• Day 6 Bupsa to Chaurikarka with a high point of 2900m

By now we were averaging long days to cover the miles on the trek. We really wanted to make it to Namche on our 9th day of trekking and so pushing through to Chaurikarka seemed like a good idea. Our bill at the lodge in Bupsa came to 1780 rupees and the host didn’t charge us for our rooms. He was also really kind in giving each of us white prayer scarfs to wish us a safe journey up to Gokyo Ri. We all decided we would leave them up there once we’d made it to the peak of our trek.

The highest point of the day came at Khari-La (2900m) and all the while we could spot our route as tea houses would crop up along the way. We also passed mani-walls and lot’s of prayer flags. We weren’t too far from the Lukla to Namche trekkers highway and so we were holding onto every moment we had on the paths before we met the busy pathways ahead.

In Puiyan we enjoyed an excellent lunch at one of the lesser known lodges, here we had what we jointly voted was the best ra-ra noodle soups to date plus we couldn’t help but lap up the fried eggs! Even Helen who isn’t an egg lover enjoyed one!

As we approached Chaurikarka it had been a really long day and we got there at around 5pm joined by a few other trekkers. We can’t remember the name of the guesthouse we stayed at but it’s at the top of the village past the Stupas and the Hilliary school. In fact right in front of the lodge is a sign on the pavement; down to Jiri onwards to Namche, also upon leaving the lodge to the left there is a Mani-gate so we hope this helps in identifying which lodge we stayed at, for anyone who’s interested! After dahl bat times 6 we enjoyed another early night in our cosy tea lodge.

• Day nine: Chaurikarka to Namche with a high point of 3446m

We were once again ready for a long day, leaving at just after 8am (most trekkers tend to up and leave at around 6-7am but we preferred to have breakfast and get ourselves ready before heading off). As we left the village we were hiking through village upon village, with pathways lined with mani-stones and walls. When we reached Cheplung we finally joined the Lukla to Namche highway which is the path most people take when they fly into Lukla and start their acclimatisation walks.

We had lunch in Phakding at the second lodge we came to on the left of the path, there is a nice outdoor seating area which always marks highly on our scores! By now the four of us seemed to be marking the standard of food in relation to the best meals we’d been enjoying along the way. We knew some awards would be given out at the end of the trek (hypothetically that is!). Dave and Joshua had been chatting pretty much all the way about food and so it deemed right to stop at this point. The Singapore lads passed us as we sat there, this time they had their friend with them who’d flown out to Lukla to join them for their trek to Everest Base Camp. It had been really nice bumping into them most days.

We had a good break for lunch and then continued onwards, stopping in Mondzo (Munjo) to buy a few choccie bars that we thought would help us out later on in the climb to Namche. We then passed the checkpoint had our names entered into the log book and we were suddenly in The Solo-Khumbu National Park. From here there is a steep downhill climb and several villages to pass through whilst criss-crossing over the rivers on large swing bridges. After leaving Jorsale there are no more villages until Namche.

There is a fantastic swing bridge taking you over from one side of the river to the other which then leads you into a really steep and dusty climb. This climb doesn’t stop until Namche Bazaar, and it is pretty relentless. Amata was struggling with a head cold and sore throat and so all the dust being blown up around didn’t help. Dave was on good form with his duct-tape socks but we all needed our little chocolate boost along the way. We also got our first real glimpse of Everest from an abandoned tea house in ruins. This last part of the climb is tough coming in from Chaurikarka and Helen felt it was the hardest day to date, the elevation in this section is around 800m or so.

The sight of Namche was welcomed indeed, we were just a little annoyed by all the steps and such getting into the village. Once we did there was some music playing from one of the many shops along the street and so Joshua and Helen broke out into a little celebratory dance, Amata filmed us and Dave just did a cool head nod! We opted to stay a little way out of the busy area of Namche at The Moonlight Lodge one of the higher lodges, which also meant more stair climbing. But it was worth it, Moonlight is a great lodge, the owners are helpful and the food was some of the best we’d had so far. Showers are on the pricey side at 300 rupees but it was a very hospitable place to be.

• Day 10 Namche rest day

We did very little on our rest day; washed clothes, showered and ate! We enjoyed the luxury of a coffee and hot chocolate as well as a danish pastry later on in the day. Amata was mainly trying to get over her cold, but all four of us were happy just to chill, read and chat in the Moonlight dining area. It was also a good place to check emails and stock up on a few essential snack items for the treks ahead of us (200rs for 30mins in an internet cafe). We decided to do an acclimatisation hike the next day to Thame sitting at 3800m and we wanted to stay there. This meant we could leave some gear behind at the lodge and make it a nice 2 day hike with a small load. Our final bill at the Moonlight Lodge came to 7450 rupees, this was our biggest and perhaps most indulgent bill to date!

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f2.0, 18mm f4, 90mm Tele-Elmarit f2.8 processed in Lightroom 3)

We booked a 3 day 2 night tour with Sinhbalo tours (tour – “SBL8 – Cycle from MyTho to Cai Be, Vinh Long and Can Tho (3D/2N)”) along with new best friends Justin and Jules. We had been recommended the company by other travellers we’d met in Halong Bay who’d actually made the statement that it was the best thing they’d done in Vietnam, so based on this we thought they would be a strong bet for a good cycling tour. Other companies tend to charge more for similar tours and we didn’t want to stretch our budget too much.

The first day involved a mixture of bus, boat and cycling. The bus took us from HCMC to the Mekong Delta and took around 3 hours, as soon as we arrived we took a boat journey along the Mekong to an Island where we were introduced to local life, food and animals! We had some lovely very fresh fruits and tea as well as some baked rice cakes (a little like sweet poppadoms), our guide Duat talked us through the family home and traditions, they were getting ready for festive family celebrations leading up to TET. This led onto a little boat trip through one of the Mekong canals, the whole route to ourselves led us back peacefully to the boat where we had got off. So it was a pretty leisurely start to the day that ended seeing us having lunch at a crocodile and coco-nut farm. Crocodile was not on the menu fortunately but they were there for us all to see and others to tease. The food served was fairly good, but we almost expected a little more, especially after the food of the Halong Bay tour.

We made another crossing of the Mekong river via boat and met the tour bus which had a fine selection of mountain bikes ready for us to explore the area. Our guide lead the way on a 20km ride along roads and trails which included plenty of “hellos” from children along the way, this is something you get used to very quickly when cycling around. Another boat journey landed us at the home-stay for our evenings stay. It was more like a simple eco guest house on stilts rather than a homestead but non the less it provided double beds with mosquito nets. A short walk around the local area gave a flavour of local life and then it was time for our evening meal. This was quite similar to lunch which was a little disappointing as its nice to try different menu items, however it was well received by everyone. Some card games, beer and a glimpse of fireflies in the trees finished the day off nicely and we were all looking forward to the next installment of cycling.

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

Up early at 6.30am and then breakfast was served, consisting of bread, jam, eggs and watermelon. We climbed aboard our stallions for the day (21 speed mountain bikes) and started off the 1.5hr bike ride through the delta area. We passed many little villages and homes with yet more screams of “hello” from the kids we passed, rice fields and cows. The heat of the day was quite oppressive however we had plenty of water supplied by our tour guide and eventually we arrived at a town and increased our energy with a good feed. We were informed that it was 35C by a local who was sheltering from the midday sun.

After a good rest and a rendezvous with the support (ford transit) van we stocked up on bottled water and then headed off along sealed roads towards the suspension bridge. This was a great climb to the top and certainly got the blood and sweat pumping, but we were rewarded with a lovely view of the area, and the best thing about going up, is the knowledge that you go down on the other side! Much speed and fun.

We arrived at the next town and settled into the provided accommodation which was very nice. Our guide met us after some rest time and took us to a nearby restaurant on the water front of the Mekong. The food was again great with lots of variation and options for the vegetarians. We had a walk around the town which was in preparation for TET and very busy, a few beers and then bed time.

On our last day of the tour we started early again with a 6am breakfast followed by a short bus ride to a taxi boat that ferried us to the famous floating markets. The boat journey took around 10 minutes and as we arrived at the markets there was a real buzz in the air, people shopping for their store supplies, pulling up alongside bigger boats in their small long boats, transporting vegetables, fruit and other wholesale items between each other. Some of the boats are huge and in between you’ll find a little lady selling street food from her tiny boat. We stopped at a pineapple sellers boat, got off ours and onto the top of theirs, we sat and they prepared freshly picked pineapples for us to eat there and then, they were so juicy!! After this we got back onto our boat and continued to drive past other sellers and vendors. It was a really impressive and insightful start to the day, just seeing how this type of community trade and all between boats is so different from what any of us expected. It’s good to get to the markets earlier in the morning or as early as you can manage as they finish at around midday having started at something like 4am, by 10am many tourists appear and it gets really busy. We were there at around 7am and there weren’t too many other tourists around.

We left the markets after an hour and continued up-river to a point where we met our trusty driver once more, he was there waiting with our bikes ready for us to ride on the last leg of our cycling trip. The last bike ride of the trip was quite tame and took around 2 hours, going through more villages, over more bridges and passing my many children shouting ‘Hello…what’s your name?’ and so on. At around 11am we found ourselves back at the hotel where we had time to shower and check out before starting the journey back to HCMC. The journey back took around 4 hours with an hours break for lunch at a posh service area called the Mekong Service Area where it seems most upper end tours take you too, it was a little like a 4 start resort made up of just restaurants. The food was good and Helen even had her own fish and vegetarian menu, they made some rice balls that came up into big balloons probably the most interesting thing about it. It was also our last supper with Justin and Jules so we toasted to good times in Vietnam.

Back in HCMC we said our goodbyes to our 3 week travel buddies and went our separate ways to our hotels. Later on we managed to get to the post office to send on our winter gear to Australia (we shouldn’t be needing it until then!?) We sent two 2kg parcels costing around $25 for airmail delivery. We ate at Zen once again for a tasty vegetarian feast, walked around the area and then went back to Luan Vu to get ready for our trip to Phnom Penh the next morning.

We arrived at 6.30am overnight from Hoi An, Justin and Jules were with us until this point and followed us to Perfume Grass hotel to see if they could catch John and Lisa. Off they went and we couldn’t check into our room so we walked over the road to the beach and found a spot to have some home made brekkie. We walked along the beach for an hour before heading back to claim our free tea and coffee from the hotel. Still no check in so we left the bags, freshened up and decided to rent a moto for the day at 5$ – not too pricey at all.

Our destination was Doc Let beach, one of the top beaches in Vietnam, it was a little cloudy but we thought we’d go on an adventure. We had some directions outlined in the Lonely Planet and a map from the hotel, we knew it would take us a while so off we went. After about half an hour on the high way we checked at a restaurant to make sure we were on the right tracks. Just keep going straight…so we did, passed through some small towns in the direction of going north and then eventually after stopping to get some more fuel we saw a landmark for Honda Port which was mentioned in the LP. After 20 minutes or so of riding along the coastal road we decided to turn around as we got closer to the Honda factory which we knew wasn’t the location of the beach. We decided to turn back on ourselves and ride through a few small villages, getting hungry we pulled into a small lane which ended at the sea. We saw a family cooking some local food for their stall and asked to sit down there and eat, they fed us amazingly and we even got some wonderful fresh spring rolls thrown in. It was very cheap at aroud a pound for us both and they were very welcoming indeed, they also pointed us towards Doc Let beach, so off we went in the hope of finding our destination.

We rode past the sign after about 5 minutes on the bike and more traveling through lovely little villages, further up the road there is a turning for the beach and we had to pay a 10,000 dong entrance fee each as well as 5,000 dong for parking the bike. Once settled we wandered off into the beach resort which has been set up a little like a summer camp, although not a lot was going on as the weather was closing in and the afternoon was a grey one. We still found beauty in the place though, the sand is powder white and the waves are very soft compared to Nha Trang. We stayed for an hour and then made our way back to Nha Trang without stopping it took us 50 minutes, both arriving with a numb bum! Later on we checked in, showered and went to grab some food – Cafe Des Amis - not a great recommendation by the Lonely Planet to say the least!!

Back to hotel, bed.

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

Got up fairly early and went out for a run along the beach, quite fresh and clear air. Ran for about half an hour and then stopped to stretch on the grassy area near the beach. Helen was doing some yoga and was interrupted by a Swiss yoga teacher – dressed in nothing more than a faded pair of orange shorts and sweatband. Classic! He wanted to talk to us about Ayurvedic Yoga, we’re quite interested in Ayurveda anyway and obviously loving yoga so asking if it was free (which it was) he proceeded to talk to us for about half an hour and we went through some postures. Funny little interruption.

Back to the hotel for a good breakfast – omlette, bread and fruit salad.

We spend most of the day on the beach, Helen had been feeling unwell and we needed some down time. We found a place further up the beach called Louisiane where we were able to hire sun-loungers with umbrella for the day for a pound each including use of the pool. The sea was really rough going out with very few people going into swim so it was an added bonus using the pool.We enjoyed beer and a cocktail and stayed there until about 2.30pm. Afterwards we went for a walk up to the bridge which is around 4 km away heading north on the beach front. Many locals live in shanty town like houses around there so we wanted to head up and see what it was like. The light was quite moody which added a nice rocky feel to the images and the kids were very playful as always.

On our way back we walked via the market and eventually made our way back to Perfume Grass. Later on we went out to Cafe Cyclo – LP recommendation and joined Lisa and John who were already eating there. The food was good and not too pricey either. We went back to the hotel and packed for the following day. We had changed our open bus ticket to go onto Mui Ne as opposed to Dalat as we craved a little more beach time, plus Justin and Jules were there too so we knew we’d have a laugh meeting up with them again. It cost a furhter 100,000 between us to change the ticket which isn’t that much at all.

We finished the night with an ice-cream for Helen , some strange green yoghurt for Dave and an episode of The Peep Show.

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)

Up early for our last time in Yangshou we were picked up by taxi from Trippers to be dropped off at the coach station for our journey to Nanning. It took around five hours or so to reach Nanning and we jumped on a bus to make our way to the Lotusland hostel. We found it relatively easily and checked into our double room which was small but functional and clean. We headed to the booking office to book our bus journey into Vietnam which cost £15 each. Looking for some food we followed the map provided by the hostel and decided to go to a restaurant with an English menu. The food was pricey and not very good, with Dave having a difficult time eating his food with all the bones in his chicken curry! On the plus side the steamed and fried dumplings with a custard style sauce were the highlight of a disappointing meal.

The following day we ate our own breakfast in the hostel, as they do not provide food, but a microwave and bowls and then washed clothes and hung them out to dry on the roof of the hostel. We walked into town to see what Nanning was like during the day. It’s a typical Chinese city full to the brim of shops and little food places.

There is a free museum called The Guangxi Provincial Museum not far away from the center of town, it took around half an hour to walk there from the hostel. They were showcasing the Nanning Institute of Art and Design degree shows, which were quite impressive with fashion and product design, architecture, 3D and visualisation. It was great to see what the students are completing for their degree levels in China. There are also some permanent exhibitions in the museum featuring ancient drums, jewelery and other artifacts. Afterwards we were feeling hungry and found a Japanese restaurant in a shopping mall which helped quench the hunger pains.

We met up with Jane, who we had met in Dali, at the hostel and decided to go for food. Walking around we found a fast food style Chinese restaurant and had some pretty good food. The food was served in a wooden basket which was interesting, but tasty.

Neon lights and people dancing in the parks were our entertainment for the walk back to the hostel and then an early night as we had a change of Country tomorrow and we were excited to see a new landscape and culture of Vietnam.

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

We went out for a bike ride with one of the Chinese girls’ Sylvia who was staying in the dorm with us, she was friends with another of the girls working at the hostel. It was good to have her with us as she could help us to find our way by asking the locals which way to such and such a place. She wanted to go to a specific village called Xixhou which is about 20km away from Dali old town. We wanted to cycle through some of the villages closer to the lake so we could explore the farmland, the most direct way would be to cycle along the high way for the entire ride but that’s no fun, so we compromised and spent some time cycling to the villages and some time catching up and taking the highway to the furthest place.

The farmland in Dali is very lush and extremely beautiful to photography. During our stay in Dali the sky was a perfect blue and it was a very comfortable temperature indeed, only being cold in the shade. By night it dropped significantly but we had electric blankets to cope with this!

So we took in the scenery around us, some farmland, some lake and some road. It was stunning. We got to Xixhou at around 3pm and ambled through the village market before stopping for some very good value soup rice noodles. For 3 of us to eat it cost around £2.80, and the food tasted really good. The only bad thing was a local guy pestering us for left over food and drink, he wouldn’t leave us alone and eventually got what he wanted. Still the setting took us away from this. We continued out of the village and took the road to some older parts of the area. Once more fantastic views, terraces and buildings surrounded us.

We decided to make our way back at around 4pm and set off for Dali. We were going quicker than Sylvia on her lady-like bike so we waited for her every so often, plus the drivers on the road aren’t the most reliable often overtaking two cars in one go so we wanted to make sure we were all with us. When we got back Sylvia joked about how fit we were compared to her and she said she’d only ever ridden a bike once before in her life. Considering this fact she did very well indeed.

When we got back we ate at an Indian restaurant down the road from our hostel and enjoyed more chai. Back at the hostel there were a few more travelers, Helen got chatting to Jane who she’d seen at various other places around China. It’s very easy to bump into people when you use Hostelworld for recommendations on where to stay. Many people also choose to travel through South China from Vietnam as it’s a good route and the weather is pretty good in Yunnan.

So it was our last night in Dali and we really loved the town and the hostel had a nice vibe too. We decided to nip back to Bakery 88 the next morning to get some take-away sandwiches with very good cheese and meat! Yum!! We also sneaked in a few more granola slices.

The bus back took the scenic route as part of the highway was closed but this wasn’t a bad thing as it meant we got to drive through some more beautiful countryside and villages. It was quite a luxury bus with only a few of us on board, and we got back to Cloudland at around 7pm. We had some food, chatted away and got ready for our flight to Guangzhou the following day.

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

Xi’an and the Terracotta warriors have been on our to-do list before we even left the UK and we have decided on some dates for when we can pay them a visit. You can fly quite cheaply with CTRIP but we wanted to catch the over night train from Beijing so we could sleep and travel. This required us to purchase our first train ticket. Seat 61 is a great website for finding out information on trains in China, so armed with the information we headed to Beijing West train station. A massive building but nowhere the quality of Beijing South station, it was rammed to the rafters with people and luggage. With no English service desk in sight we picked a random window and tried our luck, no luck, however the next window along had an English speaking lady so we sorted the tickets out. We left as quickly as possible due to stress building rapidly from the shear quantity of people and lack of organisation in such public buildings. It isn’t linked in with a subway line at present but if you know the bus routes and the location of the nearest tube you can get there pretty easily.

The subway home, relax time with some editing of photos, diary writing followed by a walk to the nearby lake and internet cafe to upload our new updates. We knew of a vegetation restaurant at the top of the lake and it was only a short distance from where we had been editing away. The Lotus Leaf restaurant founded by Buddhist monks offers a broad selection of vegetarian food. The venue had a chill in the air however the food was very good with fake meat (tofu fashioned into meat textures and flavour) and spicy sauces. Beer is non-alcoholic here and tasted very malty but washed the spice down very well. All in all a good find.

(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)

Sad to leave Inn Fujitomita we set off to catch the 9am bus from up the road. They have a funny system here, you collect your ticket at the second door on the bus and pay the driver when you arrive at your destination. Your ticket is a number and it flashes on an electronic display, each time it passes through a stop the number moves to the next price. The first bus was 1 hour and cost £20 between the two of us, this got us to Gotenba where we hopped onto our second local bus to Mishima another £15 for 50 minutes.

At Mishima we got the shinkanson bullet train to Nagoyo. This is something that Dave has been looking forward to. It goes at a speed of up to 186 mph, since the 1960′s there has never been a fatality, it’s always on time, and the train doors stop at the exact point of entry with gaps in the barriers for you to board the train. As soon as the train stops there are cleaners at each door ready to go on and clean, we’re sure there are many more stats we could bore you with but that will do. So the bullet train took us to Nagayo where we had an hour or so wait so we went outside into the city to find a coffee and get some air. Following this we found our next train to Takayama and we eventually arrived at 5pm. So from 9am until 5pm we traveled on two local buses, the bullet train and the wide view hida train which has big windows to take in the scenery. It was an interesting journey and gave us some time to chill out, play cards and observe the changing landscape.

We were now on the edge of the Japan Alps and got to our Minshuku at 5.30pm. Our room was a third of the size of the one in Fuji, still Japanese style and there were separate hot onsens. The men’s onsen was like a spa steam room and jacuzzi, the women’s onsen was like a bath and 4 showers in a space less than half the size of the mens! Helen was not impressed having already sneaked a peak at the men’s onsen. After a quick settle in we went out in search of a little Mexican place recommended in the Lonely Planet. It was very quiet out and about and little appeared to be open. We did eventually spot the sign for Chapala though and entered a cosy wooden shack where we found our first travel buddies!! Ivan and Kim sat in the corner and we started chatting away.

We spent the evening exchanging our tales of Japan so far and we found out they are on their honeymoon here for 4 weeks. Congratulations to them!! We all sampled the small portions of food at Chapala and arranged to meet for dinner the following night. They were going on a tour to a nearby World heritage site and we decided on exploring the morning markets, the temple and would go for a walk up to a ruin. Hot chocolate back at the room and we were ready for bed.

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