First Time in Vietnam (We Didn't Expect It To Be Like This)

Hey everyone and welcome back to the incredible country that is Vietnam. This week we are in the cultural destination of Hoi An, the ancient city of the lanterns. Every place you visit here holds within it both a rich history and stunning natural beauty. There's so much you can learn here about the food, about their way of life and all their traditions. What are you doing? I am going to water the garden. We are so happy we get to bring our kids here and you along for the experience. Are you ready to dive in? Hey everybody and welcome back to Vietnam. This is part two and we've just arrived in a brand new area for us. We are currently in Ninh Binh. It is absolutely beautiful. I guess we've left the hustle and bustle of Hanoi. We've driven around three hours and we've just arrived to the most beautiful countryside area of Vietnam. It is so quiet, so peaceful, no more traffic and we are surrounded by these beautiful limestone like mountains all around us. It leads to a magical cave. We've now come out on the river and this spot is going to take us along the water and into a cave. I think the cave is full of water so you can take a boat through the cave. I've heard there's bats. We're actually a little bit outside of Ninh Binh. We are slowly making our way there and that's where we're going to stay for the next couple of nights. So we're out in an area called Phong Nam which is way quieter than inside and I can see why. It's just a little farmland and it's really beautiful seeing all these like cast limestone hills all around us and it must get a lot of rain here because it is so green and beautiful out here but it's such a nice way to start our kind of trip here. It's quiet on the river. We have a gentleman that is pretty much taking us on a rowboat. He's doing everything himself. Surprisingly going very quick but I see we are just pulling up to the caves now. We are here daddy. We're here? Should we hop off here? And if you guys were interested we're actually here in Vietnam with our good friend Iris's company called Your Travel Nation. She's showing us around Vietnam. If you saw our Tanzania series, our Nepal series, she has some incredible spots for us to see. If you guys are interested in doing the exact kind of trip we're doing here with our family, you just mention our name to Iris and she'll give you 10% off. Let's keep exploring this magical cave. He said mummy gets to be the light queen and guess who's to be the light princess? You! Is it too dark in the cave? Well guess what mummy's got her light. Oh it is so nice you can feel the cold air coming. They've turned the air con on in the cave. All right let's go guys. Good job. Nice and slow. Walk around. Did you see that? What did you see? What? Yeah because we're in his home. Whoa. Good job Mr. Light Man. Okay so this cave is like full of water and it's like the best way to explore it and we've heard that there is a family of bats down in here. So Koi you have to find the bats okay? Okay. Oh my gosh look how big that stalactite is. Wow that looks so cool. That is huge. A bat. Did you see one? Let me see. Wow. Hey there's water dripped on my hair. Did it? Oh bats, bats. On the floor there's one. Oh where? Oh there. They're all flying in here. So many. Oh my goodness. That was crazy. Yeah it was. I like them. You like them? I like them They're very cute. Oh there. Oh here they all are again. They're too many. They're above your head. Oh my gosh. There are thousands and thousands of bats. You guys are naughty waking up all the bats. What? We just want you to have scared. Thanks guys. Or scared nightmares. So after the caves, after the boats, we drove into town and we've just checked into our hotel. It is absolutely beautiful. Oh fresh cold tea. Oh nice. Here we go. Cheers. I feel like I'm starting this little room tour at the best spot. We have a balcony and look at the view. We're in this little town and surrounding the town are just all these limestone mountains. It is so beautiful. I love this town. It just feels so like authentic and raw and I guess just less touristy. Yeah. You know it feels more authentic Vietnamese. So lovely but look at this and we've already scouted out that there is a big big pool but should kind of have a look inside. It is so beautiful like the tiles on the floor. We saw downstairs there was all these ladies as well embroidering and have you noticed all the artwork? Yeah. It's got like embroidered artwork everywhere and they've got like a little gift store and you can buy all the embroidery art which is so nice. Yeah this was where we were staying for two nights. You need to see the bathtub. I feel like that was the kids' favorite bit. Okay so we were going to go out to eat and then we thought what place in Ninh Binh is going to be a restaurant with a view of this and I said well our bedroom. Our bedroom is where there will be a restaurant with a view like this. So we thought tonight we also can hear a storm rolling in. This hotel we can actually hire free bikes and so we're going to go for like a little afternoon bike ride and we kept hearing thunder and lightning so we were like let's do that tomorrow and now we have an excuse to come and eat some yummy spring rolls, noodles, fried rice and enjoy this view. Powered rice and chips. Never forget the chips guys. Good morning everyone. I feel like when you come to Ninh Binh this is the thing to do. We just hopped out of our hotel and saw more boats and we heard this area that we're in is called Tam Kok which literally means three caves and the way to explore those caves is to come on a boat and we thought oh let's just go out on a boat again. So we're out just the beauty of this area seeing it from the water is so beautiful and if you come to Tam Kok and do this exact boat ride it's called the Tam Kok boat ride and you come during the time I think it's between March and May is when all the rice fields are filled with like green rice lining this river. She's paddling with her feet. We've noticed everyone out here instead of using their hands to row they use their feet and it makes sense because wouldn't your legs be stronger if you're paddling out every day right? It's very impressive. They've got skill don't they? Is it cool? He's just on his phone rolling his feet. So we did a short walk this morning from our hotel and it almost looks like they built this like mini Venice here. I think it could be a resort, Emeralda resort which is right on the river but here on our little boat journey this morning goes for about an hour and a half and there are so many different spots we're going to see on the way. So we're going to hit multiple caves. The first one is Hung Ka which is the longest cave on our route. It's going to be about 127 meters. It's really cool because we're essentially going to be going down this river and they're all going to connect into multiple different caves. It's really cool. We're just going through little areas and there's cafes with little pull-up stations. I wonder if we could just like stop grab a drink and continue on. Okay I know we're here on a nature mission but I'm also kind of on a cafe mission. See everyone just relaxing here on their chairs. It looks so relaxing. Look just advertising, just pull up, grab something from the fridge. I can see just in front of us there is a dragon temple right at the top and I believe you can do a hike up there and it overlooks us. It looks very cool. I'm sure you get a beautiful bird's eye view of the valley from that hike. Alrighty we're about to head into our first cave and this is going to be the longest cave on our little journey today. So nice and cool in here. What are they called when they come from the ceiling of a cave? Stalactites. And what's it called when they come from the bottom? Stalagmites. Good job. And then I'm pretty sure I couldn't remember but when a stalactite and a stalagmite join. Is that a column? Yes it's a column. But they're very beautiful in here. Wow so right now it's the season of the lotus flower and we've just come to this area where it's like a field of lotus flowers, the big lily pads and they've built like a walkway all through it. With this scenery it is so beautiful. This is incredible look at that. So we've hopped off the boat and come out to the lotus like fields or lotus ponds if you want to call it. It is incredible you can just see all of this all in my camera is lotus leaves and lotus flowers. So if you guys were wondering how they make lotus tea. So if you have a look here here is the lotus flower just here of course it's middle of the day it is opening all its leaves to try and get as much sunlight as possible. So just before sunset they actually put green tea inside on this like little hard bit just here and then it will close overnight because of course it's resting no sun to get and then all the like flavor and smells will kind of seep into the green tea and then in the morning when the sun's out the petals open up to capture more sunlight and that's when they'll come and get the tea and that's how you get the lotus tea which is fascinating didn't know that at all. Okay this is a little bit fun we've just been picked up in kind of what the taxis look like here in Hoi An. I'm gonna go out to go make lanterns. Colors you can choose from guys. Thank you. Is this so cool? Oh no for some reason my microphone decided to stop working during this moment but the kids had an absolute blast making the lanterns. It was a really cool experience the lady essentially had the lantern there for us and we got to completely customize it. We got to pick what material we wanted and then essentially we put the rest together which really made you appreciate just how much effort goes into making these lanterns and honestly I thought it was just one material that was placed perfectly on there but it was multiple materials that were super glued. I don't even know what super glue she was using but super glued right onto the like wood that made the layout and then you just did like four different pieces of material and the kind of cool thing was that afterwards we cut these like little pieces around it to neaten it up and we were super happy with how it turned out. It looked like we just bought it straight from the shop. Did you want to start an online business but don't want to spend weeks hours and thousands of dollars designing your own store? So let me introduce you to Build Your Store. 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They have a good mixture of western and not even just eastern flavors, they have specific flavors here in Vietnam. From starting your morning with like a delicious, strong, very sweet iced Vietnamese coffee. We don't have Nutella at home so when we travel the one thing Hunter is pumped for is Nutella. Fresh omelette section. Oh yum! And on top of like all your eggs, bacon, everything you can get, fresh fruit. They also even have like a barney station, they have a fast station all made fresh for you guys so you can just be as venturous as you want or stick with your favorites. Oh my goodness, they have fresh iced Vietnamese coffee at breakfast. It is so good, are you kidding? Oh my gosh, the coffee here in Vietnam is so good. It's so sweet like just this little cup is going to get me through the day. And you're gonna go for seconds. Yeah, I'm definitely going for seconds. The top pool is the best because it's shallow. The worst thing about that pool is you try to fall down. Oh yeah. There is an edge to the to the shallow pool so the rule is koa don't go near the edge but to be honest if you did fall over the edge there's a pool underneath but uh it is a very good pool and the cabanas it's nine Aussie dollars to use the cabana for the day but it was kind of worth it because then we could sit next to where the kids swim you can have a little button and you press it and you can order drinks you can order food this is quite a nice treat wasn't it? We did that yesterday. I mean I don't think there's many pools at a hotel in the world that you can pay nine dollars for a cabana so you can live it up live it up in Vietnam. So guys we just headed out about 45 minutes from Hoi An to the rural villages. Our guide was saying no tourists come here and we just come to check out a little farm to see what the life here in Vietnam is for millions of people. You can see what the house looks like guys. Oh my goodness look it's hungry. So they have a piggy in their bathroom. Oh my gosh so Hunter when it gets really wet in their house it floods up to here and this whole place is full of water. And piggy just swims. Does that happen every year? Sometimes lower, sometimes higher. Wow and the pig just swims? Yeah. The pig just swims? There's baby fish? Oh my goodness they're like albino fish. Oh they're pretty white fish. What do you do with the fish? We have fun. Oh so it's like your pet? Yeah. So these are like pet fish. Do you want to feed them Hunter? He's got some food. How special is this? It feels so authentic here. We've met everyone in the family, mum, dad, auntie, kids, new baby, sister-in-law, baby and they're showing us around their home, their way of life. They've showed us here into their home. They've showed us what they do when there's a flood. There's flooding here every year. Can you just imagine living that way? I know and he's just casually, oh the pig swims now. Yeah the pig swims and the cows go up into the top of the house but they've got like this beautiful vegetable garden where they grow all their food. They've lent us their special hats. They've just showed Hunter how to cut the sugar cane and they're gonna make a sugar cane juice but it is the most beautiful peaceful village. Oh there's her sugar cane. It's big. And I will say this constantly but we do live, even though there's a lot going on in the world, we do live in quite possibly the best timeline. If you came here 60 years ago this was a battlefield. There was an American base, Vietnamese, wasn't good. It wasn't until end of the 70s that people kind of came back here and started living here. Now it's turned into this beautiful little village and it was fascinating. We're talking to the gentleman, the eldest here. He made us some tea and his name essentially translates to seven because when he was born the education system just wasn't around as much. They were explaining to us that these parents didn't have the knowledge to make up beautiful Vietnamese names. So essentially he was the seventh kid born and he married. His wife translates to the six kids. So six married seven and now they have this beautiful house. Hunter's pulling out all the coriander. We're gonna have the lunch today from the garden. Oh that's cool. And Koa's got a big stick. Hunter do you think we need to get a bigger garden for our home? Yeah. This is a good one. Wow that's so crazy. This is sweet potato and all they have to do is cut the sweet potato leaves off here and then we just got the dirt ready and then you just put these in the ground and this is how sweet potato then starts growing. You're learning all the tips. I'm gonna have an amazing garden at home now. We bury it Oh right hand here. Oh oh okay. Should I go top up? Yeah you gotta water what we just planted dad. Swing yeah. Swing okay. You better watch out Koa bee. He might get you. So we just saw him roasting these. They're all so warm still. So you crack it open and then look Hunter inside is a peanut. So we have now hopped on some bikes and we're gonna go and explore the village. Go see some of the rice terraces. I just totally forgot that when you have two kids and they're siblings that your lovely stroll becomes a competition. We're going faster. Oh what a beautiful way to see the village. Oh it's hot in here. Yeah so this is the rice and they're drying it. Yeah dry bamboo corn. Oh look at the rice. Oh my gosh that's just how they store it all. Right so we've just stopped off at like the local almost like noodle house, the noodle factory. So she makes all the rice noodles for the neighbors, for the restaurants, for the local markets. She always makes it here in her house. It's like a big hot pan. Oh good job Hunter. And they use the dried out sugar cane to keep the fire going. Oh look see. Oh my gosh it's so hot. Yeah too cool. Good? Okay quickly quickly. That's pretty good. That is hot. Yeah and then put it here. Yeah. Okay in the middle. And then you rub around in a circle. She went so quick. It's so hard. Oh my gosh I can't do it. We've just come to a local wood carver's house and the amazing wood carving that they do here is incredible. And what's really cool is they have a little station set up where we can come, we can carve our own little wood creation. Hunter's made a lotus flower and she's currently painting it with paint pens. Steve's made a fish. Look at you go Steve. You haven't even had any help. I got my new profession. Hunter that looks so cute. Looks so good. Okay we've come back to the house and we're just out in the garden cooking and we're making Vietnamese pancakes. I've got the peanut oil and I've got the rice powder and turmeric and an egg. Yeah. These are like one of our favorite dishes here in Vietnam. All right so mushroom, that's an onion and bean sprouts on top. Let's see. Now I'm gonna flip it. It's so simple and so yum. Flip it? Yeah. Take it out? Okay here we go. It falls on the floor. This is Steve's. Yeah I'm a pro. Okay pop it down. Yeah. I just love this house so much. People are so friendly. I just love how like they live so much outside. You know like the kitchen's outside. They're all cooking out here. They sit outside to eat. It's really nice. I love if you're coming to There's one food to try. I recommend the Vietnam pancakes and also which is interesting is today is the lunar day which is the 14th of every month. It's like the full moon and on this day a lot of people here especially in the village are Buddhists so they eat vegan on that day. So these are a vegan lunch today. Wait a minute. Who got these veggies? Where are these from? Did you get them from the garden today? Thanks Hunter. And then we roll it and I'm gonna eat. I'm gonna eat paper. I'm gonna say it's so good because everything's from the garden. It's so good. So fresh. It's like my favorite meal here. I love it. It's like crunchy, full of flavor and the sauce is so good. Nothing hit harder than being in Vietnam. Having your Vietnamese iced coffee and being in Nepal. It is like the instant reset. We've just been out all day sweating up a storm. This is so good. You instantly forget how hot it is with this combo. All right this afternoon we've come down at sunset into the Hoi An like ancient town and it's so beautiful at night. They don't let any cars come in. No scooters. It's just cycling and walking which is so lovely because it's so much more peaceful and quiet than when you go like just out there. It is nuts with all the scooters. They're like just lines with shops all these lanterns and we're making our way down to the water because every night one of the special things to do here is you come you get a special like water lantern and they light it and you go on a boat and then you can release it and make wishes into the water. So I feel like that'll be so fun with the kids. I like how he's got it on his head. Thank you. You see one of the lanterns floating? Oh my goodness. Do you remember last time we came here that there was this many people? I don't remember this many people. It is so busy. Ready? And it's going in the water. I know you need to make a wish. What did you wish for? For a butterfly. Oh that's a nice wish. I definitely have to say back in 2019 when we did this I feel like it was just so quiet and like a peaceful moment. Look how busy this is. It's crazy filled with boats. Now I'm ready for a boat ride. How beautiful is this? We've just come into these really unique round boats that they have here in Hoi An and we're going through the coconut groves. They've got these beautiful like almost palms growing and then there's like a little alleyway that you can row down but it looks absolutely beautiful. The boats are so colourful. Hunter's little hat is very colourful. Yeah what a way to start the day. I feel like this is like an iconic thing to do here in Hoi An. Oh my gosh we're going in through the grove. Oh my gosh we're going in. We're going in. Pretty beautiful though isn't it guys? So you see these on the on the trees those are the coconuts but it looks I've never seen a coconut like that before but he said there's coconut water inside you can drink it but the kids have been given fishing rods and I think there must be crabs that live like on the bottoms of the trees and they're trying to catch them. This is kind of cool these coconut groves they were planted about 200 years ago and they were very vital during the Vietnam war as this was almost like a waterway a lot of refugees could hide. The reason that they have these coconut boats is because of tax purposes. They were smaller so you didn't have to pay tax on them where the larger kind of vessels had a huge tax on them. So a lot of times they'd use it for crab fishing as we are doing right now and of course it's just a really fun way to get around. He looks like a spinner. Cola really wants dad to spin and for dad to fall out. Say go spin extra hard. That's so fast. There we go. Straight after we did a family cooking class where we all got hands-on with some of our favorite dishes that we've been enjoying and eating over the week here in Vietnam. Honestly just seeing Cole get involved always brings a smile to our face plus how could you go wrong when the class ends in literal flames. Good morning everyone. Today is our last day here in Hoi An and I feel like I found the perfect place to take the kids. There is an area around here called the pottery village. Every kid loves pottery so we're going to go out there. I think you get to like see how people make pottery. You get to make pottery yourself. They sell all this beautiful pottery for these ceramics and again you're using these amazing electric little buggies that take you around the town. This is like our favorite way to get around in Hanoi with the fam. I think we've definitely made it to the pottery town if the kids can stand in a gigantic pottery vase. How cool guys. Oh here's the world's flower blue. How would we take this home though? Can we put it in your backpack? When we arrived you have to pay to get in. We paid, we came in and there are so many pottery places here but we saw this one that's right against the water here and they helped the kids learn how to make different pottery. Hunter made a bowl. Koa made like a little kind of like a little trinket container and they're currently painting it overlooking the water. The kids are loving it. It is so gorgeous. He's loving mixing the colors together. It's making purple. Look at this. It's just house after house after house of pottery. Some of the houses they're just covered in all their bowls, all their plates out in the sun drying. Big kilns where they I guess put their pottery in. I've never been to a village like this before. It's so dedicated over one thing. That looks so good. We can take it home and it's pretty nice that they help the kids make it, paint it, then they wrap it up for them and then they can bring it home. Oh no way. Okay. I see the ducks Hunter. I see the ducks. Hunter has had one goal since coming here to Vietnam and it is to become the duck queen. So we found the ducks for Hunter and she's about to become the duck queen. They have our geese security guards here. Here they are, the geese security. Oh my gosh. What are we doing here? Whose idea was this? Alrighty everybody that comes to the end of our little Vietnam trip and also the end to our little Southeast Asia series here in 2026. I hope you've enjoyed watching us explore all these beautiful countries. We're going to brand new destinations and areas for the rest of the year, but we have loved being here in Vietnam. And if you guys want to come do what we did, of course, our good friend Iris, who runs Your Travel Nation will come and help plan the ultimate Vietnam trip for you guys. I'll leave a link below, but hope you enjoyed this and we'll see you guys in a brand new place next time. See ya.