Day 4 Hanoi

 Today was all about bikes, money and cake in the rain. We had to find a ATM that would give us the amount we needed and that didn’t charge us. It had rained heavily in the night and the roads were wet and there was further rain in the air. This did not affect the speeding millennials on their Honda scooters. 

We had located an ATM that fit the bill, which was 32minutes away. One thing especially frustrating is the pavements are crammed full with parked scooters which means pedestrians have to walk in the road most of the time. As you can imagine this is a perilous pursuit and one has to be constantly vigilant. In our way to the bank we passed the Cathedral which apparently is a miniature copy of Notre Dame in Paris (see above). 

A quick return to the hotel to pick up bike racks and other accessories and then a 10 minute walk to the bike shop. I could sense Jen  was getting anxious as we passed through the busy manic traffic- she also mentioned she might push hers back to the hotel. I knew she wouldn’t do that but agreed with her anyway. When we got to the shop the shutters were down and it appeared closed, my heart missed a beat as I peered through the cracks in the shutter. There at the back of the shop in a sleeping position was the owner. He must have sensed someone peering in as he quickly jumped up and let us in. Jen’s bike was fitted with the rack we’d left yesterday and I handed him mine to attach to the bike. Mine was not an easy fix and the lovely smiling man had some modifications to make- After fitting on our handlebar bags we eventually set off. 

The ride back was pretty quick as we were swept along with the flow of the traffic and in some ways I found it preferable to the Russian roulette of walking the street. We both felt pretty pleased with our purchases and our ability to ride the traffic so we treated ourselves to two slices of cake with our coffee back at the hotel. Later today we are heading off to see a ‘Water Puppet Show’. Should be something different.