Wow... The last few days have been absolutely mental. Incredible, Fun, Exhausting, Frustrating and Hilarious.

In the end, all four of us: Me (Slotty, 'The Photographer'), Josh (Ice Man, 'The Mechanic'), Nick ('The Comedian') and Spencer (Rouge) all set out together from the infamous Hanoi Backpackers Hostel after taking too long to get ready because of a crazy night the night before :D Infact - our start-out should have been a warning as to how the next couple of days would be - for our bikes: We took photos and all that jazz before we left, lining up our bikes out the front of the Hostel before attempting to start out bikes for our departure. Haha! - it took 15 mins along to get all the bikes started! Eventually though, we did, and employed a little vietnamese guy to guide us onto Highway 6.

The journey started out as we'd expected - busy roads leading out of the capital, but the traffic slowly eased out and gave us relatively clear roads of the rest of the journey......It felt soooooooooo good finally to satisfy our desire to let our engines loose on some straight roads out of stop-start Hanoi. Buildings gradually began turning into rice paddies and after a couple of hours we could see karst limestone mountains in the distance! However it wasn't long before one of the others guy's Minks had a failure. The kick-start wouldnt do anything - so we had to push/jump start Josh bike everytime :P As we actually came to the mountains we'd been watching, more stress was put onto the bikes - they didnt like that. Nick's bike began to think it didnt have any gears, so going up hills wasn't so easy. We met a really nice vietnamese family who had a cafe that looked over a lush green valley. Anyway - every problem with the bikes we came across, we managed to get round somehow, or a local would come and pull at things to make it work. We ended up having an incredible ride on some amazing mountain roads/passes and had a huuuuge relief when we hit a sudden temperature line which took us out of the constant intense heat. The thing was... that all of this stopping, breaking etc etc, meant that the journey to little Mai Chau took much longer that anticipated. We ended up splitting up into the bikes that could deal with the hills and the ones that couldnt really. Me and josh ended up, after an amazing mountain decent in the dark, in s little junction village which was 5km away from Mai Chau. At this point we were absolutely shattered and sat down at a little cafe/shop thing with yet more vietnamese men who couldnt stop staring at us. We waiting for a good hour or so for the other two to reach us and then, in the rain (only two of our bikes worked) had to lock two bikes there, and took two moto taxis to Mai Chau. It was suuuuch a relief to fund a decent bed - grab some noodles, and collapse in an aircon room.

We did what we had too - watched Top Gear: Vietnam Special! And discovered something amazing in the process!!! - In Hanoi, me and Josh went to a renowned mechanic to get our bikes checked over and buy spare spark plugs. The very same guy (distinctive from his half vietnamese, half european looking face) is the mechanic who travels with the top gear crew on their trip who you seen twice or so in the show! :D it was a wicked moment!

The next morning, we collected the remaining bikes from where we'd left them (I had to tow Josh's bike) to bring them to the mechanic in Mai Chau - who was a bloody genius! He didnt even ask for money - obviously we gave him some - because he made them all work! But we stayed in Mai Chau for another night to allow for good bike fixing time. The next day of driving was muuuuuuuch more successful, untill the last hour. Our ultimate goal was to get to Vinh - we were making incredible progress averaging about 50kmh on the open highways! :D it was beautiful! we gone about 140km with maybe 70/80 more to go - and it was only 1:30pm But the thing was - only me and Nick made in to a town called Yen Cat (whcih was about 70/80km from Vinh) The other two bikes, about 15km before Yen Cat - had completely broken down. This meant we didnt meet up as afoursome again till about 5 hours later. It was nice because it gave us an opportunity to meet and speak with the locals, buy ice cream, have photos taken of us by random kids etc - That is the beauty of breaking down in a way - its a great way to enter into the community. But it would be nice if it didnt happen every day - and we could go one day at full pelt the whole day - knock 300km off in one day or something. But no - (my honda probably could) the minks just can't go for more than 130km without a problem.

Anyway - we made a really good friend in the government official of the town who saw our needs and offered us his internet, beer and water - he was a god. He also knew the mechanic next door. :P

Well... im afriad I have to admit that we ahve cheated somewhat... we came to the decicion that our bikes are going to keep giving us grief and our trip is going to take too long if they keep doing so. So we neededto get them to a cityto a proper extablished mechanic to get them all nice and perfect - ish. So our government official friend pointed us in the direction of the nearest town with a train station (thankfully 55km away).Our bikes JUST made it - I,once again, had to tow Spencer's bike the kast 16km. We booked our train tickets to Hue, and organised our bikes to be put on the next available train. We then had 8 hours in a town called Thanh Hoa to get absolutely wrecked - and we did so. We found PIZZA!! and a wicked bar where we blasted out our own tunes over the crappy stuff that they had over the speakers. - there is many a funny photo of that night. Anyway - we are now in Hue, after a bloody uncumfortable 'Hard Seat' (wooden bench) 12 hour journey. To everyone in our carrage we were a spectacle. Just stared at the whooooole time - obviously we made some friends - not with the people who just stared tho.... hmmm.

So - im now in Hue!! :D a city at last! it feels good. Just had one of the best indian curries ever! I know - sad... but boy did I not care! sooooo gooooooooooood. :D

hopefully we are setting off in the next few days.