We arrived at 8am in Hue after a bumpy overnight sleeper journey. The bus was packed with westerners which made a change from those our travels in China, but it was nice as Helen befriended a South-American Fashion journalist and watched a few episodes of Arrested Development. When we got to Hue we took our bags off the coach and were pointed towards the Google Hotel, here we had a quick pick me up in the form of some fruit and coffee and then went off to see a few sights before our onward bus scheduled at 1.30pm.

Hue is quite small so it’s easy enough to walk across the river and over to the main sights. It was raining and quite humid, and we passed by a war museum so stopped to take a look and saw some old American army tanks before taking in an exhibition on the Vietnam war. It’s not that big an exhibition but was a good introduction to the developments of the Vietnam war. As we left along very slippery paths we walked to the Imperial Palace which is probably the main attraction in Hue. It only cost 10,000 dong each which is around 33p so we forked out the cash and went inside along with several other tourists. After a brief stop to feed the fish we continued to walk around the Palace grounds and ruins, the site is mainly made up of old Palace rooms, some have been preserved to their original use whilst many others are still as they were since being bombed in the war. Tiled floors still form the ground to many rooms but only have wooden structures and the odd wall that show where the walls would have been.

After taking in the Palace grounds we walked to a Vegetarian restaurant on our way back to the hotel to meet the bus. We chose a few local dishes along with some rice and really enjoyed it. We then made our way back to the hotel and got the bus at 1.30pm as scheduled bound for Hoi An. We arrived there at around 5pm and went to find a hotel, we had provisionally booked one place but en-route were offered a cheaper and quite decent room so we opted for this one, breakfast was included and the room was a good size with en-suite. After checking in we went to explore this picturesque river-side town, as we ventured towards the riverside we became enveloped by old quaint houses, tailoring shops, restaurants and souvenirs. It is a very pretty town indeed and almost felt like a stage-set at times, perhaps a little over the top in terms of restoration and just oozed hundreds of western tourists on every street.

We opted for the Morning Glory restaurant close to the riverside but not on the river front for our evening meal. This came in the form of Vegetarian curry, salad, soup and grilled aubergine, each dish was bursting with flavour so based on this we decided to book ourselves onto their cooking class in two days time. Back to the hotel via some more quaint streets, tailoring shops and light displays. before an much needed early night was had.

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

Up early and out the door with our baggage we headed to the Ocean Tours office. We were able to leave some bags at the tour office to lighten the load whilst on our trip to Halong bay with our new friends Justin, Jules, her brother John and his wife Lisa. The six of us piled into the tour bus with the other adventurers and began our 4 hour journey to the bay. We arrived at midday after a stop at a service area which sold assorts of tourist paraphernalia including huge tapestries which were made in the shop by a bank of ladies at sewing machines.

Once we arrived we boarded the Junk boat and set sail into the bay which had some nice views if a little cloudy. The boats have accommodation for up to fourteen people so they are nice and cosy. Due to the limited space we were staying on Cat Ba Island for the first night and on the boat on the second.

We were served some very good food on the afternoon which included some fresh seafood which we all loved. After some more sailing and relaxing on the top deck we dropped anchor and a boat arrived with some kayaks for us to venture into the bay under our own power. They were double person kayaks so we both jumped in and paddled around into bays and caves. Even though the weather wasn’t the best we loved the kayaking and the water was a decent temperature, there was even talk about going for a dip in the water at some point!

We boarded another junk boat that had docked with the first boat and the six of us headed off to Cat Ba Island for the evening. The sun poked through the clouds and it made the whole area just that little bit more magical. Our tour guide was chatting to us, supplying us with information on the area and answering any questions, he was very knowledgeable and helpful. Upon docking at the island we headed to our evenings accommodation via push bikes for a few km, maybe taking around 20 minutes to get there (our bags were taken onwards via motorbike). The village is very small and quiet with a new custom built area for the tourists to stay in basic but practical bungalows with en-suite bathroom, hot water and a double bed.

To save some money we purchased a little present from Hanoi in the form of a bottle of Rum priced at 90,000 Dong (£3). Justin and Jules had the same idea, so out came two litres of spirits which got the night off to a good start. Dinner was served and again the food was very good, they even catered well for the vegetarians and also wheat intolerance. We were informed in Hanoi that there would be AC heating in the room, but this was not the case, however more blankets were supplied and this kept us all fairly snug.

Breakfast was served at 8am which included some very good apple pancakes and omelettes. After some relaxation time and packing we all got together and headed off for a hike up the nearby karst peak (around 300m in height). Its quite a climb and you will need some good footwear, boots recommended, to manage the rocks and steep assent, apparently the record is around 35 minutes but we managed it in around 45/50 minutes. At the top there are some great views over the whole bay and down to the village below, however it started to rain so we headed down which was made more difficult by the slippery rocks underfoot.

We also ventured out to a nearby cave before heading back to the village for some lunch and then we jumped on the bikes to ride back to the dock to rendezvous with our evenings watery accommodation. The double rooms on the boat were very well presented, clean and comfortable, with hot water from the showers. The temptation to take a plunge in the water was just too much for some and after stripping down and braving the now chilly air, Justin, Jules, John and Dave all jumped in. It was chilly to say the least, but bearable for a few minutes, in the summer it must be lovely. The boat headed off and dinner was served including seafood and a plate of chips which all went down very well.

You can have a go at Squid fishing from the boats edge, however it was a quiet night in the ocean and nothing was caught, good job we weren’t fishing for our food, otherwise we would have been very hungry. After some card games and an offer for Dave to play some Texas Holdem poker with the Vietnamese boat staff, which we declined when we found out they were playing for money, I’m sure we would have got shafted, we headed to our cabin for a night at sea.

After a good sleep in our cabin, breakfast was served on deck and we were informed that due to bad weather we had to move to a safer bay which took us too far away from the Amazing Caves that we were due to visit. This was unfortunate but out of anyones hands, government orders apparently, so we set sail back to port. Upon arrival at the port we had lunch at 11am, so we were all feeling pretty full after two meals in the space of a few hours. The food wasn’t as good as on the boat but it was ok. Generally speaking the food on the trip was very good indeed, often at times we felt like each meal rolled into the next, you certainly wont go hungry if you book with Ocean Tours!

The journey back to Hanoi was uneventful and we arrived safely back at Ocean Tours at around 4.30pm. We had a sleeper bus booked for that evening so we were glad we had the time to get to the hostel pickup point and grab some food before our departure of Hanoi. Street food was a quickest option and we had some rice dishes. Helen’s vegetarian option was sticky rice and pickled cucumber, which was tasty but basic, Dave’s was a type of salami, a fried boiled egg, rice and sauce which was very tasty, almost like a mini full English breakfast.

At 6pm we were picked up from the Rendezvous hostel via mini bus and taken to the sleeper bus for the journey to Hoi An via Hue, a 13 hour journey to Hue and then 4 hours onwards to Hoi An.

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

We have quite a lot to fit in on this post so here we go…

We had a night train booked to go to Xian, leaving Beijing West on a hardsleeper. The train was full and we were 2 of 6 in our cabin in a carriage that houses around 10 or so cabins! There are also around 20 carriages so the trains are pretty massive. The price for our bottom bunk was 275 RMB each, not bad as it’s our accommodation and travel in one. Once we were ready to get into bed the lights went out and everyone went to sleep until our arrival the following morning at 8am.

When we got to Xian station our hostel Shiyuan were waiting with a sign saying Helen Roecoe…we knew it was for us! There were a few other backpackers on the taxi bus to the hostels, most were dropped off at Yin Tang Inn a few streets away from us. Shiyuan is a YHA hostel located near to the South Gate of the city wall. It’s a pretty good location and they were really helpful. We were impressed at being able to check into our room at 8.30 in the morning. For our time in Xian we booked a mixed dorm room so we could save some money and meet a few other backpackers. On the first night though we had the place to ourselves. They have a decent cafe at the hostel and breakfast is fairly substantial and at a good price. You also get free coffee and beer every day you’re there!! Not bad!

We had a few things to sort out when we got there – our ticket back to Beijing was one, breakfast another and looking into the tour to the Terracotta Warriors. Getting the train tickets was easy once we found the little ticket office a few streets away!! It’s well located to the hostel but it is tricky to find – appearing as a kiosk to an ICBC branch. You can’t buy return journeys over here, so each time you arrive in a place you need to pick up your return or the connection to your next destination. We got back to our hostel having purchased two hardsleeper tickets for two days time. After some breakfast at the cafe we went to the reception desk to book ourselves onto their tour the next day. We know we could have done this ourselves and got the bus to the site for a lot less, but we wanted to book a tour so that we could meet a few other backpackers/travellers in Xian. Having sorted this out we then walked up to the South Gate entrance to the City Wall, paid the entrance fee of 40 yuan each and then found a bike rental service quite easily once we were on top.

Cycling on the XIan city wall was really good fun and we stopped plenty of times for sights that we wanted to photograph. Construction of the city, demolition areas, temple rooftops, large apartment blocks on the other side of the wall, lanterns and a strange collection of animal shaped floats left on the top after some type of carnival…we couldn’t quite figure out how long they’d been left there and whether they’re still in use!! All of this mean’t that we were stopping every 50 meters or so at some points! We even managed to set up the self-timer on the Olympus to get a shot of us cycling toward the camera! Oh fun!

We cycled the wall for around 2.5 hours and paid an extra 10 yuan for the privilege. We would recommend doing this if you get to Xian! Later on we went for some street food in the city’s manic Muslim quarter. This is quite an experience with so much food being cooked right on the street under burning flames, hot pots and local delicacies are thrown into the limelight and under your nose. Mixed in with the food are a few streets of tourism gift stalls, dried fruit and restaurants. Again probably a must if you get to go. We had some of the Cool noodles, which is supposed to be a famous local snack but it is what it is…cold noodles!! Helen had a vegetable hot pot dish and Dave opted for the Chinese sandwich with beef. We got back to the hostel at a good time and Dave rang home.

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

26th – Terracotta warriors

We left at 9am for the trip to the Terracotta Warriors with a few people from our hostel and went onto Yin Tang Inn to pick up some more people on the tour. We met a great group who’d all met at the hostel the night before, most of whom were traveling around China and had loads of tales to tell of their experiences. After some brief bonding we were interrupted by our tour guide Jha Jha (“Lady Jha Jha” apparently) who proceeded to inform us about the warriors and the local area that we were traveling through. She is quite a character and well known amongst travellers as she loves the line, “My name is Jha Jha, I’m 27 and single!” which made us all chuckle. Our fellow sight-seer Sam was her target on this trip and we all teased him about this as the day progressed.

Make sure you take some photo ID with you when you visit the warriors as security is tight and you have to go through airport style security twice before you get anywhere near. Whilst walking to the entrance from the bus drop-off point you have to walk through an 80′s style English pedestrianized shopping mall! It’s pretty kitsch!

The warriors are located in bunkers that are covered by huge structures. It did feel a little Indiana Jones with a smattering of easy tourism thrown in. Bunker 3 is the biggest and best site so with that in mind we were taken to 2,1,3 bunkers, saving the best until last.

It’s an impressive site with excavations continuing to be undertaken which all happens after 6pm when the sites close. The visit is a worthwhile one however we were expecting more!? We felt that you would be able to get closer to the masses of warriors, that it would be more of an under ground cave system and that in-fact there would be more warriors. We did learn that there are more sites around the area however they have not been officially located yet. The background story is an impressive one involving Mercury ingestion by a power hungry/eternal life seeking emperor and ultimate death for the workers under his control.

As we are in China and we are tourists we were taken to a gift shop selling various things such as jade jewellery, warriors and the man who discovered the site itself was sat behind a desk signing books for those seeking that extra special touch! We couldn’t quite believe that he was there…it was a little surreal but very typical of the levels tourism have reached here.

Following on from the trip to the warriors site we had a brief journey to the tomb where the crazed emperor is buried, it sounds like an amazing site, but it is yet to be reached due to the dangers of a mercury moat and oxygen damaging the hidden artefacts with his body. So you can see a hill in the distance and after about 5 minutes we went back to the bus to leave! On our way back we stopped at a hotel for a big lunch all at a bargain of 25 yuan. As Helen and Ian don’t eat meat they had to sit on a separate table to the rest of the group…romantic meal for two! The restaurant was huge and only had about 3 tables full so this looked pretty funny! David and the meat eaters gouged on pork and other unknown meat-like objects whilst Helen and Ian were very civilised in their Pak Choi and sticky potatoe spread.

When we got back to Xian we decided to get a taxi over to their hostel a little later on as there would be a dumpling making party! A couple games of pool some beer and a few snacks later and we were all making speed dumplings! We’d say a little more atmospheric than the one at the CCC earlier in the month…Jackson 5 on the soundsystem and we were on our way to dumpling heaven!! They weren’t much better though than the last one’s we made and after a while when they’re cooked they do tend to be very samey! Still it’s all in the fun of making them!!

A couple we’d met the day before came to join us for beers at the bar after the dumpling making session and we chatted about plans for China travel, we are doing a very similar route but at a different time so it was good to get some ideas. We then went to the bar street…hmmm not really Liverpool’s Matthew St but there were a few bars offering cheap beer so we went in for an hour or so before saying goodbye to our warrior buddies and went back to our dorm.

27th – Next day Helen was ill, we didn’t do much as she had some kind of tummy bug so it was a light and slightly teary stroll to the Giant Wild Goose Pagoda, which was a lot further than we had anticipated, we followed this up with a taxi back to the hostel where we managed to get a room for the day. We decided later on that it wasn’t a good idea for us to leave that night for the train. The hostel were very accommodating and let us have a dorm room for 4 just for the two of us. Helen slept and Dave went out for food. We didn’t know this at the time but we could have taken our train tickets back up to 2 hours before leaving Xian in exchange for a refund with only a fifth of the price lost. We didn’t know this so we did loose out on some money and had to buy tickets for the next night. 28th – Helen was feeling better the following day although we laid low in Xian and ventured to a local park in between hanging out at the hostel for most of the day. We could only get a soft sleeper back to Beijing, which was okay but not that much better than a hardsleeper! Still it mean’t we had a quitter cabin. The train left Xian at 8.34pm and arrived in Beijing at around 7am. It took us around half an hour to catch the metro back to Xinjeikou on line 1 as the rush hour was pretty crazy! We literally only just managed to squeeze on with our bags after watching several locals climbing their way off the train. Madness.

On the 29th we spent the main part of the day at the apartment resting, writing, washing clothes, watching Peep Show and only ventured out once to the supermarket. Sometimes you just need to have a lazy day (and have a washing day)! We followed this up the next day with a spot of Christmas Shopping at the Yashow clothing market on the other side of town, it was fun bartering and we managed to buy most of our prezzies too. Good times! The bookworm also delighted us by providing some nice solid western food. We also went out for food with our hosts the chen family, but for some stupid reason we forgot to take our cameras out with us!! What were we thinking! The food was really good aswell…ah well we think you are enjoying the food pics so we will have plenty more to show and we had a very enjoyable evening – big thanks to them for helping us out with our accommodation whilst we have been staying in Beijing.

We’ve opted for some sightseeing and thrown ourselves headfirst into the height of Beijing’s tourist center; The Forbidden City. Helen came here many years ago on a hot summers day. On this day the sun shone and the sky was blue, but it was very cold. Along with panda hat wearing locals, westerners and street vendors we approached the Forbidden City through the front gates passing under Mao’s portrait and through to the grounds. It’s a massive site built up of several temples, shrines, gardens, halls and statues that were home to the Qing and Ming dynasties many moons ago. It’s a must do in the whole scale of things to do when you visit China. However Dave was expecting a little more!! It is quite tired and the money coming in from the thousands of visitors every day doesn’t appear to be going into the upkeep of the site. However given this it’s still very impressive and is also host to a 4 star toilet facility! Well surely this is enough to go on it’s own merit!!

You can easily spend a day here as there are so many routes within the city, gardens and museums to explore. We opted for a long morning. The colours of the brickwork and walls within the Forbidden City are beautiful and we loved the textures that exist within this environment. Later that evening we ate at The Korean Bistro on Nanluoguxiang, a tourist Hutong area that has a mixture of western and Chinese food, gift shops and bars.

The following day we went on our first of two trips booked with the CCC. This one was for the Great Wall of China and we were going to an area of the wall that isn’t walked often, has no tourist traps and was around an hour and a half away from the city. It was lovely to get out of the city and the weather was again perfect from a photography point of view, although it was bitterly cold in the wind. Our local tour guide is from the village where we started the walk and he along with others from his family had helped to re-build parts of the wall so that people can hike in the area. He had even carried a table to a watch-mans tower so that we could stop there for lunch. We had a lovely group including Trisha and her two children from Portland, Joyce from NYC and Becca from England, our tour guide from the CCC Andy spoke excellent English and had great knowledge about the hike. Both he and the tour co-ordinator Michael were very dedicated in carrying hot water, coffee and snacks all the way. As you can see by the photographs the scenery is quite mystical with a very hazy layer on the horizon. We really enjoyed the walk and were breathtaken by the Great Wall itself.

As we got back down we were invited into the home of our local tour guide. We sat in their living room drinking tea and chatting away, it was a lovely finish to a great walk. When we got back to the CCC we were invited back to Joyce’s for beer and popcorn, Dave, Becca and myself took her up on the offer and before long we were sat in her serviced apartment in Sanlitun. We discovered Joyce is an author of 30+ books!! This is someone who has sheer dedication and is an inspiration to us all. We met up with Trisha minus the kids and went to a very local chinese fast food restaurant for noodles and chinese burgers. We ended the night with a hot chocolate at The Bookworm.

On sunday we went to a charity Christmas gift event at the Canadian International School of Beijing, we bought a few Christmas gifts and soon found ourselves back at The Bookworm using their free wi-fi. This was followed by a spot of shopping before we made our way back to the CCC for their noodle and dumpling making class. This was taught to us by a local professional Chinese chef who specialises in Chinese pastry. We made our dough for the dumplings, left it to rise and in the meantime we had a go at stretching and pulling the dough used for noodle making. This was loads of fun and many people ended up with theirs on the floor as the dough stretched too far. There is a real knack to this and it does take many years to perfect so one lesson wont do much!! For the dumplings there was a meat and veggie option for the filling. The meat is pork and vegetable and the veggie option is egg and spinach. We rolled out our dough, chopped it, flattened it out and then filled it with a little of the stuffing. After this you close the dough in and around the mixture and then make a nice pattern with the dough. We hope that the photos describe it better. Once they were ready they were boiled and then we ate them with a soy dip. They were okay! I’m sure next time they’ll be loads better!! Only a few people got to make the actual noodles but we didn’t cook them so it was more of a demonstration. It was a pretty cool little event, although it would be good to learn how to make the mixture ourselves rather than having it ready to go. We also met Jen from Tinyurbankitchen who is traveling with her husband and writing a food blog.

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

Helen didn’t have the best night sleep, it was pretty chilly in our room and the painted tigers on the walls did little to make us feel warm either. The bell rang at 5.50am and we made our way to the shrine area for the morning chant. The morning air was chilly and it took some time to warm up in the shrine room. The chants lasted for about 45 minutes as the sun rose behind closed doors. It was an interesting experience and really shows the dedication that the monks have to their traditions and beliefs.

Once the ceremony had finished breakfast was served in the dining room. Another vegetarian meal of rice, soup, pickles, shredded veg, spongy tofu and green tea. We both pretty much finished the breakfast, however the same textures and flavors do become quite tedious when you are eating them for breakfast, lunch and dinner! The morning light in the corridor and our room needed some photographic attention so we duly obliged.

We made our way back down the village to where we got dropped off yesterday (at the wrong monastery) and headed for the cemetery; Oku-No-In which had been recommended to us by the Dutch couple we had met the night before and is a mass of graves stones, shrines and temples. So with clean air in our lungs and the sun on your faces we headed off down the road. Maybe due to the cooler air at this altitude the leaves on the trees were at a much more autumnal stage and they looked very picturesque. The intense reds and oranges really pop and with a blue sky backdrop they look lovely. The cemetery is vast and contains thousands of graves from common folk to military generals.

There is a stone in a wooden cage structure here, the Miroku Stone. You can only get one hand through the gap in the wood and you are supposed to lift the rock up on to a shelf. The weight of the stone is supposed to change for each person, the less sins you have the lighter the stone will be. Dave failed on his first and second attempt, his sins are too high! Third attempt he made it but that’s a bit late really!

After walking back to pick up our bags we jumped on the bus, in the right direction and we caught the next cable car down the mountain valley before catching the train to our next stop Osaka. We spotted a cool place on the internet before we left the UK called Hostel 64 created by an architecture firm in Osaka, so with Hotel Michelberger, Berlin from early 2010 in our minds we booked two nights stay here to complete our travel in Japan. We arrived and checked into our room which was a nice size and then headed to the roof for a look over the roof tops. The sun was shining which we haven’t had much of in Japan so it made sense to soak up some rays (and take some photos)! The light and shadows were fabulous, so after some photos we decided to head out to The Umeda Sky Building to see some views of the city and catch the sunset. We just about made it in time to see the sun disappear over the horizon in a fiery red glow.

We headed back to the hostel area to eat locally as we had read of a local Korean restaurant which seemed like a good idea. We had a map from the hostel but could not get our bearings and local landmarks were not where we thought they should be. In a nutshell in Japan there are lots and lots of Family Marts and convenience stores. One of these was marked on the map so we used that as our reference. That was not the correct Family Mart, it was on the other side of the block! Not knowing this, we ended up going for a little restaurant that specialised in Yakitori; Japanese barbecue chicken. We had a mix of chicken, salad, tofu soup and a rice ball. The rice ball was toasted over hot coals in a sticky sesame sauce served with pickles, lovely!

Feeling full and still frustrated from wandering around for an hour looking for Korean food we headed back to the hostel for a beer in the bar and then bed.

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

We started the day off once more with the cost effective filling breakfast provided by K’s before checking out to start the first leg of the journey. We anticipated around 5 hours of travel so we were keen to get an early start. Our first train with the JR pass took us out of Kyoto on an express train to Osaka where we changed to go to Shimamiya. From here we had to buy train tickets for another train company which included a long winded train journey into the mountains and finally a cable car connection from Gokurakubashi up to Koyasan. The cable car took around 10 minutes and was a steep track up to a small station which still had the same ticket operating gates you’d see in the metro. You tend to find technology in the most unusual places such as vending machines on your way up to a historic temple, or right on the drive of someone’s house, this is something that always amuses us.

So with a short bus journey to complete our travel to this world heritage site we landed at what we thought was our temple accommodation for the evening. The only problem was that Helen had printed off the wrong temple information, when booking this the agents sent through a list of temples even though we had booked only one, others in Koyasan were included in the email, so we realised we were in the wrong place and they sent us up the road to what they thought was our temple. This was around 15 minutes walk up hill with all of our backpacks with us, arriving at the second temple and we found out that this one wasn’t ours either! Nightmare!! Finally we found our temple and it was right near the site entrance, so it would have been the first stop off the bus and the cheapest fare too!! We managed to laugh about it though.

The temple we were checking into is called Rengejo-in, more expensive than some of the others in town but we had read some good reviews and it was a kind of birthday treat for Dave. We couldn’t get into our room until 3pm so we set out in search of some local world heritage sights. We weren’t disappointed and the light was fantastic with blue skies, bright sunshine and red autumn leaves teasing us all the while. The site closest to our accommodation is called Garan and is a temple complex with several halls and pagodas. The Dai-to (Great Pagoda) is the most impressive and beautiful Pagoda we have so far seen on our travels in Japan. It towers above you in strong golds, oranges and reds and glowed in the sunlight whilst school children sketched their surrounding landscape. There were many pilgrim tours taking place as well as tour groups dropping into the site for the day. We loved photographing around this site and with the addition of red leaves against a blue sky it definitely captured our imaginations.

Walking up from Garan we retreated to the temple as we were keen to get our monies worth here. We were introduced to our grand, traditional Japanese style room by a friendly monk who spoke good English. He informed us about the do’s and don’ts, bath-times, ceremonies taking place and so on. We had an hour or so to settle in before the first ceremony which was a 45 minute meditation session. We drank some tea and kept our legs under the table which sneakily had a heater fixed into it, we had noticed the drop in temperature in Koyasan and the paper thin walls weren’t keeping us any warmer. At 5.30pm we attended the meditation session along with other temple guests. It was a really insightful experience as you only ever go into a temple rather than being part of any kind of Buddhist ceremony. The lead monk introduced the session and told us we would meditate until the incense stopped burning some 40 minutes later. Helen has some experience of meditation from her yoga class back in the UK and a few other retreats but for the most part around 10-15 minutes would be the longest. It was a very long 40 minutes but equally we were surprised that it didn’t feel longer. He finished the ceremony by telling us a few tales about the mountainous area, the importance of meditation and a few other more Buddhist related facts. It was something we will both never forget. Afterwards we were led into the dining room where we sat with the other westerners staying the night. We had something like 9 dishes placed in front of us from fruit, to miso soup, several kinds of tofu, pickles, squash, rice and other things we can’t quite remember.

After a quick chat with a nice Dutch couple we went back to our room, used the onset baths and then settled into our beds for an early night. We were due to rise at just before 6am for the morning ceremony. Not before passing the time by light-painting with our head torch and some fairy crazy moves. Much laughter followed!

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