoi. Yesterday was our first day, which was amazing, hectic, a lot of impressions, but we had such a fulfilling day. We ended it with a street food tour of Hanoi, which we were really looking forward to, and we can really recommend it. Our guide, Ming, was absolutely amazing. He took us to several places to try several dishes that we probably wouldn't have picked ourselves, but they were really delicious. First up, we passed by this Pho place, or how do you pronounce it? Yeah, that's actually an important part, because they also have tones, like in Chinese language, and so depending on how you pronounce Pho, it could all mean the soup noodle, or the noodle, street, or prostitute. So depending how you pronounce it, you order something of those things. But the first dish was amazing, just like a dry, more dry with soy sauce kind of noodle with chicken as a second part. Then we moved on to a more popular place, also like amongst locals, where you can try out the summer rolls, he called it. So it's like spring rolls, but super fresh, all fresh ingredients. So you put in like a little paper, all different ingredients from kinds of salad, then a pork, the green mango. So you put all kinds of ingredients in there, and then roll it together and dip it in the sauce, and it was so yummy. After that, we moved along to something really in an alley. So he took us in a really dark alley, and then we ended up in this little street corner. And he said it's a really unique place, because the woman that cooks there actually comes originally from the south. So she makes her noodles according to the southern way. And then she incorporated ingredients from the north. So it's like a fusion of both north and south cuisine. So you'll only find it there. And it's actually with fish. So all kinds of herbs, the noodles, and then a cracker kind of fish from every part, almost from the fish. It was amazing, blew our minds. And as well as something fried. So it's something we would never pick ourselves. It was really yummy. And after that, of course, we got also a traditional banh mi, which was really good. And then the last two things were a more dessert kind. So we had the egg coffee, which we already had during the day. But he took us to the original one, Café Tiang, it is. The inventor. Yeah, from the inventor of actually the egg coffee. Do you know why? So basically, he ran out of milk during the war with France. And instead of like using milk or fresh milk, which they didn't have on hand, they were using eggs. So the egg yolk. And apparently I had to whisk it hard with chopsticks. This wraps up our first day in Hanoi, filled with many impressions and a lot to take in. Hanoi is definitely one of the most buzzling cities we've visited so far. Thank you so much for watching and we'll see you in our next video, where we will show you the best things to do in Hanoi.