Welcome to Hanoi, Vietnam

This video is sponsored by Saley. Welcome to Vietnam. We've got one-way tickets but we think we're going to be here probably for about two months. Our apartment is 29th floor. That one right there. So I'm going to go and grab a couple of coffees and then I'll give you an apartment tour. Scooter was dropped off yesterday at about 6 p.m but I haven't had a proper chance to go and check that out yet so we'll go and see what that's like. Probably go for a ride into town, grab some food and let's see what Vietnam is all about. We agonized for a bit. Do we stay in the center of Hanoi right in the heart of all of the madness but walking distance to everything? Or do we have a bit more peace and tranquility and stay on the outskirts? And we went for the outskirts here. What you get for a two-week period you save about £150 and you get double the amount of space and so much more tranquility. So this for two weeks £360 which is pretty decent value considering we're in the capital. Two bedrooms, two bathrooms, two balconies. It's really nice isn't it? Yeah this is take a look at that if you suffer from vertigo don't look down but this is what 29th floor looks like. Right in front of us here we're looking directly out of Hanoi here. The center of Hanoi is behind us and you can see this is a nice eco village with lots of greenery and landscaping. And interestingly every video you ever watch about Hanoi or even Vietnam in general almost every video it will either be cloudy or very hazy. This on google maps is what a day with all sun and no cloud looks like. I don't actually think these are clouds this is just a haze. It's quite strange isn't it? But that is a view of the outskirts of Hanoi. Monica will speak every so often but she's been coughing and spluttering somehow. She's picked up a pretty bad cold on the flight which luckily I've been immune to so I'm fine. Kitchen area it's lovely but there's no point cooking because it's actually cheaper eating out in Vietnam than it is buying stuff from a supermarket and that's why. You don't need to see that but even all the stickers are still on the fridge. I don't think anyone has ever done any cooking in the kitchen area. Loads of storage, air conditioning, wi-fi, you name it. Fully loaded. You sound like you sound like an estate agent. Yeah I'm a low level estate agent aren't I? Please check out bathroom number one. Yeah that's my one I'm not allowed in the other one. Bedroom two again this is just where I'm keeping all of my stuff. So much storage here like it's really luxurious level apartment. Main yeah washing machine through there again with a view out. Main bedroom loads of storage same view as before. This can't be more than about three years old or something like that and this is really special. The main bathroom shower unit and behind that you've got a bath with a view. You have to like with this bath exposing yourself because probably you'll be on display of about 200 different apartments but as long as you don't mind that then it's heaven. Yeah but then you get rid of all of the magic. You have to leave it open. So you can hear this can't you? Monica's spluttering away. Okay let's go down because I've just got yesterday evening the keys to the Honda. This video is sponsored by Salee. Salee is an e-sim app providing e-sims for over 200 destinations around the world. Gone are the days when you would get to an airport or a new country and you'd have to figure out where am I going to buy an international sim card from? How much data am I going to have to buy? How on earth am I going to go around topping up this international sim card? And in the meantime where am I going to keep my tiny little nano sim safe? Thanks to Salee those things are all a thing of the past. No more stress, hassle and no more wasted time. Here's how it works and here's how I've set up my Salee app for this trip to Vietnam. Make sure you've got the Salee app installed on your phone. From there install the Salee e-sim. The great thing about Salee is that you only need to install the e-sim once. You don't need to do it for every individual trip and every country you go From there when you get to the airport, Gatwick in my case, I typed in Vietnam and I picked the most data intensive plan because my work needs so much data. I'm always online uploading videos and things like that. Once you've done that jump on the flight, enjoy yourself on the flight and when you land, if you've got an iPhone for example, all you have to do go to mobile services and you just press the button saying Salee e-sim. That's it. One button and the second that you land you're connected like a local and you don't have to worry about any big roaming charges and I found the Salee plan is so good that most of the time it's actually better than Wi-Fi and I end up tethering my laptop to my phone so I can just use the internet with my Salee plan. So if you would like to give Salee a try and I highly recommend it, you can go to for 15% discount salee.com slash freddy. You can also use code freddy at checkout and there should be a QR code popping up around here. Thank you Salee for sponsoring the video. There's always excitement levels when it's new bike day. So the person came to drop off the bike yesterday at about 12 o'clock midday and they said to me, well they left a missed call for me and then I saw a missed call and I said sorry missed a call still interested in getting the bike can you can you bring it to me when you're available and she said no I just left the keys at the local supermarket and I put the bike downstairs in parking sent a pic of the bike that's it so I then went to the supermarket and said do you have the keys to a motorbike no questions at all the lady was busy drinking a coke didn't speak to me and just gave me the key to a Honda and it's this unique looking gold one god it's so tight so nothing's been handed over here what do you think this okay so we've got a luggage rack here we have storage the the helmets to give you an idea about how tiny these helmets are what's that hole oh yeah I didn't see that these helmets must weigh it's so little I can't even describe it and they do nothing I've never seen a helmet like this in my life before it's worse than the cheapest bicycle helmet but they're so tiny the positive is of course they do nothing from a health and safety point of view you can fit four helmets in here so I said did you leave how much said yep there were four in the trunk I also got this funny message from the lady take a listen to this so she said currently the car this is after she dropped it off bear in mind currently the car has no lights could you take it to a repair shop for me how much will it cost question mark can you deduct that from the rental fee so I just said I'll let you know if I have time to do it smiley face look I'm not spending a day going to mechanics to fix it what that means Monica sorry to burden you this bike has no lights so this is purely a daytime scooter but it doesn't matter the condition I know that because it's a Honda I can turn it on and it will start immediately I also know that it's going to have an empty tank of fuel okay holding oh that's not Honda oh no this this this is this is not a bike from a rental company clearly the person who owns the property said I've got a person who who rents scooters this isn't a rental scooter this is someone's scooter that they've got at home okay wait wait wait I'll just keep my finger on it wait this is a Honda this isn't possible wait let me just prepare myself for this it's a Honda this this doesn't happen okay I know these bikes as well Monica we've had these in Bali and places these go on forever there is no way no way this shouldn't start so idling and idling stop throttle just keeping it on that cool yes Monica jump on I think we just need to give it a good run out so we're going to go out we'll go to a coffee shop or a place for lunch quite close to here just in case it doesn't work and then maybe we'll bring it back here before going into Hanoi so we'll try and get it started this is what four pounds a day gets you yeah nothing I'm hardly selling it am I oh by the way also I didn't stop it it just cut itself out so see what a run does for it we ride this is the ropiest Honda honestly that we've ever had and I'm even comparing this to some places in Bali where they're not road worthy that there's everything is wrong with that the brakes the suspension but at least it started so I think it needs a full tank of decent quality fuel and then it should be just about okay it's a Honda the good thing about them they always start I've parked next to and this is just a very happy coincidence another Japanese icon 4.5 litre what would that be a V8 Land Cruiser I don't know what's going on here I don't know if this is some kind of vintage slash 4x4 mecca where everyone here has a classic old car lovely old Mercedes here that's got to be from the 1980s but it doesn't end there look at this there's a Jeep Wrangler here in a beautiful cream colour with the roof off just with those branches dangling off it like it's a Jurassic Park scene yes and a classic Vespa incredible car selection let's go and eat here and just try and recover from the events of this unreliable Honda this is really good training for me because I am and I've been trying for so long I'm appalling absolutely appalling at using chopsticks but I have no choice so by the end of this two months I will be a master it's ridiculous of using chopsticks plus I love going somewhere in general where the food is so unbelievably well priced and delicious that you can just pick anything you want on the menu so we're going to have by the end of this about seven of these dishes so delicious it's hugely impressive these are the gardens the local park just opposite us and it's all so beautifully landscaped it looks brand new you've got a a team of gardeners and cleaners watering and tidying up and you've got a a real community spirit feel to the place palm tree lined walkways right next to this waterfront golf course just behind us it's all it's absolutely lovely one thing that's immediate apparent excellent coffee coach from Vietnam pan over there Monica this is this about three in the afternoon here and there are coffee shops everywhere so many you can't go more than 100 meters or so without getting to an excellent coffee shop and it's usually something like £1.40 for coffee something like that yeah three pounds for two it's true everything's miniature isn't it you get to them and you think oh come on this is going to be agony sitting there and then suddenly it's weirdly comfortable so all of the tables and chairs are always more child size but it somehow works thing that really surprised me these are seemingly soviet flags it's really interesting the flag with a star in the middle is the vietnamese flag the soviet looking flag with the hammer and sickle that is actually the vietnam the communist party of vietnam's flag because vietnam fun fact is one of five communist countries in the world monica would you like to guess a few of them correct china we'll speed this up if it takes a while to be fair i wouldn't have got it actually five of them so of course china vietnam last three north korea yeah north korea yeah north korea and two more yeah one is the neighbor of vietnam lao yeah bang on final one south america cuba five countries uh so that's what it is hammer and sickle which basically represents the industrial and agricultural elements working together in perfect harmony but that's why you'll see these absolutely everywhere the communist soviet looking flag along with the vietnamese flag it's really interesting to see that proudly everywhere isn't it's just something that we're not used to at all welcome to the center of hanoi peace and tranquility has been replaced with bustle entrepreneurialism and a little bit of madness eight and a half million people in the city and i feel like we were dancing with death a little bit in the taxi there because i got to the taxi and a taxi driver had his seat almost completely flat fast asleep i tried getting in he thought i was a thief then realized i was the customer quickly pulled his chair forward and then had to pull the other chair forward cushions in the back for sleeping four curtains front and back so he could completely black it out and he was completely asleep for about 50% of the journey but we made it welcome to the old quarter of hanoi to improve air quality in the city of hanoi they want to completely ban 100% ban the use of petrol powered scooters and motorbikes in the city so they've got under four years to convert every single person here from petrol to electric that is some some incredible task when you see how many how many motorbikes there are here although having said that there are far more electric cars in vietnam than i expected it's a classic bustling southeast asian city everyone's got their own little businesses that is a small mechanic shop that's built out of a plot that can't be any more than about five foot by four feet cafes along the street and people just parking their scooters on the pavement so you have no choice other than to walk on the road and try and dodge the constantly beeping scooters and cars and then every so often you get you get a little break from the traffic and a small moment of tranquility i love that last year i tried to get my washing machine fixed called up an engineer and he said there's no point just buy a new one by the time you pay me to fix it it will cost more than a washing machine but here they repair everything they can i've seen so many of these little shops that that fix household appliances that would just go straight into a hole in the ground pretty much anywhere in europe egg coffee this it is shot of coffee so espresso at the bottom egg i mean literally egg up to almost the top of the glass this is warm water around it and that keeps the drink warm i think what you're meant to do take a couple of scoops of the top bit enjoy it before stirring it and then after enjoying a couple of scoops then you stir it and and you drink it coffee is also a massive art form here they're coffee crazy to make two and this has happened in every coffee shop we've been to it's probably a good 10 minutes to make two coffees i'll just try a bit before stirring oh it's sweet that i think is egg mixed with condensed milk and coffee at the bottom so it's not only a serious caffeine hit because it's stronger coffee beans here it's also a sugar hit and that means you don't want to have this after 4 p.m because you are going to be wired for about eight hours you know what it's like a liquefied tiramisu i'll show you one other thing here i've got all of these signs here from the communist party of vietnam what that translates to the other side of the road all for vietnam peace independence democracy wealth prosperity civilization and happiness didn't get around to wrapping up the video in the center of hanoi i saw so beautiful what a place because monica suddenly started feeling ill so i've got to run off now get her some cold and flu tablets hopefully stop it whatever she's got before it gets too bad but vietnam hanoi love everything about it so excited to be here for two months so much culture so much to see north south middle of the country bat so much i'm so excited it's i can already tell just the most fantastic country so thank you so much everyone for watching i really hope you enjoyed the video and remember you can so i've one eye on the bats remember you can go and check out saly use code freddy for that 15 discount highly recommend it thanks so much i'll see you in the next one