We woke up to our very last morning of our travels, for the time being at least. This was our last day of a trip that has seen us journey through 14 countries in 13 months! We were finally going to be making our way home, and this time we were ready. We packed our bags and were able to have the room until 5pm so for the day we went off to sight-see and head to a few shops.

We started with the Lotus Temple located in the heart of Delhi and were happy to find out that it was another free admission site. This is a really worth-while attraction to visit, it’s beautiful and sits serene like in the middle of a park area. When we got to the temple we were directed to the information center where we learned about the Bahai religion and where other temples are located throughout the world. When we got up to the temple we were asked to leave our shoes behind and continue on bare foot to the top of the steps where someone met us to give us a little non-comprehensive spiel about the temple and the religion, from where we were asked to join a queue and go inside to pray. Obviously we weren’t going to sit inside the temple and pray but it was a very beautiful space to sit within and absorb the sounds of the prayers being said around us. Some of the prayers were in song and others read from the bible, the sound resonated throughout the large space. We really enjoyed our time at the temple photographically, although inside no photography is allowed we certainly made up for it on the outside.

When we left the Lotus temple we asked a cheeky rickshaw driver to take us to Delhi Haat where more of the craft bazaar’s are located, we didn’t realise it was so close and so the 50rs price for the journey was a little steep (although we were quote something like 200rs for the same journey by another driver!). When we got to the bazaar we didn’t really know what to expect, perhaps we were after something more authentic but this was a little bit of a frustrating place for us as all the shop owners kept following us around desperate for us to buy something whilst the rickshaw driver was waiting for us outside trying to go into each shop so that her would get a commission. Helen bought a few items of jewelry but we didn’t really find anything else and so asked our driver to take us to the Kahn Market. Once again he wanted to take us elsewhere but we were quite stern and said we only wanted to go to Kahm Market.

Getting our own way we made it to the market and started to have a look around, shopping in Delhi really is quite difficult as there are so many places to shop and even in a more upmarket bazaar we got a little bored. Anohoki had a few nice items and gift ideas but it was Fabindia that was probably the easiest shop to spend time in without being hassled or getting snooty looks from the shop owners. Helen bought some wild baggy trousers and we stocked up on tea for the family, that we should have really bought in whilst we were in Munnar.

When we’d had enough of the shops we had some pricey food at The Kitchen and then took a rickshaw back to Nizamuddin. The previous day we tried to book onto a culture tour with Hope whose office was very close to where we’d been staying, and so when we got back to the guesthouse and checked out of our room we went back into the heart of Nizamuddin and tried to find the office. The main problem being that the house numbers are very random and we couldn’t find the place at all. So we decided to head back to the guesthouse to call them but when we did no-one picked up the phone. This was a real shame as we had wanted to get to know our area a little more and so with a guide we’d have felt much more comfortable roaming the backstreets knowing more about the culture and history of the area.

As the tour didn’t go ahead we decided to place a dinner order for later on and took a walk over to an ancient tomb that sits directly opposite the gas station on Nizammudin West. This place hadn’t been as well kept as Humayun’s tomb but it still had its charms and relics about the place. We liked the atmospheric, ghost like presence this tomb seemed to hold, much of the decorative parts of the building had been taken and reused for other tombs some hundreds of years ago.

Later that evening we went out in search of the Thursday night Qawwali, an event that takes place in the Nizamuddin Dargah, where a group of well-known musicians form together and sing traditional melodies. It’s a very enchanting experience that takes place in an extremely busy open courtyard in the middle of the temple complex. We could hardly move it was so packed, from a possessed woman who seemed to be untamable to babies offering money as gifts to the Qawwals, it was a very eye-opening and cultural experience. What a way to finish our travels.

Back at G-49 we enjoyed another home delivery of Indian food and then waited for our taxi journey to the airport. We had to wait until 2.20am for our flight to London and so when we checked in and found ourselves a few chairs we nestled down in anticipation of our overnight flight home.

So this marks the last post from our notworkrelated adventures, well the travel adventures at least, but we will be moving it in another direction and our notworkrelated concepts and ideas will very much remain within the core of our development as artists. We will keep you posted with our next moves and hope that we have inspired you along the way with the 250 or so posts since our journey began in October 2010.

Many thanks for following us, we appreciated your comments and it wont be long until a new adventure starts. Helen and Dave x

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

We left Munduk at 9am and were ready for our drive to Padangbai. We wanted to see more of Bali and so headed north first towards Lovina, stopped there at the beach to see the falling down dolphin statue and got a little harassed by hawkers trying to sell tours or massages and so on. We didn’t stop for long but stretched the legs and had a little explore along the streets.

We drove through the very busy Singaraja but didn’t feel the need to stop until we reached the artful temple Pura Mdduwe Karang, there was a small donation on arrival and the locals who run the place were keen to give us a little tour for some extra cash. It’s all a bit staged but we did notice some tourists sneaking in the side and moved around the temple very quickly to avoid this. We didn’t know any better and so just gave them some money and left. The temple is really beautiful though with some very distinguished carvings including one of a Dutch man on a bicycle, the first to bring bikes over to Bali.

We then made our way southwards and drove towards the very tourist-centred Gunung Batur. Most people will visit this at around 5am to see the sunrise, and the surrounding village is full of hawkers, expensive buffet style restaurants and of course tourists. We asked our driver Ketut (our driver the other day was also called Ketut – perhaps it means ‘driver’) to take us to a local warring rather than a buffet place and he did not disappoint. In Kitamani he pulled over at a small place offering the local dish of Ikan Mujair; small sweet fish caught in the volcanic lake and grilled in spices served with rice and a side of fish head in broth. Okay the fish head wasn’t to our taste but the grilled fish was really good and it was nice to have the local dish. For all 3 of us to eat and have drink we paid 53,000 IRPS which is around $5, not bad.

He then took us to a look out over Gunung Batur away from the main look out areas, we had a good view out to the volcano and it surrounds of lava fields, rich farm land and the volcanic lake Danau Batur below. When we left the area completely we were moving towards our final destination Padangbai, and in total the drive was around 6-7 hours with stops. We went straight to Topi Inn at the far end of the bay and opted for a room costing 200,000 for the night, it was a family room and way too big for us (we actually felt a little bad for taking a room with 2 spare beds!) but we didn’t want to be wandering around too much searching for better deals.

Later on we realised we really should have found a room elsewhere, Topi Inn has a great backpackers vibe especially in the cafe and along the balcony, but at around 8-9pm they started playing the loudest bad euro pop which mean’t we literally had to shout to hear each other speak. The entire place is made of bamboo and so the music just gets everywhere. We recommend this place for food and drinks and if you want to party, but not to sleep.

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

After three nights in Ubud we organised a driver to take us to the mountain village of Munduk in the north of Bali. Andre and Martha joined us on our journey to explore more of the island and share the fee of the driver. First stop along the way was the Bali Butterfly Park. We were unsure if we wanted to see this but for 50,000rp each we headed into the netting to see the butterflies. There was an assortment of butterflies and moths as well as stick insets and beetles which the staff are very eager to place upon your body. The conditions for the animals were not great, very poor for the spiders, and if you do not like butterfly taxidermy then this may not be the place for you.

Further driving north we approached one of Bali’s many volcanoes where another of its most sacred of temples; Pura Taman Ayun located at the very foot of the volcano. Everyone who enters will need to wear a sarong for most temples, which you can rent on arrival if you do not have one already. We explored the temple, walked around the lake complex and whilst chatting to a local man he suggested to visit the river. It looks like fresh water from the mountains but it wasn’t worth the walk down to see it with rubbish festooned on the sides with some very rough toilets.

Driving around Bali you get to see the real scope of the island. Pretty much everywhere is utilised for village and town life, food production and catering for tourists. The rice terraces at Jatiluwih were impressive with hundreds of thousands of green tones fluctuating between the shafts of sunlight. Our driver took us to a buffet lunch overlooking the terraces costing 70,000rp which we decided not to participate in as the food looked poor and expensive for some non authentic Indonesian food, instead we heading further down the road to somewhere more appealing. The second temple stop of the day was at the lake temple Pura Ulun Danu. Strangely no sarong was needed here, it looked more like a business opportunity rather than a holy site, nether the less we visited and enjoyed the water temple combo.

We eventually arrived in Munduk 7 hours after leaving Ubud and haggled for a room at the Karang Sari for 180,000rp per night. The room was nice enough, it just needed a thicker coat of paint on the ceiling and walls to stop it looking shabby. After waving goodbye to Andre and Martha for their return journey to Ubud we explored the street(s) of Munduk. The temperature here is much lower than the surrounding area due to the slight increase in altitude and we had a nice sunset whilst eating at Karang Sari overlooking the valleys below.

The owner of Karang Sari invited us to watch a group of local boys practicing gambelan, a traditional Indonesian style of music to be preformed at a temple ceremony. They were very good and we enjoyed a 15 minute show before our ears could no longer take the high decibel limit. Before bed we met our other room mate, a big black spider who rented the bathroom, although it gave Helen a good scare we didn’t mind and let he/she live in peace.

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

Today was to be our sightseeing day with a half day stint at the Grand Palace. We took the boat again to Tha Chang stop not far from the Palace area and followed some of the Lonely Planet’s walking tour for the area. We followed the first part of the route to the Bangkok’s Fine Art school which is located opposite the front gate of the palace, what a great place to study art and be inspired! Unfortunately there weren’t any exhibitions on so we sat in the courtyard for a while people watching and photographing the area. We crossed over the road to the Palace and as we passed through the gates were told we would both have to queue for longer length clothes to cover arms and legs all the way to our shoes. Helen thought she would need something but Dave’s passed the knee cropped trousers didn’t make the cut either so we both had to queue for half an hour for an assortment of sweaty shirts and skirts that had been worn by other tourists earlier that day. Nice! The annoying thing was that it was so hot, it was difficult wearing simply shorts and a vest let along trousers, a sarong and a shirt!!

Once dressed we continued onto the ticket office and purchased 2 tickets costing 350 Baht each. It is a very impressive sight indeed starting with pagoda’s, temples and shrines that glisten and sparkle in the sun. Vibrant golds, emeralds an ruby’s dominate the area with intricate gold leaf descriptive paintings along walls. You can’t go into the actual Palace or residence but walking around the grounds and visiting museum rooms, enthroning rooms and various formal occasion temples is pleasant enough if you don’t mind queuing with the many tourists who are also there. We watched the changing of the guards and after about 2 hours we decided to move on. It’s on a similar level to the Grand Palace in Phnom Penh, Cambodia in terms of decadence, architectural design and intricate detailing.

There is a market around the corner from the Palace near to the ferry stop which we wandered through and people watched as they bargained for small collectible amulets. We also explored some back alleys where we got a glimpse of old Bangkok, houses on stilts on the river side and children playing in the narrow streets. After the long queue’s and heat of the day we’d had enough of sightseeing already and decided to head back to the hostel for a few hours as we were planning to make tracks on the sky-train later on to check out the night market and get some food.

We got a taxi to take us to the Ratchathewi sky train stop and from there took the sky train to Nana. This is the stop for the Paptong weekend market, perhaps an area that should be described as Bangkok’s red-light district! Although since 2004 Helen has noticed that things have been toned down a little and although there are many ping pong shows available it’s perhaps not thrown in your face as it used to be. We had a little wander through the streets and then got back on the sky-train for one more stop to Asok where we had planned to find a Tapas restaurant recommended in the Lonely Planet. We decided this would be our date night and we would spend over budget for our meal. The Tapas restaurant is located next door to Suk II hostel, a place Helen has stayed at many a time when she has been in Bangkok before. So we had a look around after enjoying a buy 2 get one free deal at the restaurant, it didn’t really soften the final bill but we did enjoy some lovely western food for a change. The main reason we didn’t book to stay at Suk is that they’re prices are now quite high starting at 700 Baht for a double with shared bathroom, we were paying 430 Baht a night at our hostel with our own bathroom.

On our last full day in Bangkok we went off in the direction of Siam, the business and shopping district. We directed our attention onto buying a few items for our camera gear, and purchased a tripod and a small camera bag from the MBK shopping mall. We also bargained for the first series of The Wire as well as experiencing their food hall which is a must-do if you’re having a long day shopping in Bangkok!

We had a few galleries earmarked on the map that we were intending to visit, the main problem being that we couldn’t find 2 of them, one was in between exhibitions and one was housing a small photographic exhibition. So Wooden Postcards at the La Lanta Fine Art Gallery was the only one that was open.

After this slightly disappointing search for off-the wall Fine Art we promptly found a taxi and decided to head back. Our taxi driver had only been driving for 2 weeks in Bangkok and didn’t know where we were heading to, but he was determined to get us there so we gave him a chance, he made a few calls and got on the right tracks. It started raining heavily too so we were happy to be out of the down pour. We couldn’t get dropped off at our hostel as their was a problem with a demonstration taking up the top end of the Phitsanulok Rd. We thought we would walk right through it on our way back and were amazed by the amount of demonstrators there were, it seemed to be a peaceful demonstration taking place outside government buildings and the UN building. We managed to pick up on something to do with the release of Thai Nationals, but we couldn’t get this confirmed. As soon as we stepped out from under cover the rain came down hard and we were drenched by the time we’d walked 100m back to the hostel. The rain halted our plans that night so we stayed at the hostel and caught up on the blog.

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

The next morning we got up early and arranged for Balcony to get us some bikes for the day, they do a rental at $1.50 a day. We knew we could get them cheaper in town but couldn’t find the man who was recommended to us so opted for the guesthouse ones. To be fair they were two of the best city bikes we’ve yet had on our travels. Our destination was to head north up the river towards the Kampi Rapids and see if we could spot any of the rare Irrawaddy Dolphins along the way. It took around an hour to get to the main viewing point on this part of the Mekong, however if we wanted to sit and watch the dolphins from the land we would have to pay $6 each and if we wanted to get a boat $10 each. We decided we didn’t want to spend this kind of money and opted for a little further up the road where we could stand and watch some of the rare dolphins rise to the surface. They don’t have a lot of space in this pool and there are around 90 dolphins there at the moment so if you hang around long enough they have to come up for air eventually!! Many people opt for the boat tour option but you can only get upto 100 meters from the dolphins, if you’re a keen spotter then we’d say do it.

Moving on from this point we cycled for a further 5 minutes or so and landed at the Kampi Rapids, a local bathing spot. We had been told about this place the day before and thought it would be worth checking out. The local community have built long wooden huts built on stilts, sitting around half a meter above the river level. They appear to be sectioned off so that each family who works there has a strip to rent out for those of us wanting to relax for the afternoon. The locals use it as a popular bathing and meeting place, families gather together, splash around in the rapid-like current, eat food cooked by the hut owners, sit around and drink, sleep in hammocks and so on. It’s more of a place for them to relax and take time out from work. We paid a dollar each to have our own little space in the huts and we both had a hammock to relax and read on. The owner of our plot kept pestering us to buy some food but we decided to wait until around midday to leave and get some grub at a nearby recommended family run restaurant. Before leaving we bathed our feet in the water, read our books and Helen practised some yoga, it was starting to get a little busier as we left at midday. The restaurant is just as you walk out of the rapids area on the left hand side, we didn’t pay much and each had noodles and stir-fried vegetables, an in-offensive meal that is a little bland.

On our way back to Kratie we stopped off at a temple on the mountain…a mountain that is all of 93m high!! They do have some warped ideas as to scale over here, but it is the highest point in the area so we were a little rewarded by views and bizarre hell vs heaven like paintings in the temples. Back in Kratie we organised our transport to Laos for the next day, we booked a minivan for $14 each which would fingers crossed take us all the way to Don Det at the 4000 Islands with a few en-route transport changes.

One night left in Cambodia, we will go away with fond memories of this beautiful country having both had a wonderful and heart warming experience here.

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

Today we gave up on the idea of yet more bike riding misfortune and decided to use our legs. After an early morning run around Battambang and some breakfast we headed out to look at the french influenced buildings around the town and stop by at more temples. In the afternoon we headed out to the train tracks once more but this time to the abandoned railway tracks. Children playing in the wasteland that was once a French operated train yard, which is now home to people living on the perimeter of the town and is a dumping ground for their rubbish. We headed back towards the hotel with cameras poised. Toyota must have a huge market share in Cambodia, almost every car you see is a Toyota Camry, they love the Camry! More work time on the roof and a few drinks before heading off to the White Rose again for some cheap food, one vegetable and one fish Khmer curry.

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

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)

The train arrived at Kunming station at around 8am and we fought our way through the masses of crowds out of the station and towards the bus station which is around a 10 minute walk. Our destination was the Cloudland Hostel which provided information about which bus to get and where to get dropped off. We got off at the correct bus stop and then proceeded to wander around the area for nearly an hour looking for the hostel, luckily is was fairly warm and the sun was shining. Eventually we found it and thankfully it was a really nice place with an open area for pool, table tennis and a nice cafe/restaurant.

We had booked a double room which was a nice size and lovely sitting on the bed in the warmth of the sunshine. Whilst traveling you do accrue lots of smelly clothes and when we have the use of a washing machine we most definitely make good use. The room was covered in drying clothes whilst we did some editing and writing. After having some breakfast in the cafe we headed out to explore the local area. A local attraction at this time of year is Green Lake which draws in the crowds to see the first Seagulls arrive in the winter and then they feed them bread which can be brought from dedicated street bread vendors. Only China could turn a load of Seagulls flying around a lake into a tourist trap, with stalls of dried fruits and souvenirs.

We headed towards a vegetarian fake meat Buddhist restaurant. We struggled to find the venue as the maps provided by The Lonely Planet and local maps put the restaurant on the other side of the street. We popped into the Yuantong Temple for a wander around which was nice, apart from the building work, with Turtles swimming in the lake. Eventually we decided that the vegetarian restaurant on the side of the temple was more than likely the one we were looking for. We headed inside and ordered our food, which you would struggle to tell that it wasn’t meat. The Peppered Beef was really beefy and the texture was spot on, the fake prawns with fake ham were ok but not our favourite. If you get the chance, either if you are a vegetarian or meat lover we would recommended giving it a go.

We went back to the hostel and had a drink in the bar and then had a quick game of table tennis before bed.

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

Last day in Shanghai and we had some catching up to do with the blog so we stayed in the hostel cafe until midday and then went out in search of some older looking parts of Shanghai. On our way to Shanghai old town and the YuYuan gardens we bought some fantastic street food in the form of potato noodles, chives and spice…yum! This definitely set us up for the rest of the day and we walked onwards to YuYuan. Shanghai does have historic sites but many of them have been very modernly updated, it’s difficult to see past the sparkling gold exteriors and more plasticy looking brick work.

In amongst the streets here are hundreds of tourist shops selling typical Chinese craft and souvenirs along with famously long queues for the most well known dumpling restaurants and tees houses around. It seems to be the place for tourists to swarm towards and have their photographs taken. We did however find the less frequented YuYuan gardens, perhaps because you have to pay 30yuan to get in…? Who knows, but it really isn’t a place you should miss if you do visit Shanghai because it contains it’s original features, stone work and gardens, it does take you away from the crowded streets and manages to keep a sense of serenity about it.

On our way back we walked by People’s Square, which wasn’t very busy and then caught a quick tube back to East Nanjing rd, back at the hostel more pool was played, more defeats but not for Dave. We stepped out for some local cuisine, experience the troff style toilet and we packed ready to leave the following day.

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

We arrived Shanghai at around 7am and having being inspired by Rick and Beth (from the Japan to China boat trip) we proceeded to eat our breakfast of oats, banana and raisons out of thermos cups! Really nice! We went straight to The Mingtown Hiker YHA which is based close to The Bund in central Shanghai. The hostels are great over here as we always manage to get an early check in. This hostel is quite large, is in a good location and has a good social cafe for meeting people. The four person dorm was a good size, clean and the shared showers down the hall were steamy hot!

The Bund is a popular attraction in Shanghai with views over the river to Pudong’s famous skyscrapers. We walked from Mingtown to the Bund which takes around 10 minutes and strolled along the paved promenade. We were looking forward to some famous Shanghai heat and humidity after the chilly spell in Beijing however the clouds, wind and rain had moved in and it felt very much like a cold and damp December in the UK. Not happy! We followed The Bund walking tour as outlined in The Lonely Planet and walked by some art deco style buildings and famous hotels that play host to historical stories surround the gang of 4 and other war time events. One such place called the Fairmont Peace Hotel has a pretty impressive entrance way and interior. Following on from here we came across a temple in the middle of the shopping area in Shanghai. It houses a large silver Buddha statue which is quite impressive, but it’s all a little surreal placed in between large electronic ad campaigns and department stores.

The Propaganda Poster Art centre had some good reviews in the Lonely Planet and we were interested to see the collection which is located in a basement floor underneath a 20+ story block of flats. It was a little tricky to find but the security guards pointed us in the right direction. It was a great collection of art and design with some interesting historic information to back up the messages and put the posters in context with the political and social movements of the time.

Traveling for a year has its limitations on budget as you can imagine, so on the lookout for some cheap eats, we wandered around the streets looking for just that. This can be difficult if you end up in the wrong area of Shanghai so we chose a fast-food chinese food restaurant chain which had some fairly substandard food. It was cheap and filled us up but that is all. Back to the hostel we had a couple of beers and got chatting to a couple of Scottish girls who are teaching over here in China.

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