Harald Baldr 2024

Seoul, South Korea: A Hanok is a traditional Korean home which were common up until late in the previous century. Now many of them are used as rental units for tourists looking to experience something other than a Western style hotel. So what was my experience staying in a Hanok in Seoul like? That and much more in today's episode from Seoul Korea.

ITALY, FLORENCE

ITALY, ROME: It's been 22 years since my first visit to Rome, the current capital of Italy and old capital of the Roman Empire that once ruled the entire mediterranean world. This being my 4th visit to the city, I decided to come up with a challenge: How many of Rome's major attractions would I be able to visit in one day? And how many pizza slices could I eat? Turns out quite a lot more than I had anticipated when I first came up with this Rome tourism challeng

USA, WYOMING: It's been 3 years since my first visit to Wyoming, America's least populated state with just 580 000 residents. Home to Yellowstone national park, most people who visit tend to go there for that experience. As for me I was anxious to book a stay at my favorite hotel in the entire world: the historic wild west hotel which still goes by the name The Occidental. Presidents and outlaws have stayed here over the years and although it only ranks as a 2 star hotel, no luxury resort can beat the character and feel of this hotel. But The Occidental was only the first stop on my journey. My main goal for the trip was to conquer Fireball Peak in winter. Would there be too much snow and ice to climb the hill? Would the attack parrot still fiercely defend his territory? Would it simply be too cold? I had many questions and very few answers.... The only way to find out was to start trekking

NEW ORLEANS, USA: My main problem with most American cities is the lack of a proper European style downtown walkable historic area with tons of restaurants, bars and classic buildings. As soon as I enter New Orleans' French Quarter and wandered down the famed Bourbon street, I realised this is one of those cities that bucks the usual American trend of downtown being dead. Full of life and fantastic architecture, New Orleans has hands down the coolest American downtown area I've ever come across. Finding a historic building to stay in proved a difficult difficult task though with nothing exceptional showing up when searching through booking.com. After extensive research I was pointed in the direction of the Olivier House, a historic boutique hotel made up of 5 family homes built in the 1880s. This turned out to be a gem of hotel and the second best I've stayed in in USA.

NEW ORLEANS, USA: Walking around New Orleans' French Quarter in the evening I saw an awesome store named Antique Guns & Swords. It was closed but in their window I saw ancient coins from the Roman Empire for sale and lots of other valuable antique curiosities. This I had to investigate. The next morning I loaded up with freshly minted Federales Reservos and went antique hunting in this excellent store. An hour later and extremly happy with my purchases, I decided to go celebrate my antiques with more Absinthe together with Mr. Noodles the Korean hobo I magnanimously housed and fed in the previous New Orleans episode. That of course turned out to be the start of a rather entertaining booze filled evening up and down New Orlean's French Quarter and of course Bourbon street.

USA, LAS VEGAS: Every time I've visited Las Vegas I ended up staying on The Strip where most of the mega hotels like The Cosmopolitan and Caesar's Palace are located. My hotel of choice have usually been Treasure Island as it's the budget friendlier option. Despite staying on The Strip, I always ended up spending most of my time in the downtown Las Vegas area known as The Freemont Experience. I like the blackjack tables there better and also the entire street has an awesome vibe with tons of characters. This time I therefore decided to stay in the downtown area so I didn't have to waste time and money on taxis back and forth there everyday. Some of the hotels in downtown Las Vegas are 80 years old as this is where this city truly began. A couple of years ago a new hotel sprang up called Circa. I've played blackjack in there before and it looked like a nice and modern hotel so I decided to give it a go.

ITALY, VENICE: The rags to ultra riches story of The Venetian Republic is unlike any other in European history. Refugees from the Roman Empire, fleeing the turmoil created by the power vacuum of Rome's waning ability to fend off endless barbarian incursions, turned a bunch of uninhabitable islands into the greatest and richest nation and finally empire in all of Europe. How did the Venetians do it? That is what I will explore as I take in what Venice, which is today just a city in Italy, has become in 2024. Venice is now a haven for tourists where one can truly take in what renaissance Italy was truly about. The classic Venetian carnival still exists along with local artisans making traditional masks from scratch. Murano's glassmaking tradition also continues, possibly stronger than ever. La Serenissima lives on! So tag along as I investigate the history of Venice from the year A.D. 500 all the way up to 2024

VIETNAM, HANOI: Finding a hotel to stay anywhere in the world is a hit or miss operation. The area, noise level, cleanliness, state of the property vs. the photos you saw online and so on can leave you regretting your choice of accommodation which you may now be locked into for a week as you pre-paid before your travels. In Vietnam you can add to the hotel equation that walking in to the reception without a booking from Booking.com, Agoda.com or Hotels.com will leave you with a vastly better price for the hotel room than if you had booked from the comfort of your living room before flying to Vietnam. At least 20 0 30% discount can be had by simply walking in and asking for a room in the reception. That's not the case in for example USA where the online price for hotels are always better than walking in to the hotel with a reservation.

HANOI, VIETNAM: Top of my to do list when returning to Vietnam this year was to visit Ha Long Bay. As Vietnam's top tourist attraction I truly didn't know what to expect. I wanted to try and live on a traditional house boat but that proved a difficult undertaking. I therefore decided to book a $500 suite on an overnight luxury cruise boat. If that sounds like a steep price, please note that this is low season and that is a heavily discounted rate. Normally this luxury suite would sell for $8-900. Expectation were thus naturally high. I've always wanted to do a large cruise ship sail but found the prices and prospective accommodation to offer horrible value. This two day one night offer on a smaller boat however seemed to offer that elusive cruise ship value I've been looking for. So what was the luxury President Suite like? How was dinner? And what about the rest of the ship? That and much more in today's vlog from Ha Long Bay in Vietnam.

HA LONG BAY, VIETNAM: Whilst on the luxury cruise of Ha Long Bay yesterday we spotted several permanent homes out in the ocean but close to the islands so that you could swim ashore. These Vietnamese fishing communities have been a feature of the HA Long bay region and nearby island inlets for 700 years. These families grow clams and catch fish for the most part. But some do sell trinkets and food to tourists. I remember seeing on a travel TV show many years ago that it was possible to rent one of these traditional homes out in the water. Whilst on the boat cruising around Ha Long bay I started to search for a way to make such an adventure happen. So as soon as the boat hit the port I set off again on yet another Vietnam island adventure.

HA LONG BAY, VIETNAM: Whilst taking the boat out to the water home I'd rented last night I noticed a seaplane standing on the dock. It belonged to a company that does scenic flights over Ha Long Bay for just $100 for a 20 minute flight. This was a no brainer and I booked the seaplane flight for Ha Long Bay right away for next morning. This is that next morning.....

HANOI, VIETNAM: Hanoi have some of the most unique foods and drinks in the world. One of the most unique drinks and dishes I ever tried was made from a Cobra snake. Whilst not normal due to the price of the main ingredient, the snake, it is considered a delicacy amongst the locals who can afford it in the North of Vietnam. I tried this exotic food and drink 5 years ago. This time I figured we'd up the ante by adding a little Gongo to the mix....

SAIGON, VIETNAM: One of my all time favourite markets to go shopping in the one downtown Saigon. Here you can bargain for everything from clothes and watches to handbags and local moonshine. Best of all, unlike in markets in other parts of Vietnam the vendors speak great english due to the number of tourists that come through here. Naturally I had to go for a mega shopping spree here. So I dug deep into the federal reserves and went to investigate exactly how much $200 USD would buy me in Vietnam's biggest market.

SAIGON, VIETNAM: Having truly struggled to spend $100 US in an hour in a Sri Lankan market last year I thought $200 would be tough in Vietnam. I was very wrong! The Dongs ran out fast and I didn't even make it to an hour. Spending 5 million Vietnamese Dong in less than an hour shopping at Saigon's old market was awesome. But I wish I had brought more money as I didn't even get through 20% of the market and I felt I could've gone shopping for at least another hour. So therefore I cam up with the $400 US (10 Million Vietnamese) Saigon market hunt challenge. The goal was to shop for 2 hours....

SAIGON, VIETNAM: The Korean kitchen was completely foreign to me until about a decade ago when Mr. Noodles invited me along to my first ever Korean BBQ dinner. Since then I've taken a liking to pork and beef Korea style. In Vietnam I saw many Korean restaurants, especially in Saigon, but which to choose? Lucky for me Mr. Noodls was there to chose for me....

LAN HA BAY, VIETNAM: The coolest and by far the most unique place I have uncovered in Vietnam is the floating village community of Lan Ha Bay (next to Ha Long Bay). There are several of these but only one I've seen you can actually live in. These are not tourist traps or set up for that purpose. The floating homes in these fishing villages have been there for 600 years and people live there even today. That is also what makes them so great as it gives foreigners and incredible opportunity to see how people live and thrive out in these coves. Having only spent one night in this floating village upon my previous visit, I was eager to go back. This time however I was not going to make the mistake of only staying for one night. I wanted to paddle a traditional plant woven boat. Hunt Gongo. Scale one of the mountain peaks and also get a closer look at the lives of the locals. I decided 3 nights would be needed to accomplish said tasks.....

HANOI, VIETNAM: Markets are fun both for making videos , bargaining and buying antiques. Shops however are an entirely different beast. They offer a less entertaining experience as they are a more serious and formal place of business. But on the upside they generally offer higher quality products and pricier items on sale. You can find a handcrafted specialty product or a genuine antique item with serious history behind it you can value for the rest of your life. Walking around window shopping in Hanoi I noticed many unique antique stores plus local handicraft outlets. I figured this might be a good setting for the priciest Vietnam shopping video to date. So out I went locked and loaded with The Federal Reserves in hand

SA PA, VIETNAM: When I toured Northern Vietnam on a motorbike 5 years ago, upon hitting the town Lao Cai, I rode east. The area west of said city was thus unexplored and unchartered territory to me. My absolute favorite aspect of this far North of the country is the green mountains and tiered rice fields. The region known as Sa Pa epitomizes such terrain. I knew I had to go. But how to get there? My choice of transportation fell on a spacious sleeper bus where you get your own compartment to chill in.

SA PA, VIETNAM: As I stepped off my bus upon arriving in Sa Pa town yesterday I ran into a Hmong woman by the name of Mama Zee who said she runs a home stay in a tiered rice field in the mountains about 4 hours walk from town. I took her contact details and the next day we journeyed through villages and mountain paths to her family home. Going to the bus station on a daily to find tourists who wants to stay at her Sa Pa Homestay is a time consuming and more often than not futile endeavour. Let's help her grow her social media presence so she can find foreign trekkers and homestay guests more efficiently.

SA PA, VIETNAM: After the chicken BBQ on my first night in Mama Zee's Hmong Village Homestay, I woke up with a pounding headache. Soaking in the neighbour's ice-cold tub, I tried and tested remedy, proved futile. So it was time to get this show on the road. The plan for the day was to drive to a roadside market known for selling the best juiciest pigs, perfect for a family BBQ! But this is in the countryside so chores are plentiful and have to be fulfilled in order. First on the agenda, feed the insatiable water buffalos...

SA PA, VIETNAM: After consecutive chicken and pork BBQ feasts at Mama Zee's Hmong Village Homestay, I woke up with a craving for Italian pizza. I knew there was one in town as Mama Zee had mistakenly gone there to meet me 2 days ago. I figured it was famous place then since she knew about it and decided to give it a go. It did not disappoint. Neither did the staff who spoke great english. As I left the restaurant to wander around looking for a hotel, it quickly dawned on me that everyone in this town spoke great english. Sa Pa is for reasons that has to do with tourism, an English speaking town far up in the North of the country close to the Chinese border. This warranted a video I thought. So the next day I got my camera ready and wandered up to the rooftop of my hotel....