24 hours in Hanoi Old Quarter: Train Street, Hoan Kiem Lake, Hoa Lo museum, egg coffee & bun cha

Hi, we're Jordana and Grant from Shot in the Dark Travel. Come join us on our epic adventures around Southeast Asia. In this video we finally get out of hospital and we start our adventures in Hanoi, Vietnam. You'll see us welcome our new travel buddies Gary and Janet, Grant's parents. Keep on watching to see why we absolutely love Hanoi Old Quarter. It's day five, Grant's had some more test results and... We're going! What are you doing Grant? I'm packing because we're going. Yay! Like, I could actually cry right now. I'm so happy that we are leaving. So we are now packing. I don't know if we've really... We're going to Vietnam, we're going to Vietnam. Right, Grant's really excited as you can see. No more cannulas, no more blood tests. We are going, no more of these horrific four walls with the weird Minnie and Mickey Mouse and Powerpuff Girls chair and... Oh, I'm so excited. But yeah, so we've kind of... We don't really know what we're going to do because when we've been trying to book flights it's saying like you have to do it within at least six hours and we want to like just go. So we're just gonna go to the airport and see if we can buy the next ticket to Vietnam. Don't know if that's a bad idea or not. So we'll see what happens. But yeah, we just, we don't know. We're basically gonna walk in into the front desk and be like, two tickets to Vietnam, stat. And then they'll give us them. Hopefully. That's the plan, but we'll see if it works. If not, we'll keep saying stat. We'll keep saying stat. But yeah, we'll let you know how that goes. Wish us luck. So guys, we have just been to the ticket office at the airport in Koh Samui. And it went really, really well. Easier than we expected, really. We've got our tickets, literally it's 20 past 11. The flight's at 12. So God knows how we've managed that. But super good. We're hoping to get to Vietnam earlier than we expected. So guys, we have just arrived at our hotel and you are gonna see our secret travel buddies. So we've just got to Hanoi in Vietnam. We've managed to, again, buy another ticket just at the airport when we got to Bangkok. It was a bit stressful, but we got here. So we're now gonna go out and get some food and have a drink and celebrate Grant's recovery. We were so tired from our travels, we went out to eat and I went straight to bed so we could get up bright and early to explore Hanoi Old Quarter. So how much was that grab that you just got? £1.67, bargain. Take one. Hi. Morning, hi. Morning. Right, this is Gary and Janet. As you should know by now. Yes, obviously. Yeah, yeah. And we're with Shot in the Dark Travel. And we're doing the sights of Hanoi today. Yeah. And we're at the Temple of Literature. Yeah, another crazy day in crazy Hanoi. We love it, don't we? We do, it's very nice actually. Yeah, brilliant. So we're gonna wander around now. Yeah. And come with us, guys. Yeah, join us. The Temple of Literature is a Confucian temple built in the year 1070, so it's almost a thousand years old. It was built to promote education and was the first university in the whole of Vietnam. The beautiful small lake just behind is called the Well of Brilliance. What a beautiful name. And on each side of the Well of Brilliance is a row of tortoises, turtles even. And they represent permanence. Beautiful. So we're at the famous train street in Hanoi, which is where the train runs right down the middle of the street. Usually this area here has just got cafes all the way down the left-hand side. There's just hundreds of people sat out drinking coffee and eating. But unfortunately, I think we were told there was an accident. So they've just banned tourists now and all the cafes are closed. The restaurants are closed. There's just no one here, which is such a shame because this was one of the main tourist destinations to come in Hanoi. So pretty gutted about this, but there's nothing we can do. So it's currently raining outside. So we've just popped into a little cafe and got ourselves an egg coffee. So we're going to try it for the first time. I'm just going to show you the weather outside though. It's crazy. So Gary is going to try his first egg coffee. I'm sure the bungee top won't work. You like it? You've got it all over your mouth. It's sweet, it's like a condensed milk. An egg, but it's a bit like egg flake without the alcohol. Okay. And Janet, what are your thoughts? Oh, it's really creamy and gorgeous. Yeah, it's like an egg flake without the alcohol. So for everybody at home wondering what an egg flake is, that is advocat. It's like a creamy alcohol drink. So it's your first drink. What is it? First egg coffee. It's really nice though. You can taste the coffee. It's quite sweet. It's like, it's weird, like sweet, bitter mix. Thumbs up from me. Brilliant. And Jordana, what do you think? I'm going to try it. Yeah. Not usually a coffee drinker, right? It's very coffee-y, very strong. So we're at the Ho'ola Prison Museum, which is in central Norway. And it was built in 1896 by the French colonists. And it was used as a prison for the locals. And then it's had various other stages. I think it was part of, used for prisons of war in the Vietnam War. So yes, we've just got here. We're going to have a look around. What have you got there, Jordy? Panini, just cheese and ham panini. I just wanted something a bit small and a bit bland. Any good? Yeah, really nice. Yeah. Mum, what have you got there? Cheese on toast. Cheese on toast and chips. Any good? Very nice. Nice little view of Boswell in the back here. St Joseph's Cathedral. This is Gary and Janet's room in the Maya Hotel, British Hotel in Hanoi. And we've been here for three nights. It's about 510,000 dong, which is 19 pound an hour. So it's in the budget price range. And so there's no window, which is not the best, but it's OK. It's clean and the air con works really well, which means it's really nice and cool through the night. We've got a bathroom and a nice large shower. So really, it's adequate. But the best feature is its location. Why is that, Gary? Because it's central. It's in the old quarter and everything's just out there, but it's quiet, so it's good on a night. Although, because there's no window, it is dark. We don't know what time it is, so you're sleeping. It's quiet in the room. We can't hear any of the noise outside because outside is very noisy. Yeah, so it's the best location, really. Yeah, so brilliant. Unfortunately, it's fully booked, so we won't be going to the Water Puppet Theatre tonight. And it's our last night, so we're a bit gutted. So I would probably recommend booking in advance. But yeah, we're going to see if we can see it somewhere else in Vietnam. But yeah, a bit disappointed. Hoan Kiem Lake is right in the middle of Hanoi Old Quarter. As well as looking really cool, it's a really significant place in Vietnamese folklore. According to myth, in the year 1418, Ly Loi used a magical sword to fight off the Chinese invaders. He successfully defeated the invaders and returned the sword to the Turtle King that lived in this very lake. What have you got there, Janet? A gorgeous Singapore sling. Is it nice? Lovely. It's taking me back to Singapore. That pulled me to when I had my first Singapore sling. It looks delicious. Right, Dad, so what have you and Mum got? Me and your Mum have got Bun Cha, which is the Hanoi sort of local dish. It's a pork thing. It's a selection of pork meats with vermicelli and some green stuff. Then it is like a broth with vegetables and apparently you mix it all together and it's supposed to be really nice. Someone recommended it to us. It must be right. Yeah, thank you very much. It must be really nice. So you're just mixing it all up there? Mixing it all up now, yeah. A bit of that on there. The vermicelli. My Mum and Dad went out before we got here and they made some friends, which is why they've got this insider info on the local. They've got some recommendations. He can't use his chopsticks. Oh no, he's absolutely fluffed it on camera. The pressure's gone to him. It's too much. Gorgeous. I'll use a spoon. It's pretty slimy. Tastes nice actually, doesn't it? I'm going to stab me what's it. He's stabbing his what's it. Nice that. That minced pork inside a bit of leaf. So Diana, what have you got? So I've got a chicken claypot rice. I don't know the Vietnamese term for it. But I haven't tried it yet so I'm going to try it now. Really good. Thank you. And I've gone for honey barbecue chicken with some rice. So we finished our food now and in total the food came to 670,000 đồng which is pretty cheap for what it was. It's not the cheapest in Vietnam. We've got like quite a touristy spot here. We're sat on the corner overlooking the lake just enjoying watching the hustle and bustle outside. So we knew it wasn't going to be the cheapest food in town but I personally thought it was really nice. What did everyone else think? I thought it was excellent. The bun cha is well worth to be recommended. Fantastic. Yeah, really good traditional Vietnamese food. Good wine and really nice atmosphere looking outside. It was really, really good. Definitely would recommend coming here. So that's a clean sweep. So I think after a bit of sightseeing in Hanoi and a bit of exploring doing some of the touristy stuff and then having some food I think we'll have some drinks and that's the end of our day. And then tomorrow super excited because we don't know how long there. We've got a boat trip booked. Can't wait. It looks amazing. Yeah, because of Grant's little stint in hospital I thought I'm going to book us a five-star cruise and yeah, we need a bit of luxury after that I think. Yeah, you'll find Jordana takes any excuse to shoehorn a bit of luxury into our supposedly budget traveling and she does it well. It's got to be done. If you liked this video please hit those like and subscribe buttons. If you want to see what we get up to on our five-star cruise around Ha Long Bay look out for our next video.