Goodbye Vietnam Hello China, nearly there!

It is amazing that after nearly 6000 miles of driving through South East Asia, we came upon our first road accident to day, 25kms from the border with China. Some of the driving in Vietnam has to be seen to be believed. Here the 4 x 4 driver ( fortunately not one of our group) is getting intimate with a truck, the road was blocked and queues were building up both sides of the incident. Fortunately there was a field next to the road......

It didn't take our group long to figure out that the field was driveable as there was already a basic track there for some road works. Here Tom and Rosalie take the plunge, watched by some amazed drivers also in the queue.

Our turn soon came, the Navara had no trouble in getting through.

The other side of the incident was chaos as traffic had filled both lanes of the road, but we got through. Later one of the big trucks fell over when the road collapsed!

We spent last night on a Junk, with a three hour cruise into the spectacular Ha Long bay with its many many islands. The Junk had all mod cons including en suite bedrooms, all very comfortable.

Dinner last night was held in this spectacular cave together with music and dancing, everything was excellent

Yesterday morning we had an early start with a Cyclo ride round some of the more interesting parts of Hanoi. This was taken just after 6am so no wonder Jayne looks a little bewildered!! It is a very slow form of transport

Along the way we stopped to watch ladies exercising in the square by the Red river. They all needed too as well! ( Not that I can talk!)

Wiring Hanoi style, how the place doesn't blow we will never know

Chaos crossroads at 7 am in the morning, despite the chaos everybody seems to keep quite calm which is more than I could do! Mind you there is a fair bit of horn blowing.

This lady just went straight ahead and ignored everything which seems to be the way most people tackle driving in Hanoi

Follow us to Vietnam.....lots of rice, but no ham!!

We left Thailand on Feb 28th and entered Laos, via the Freinship Bridge into its capitol Vientiane, a very attractive French Colonial Town with the Laotian version of the Arc De Triumphe finished off with cement donated by the USA to build a new runway at the airport, some of it got diverted!!

On our journey to Luang Prang next day we encountered several sets of roadworks, not too much Health and Safety in evidence!! LP is rich in history, with a beautiful old French Colonial Quarter with, (thankfully) some excellent restaurants serving recogniseable food! All this set alongside the mighty Mekong river.

Next day as we travelled North to the Vietnam border we crossed the Mouang Khoua river on this modern up to date ferry, the tug was holding the ferry against the current, then when all cars were aboard it moved round to propel the ferry forwards. It was attached with a partly severed steel cable!!

ONce we crossed into Vietnam we soon saw evidence of Vietnamese agriculture and the terraced rice fields. We stayed the first night in Vietnam at Dien Bien Phu, the town where the French were beaten by the Vietnamese in 1954 and surrendered the country back to the Vietnamese

Leaving the town the following morning after an evening in a 'quaint' local hotel we saw this poster motivating the populace to greater things!!!!!!!

These fellows had decided to ty a little vehicle maintenance at the side of the road, nothing much just a front axle swap, but hey, they were having fun, just like Ho Chi Minh said they would!

Many of the womed we saw today wore the traditional dress of the Hmong, the tribe/group/ call it what you will, that populate the mountains we have travelled through today ( March 4th).

This was taken on the hill town of Sinho where the market was in full swing, the lady third from the left didn't like me taking the photo, but I told her she wasn't as ugly as the other ones so she shouldn't object. Scoured the market for a pic nic, but not a slice of ham in sight so had to make do with two tomatoes!!
Now in loveley hotel in the mountains, off to Hanoi tomorrow.