March 15th (Sunday) - Day 15 - On Route to Halong Bay
11 hours of driving!! We left the home stay at 7am and headed for the border and said good bye to the tranquility of Lao. We crossed the border by walking through the checkpoint, paid our $1 kick back to the guy in immigration and got on a new bus. The scenery was beautiful but the only thing that grabs your attention is the amount they use their horns. All the road users use them and they use them for everything. The thing is no one seems to pay attention to them. Do you know the advert where the cars are crossing the intersection all at once - that must have been filmed in Viet Nam as everyone just goes for it on the roads! All you hear 24/7 is "beep". After another 9 hours of driving we reached our stop over point so vegged out in the hotel ready for the early start the next day.

March 16th (Monday) - Day 16 - Halong Bay
After a further 4 hour drive we reached Halong Bay. I had been really looking forward to this part of the trip after seeing it on Top Gear. Once off the boat we found our boat; a chinese junk boat. It had 8 cabins, a resturant and a sun deck (not that we would be needing that given the fog). It was funny to see that the sea was the same as the roads. Horns used all the time and the boats pushing to get a space in the harbour. We set sail just outside the harbour and dropped anchor to have lunch. It was an impressive spread; shrimp, fish cakes, pork, squid etc. After lunch we went up top to watch the bay go by. After an hour we reached a lime stone cave and had a wonder around. Half way through Sarah and I started to feel very rough so went ahead to get back to the boat. After being very ill we went to bed at 3 and did not surface until the following morning.