We started off the day by eating a fairly good breakfast included in our accommodation at the hostel, we’re not sure how 4 mornings of eggs and toast would go down! We spent a short while documenting the hostel downstairs as it really is a lovely space. Following on we took the number 56 bus to the Chatuchak weekend market which took around 45 minutes to get to. It’s a much cheaper option than taxiing or getting a tuk-tuk there and cost 26 baht between us. When we got there we went straight to the information office for a guide of the area, there are more than 8000 market stalls in a 35 acre area of land so we thought it would be good to know where we were going and plan our route.  We wanted to pick up a few items ready for the south and some replacement clothes for one’s we’ve been wearing over and over since we started travelling in October.

We started by exploring the vintage/second hand section which is any stylists and fashion designers dream. It houses anything from vintage tea dresses to leather bags, retro sports wear and re-worked seconds into new garments. It has to be said that the Thai’s on are top of their game when it comes to vintage trading, they know what sells to Westerners and they have a good depth of stock. Helen was very close to picking up some old tea dresses for when we get back home but managed to resist spending the pennies. We crossed through many fashion stalls and picked up sandals, shorts, t-shirts and vests whilst taking a few shots along the way.

The most memorable photo for us from this collection is of the giant tattooed man sleeping next to his market stall, surrounded by badges, paintings, bags and handmade crafts. He was covered all over in tattoos, piercing’s and leather and was disguised by the goods that swamped him…There were certainly many characters around. We walked by the music area and watched young children playing on their violins and we passed through the antiques section too. Seriously though you can buy pretty much anything you want at this market, we’ve read about illegal animal trading going on here too so if you do see anything you’re not happy about you can always report it to the police that patrol the site. We think we got what we wanted though with little fuss and enjoyed some decent street food too.

Later that night we took the ferry south and made our way to the flower market, it’s a 24 hour place with fresh flowers being prepared day in day out. If you get there late or very early in the morning it will be a real hive of activity. We got there at about 6.30pm at night and wandered through the street area and also some back street warehouses where we saw some of the work that goes on behind the scenes. We did want to go to other markets but with only one weekend in Bangkok most of the better markets take place on Saturdays and Sundays and there’s only so many markets you can get to in 2 days!

We ended the evening at a lovely restaurant overlooking the river right next to our ferry stop in Thewet, we had great views but the service was a bit of a mess, good job we weren’t in much of a rush.

On the morning of the 8th we enjoyed a good breakfast from the Hotel including a choice of eggs, bread, fruit and juice. Afterwards we set off to research a few options for tours in the area. We had planned to do a tour to Ninh Binh and Tam Coc with Maayke and Paul so were shopping around the various fake Sinh Cafe‘s across the city to find out the best deals. They’d already sourced somewhere that would do the trip for $16 with bikes included for one part of the trip. After a while and battling through the many scooters we ended up back at the same place and booked the trip for the price they’d agreed. We’d arranged a part-payment trip in case there was anything we weren’t happy with; often you’ll find there are many cheap tours and you’ll never know which one is better than the other. We thought it would be a good day out of the city anyway so went along with this.

Afterwards we went off to do some more research into the other part of our trip interest: the Halong Bay tour. Helen had read up on a few more reputable companies offering slightly better value tours so we started with Ethnic travel who didn’t really have a very welcoming atmosphere and soon decided we wouldn’t be booking with them. We found Ocean tours around the corner who’s 3 day 2 night tour with one night on the Island in a bungalow to be the best on offer but still had a look around. In doing so we met Justin and Jules who were doing the same research as us, Dave stopped them as soon as they walked out of one of the other tour agencies and we started chatting about what information that have and so on. Before long we were enjoying lunch with them and went back to Ocean Tours to get a better feel for what they were offering.

After a few more drinks, a walk around the city into the French Quarter and then back to Ocean Tours we’d decided this was THE tour for us and we all booked it together! We knew that at $175 we were paying a lot more than many other tours on offer but decided that it sounded far better than some of the other less tailored trips and we liked the sound of staying in a bungalow for the night!!

So with that sorted we went back to our now hostel Gecko (we’d moved out that morning as we wanted to save some money by staying in a dorm and rendezvous had no more availability) met up with the others and went out for food to Koto, a restaurant in the south-west of the city which trains up street-kids and the homeless to be chefs and working in the kitchens. The food was very good indeed and it was packed so it was good to see the restaurant supported in this way.

On the 9th we were picked up at 8am for our day trip to Ninh Binh and Tam Coc. The weather had been pretty chilly since we’d arrived in Hanoi although we were acclimatised to this and to us it felt okay, but there was some rain forecast for the day so we took extra layers with us. Leaving Hanoi the bus stopped several times to pick up other people and groups on the tour and before long there were around 20 on the bus. It took around 2.5 hours to get to Ninh Binh with one stop and we spent a lot of this time chatting to Bekka and her husband from America who are now living in Beijing, we exchanged stories of China and it passed the time nicely.

Our first stop was at 2 temples, which held the first and second Emperors of Vietnam. A few people on the bus were a little annoyed as they’d been sold the bus ticket as bus fare to Ninh Binh and not a tour, they had to go to the temples first before being dropped off in Ninh Binh…be warned this happens quite a lot over here!

The temples were okay but we have seen many amazing shrines and temples over our time traveling, so it takes an amazing day with the weather and a spectacular site to impress us! Have we become Temple snobs…?

We were supposed to be cycling from the temple site to Tam Coc where the rest of the tour bus was traveling to for lunch. As it was raining and very windy we decided against this and joined the bus to go straight to the restaurant. It was a good job we did as it would have taken us much longer to reach the port than the tour allowed for and would probably have missed our lunch…to be fair though that wouldn’t have been such a bad thing. The vegetarian option for Helen and a few others was quite poor with the best thing on offer being a plate of chips for 7 to share. We mentioned this to the tour guide and he was very apologetic but it’s more down to the restaurant than him.

Following lunch we went over the road to the rowing boat tour and met the lady driver who took us out on her boat. She was quite agile often using her feet to row and we had a paddle each so we could both add some gusto to the pace. We passed under caves and one by one the boats traveled along the river. It’s supposed to be the land version of Halong Bay with many karst peaks engulfing the landscape. It was quite similar to what had surrounded us in Yangshou and we both felt Yangshou is a more impressive place.

The boat tour was good fun, and we even bought our guide a drink and snack which she shared with us, we had to bargain for this and the woman selling the goods on her own boat wouldn’t leave us alone until we did! We didn’t mind too much though as we felt our guide was doing a very good job indeed.

At the end of the tour we were pressured into giving a tip to our guide but we felt we’d already tipped her in buying her drinks and snacks along the way so made for a sharp exit to the bus. There were people selling souvenirs and market items along the pier front and some were selling dog meat. By now we have become used to seeing this sort of thing on sale, funny how you get used to customs so quickly but its always the topic of conversation when you first see it.

We had a small confrontation with our tour guide on the bus back to Hanoi. As we had monies outstanding to pay he was asking for us to complete the payment. We mentioned that we’d agreed a price including bike hire but as we didn’t use the bikes then we wanted to pay the price quoted to us excluding bike rental. He got quite angry about this and said we have to pay for the bikes as the restaurant paid for fuel to get them to the site for us to cycle, but we saw many bikes there so we felt this was not the case. We were happy to pay but just not for the whole fee and he didn’t say when we said we weren’t taking the bikes that we would still have to pay for their rental. He rang our tour company and Helen agreed a price over the phone which mean’t we paid some of the cost towards the bike but not all. Our chirpy tour guide was no longer quite so happy and he settled into a grump until the bus stopped to pick up his girlfriend.

Another lesson learned! Still we had managed to get back some of the money so it was good to know there are some principles in place. When we got back we ate at a great local restaurant and for a good price. We went back and packed ready for our Halong Bay trip leaving at 8am the next day.

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

Helen needed to do some work for a client back home in the UK which required lots of uninterrupted internet speed! Our place of choice for this was the TimeZone 8 Cafe at the 798 art district. Prompted by the Chen’s we took our first bus in Beijing from the closest tube stop to 798, so our journey to get there cost us 3 yuan each! (around 30p) When we did this by taxi last time it was around 30 yuan to get to a tube station so we could get home. (The apartment has definitely become a little home for us whilst staying in Beijing!)

Between 11am and 5.30pm we took it in turns to sit and let the work upload via an FTP system whilst editing and writing for notworkrelated. After enjoying a very good lunch, Helen had a tofu sandwich which was quoted be one of the ‘best’ sandwiches she’s ever eaten whilst Dave opted for a meat one which was ‘Okay’, we took some time out individually to walk around some of the art exhibitions on show. Dave went first and found an amazing factory blasting out steam against the blue sky whilst en-route to some interesting gallery spaces. Then Helen went off for an hour or so and found an exhibition featuring David Salle and Robert Rauschenberg which was a pleasant surprise. We have included some imagery from our favourite exhibitions and the beast of the factory steam that day.

After we’d done as much as we could on the upload front, with still an hour or so to go, we got the tube to Sanlitun and met up with Jess once more. We went to her apartment to start with and drank a very nice bottle of Chilian red wine. The expats do get to pick out some amazing properties here whilst working in Beijing, her apartment has loads of personality, is pretty huge and set in a retro 70′s apartment block. Yum!

We got a late tube back after some tasty local Macau food.

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

We wanted to capture some more of Beijing’s famous temple sites and had been recommended to visit the Yongegong Lama Temple along with the Confucius Temple, both located very close to the subway stop on line 2 and not far from the Drum and Bell towers.

The Lama Temple is described as being the most renowned Tibetan Buddhist temple outside of Tibet and houses several shrines, incense burners, pavilions and an 18m high statue of the Maitreya Buddha sculpted from a single block of sandalwood. It’s a very impressive sight and draws people from all around to burn incense and pray to their gods. It’s a busy place to go but during the week it is quieter and nowhere near as crowded as The Forbidden City. The colours of brick work have been maintained to a very high standard and on a bright day it’s a really beautiful place to be. Further south from the Lama Temple and down a tourist Hutong we found the Temple of Confucius. Much quieter than the Lama Temple and a little less looked after this place does have some controversial history surrounding one of Beijing’s most famous writers Lao She. We didn’t really know much about this but have read up on it since. Aside from this though it has some impressive Chinese Classics engraved on huge stone slabs kept in a cold and dark warehouse. It’s quite eery in there and very cold!

After our Temple sightseeing escapade we walked along the streets to an area we’ve grown to love in Nanluoguxiang where we grabbed an okay bite to eat at Passby Bar before making our way back to Xinjeikou on the tube. Just a quick note on the subway over here in Beijing. At times it can take a while for you to get to your final destination due to the lack of lines joining in convenient areas…but it is incredibly cheap and if you don’t mind the masses of locals using the subway you can get anywhere for 2 yuan per person which is around 20p. Sometimes it’s quicker than getting a taxi and it certainly helps for those on a budget.

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

So the day has arrived to leave Japan and it’s time to live a cheaper life in China. We got up early and packed our bags. The boat was scheduled to leave Kobe at around 11am but we needed to check in before 10am. We ate breakfast in the Hostel 64 room and then headed off to the subway to catch a train to Kobe port. This involved a change onto a kind of monorail which took us to the port destination. We proceeded to head for check-in which involved a laser light shone onto your forehead, checking for any high fever symptoms. We passed with flying colours, paid for our one way ticket which cost 30,000 Yen, £300 (inc fuel surcharge) each for a twin room (special 1st class!) as we wanted to keep the gear with us as safe as possible and then we spotted a couple of Western faces.

We got chatting to Rick and Beth traveling from the UK and who are writing their own travel blog and then we boarded the Yanjing ferry to Tianjin together. The room was damn good and very spacious compared to some of the other rooms we have stayed in. En-suite with a shower and toilet which was ok, put it this way it was better to have this than the shared facilities, which were not that pleasant. You can stay cheaper in a mixed dorm of 12 or 16 people if you want to. We headed for an explore of our new home for the next few days. It takes just over two and a half days to reach China so we headed off around the ship with cameras in hand.

The highlight was a room in the depth of the boat with two table tennis tables. The gymnasium sign made us laugh, a storage room for carpets and knackered video game machines would have been more accurate. There appeared to be plenty of photography opportunities around the boat, the views on top promised to be very good and the other passengers just loved having there photos taken on deck, it felt like something out of a Carry On film. With blue sky and calm seas we headed off and as we left Kobe the sun shone brightly and the sea was very calm, it was a pretty cool experience.

We bought some food bits and bobs from the 7/11 for the trip and had some Japanese Yen, this is the only currency that they accept on board, however we quickly realised that we didn’t really have that much food, so a trip to the on board restaurant would have to be undertaken at some point. We found out from the literature that the breakfast was included in the price of the ticket so at least that was something. Pot Noodle style food from Japan is surprisingly good so this was our lunch on the first day.

We were called on deck for a drill in emergency evacuation, there we all stood in life jackets whilst the wind blasted our faces. The Brits had our own instruction which lasted half the time of the Chinese instructions, not sure what we missed there!? We were 2 of 96 passengers in total on board and found out there are 46 staff, it’s a funny staff to passenger ratio and made us giggle. There is the capacity to have 396 passengers in total on board and we couldn’t work out where they would all be if this was the case as the boat was feeling pretty full at this capacity.

On board we caught up with Rick and Beth and played cards into the evening and as the sun was starting to set we went up onto the top deck for superb views across the sea. We’re not entirely sure of our exact location at this point but it was the south Japanese coastline, the sunset was breathtaking and mesmerizing, the sea was extremely calm and we met our other western traveler JP from France. There was some evening entertainment planned, we were told it would start at 9pm but something that we eventually learned on this trip was that most things started half an hour before they let us know. We heard the singing, cheers and various performances downstairs whilst playing cards, so eventually we made our way down to join in the fun. It was a karaoke event with interludes of the ferry staff performing with musical instruments or singing. The audience cheered loudly and got behind their friends in the karaoke, it was a pretty raucous event for ferry entertainment. We we baffled by it all and carried on with a few more card games before heading to bed.

We decided to listen to some Adam and Joe podcasts that we’ve got with us on our travels before getting off to sleep. Anyone who knows us well will appreciate our love for Adam and Joe, and it kept us feeling all at home in our little cabin up in special first class…ha ha…we did feel a little too privileged.

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