Travel Insurance

We have found a few little gems recently whilst sorting out last minute bits for our trip. After the nightmare we’ve experienced with STA Travel and their very unwillingness to help us with our insurance claim we decided to go a little more budget on the travel insurance side of things. This time round we have a joint policy that we can amend and update as we travel. There are small administration fees for these changes but Backpacker Travel Insuarance offer a comprehensive cover within their Premier Cover policy, and we have paid over 50% less than what we did with STA and bumped up our Sports grade to level 2 within this price. Okay so nothing has gone wrong so far, but after our previous experience we asked ourselves a series of questions ensuring we knew what we wanted from our travel insurance. So far Backpackers is ticking all our boxes!

We figured most people in China must climb the cliff!

Airbnb!

Something else that has got us a little excited is the wonder of Airbnb! We have booked through Airbnb for our travels in LA and Seattle meaning we have been able to source so far 3 different types of accommodation for our stay in the USA. This was pretty important for Venice Beach as Helen’s yoga course is daily and we didn’t want to be faced with big travel times and steep accommodation costs (a dorm room is cheaper but we’re in the area for 11 days so we don’t want to be sharing ourselves that much!!). We’re staying very close to the beach and even have our own bathroom as well as a host who is a superfoods expert!

Airbnb means we can stay with the locals, in a local area and avoid the high costs even hostels have in these busy places. We also want to live like a local does! It’s a little like couch-surfing but you pay to stay in someone’s spare room. Payment is through Airbnb and the person whose room we could be renting wont get paid until we check in. We’re looking forward to this alternative experience and for finding out about things going on away from the tourist trap. We think we’ll book through when accommodation is pricey in the western countries and we fancy a nosy at someone’s home! ha ha!

After the loveliness that was Dave’s birthday day we got up early, packed our bags and took advantage of our late check out time but going to one of Japan’s most famous and most beautiful gardens; the Kenrokuen Gardens. The light was quite flat so we weren’t able to capture the gardens as we would have liked, but there were good views and the gardens were kept in pristine condition so it was all worth while doing. They were making some wooden scaffolding to protect the trees as a typhoon was on it’s way. It seemed pretty calm considering the typhoon was due to hit Japan today!!

With the Kenrokuen gardens ticked off our list we went back to Namaste, checked out and said our goodbyes before setting off to the train station to pick up our next part of the travel. Kyoto was our next destination and we had changed our itinerary a little so we could stay for 3 nights as opposed to two. We were planning on staying in Nara, however we changed our minds due to the accommodation that we had booked was nearly 3 times more than Kyoto and it seemed like another place where you are surrounded by bus loads of tourists, every day you’re there. We may decide to do this as a day trip from Kyoto, but it felt good to be flexible on this.

So at around 3pm we arrived in Kyoto at their amazingly large station right opposite the Kyoto tower. Having got our bearings (it often takes us a while on the ‘You are here!” maps) we walked to K’s guest house, something like a 10-15 minute walk from the station. We knew we were on the right track though when we came across other backpackers and westerners making their way to the same place.

We checked into our little room, bigger than the Sakura Hotel in Tokyo, but a little prison like with bunk beds and a small desk with enough floor space that Helen thought she could do some yoga in there! The rooms are tightly packed in here though with metal doors and there wasn’t much of a feel for personality on our floor. In the communal areas the space is much more welcoming with sofas, a kitchen, books, music, an outdoor seating area and so on. We soon bumped into Mel and Cane who we had met at Namaste in Kanazawa as we were about to explore the streets by bikes. This was so much fun exploring backstreets and the river paths nearby our hostel. You can go some distance and we managed a spot of filming from the bikes which extended our creative processes somewhat. At waist level, sometimes from the handlebar view-point we rode past joggers, lovers, beggars, cats, people chatting on the riverside, skaters and other cyclists. Once the sun had set we made our way back through the busy down town area and eventually found K’s again!

For dinner we went to a Japanese restaurant just over the bridge from the hostel and Helen had some of the best udon noodles to date whilst Dave enjoyed another traditional style cooked Japanese set dinner. Very good. There’s a great bar at the hostel that attracts backpackers and other westerners from around the area so we sat in there for a drink, people watched and then went back to our little cell, we were getting a good feel for the place already.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f2.0 & Olympus PEN, 17mm f2.8 & 100mm f2.8, processed in Lightroom 3)