Up, breakfast, pack-up of the tent and we were off, our destination for today was away from the coastline at the Hoh Rainforest. As we had some fairly light-weight camping gear we wanted to do some hiking and over night wilderness camping. The Hoh Rainforest has a great hike that takes you through the forest on a clearly marked path which can go as far as the Glacier Meadows 18 miles from the car park / visitor centre. We decided on a 5 mile walk along the Hoh River to break us in gently to the 5 mile island wilderness camp site.

The hike with all our gear took us 2 hours and we arrived at our beautiful camping spot in the middle of nowhere. We set up and figured out how to use the bear wire; a pulley system to raise food bags etc up high out of the reach of furry paws. After a stroll for one more mile along the river we headed back to camp and cooked, well rehydrated, a Backpackers Pantry Kathmandu curry. It was surprisingly really good and we both enjoyed our travellers meal.

A few other campers arrived and before long it was dark and time to entertain ourselves with a game of poker in our two man tent. Betting with ear plugs, head torches, maps, money, mobile phone etc ensuring lots of laughs emanating from the tent! A quick visit to the privy, a clean of the teeth and time for a night in the wilderness. After a surprisingly comfy night we emerged at 6.30am, ate breakfast and then started the five miles back at 8am. After a brief encounter with an angry looking Elk Stag we made it back in 1hr50. A spot of lunch and a hot drink in the car park and we were ready to get back on the road. Cheekily we stopped at a campsite with paid showers and nipped inside, a shower can make the world of difference, especially after 4 days! Brand new!

Lake Quinault was the destination for today which was nice enough although the weather was grey. We stopped at a beach along the way which was very foggy, but provided some interesting photos. A corner shop at Lake Quinault provided some beers, bread and hot chocolate. $20 for the pitch with a nice spot by the lake and a fire pit to keep us warm. For something to do we went to the local attraction which was… The worlds largest Sitka Spruce tree. Back to camp after all the excitement, a delivery of firewood and a spot of photo editing before eating dinner. Bedtime arrived quite quickly after our long day. Portland is our next destination.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f/2.0, Leica 90mm f/2.8, Zeiss 18mm f/4 ZM processed in Lightroom 3)

Oh oh beautiful Pai! How we loved our days camping in our wonderful boutique style tent with views across the valleys…not to make people jealous but we really were spoilt and all for as little as 250 baht a night! We loved spending time in our tent, reading, watching the sunrise, and having the luxury of a duvet! It was very hot during the daytime when we were here sometimes reaching 38 degrees, but in the night we were nicely cooled by the 16 degree air. This felt quite cold actually, long gone are the cold nights in China.

There isn’t that much to do in Pai to be honest, but it is a very beautiful town with lots of yoga class offerings, cooking classes, walks, bike rides and so on. In the night-time the streets turn into a walking night market with local crafts and clothes many of which are made by the neighboring tribal villages. We picked up a few nicely branded Pai items which are hard to avoid, but they do tend to stand out over most tourist branded things. There are opportunities to hike and explore on kayaking tours in the wet season but we opted for some low-key adventuring in the form of hiring a motorbike for the day and exploring most of Pai’s famous sights. It is a very twee place and extremely popular with Thai holiday makers due some old films that were made there in the 90′s.

There is a pool around 1km outside of Pai in the direction of the Canyon at a place called Fluid, it’s a good sized swimming pool and they have plenty of space for sunbathing too. The food there is okay but overpriced for what you get, however it’s probably the best place in town to cool down from the heat especially when the river is at a low level.

Helen found a nice yoga class to attend which cost 200 baht for a 2 hour session, if she hadn’t had been struck by her 3rd tummy bug in 5 weeks then she would have been able to attend a few more classes!! It’s also a great way to meet people as many will do 3 classes in a row before moving on. Aside from the stomach upsets though we had a fantastic time here and would consider returning. We don’t think we’d be able to get as good a deal on accommodation in the future especially for our little set up as we knew they were a new resort.

So 5 days later and we were ready to head back to Chiang Mai. We can quite see why people end up hanging around Pai for longer than anticipated. There are great restaurants offering a variety of good Thai, western and other foods, there are places to go and drink chai, a good choice of bars, shops to poke around in,  and a nice river that flows through beautiful scenery. If you’re a little prone to travel sickness then the 764 turnings in the road to get there may cause a slight problem but getting a mini-van would help with this. We got a minivan there for 180 baht and the return journey to Chiang Mai was only 150. You can get a local bus for around 72 baht if you don’t mind being crammed into the rooftop and the journey takes around 3-4 hours.

When we got back into Chiang Mai we sorted out a few arrangements for the next few days; one was to book an elephant mahout day, another to do a one day massage course and the last to sort out our travel arrangements to Bangkok.

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

WHOA BESTIVAL….(bestival) I got ma Beb-ey!

Well not exactly what Paulo Nutini was chanting in his song, however it worked for us all year round since our last Bestival jaunt in 2009! Dave’s been singing it on average weekly since we came back after that one!! So of course we were mega excited about going to this wonderful gem of a festival on the Isle of Wight. Last year was going to be tough to beat…the weather was amazing all weekend, the line up was very strong, & it was our first festival together!

This year the journey down & back seemed really smooth, we were set up & ready to head to the Thursday night shindigs by 8pm! The ferry journey from Portsmouth is always fun, I feel a little bit geeky saying that, but it’s just like going on holiday, it’s only a short journey but you start getting a really nice feel for the festival atmosphere. Rammed full of people all with the same agenda & a nice buzz of excitement is in the air.

So Thursday saw us find a camping spot, which took ages as they were filling the campsites to their maximum & not letting people into the smaller sites further afield. This was probably one of the negatives from the weekend, I don’t think it got people off to a good start. Some campers had already set up their tents & were being told to take them back down again & move back to the other sites which were full to the rim!! We eventually found a spot on the edge of the black campsite, set up quite quickly & headed off to get a feel for the new layout of the festival site. A new field was added this year called ‘The Wishing Tree Field’ & Tomorrow’s world had a new venue ‘The Rock n Roll’ tent. Funnily enough the wishing tree field had a massive sculpted tree, somewhere you could go, make a wish & dance! There were also new additions such as ‘The Cabaret tent’ & many small venues. We did read that this year was about the small venue, so it was good to see little places packed with people dancing.

Friday came along, the weather was okay, no rain so that was a positive! On our agenda were The Wild Beasts, Delphic, Simion Mobile Disco & Hot Chip. The XX were performing & I would have loved to have supported them fresh off their Mercury music prize win, but Dave was more for Simion, & I couldn’t be bothered to fight with the thousands of teens backing up at the Big Top. We did venture to a few other venues in between acts & explored other areas we didn’t really see last year. Hot Chip were most definitely the highlight of the day for us. Zane Lowe warmed up for Dizzie Rascal the headline act, we stayed for a bit & then let all the teeny boppers get on with it!

Saturday every year is THE fancy dress day, with a fancy dress parade & catwalk competition later on. This year the festival was the year of the Fantastical. Generally the whole site is themed around this & people were dressed up from Green Toy Soldiers to Bearded ladies, cup-cakes to fairy tale characters & s&m lovers!I had a bright yellow dress, I was aiming for princess but struggled to find the tall pointy hat I wanted for it! It’s just nice to dress up though.

On the hit list for that day was Giles Peterson’s 1.5 hour dj set in the Bollywood tent, Mumford & Sons, The Flaming lips, Giles Peterson always attracts a good crowd & I love being part of a load of mad fancy dress dance lovers! It’s such a nice vibe & to be partying like that at 5pm in the afternoon is surreal, refreshing & lot’s of fun. We both loved Mumford & Sons, although perhaps I a little more than Dave…he he! And The Flaming Lips blew us away, they really know how to put on an amazing show. Having little knowledge of their music both of us had heard that their live shows are something else, so we knew it was going to be good. But it’s a really magical experience, something that almost feels fantastical. Really good performers for sure! After the wonders of The Flaming Lips, we headed to bed in anticipation of a late night on the last night to see LCD Soundsystem…dreams of ‘Someone Great’ going on in our minds.

Sunday came & the sun came with it! It was a lovely day indeed. After a slow start & another round of welly boot wearing we set out to just soak up what was happening. A spot of The Cuban Brothers kept us smiling & the amazing choice of food kept our energy levels up. Fat Freddy’s Drop put on an refreshing performance, I had seen them a few years ago in Christchurch, New Zealand this time round they were much more giving to the crowd, really having fun with it on stage. Dave didn’t have any knowledge of them & was pleasantly surprised. They are a brilliant set of musicians fusing together reggae with house, brass & soul creating a magical mix of good tunes. The Prodigy were headlining that night, but to be fair I think my Prodigy days are numbered, I did enjoy it but just couldn’t really connect with the music. Straight after they finished their set the fireworks were set off along with the bonfire made from wood to be a fairyland castle, we watched from the distance with our veggie burger & Hot dog.

With 2 hours to go until LCD we journeyed around the site one more time, venturing back to the Wishing Tree Field before a spell at the silent disco. Those things are so much fun, two Dj’s competing against each other everyone listens through headphones choosing which channel we want to tune into. It’s so funny from an outsider’s view looking into a room full of people dancing randomly to different things in silence!!

So with that to get us geared up for LCD & we aimed for the Big Top in anticipation of the New York performers to come on stage. When they did we were not let down by any means. They really were the best performance of Bestival 2010 for us! We are big fans anyway & love their music so we hoped they would be as good as we imagined &they really were. After 3 nights of dancing & trenching up hills in muddy wellies we still had some gas left in the tank for LCD. I think they made our festival! Such an eclectic mix of house music, powerful lyrics, experimental electro & experienced musicians. YES!! If this was their last gig together as LCD we were there & very chuffed to have been so!

So there you have it, a round up of events for Bestival 2010! Rob Da Bank should be proud of what he has built with it, from a small festival of dj’s back in the day to now a mainstream dance festival it’s a real pleasure to have been a part it. Great location, good choice of food, good venues, fab line up’s, comedy, fancy dress, good hygiene…the list goes on. I have a feeling that when we’re back from our travels, it wont be too far down the list of things for us to do!

Here are a few photos from our mini adventure… (Nikon Coolpix, processed in Photoshop)