As we left Ha Long Bay we went over a long bridge. Following Do and Els Meuss on the bridge.
One of the French legacies, is that the Vietnamese bake wonderful bread. We have stopped and bought great French loaves from vendors by the side of the road. We went past this scooter laden down with baskets full of bread.
After about 50kms we left the worst of the traffic behind us and headed out into hilly countryside. Another example of the lack of animal welfare here in SE Asia. Each of these small baskets held a pig. You can see their legs sticking out from the bottom baskets.
We then came across a traffic jam, which turned out to be as a result of a collision between a jeep and a truck. There was total gridlock. The Vietnamese have the habit of driving up the wrong side of a line of parked vehicles and meeting the opposing traffic head on. The result is that nobody can move. We thought we would be there for hours, but luckily for us where we had stopped there was a slope down to a field and a muddy track running alongside the road for a couple of hundred yards, which ended on the far side of the accident. So, into low range gear and down the slope we went, to much consternation from the Vietnamese truck drivers. We ploughed our way through the mud and climbed the slope back to the road. Wendy took this photo halfway along in the field.
Once we were back on the road, our way was blocked by trucks and cars that had driven up past all the stationary vehicles. You can just see the line of parked trucks to the right of this truck who had to back up for a couple of hundred yards before we could get past him and on our way again.
All the other cars from the group that were behind us, took the same detour to avoid the accident.The remainder of the drive to the Chinese border took us about an hour. When the advance car crossed into China it took Arne about five hours to get through Chinese immigration and customs. Apparently his was the first foreign car to cross at this border crossing into China in living memory! Once again HERO had put a huge effort into making sure we didn't suffer the same fate.The Chinese border as we drove towards it in no man's land.
The Chinese customs went to great lengths to confirm the car's details. Here you can see three officials trying to find the car's engine number, with me looking on behind them.
They then examined one or two of our bags. It appeared they were most interested in books and magazines, flipping through pages of Wendy's books to see if there was anything political in them!Whilst at the border we met up with Lefung, our Chinese guide from the Great Tour of China in 2004. She was helping the event once again. Here she is helping Lynn Woolley.
Once through the border we had about 200kms of fast expressway to drive to our hotel in Behai. The Chinese expressways are amazing roads. They are virtually empty of traffic, I think mainly because the local drivers cannot afford the tolls. It was such a contrast to Vietnam!
The drive took us under two hours to our hotel for the final night of the tour.Having to hand the car over to the shipping company tomorrow afternoon meant everything had to been taken out for re-packing. With the car going to the States from China, we couldn't leave anything in it we wanted in England. So, we gratefully took up Alan Crisp's offer to take some of our things back to the UK in his car. I then went to a local car wash to have it cleaned inside and out. The day ended with us all having a very good Chinese meal at the hotel.
Our wonderful tour of SE Asia will end tomorrow at the finishing ceremony just outside Macau, some 560 kms from Behai.
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