We Made It to Country Number Two (Hanoi, Vietnam).

First steps in Vietnam. Let's go. One, two, three. Is it showers? Showers. Let's see if we make it. It is, it is tight. I will say. What'd you get for your very first purchase in Vietnam? Patagonia bag. Pat, pat, pat, pat, pat. Our first stop on the way to Vietnam is back to Bangkok. We were like running through the airport trying to make it on time. Then it said delay, so then we went to a lounge. This man and his ability to find a lounge anywhere at any point in time. Just hung out at the lounge. Then we were like, okay, we're technically supposed to be leaving about now, but they still haven't, it still says delayed, so we're just gonna go check. Almost missed our flight. We'll see if we make it. When Max saw the line behind us, he audibly sighed in relief. Yeah, I was excited to see a line of people trying to get on the plane. He was getting stressed. I was stressed. Oh, we passed it. We were row 35, but it starts at row 30, so I blazed on past basically the back of the plane, and then realized we were like five rows from the front, and now we're stuck. But turns out no one was on the plane yet, so we weren't actually late. Nope, but now we're just fighting with the crowd. It's very confusing. After a bit of swimming upstream, we are finally on our way to Vietnam. So we made it. Shut up. Shelby's just learning. Shelby's learning about dual capture, so that's fun. But we made it to Bangkok. Well, no. We'll see. So we made it to Bangkok, and we're in this terminal, and now we're just looking for a lounge before our next flight to… Not one. Not two. But three lounges that we can get into in this one terminal. Not in the entire airport. Just in the terminal. This is what it looks like. We should be quiet. Is it showers? It's showers. I was like, is it a sleep room? And I don't know. This is crazy. Neither of us have airline status, but we do have a credit card that gives us access to Priority Pass, which is a network of lounges all across the world, and it has been a game changer, getting us free food, comfy chairs, fast Wi-Fi, getting us ready for our next flight. And in Bangkok, there was even a place that gave out free massages, and it was amazing. We're getting on a bus to go to our airplane. Oh, Bangkok. If you are human, I am ready to say goodbye. I want to clarify my earlier comment. I am ready to say goodbye to the humidity of Bangkok, not to Thailand. Thailand is wonderful. It's been so fun. I think it's been a great starting point to get our feet underneath us for this journey, and now I'm super excited to hit country number two. Vietnam. After saying goodbye to Thailand, we made it to country number two, Vietnam. First steps in Vietnam. Let's go. One, two, three. We made it. Hey, look, Ma, I made it. Country number two. We are about to see our hotel for our first night in Vietnam. We've been in Hanoi for like two hours at this point, and we passed all these beautiful parks and lakes, and people were dancing in the park and playing soccer, so it's a great Saturday night in Hanoi. Let's see where we're staying. Oh. That is like right there. Is there a bathroom? I was like, I hope there's a bathroom around this door. That's a big bed. It is close to the entire room. It is. It is tight, I will say. It will be a very cozy one-night stay. We're going to have one jam-packed day in Hanoi, which is the biggest city in the North and the capital of Vietnam. So join us today as we go see a mausoleum, a museum, the very exciting Train Street, and more. So today we're at Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum that you can see behind me. He was the first revolutionary and president of North Vietnam, and in 1945 was the spot where they read their Declaration of Independence. Today we are exploring the Vietnamese national landmark, Văn Mưu Quốc Thứ Kiếm. I probably butchered that. But I think this is a really cool spot. It's called the Temple of Literature, which I love that name. And this is the oldest university in Vietnam. It was originally created in 1070 A.D. and was kind of built for Confucius. But this is the oldest university in Vietnam, has a really ancient history, and it's actually way bigger than we expected. There's like five different spots, and apparently it is the place to come for photo shoots. I mean, it is like professional photo shoots happening here. So we're going to explore and see what it's about. The Temple of Literature is beautiful, it's super cool, very ancient vibes feeling. But I thought we had to be more inspired to learn and grow, and instead I was inspired to hire a really fancy photographer and do like a professional photo shoot, because that seems to be the thing to do here. So either you're a tourist, or you're getting like photographed for a magazine. So this is the place to come for that. One of our stops here today is Ha Lo Prison in Hanoi. And this prison was originally created by the French during the period of colonization, and was used to imprison Vietnamese revolutionaries. But then later, during the Vietnam War, it was used for American prisoners of war. So we're going to go and learn about the history of this place. It was fascinating to see two very different narratives written about the prison under French versus Vietnamese control. The French colonists were portrayed as unforgivable, while the Vietnamese soldiers who operated the prison during the Vietnam War were praised as national heroes. However, unmentionable horrors were committed during both rules. Ironically, American POWs nicknamed the prison Hanoi Hilton. But today it remains a sobering reminder of the cruelty of war, and helped us better understand Vietnamese history and culture. Hanoi has one street unlike anywhere else in the world, where you can sip your coffee inches from a moving train and feel your table shake as it rumbles by. Unfortunately, a train didn't come through while we were here, which is a real bummer. We tried so hard to find the train times, but they're unpublished and kind of random to help control crowds and maximize tourism. We still enjoyed a meal sitting by the train tracks and getting to explore such a unique spot in the world. And we've made it to Ho Quang Kiem Lake, which is a big lake near the Old Quarter in Hanoi. So it's super popular. And we had to Google what in the world was going on. You got a bug on your face? I don't know. Because if you look around the shore, the entire lake is crowded with girls in these beautiful traditional dresses, super makeup and hair, everything looking fabulous, and tons of photographers everywhere. So we Googled what's going on. We're about two weeks before Tet, so people are doing traditional photo shoots, like welcome in the spring. So they wear traditional Vietnamese dresses that are very colorful. They're red, they're yellow, they're pink. It brings good luck to the New Year. I think it's just Tet in full prep mode. So it's like an explosion of New Year decorations and stalls and everything that people can buy for Tet. And you can see it's 2026 is the year of the horse. So there are all these little horse decorations going on, which are super cute. Every time I see a Gore-Tex symbol on anything, I'm just like, I'm off to the flame. I want it. I really want it. Today we're getting to get some work done at a Starbucks reserve, and maybe a little adventuring along the way. I did not expect to walk into a coffee shop in Hanoi and hear this. Little Tyler Childers start the day. What'd you get for your very first purchase in Vietnam? Patagonia bag! It's a very legit Patagonia bag. For sure. For like, what, $10 or something like that? Uh, $200,000? No, I think it's like a dollar. Or no, no, no. It's $10. $8. It's like $8. Yeah. Now Max is a part of the fanny crew! $7.72. There you go. This is Banh Xeo, which we have a beautiful, lovely how-to-eat guide over here, so that makes me feel much more confident how to eat this. It has chicken. And then we got these fried rice patties, and they have this like little sriracha sauce. It is so good. It's like a spicy, sweet dessert. But here we're going to wrap them in rice paper, put the veggies, and then put a piece of pancake, and then you wrap it all together and dip it in fish sauce. So we're gonna give it a go. I took my rice paper, I added my greens, and now I'm gonna add a piece of pancake. And then you wrap it all together in the rice paper, and you dip it in fish sauce, which if you know me, I'm not a seafood gal, so I don't really like fish sauce, but we're gonna do it because that's what they say you should do. So I'm gonna trust them. Bon appetit. The rice paper was gonna stick to the top of my mouth, but there's a lot of flavors going on, but really good. It's like you can taste pancake-y, you can taste mint. The rice paper gives it kind of a weird texture, but the flavor is really good. That's a wrap on our first city in Vietnam, but there's so much more ahead. Check back next week for our most exciting adventure yet, three days motorbiking through northern Vietnam. Vietnamese... what are they called? President... crap. Yeah.