day 240, Hanoi

Woke up early to get a lot of jobs done today. Checking the internet we found the bike Michael is looking for available, so we go down and have a look at it. It looks good, is quite newish though is quite expensive, so we leave them to go in search of a couple of other dealers. We take a motorbike taxi out of the main town a bit though the dealership is closed, however was good to get on the motorway as we are doing it tomorrow. Back to another dealer though it is unreasonable, so Michael decides to buy the Honda super dream 2 from the guys we saw in the morning. After a nervous test drive (Michael had never ridden a bike before) and a painful negotiations we finally got a price and I went off to buy my bike from Andrew. We went in search of a mechanic and thanks to tet we couldn’t find one who would service it, so after umming and erm-ing I bought it. It’s a Chinese clone of a Honda win 100cc, and everyone says you shouldn’t buy a Chinese clone though there were no other choices, it came with a proper helmet, gloves, a jacket, a map, oil, a luggage rack and bungees, plus a phrase book. I’ve never bought a bike before and the only thing I needed was can I ride it, does it ride well and do I feel comfortable, so I bought it. If it breaks it breaks. I was nervous buying the bike and felt really tired directly after. I went back to the hostel and read my book, waiting for Michael to finish off getting bits and pieces then went out for a nice dinner, had a hot chocolate and watched the first half of the united Liverpool game though it was a bit shit so left for a movie and went to bed. We set off tomorrow for Ha long City, roughly three hours away.