this is our house: the white one with the red brick balcony on the 3rd storey. in hanoi it is not unusual to have very narrow houses, but built tall (used to be that taxes were paid by the width of the front)–in our case, we have 5 floors, with 2 rooms on each.
as to the bikes–I just rented a new one! it’s the bright yellow one, of course. more on that later.