We got an early bus to Koh Kong, although as per usual it took over an hour to leave the city and then we were still stopping along the way to pick up other passengers, many of whom didn’t have seats so were sat on plastic chairs in the aisles. After around 5 hours or so we landed in Koh Kong at a bus stop a little way out of the main streets, tuk-tuk drivers once again were hassling us to take pick up into town, but we knew from the scale of the map that it wouldn’t be too far to walk. We met Ali and Carl who’d been traveling mainly in India on the bus and we all decided to walk in together. We landed at The Dugout Hotel, which is quite easy to find on the main street leading towards the market. The manager is Australian and pretty helpful when it comes to advice in the area, we opted for a room that was more than we were hoping to pay but thought we’d just stay there the one night. They have a small pool there too so we were keen to go in for a dip to cool down from the afternoon heat.

Later on we met up with Ali and went to have a chat with a local eco-tour operator ran by a friendly chap called Mr T, his office is located at Dugout, and they are owned by the same guy who runs the Oasis Bungalow resort a little way out of town. We found out about tours on offer and what was possible for us to do and see on Koh Kong Island, after going back and forth and realising we couldn’t stay on the Island, Mr T made a few calls and pretty much made up a tour for us on the spot. We could take a 2 day boat trip to Koh Kong Island, visit the beautiful beaches, have barbecues on the beach, all of our food and stay at a fishing village called Alatan that is connected to the island via stilts and wooden bridges. For the 4 of us to go it would cost $55 each! This was a good price considering the tours we had paid for in Vietnam. So we agreed and decided to leave the following day. If you do go to the tourist office at The Dugout please note that this isn’t a tour they do on a regular basis so don’t expect it to be advertised. They offer other types of tours including jungle treks and mountain biking in the area, Koh Kong itself doesn’t have much going on, it’s a small town which can be used as a handy base to go off and explore.

We were picked up at 8am and taken to the harbour where we had a boat, driver and guide waiting with us along with a fridge full of food. It was a long boat that they had decked out for our comfort, Mr T came along to make sure everything was ready and set up for us and off we went. The first part of the boat trip took around 2 hours and on the way we even bought our fish from a local fisher-mans boat! We took a brief stop at beach number 1, we all jumped off the boat and went for a swim in the crystal clear waters. The beach was beautiful with no-one else around so we were excited about going to the further afield beaches.

After around half an hour we carried on towards beach number 3, here we stopped and the driver threw in the anchor. We had until around 4pm here, and so we swam, sunbathed, ate a fantastic fish barbecue meal, swam some more, the guide built us a shelter from the sun, Carl tried to catch a crab and so on. All in all it was absolutely gorgeous, we had the whole place to ourselves, the sea was beautiful and clear and it was so serene. At last we had found a paradise. We had heard that not many people come to Koh Kong Island other than on day trips because the military operate the Island so it’s not the safest place to stay, also the trips only go when there are more than 4 people so this meant we didn’t see any other tourists, only fishing boats.

After a lazy afternoon on the beach we got back into our boat and made the hour journey to Alatan fishing village. We weren’t expecting what awaited us at all. The village is build up of around 50 or so houses all built on stilts going away from the Island for around 1km. As we arrived many local children were waiting for us, all shouting hello and smiling and laughing nervously in anticipation of our arrival. We instantly felt very humble and privileged to be there and were taken into the house which would be our base for our stay. As soon as we got inside the children were posing for photographs, asked Dave to do some English spelling and took us up onto the Island where their school is based. We were quite overwhelmed by the whole experience, they were so happy for us to be sharing their home with them, showing us around their school and attempting to speak English with us. The photography opportunities here were fantastic.

After an hour or so of playing with the children we sat down for dinner and enjoyed more fish, rice, salad and fruit. We had previously seen two full size snooker tables in one of the houses a little further away from where we were and asked if we could play some snooker/pool. We have no idea how easy or hard it was for them to get those things in there, we were amazed that they had them and they clearly kept them in mint condition. It was also amazing to see how each family have some way of making money; either by fishing, selling groceries, a little cafe at one end and then the snooker hall!

So we played for an hour until going to bed at around 10pm, we had an audience watching us the entire time and Helen didn’t play well at all. We kind of just wanted to be unseen at this moment in time wishing for a game of pool on a snooker table to end!! Unfortunately for us Ali and Carl beat us 2-0, but Helen always makes a point that pub sports…just ain’t her thing! ha ha!

So to our bedroom which our hosts had vacated for us for that night, 4 of us all lined up on a thin mattress, with water underneath and noises from loud televisions, babies’ crying and the like meant we were on for a restless night. Still the experience of being there far outweighed any of this and we were very happy to have stayed in Alatan that night.

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

We had breakfast at the hotel in the form of muesli and fruit before going off on bikes for the day. At Bamboo they have a good choice of mountain and city bikes (we opted for mountain bikes of course) perhaps some of the best bikes we’ve used on our travels so far!

We had a map with some good trails outlined and so off we went in the hopes of finding some less tourist-driven villages. Finding the right path is okay to start with as you head out of Yangshou town via the back roads and then there is a path that cuts under the bridge and from here you get to a gravel road, which is pretty tricky to ride over, although much more manageable if you have a decent mountain bike – you often see people on tandems and city bikes on this kind of terrain!! From here you go towards smaller paths which take you through farmland and villages, you just head north up the Li River towards Moon Hill, its a long journey on bikes and we often found ourselves the only people on the roads and thinking we may be on the wrong path.

After a brief stop for satsumas and snacks we went on our way to Moon Hill. When we arrived there were many tourists who were either enjoying the views, shopping, eating or planning to take a trip up the hill. It was getting close to 4pm by this time and we’d been cycling for the past 4 hours so decided not to climb the hill. But we did stop for some fresh corn and a few photos of the random tourist attractions such as a monkey dressed in an Asian suit posing along side happy holiday makers at what cost we didn’t stop to find out.

It only took about another 45 minutes or so to get back into Yangshou mostly on the high way which was in no way as satisfying as going through all the villages and countryside. When we got back we opted for a spot of Chinese food at another Lonely Planet recommendation Kelly’s. The food was fairly good and we weren’t charged too much for it either. Afterwards we went o Monkey Jane’s for a few drinks just to get familiar with the place before the big bash the following night. They also do really cheap beer!! We met a group of travellers who invited us to play cards with them…8 games of Shithead later and we were ready to call it a night. We had a good link with one of the guys as he’d been traveling with someone we’d met in Dali, I picked up on his Irish accent after Jane had said we may bump into them. Small world this traveling lark!

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

We used Cloudland once more as a base for our luggage and set off to get a bus to Dali. The west bus station is easy to get to from town and we got there by 1pm just in time to get the next bus for Dali. This left at just after 1pm and took around 4-5 hours to get to Xiaguan which is the new town of Dali, from here we paid around 2yuan each to take a local bus to Dali old town. It takes around 30 minutes to make the journey and we had some guidance at the other end from a school girl willing to point us in the right direction.

We booked 3 nights at The Dali Hump which we soon realised was a good move. It’s a good place to meet other travelers and most people tend to stay a lot longer than planned. We arranged a few things for the next day and went out to get some food. Cafe Du Jack is another Lonely Planet recommendation and served a lovely tofu claypot dish with a nice spice to accompany it, Dave enjoyed some Singapore style rice with egg and then we followed this up with a calzone-style looking apple pie, it did the trick.

For the first night there were only 3 of us booked into the 8 bed dorm and it filled up as the nights went on. The rooms are really spacious but at this time of year the cold nights settle in and the thin curtains do nothing to contain heat. We did pay a little extra to go in the dorm room with en-suite and electric blankets which was a nice bonus.

On our first day in Dali we hiked up one of the Cangshan Mountain routes, walking up through the top end of the village and out into farmland. There is a 30 yuan p/p entrance fee for the mountain area but there weren’t many walkers on the mountain so we had the paths to ourselves. We passed by many gravestones and tombs located around the hillside and there was a strong light coming through the tree tops. We wanted to get around to the Zhonge Temple which is located on the mountain side and is where the cable cars go to, from here there is a steep path down to the bottom where you just stay under or around the cable cars and you’ll reach the bottom okay. Along the way we had landscape views of Dali city, Erhai Hu (lake) and farmland, it was a good 4 hour hike from start to finish but we were keen to get back to The Hump so we could join a group for a market tour to buy food for that night’s meal.

We just about got back in time at 1.30pm and the others had waited for us, we all went to the local market with Chung Lee who was our cheeky cheerful hostel guide. She certainly added personality to the outing. We took in the market, put 30 yuan into the pot each and chose fresh vegetables and even picked out our own chicken from a cage. Dave witnessed the 10 minute aftermath of the chicken being killed, de-plucked and ready to go in the back of the basket. In it went with the fresh aubergine and herbs bought earlier on. It’s a pretty crazy environment compared to British markets, traditions here are very different and it’s quite normal for people to pick out chickens, fish and even dogs to be killed for their evening meal.

We arranged to meet everyone back in the kitchen at 4pm to start the preparation for the evening meal. So we joined a few others in search of a talked about Tibetan bread on the street, we’ve eaten something similar in Beijing, it’s a large flat bread with herbs and spice on top, often there is minced pork added onto it, but this one seemed to be meat free? Before going back to the hostel we went to another talked about favourite in the area The 88 German Bakery (a somewhat controversial name by all accounts according to some German backpackers at the hostel) but don’t let this put you off. The deli style cafe is very welcoming, and we tasted a fantastic chai and granola biscuit enough to warrant another visit a few days later.

So after being spoiled at The German Bakery we found the others in the kitchen and began to cook. It was a little messy and perhaps disorganised but Chung lee loved toggle us all a role and asked us to cook some dishes we want to. She was pretty fussy though and preferred to be the one dishing out the instructions, at times it was a little ‘too many cooks…’ but it was all fun and we managed to cook up quite a feast including eggplant and peppers, spicy fish, mushroom soup, vegetable stir fry, chicken and beef dishes. Aside from the slaughtering of the chicken and then watching Chung Lee massacre it in the kitchen it was a pleasant experience! We all ate together in the bar upstairs and enjoyed cheap beer too. We followed this with a few drinks in town at a crazy little place ran by a frenchman called Mushroom…go there and you will not be disappointed.

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

We left one big bag behind at Cloudland hostel as they offer a free luggage storage service for 3 days (thereafter its 3yuan per day). So we took advantage of this and packed most things into one main rucksack and had the smaller ones for cameras and so on. The bus left from the one bus station in Kunming which is way out of town, it takes around 45 minutes to get there and will cost 50 yuan by taxi. We were lucky as two girls from the hostel were making their way to the bus station so we shared the taxi ride with them. They were also going all the way to Yuanyang so it was good to know there were more travelers making their way there.

The bus left at 10am but it was a chilly start to the day, much cooler than previous days and all the way to Yuanyang this weather seemed to stick with us. There were a few stops along the cliff edged roads, one of which led us to some interesting outside toilets others were drop offs for extra parcels and passports the driver seemed to be transporting. There was a bit of a traffic jam coming into Xinjie where the main buses will stop at for the terraces and we eventually pulled up at 4pm. Greg from Sunny’s Guesthouse was there to meet us, he’d been staying there for some months helping out and as their English speaking guide for the guesthouse. His English was perfect and this in itself was very helpful in negotiating the mini bus fare back to their village. The two girls we had met on our way to the bus also joined us, so all in all we had managed to save a few yuan by sharing taxis and so on.

It was pretty foggy which we’d heard is very common at the terraces as they are set at altitude so often the mist settles into the valleys and takes a day to clear. We stopped at a few vantage points along the way which gave us a hint of what to expect when the weather clears. Sunny’s Guesthouse is one of very few accommodations in the Douyishi village. It is run by husband and wife and their sun Frank, they are currently doing some renovation work (as is often the case in off season China) and they are limited when it comes to heating, but it has amazing rooftop views and is located at the foot of the rice terraces in the village so we were spoilt for choice! We opted for a double room mainly due to body heat, it was freezing!! We did have an electric blanket though so there was comfort in that. The mist didn’t clear but we got a few shots of the landscape before dinner and two of the other guys staying there turned up from a stroll so there was a good group of us around the table. Dining takes place in a separate outer building from the main guesthouse, Frank is the chef and he kept churning out top quality home-cooked organic dishes one plate after the other. We also enjoyed the red rice which is grown in the Yuanyang rice fields. The family ate at the table next to us which is great in itself as they really do welcome you to their home. We stayed up and chatted next to the little fire in the communal area and then settled in for the night in anticipation of a good sunrise the next morning.

We woke early but the fog was still with us so we stayed in the warm bed a little longer before getting up to join some of the others for breakfast. They were disappointed as the whole time they were there the fog was too! Still even the fog offers some great opportunities pictorially. For breakfast we enjoyed an eggy bread style theme; egg pancakes with jam (very tasty) eggy french bread (good) and fried egg…it did the trick but was a little too stodgy! Still it was hot food and the air was cold. Nathan from San Francisco had arrived at 5am so he joined us and we chatted about plans for later on hoping to catch the sunset if the fog cleared.

After breakfast we went for a stroll into the village. Still foggy, adding atmosphere to the surroundings, we wandered past the pigs, chickens and cows roaming around people’s houses. There is very much a sense of community here and we learned that the rice terraces belong to the villagers and they share out between themselves what they grow, we figured it must be the same for the animals. The houses are very simple, many with straw roofs and it’s a very basic way of living (although we’re sure they have large flat screen TV’s tucked away in some of them!) It’s a very picturesque place and making our way down to the terraces was really rewarding even in the fog. You can walk into them quite far on the small paths, the terraces can be quite abstract too with left over rice plants sticking out of the water. At times the sun peeked through the cloud and offered some strong reflections, but the fog would soon swallow it up again.

We arranged to meet Nathan, Frank and one of the girls at 4pm to head out in search of some better weather later on. This meant we had the day to catch up on editing, the electric blanket was turned on, we wore all the clothes possible and every so often we would pause for a run up onto the roof terrace to catch the views before going back down again. Helen got pretty cold so along to the Chemical Brother’s Push the Button album she had a boogy in the room to warm up!

We met up with the others at 4pm to go in search of a sunset, Frank had heard that the sun was out in a few areas of the region so we went off to find them. Some of the best views were found at roadside platforms where we could catch the terraces for free, the bigger more well known viewing areas are all charged on entry so we had to toy with the plan…if the weather isn’t going to be good over there let’s see what we can find for free rather than getting there, paying and having no views. When we originally came into the Yuanyang region we managed to avoid the entrance fee by sitting in the back of the mini van and being unnoticed by the gateway keepers. To access the villages alone there is a 60yuan per person fee for tourists, but if it’s foggy, the weather is bad or you can hide behind local drivers then you will miss this fee. We were nearly charged on the second day but Frank managed to talk us out of it.

Finally we reached an area that had clear views and strong sunset colours reflecting off the water filled terraces. It was quite a special moment, we could see the fog coming in on different sections of the terraces. Wow! The terraces go on for what seems like miles, and this was only one section!

We did have to pay Frank for ferrying us around but it was only 30yuan per person so that wasn’t too bad at all, he also took off some money for us as he didn’t take us all the way to other viewing areas, this was mainly because the weather wasn’t as clear there anyway so it did us a favour. Back at Sunny’s we enjoyed another family meal, perhaps not as good as the first night, but there was plenty of choice and we were joined by some more guests. We stayed up with Nathan and Greg sipping on hot tea and chatting away until it was bed time. We were leaving early the next day but had vowed to be on the rooftop for the sunrise.

6.30am and we were on the roof watching the sun rise over the mountain tops and Dave shot some more slow shutter imagery on the Olympus Pen. If we’d have had more time we would have loved to stay for that day as we knew the weather was getting better, but we had other plans to go further north from Kunming and we were happy with what we had seen.

A quick breakfast and we were all squashed into the mini van to take us back to the bus station. This time we shared the journey with 4 others so once again costs were reduced. The bus left at 8.30am and along with Nathan we made our way back to Kunming. It was a much warmer day all round and we arrived in Kunming at 5pm, Nathan shared our taxi and covered the costs as a work expense which we were very grateful for. We said our goodbyes and landed at Cloudland at around 6pm in time for dinner.

A few hellos to other travelers we had met in Shanghai and we went out to one of the local eateries for some great cheap local food. This was followed by a quiet night at the hostel and arrangements to take a bus to Dali the following afternoon.

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