We started the day with our customary Luang Prabang breakfast; JoMa’s cinnamon and raisin bagel with jam, followed by oats, fruit and yoghurt. Our pick up was at 11.10am and off we went to the airport. The whole process was very smooth indeed and by 2.30pm we were in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Bliss.

A taxi took us from the airport to Julie’s guesthouse in the south-east area of the old town in Chiang Mai. They had a few rooms available and saving cash we opted for a triple for the night at 270 baht between the 3 of us. We spent that day sorting out things for the next few days of our trip with the most important on the list being a good cooking class. Helen has done the class in one of the many schools before and so we wanted to do one that was a little different. We booked a full day class for the 3rd with the Thai Farm Cooking School, costing us 1900 baht each, a little more pricey than some but with the experience of cooking at the farm and getting away from the city for the day. Other things we looked into were possible elephant sanctuary’s and buses to Pai. There are so many tours to choose from half the time it’s just a case of getting the price you want to pay for a tour that looks good value. The food choices in Chiang Mai are very good with a wide range of thai and international restaurants to choose from. We opted for a local cafe style restaurant for some long awaited authentic Pad Thai and Papaya salad.

We booked minivan tickets from Julie’s for 180 baht each to take us on the morning of the 4th so we had a few days to play in Chiang Mai before the next part of our adventures. We took in more temples, this time in Thai style design, and recognised some elements that have been taken into some of the temples we saw in Laos. We picked up a Thailand Lonely Planet second hand and paid more than we should have, only to realise this later on and we found a few useful camera accessory items from Paantip Plaza near to where the Night Bazaare starts from the east side. We explored the busy night bazaare and bargained for a fake north-face rucksack, hoping that it lasts! We asked at Julie’s about swapping to single rooms but they were very vague and we couldn’t help but think they had rooms available but were waiting for people booking treks and tours with them to use up the room allocation. This happens a lot in Chiang Mai.

The cooking class took place on the 3rd and we were picked up from Julie’s as part of the package. Our tour guide Tommy talked us through the day and explained that he would also be our chef for the day too. He was a real charmer with the ladies and had a good sense of humour to go with it. We started the tour by going to one of the markets a little out of town, we were really surprised by the organisation and cleanliness of the market. Tommy talked us through traditional Thai foods used on a regular basis, rice, sticky rice, fish sauce, coconut, curry pastes and so on. We then explored the market ourselves for a short while before continuing onto the farm. A couple on the tour bought some deep friend insects and frogs and managed to pass them around on the bus causing intrigue and disgust.

The farm is really nicely located around 45 minutes from Chiang Mai, we were introduced to the vegetable gardens and talked through the various herbs, fruits and vegetables growing there. Our first task was to make curry paste for our curry of choice, Dave chose green curry and Helen yellow curry. We bashed away with a mortar and pestle for around 10 minutes until all ingredients were nicely combined into a paste, some of which were chillies; fresh and dried, kaffir lime, galangal and garlic (many more went into each one!!) turmeric being the one that makes the yellow curry go yellow!

Once the pastes were made we went into the kitchen and started on the mains. We all chose from a selection of 3 different dishes per course and so have 5 in total to cook. We chose different options on purpose so we could try different things. The mains being green and yellow curry, a soup either traditional Thai or Tom Yum, a stir-fired dish, papaya salad, a noodle dish and a dessert. By the end of the day we had cooked and eaten most of our food including the dessert and we had pad thai and noodle dishes ready to take away and eat later on. It was a good course and we’d recommend this school to anyone looking for a cookery get away.

We enjoyed Thai massages that evening along with a few people who had joined us on the course. This is something you must do when you come to Thailand; have a Thai massage. Helen opted for an oil body massage which was very good indeed, and Dave enjoyed a more hardy traditional Thai one, both costing in total 400 baht. Not bad! We went to a salon called Panna which is located near to the eastern gate and we liked the idea of doing a one day massage course and looked into this for when we would be back from Pai.

(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)

We left Lotusland at 7.45am to walk to the International Tourism Distribution Centre only 15 minutes walk away which was perfect for us leaving Nanning. The bus station we came into from Yangshou was at least a 40 minute bus journey from the centre so we were pleased not to be making this journey again. We were joined by a few other backpackers at the bus station and saw the first bus leave packed with passengers at 8am, ours was at 8.30am and was considerably less full.

We had a hostess who handed out a bread snack and water to all passengers and it was quite a smart bus. We traveled through Southern China and saw more agriculture and rice fields along the way, it was still cold and dull. We stopped once for a toilet break and then again for lunch, we were only about 20 minutes from the border at this stage but we were provided with a free meal which consisted of egg and tomato, tofu and rice it wasn’t too bad. There were also quite a few touts waiting to exchange Chinese RMB to Vietnamese Dong. We didn’t have any Dong ready with us so we changed what we had left of the RMB which was around £10′s worth. The exchange rate isn’t great when you do this with touts so we’d probably recommend to change only what you need for taxi’s etc on the other side. One girl changed around £200 worth and we don’t think she did so well on the exchange rate.

The journey from Nanning to the border took around 4 hours and as we got the border the bus pulled into a parking lot, we exited with our bags and were carted off on a little gold-like buggy to the Chinese exit border. It took around 40 minutes to complete exit from China and entry into Vietnam, with 5 or so passport checks. It was pretty relaxed and we were asked a few questions on the Vietnamese side but they were friendly enough and off we went to another golf buggy before being shipped onto another bus. This bus was full and we could only just get a seat.

The journey to Hanoi took 5 hours with one break at a restaurant/service area. The bus was okay and again we had a hostess on board handing out water. We were pleasantly surprised with the journey as we had read about some horror stories on the Vietnamese buses, but all in all it was pretty swift. The traffic coming into Hanoi was very busy so it took a while to get into the city. Once we arrived a lady came on board and asked to speak to the westerners, we had read that this would happen so were a little skeptical as to whether to take her advice or not. Contrary to this though she was quite helpful and as a group of 4 she advised on how to bargain for the taxi and made sure we knew how not to get ripped off!!

We traveled with a Finnish couple we’d met on the bus to The Hanoi Rendezvous and agreed a price with the taxi driver. We knew that we’d be paying around 100,000 dong between us but at first he was quoting $150! Dave kept getting out of the taxi refusing to agree to that price and we eventually managed to get him to agree to our price. The journey was around 15 minutes (the taxi driver had said it would be 50 km!) be prepared for scams!! When we arrived at the Rendezvous he stopped the car a little away from the hotel and said it was much further asking for more money. We knew where the hotel was though and didn’t take any of his shit. We paid the price and that was that. Perhaps getting into Hanoi from your bus or airport is where you’re more likely to get ripped off by the taxi drivers as you’ll be new to the city so just be prepared for this.

At the Rendezvous we checked into our spacious 6 bed dorm room, practically each bed was a mini double with good spacing in between and a shared en-suite. We were paying $7 each for this which was considerably more than in China but it had great reviews and included a good breakfast. We inquired at reception about a few options for getting around Vietnam and as we had no guide book yet we went off to a bookshop called The Bookworm to get ourselves a Lonely Planet.

It was around a half hour or so walk through the busy city streets to Bookworm heading north of the city centre to the second lake. We picked up a photocopy version for 150,000 dong checking the quality first as often the maps are very pale so it’s good to go through the pages. We asked for their recommendation on a good place to eat nearby and were instructed to go to Food Shop (45). We enjoyed some excellent vegetarian Indian food and the ventured through the streets back to the Hotel. When we got there we saw Maayke (from Yangshou) and her friend who were also in the same dorm, we had previously arranged to meet them here so it wasn’t so much of a coincidence. We discussed trip options and then chatted in the cafe area for a while before hitting the sack.

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

So another day in Yangshou beckoned and the weather was still on the chilly side with plenty of moisture thrown in for good measure. We had heard about some Tai Chi lessons that Trippers could organise for guests with a local tutor, so we booked ourselves onto a course to see if we could remember anything from our previous lesson in Beijing. The tutor was really good at explaining what to do and helped you into the positions but wasn’t overly fussy if you could not manage it each time. This made the class go far more smoothly and it was very enjoyable. It’s amazing at the power that can be generated from simple moves and relaxed muscles when defending yourself. Dave got tested on a few times again to show what the motions were used for in self defence. It was freezing on the rooftop even though we had many layers of clothes to try and keep us warm!

After the two hour lesson we headed to the cafe for some warmth and food. We opted for more ginger and honey tea, which is so good, but so sweet, and some lunch. We had heard from other guests that the dragon eggplant was a good choice so we opted for the non-pork option and some tofu. We have eaten our fair amount of eggplant over the months in China, but this dish blew them all out of the water! It was amazing. Slightly fried like a tempura batter with a great sauce and veggies on top. Really great, we loved it.

We decided to head into the main town to walk off lunch and see if we could find bargains on sunglasses and some nice cushion covers that Helen had her eye on in a funky little shop on West Street. They were costly and they wouldn’t budge on the price, so we bought just the one and decided to see if we can get it replicated either back in the UK or maybe in Vietnam. On our way back to the hostel, playing on the public exercise machines by the river, we bumped into Maayke and Alex who were staying at Trippers and decided to have a walk down to the river. More often than not you’ll find a very picturesque place that in areas tends to lend itself towards being a dumping ground, this is the case we’ve seen across China. It is a case of the beauty and the beast at times.

Evening meal was again back at… you guessed it… Trippers! Comfort food to the max, soup, cheese burger and the amazingly tasty apple crumble with ice cream! Not the most classic “Chinese” of meals but you have to have some tastes of the west every so often. After some cards and a few drinks we headed to bed in the knowledge that we would have the dorm all to ourselves that evening. As soon as we had closed the door to the room a bunch of four Irish lads burst onto the scene but exited for food pretty quickly as they’d just got in from Shanghai. Misfits it was!

There were a few snores that night, but it wasn’t too bad for Helen sharing a room with 4 other lads!!

The next day was our final day in Yangshou town and along came the wet and cold weather. We had more editing and writing to catch up on so the crappy weather was a good excuse to stay inside, drink ginger and honey tea and keep warm. We finally had enough of work and decided to head out for a walk into the countryside which got the blood pumping and warmed us up no end. There are some really interesting walks and exploration to be done around China and you will always come to a little village where photograph opportunities just jump out.

For food we headed into Yangshou to find something cheap and not the hostel food, even though it was lovely, we wanted something else and some new scenery. We found a place and order our food. The food was very average and we were both disappointed. Helen’s vegetable noodles soup dish came with chicken in it and had very little flavour. We even asked for some chilli to make it more interesting but all we were given was Tabasco sauce! Not very Chinese in style or flavour.

Back at Trippers we proceeded with yet more writing and relaxing in the cafe/bar with hot chocolate. Pizza was required to forget the taste of lunch and Trippers duly obliged again. The Irish boys were having food, drinks and they cracked open the game Risk and asked Dave if he wanted to join in. Some good quality lads time was taken up, along with beers and world domination. Helen went to bed and Dave almost conquered the world, but he was too nice to the opposition! The bar closed up at 11pm and that was the end of that! We hope the lads made it to Hong Kong on time, we are sure that there train took longer that the one hour that they were told by someone in the hostel! It takes at least 10 hours we would guess!

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

We had a slow start to the new year, not a lot was done at all. Helen had quite a hangover for the first part of the morning but after a while and a re-hydration sachet she soon perked up. As the day went on we cuddled in the cafe and worked on editing and the blog. We had some good comfort food and went out for a little walk before heading into town to meet Emma and Doug for some local food. We ended up at a great cheap little clay pot restaurant away from West Street where you’ll find most backpackers eating away, you can eat a good meal for around £1. So having recovered from hangovers we swapped notes on our plans for South-East Asia and ended the night with a nice cup of chai.

We started the following day early with an hour or so of horse-riding accompanied by a local guide. The session was supposed to be an hour but Dave’s horse was a little slow so we ended up being on the horses for an hour and a half. Our guide couldn’t speak very good English so it was more about signaling and the odd whip to get the horses up to his pace. This was Dave’s first time on a horse, but they were pretty tame and we think the slow pace probably helped for the first-timers. Helen’s horse was well-behaved and just got on with it, trotting when instructed to and just followed his lead. The guide came along with 3 horses and met us at Trippers, he took the white horse which was the smallest and the most feisty so we were relieved that he was riding that one. It would have been nice to find out the names of the horses but we still managed to have a small bond! Our trip concluded by a little stop on a sandy beach where our guide proceeded to take a few photos of us with our new travel companions. It was a nice experience, perhaps a little pricey at £12 each, but we enjoyed it all the same.

We had planned to do some rock-climbing later on, but the weather came in and the temperature had dropped quite significantly so we decided to hire some bikes for the afternoon and make our way to Fuli. Tripper had given us some good advice on a route to Fuli away from the busy roads, the first part of the route took us back to where we’d been with the horses earlier on and we made out way to a little taxi ferry so we could cross the river to get to the start of the path. There was a man cooking his lunch and he was ready to eat signaling to his stomach, we tried to communicate that we didn’t mind waiting for him to eat but he left it cooking and took us over the river with our bikes. When we got to the other side we found the path straight away and set off on another biking adventure. Our target was Fuli and we had a map showing various paths and villages for us to go through. It definitely helped us to get warm and it was great riding along the bumpy trials. We’ve really enjoyed hiring bikes in China as it has always given us the best platform through which to explore in our own time. Most of the villages are very tranquil and it’s always great to see the culture of each place, seeing how people live with so little in contrast to the western world.

After some time we passed through orangeries and ended up on the road to Fuli. When we arrived there wasn’t really that much to see but we did stop for some lunch and meandered through the town’s streets until we came to the Li River. We were told we could pretty much cycle the length of the river back to Yangshou without going back onto the main road, this was the case for most of the journey and it was really good biking along the paths and through more villages, past more farmland and so on. After a while though our path led us back onto the main road and so we stuck with this until we got back into Yangshou.

We hadn’t much planned for the evening other than more work on Notworkrelated and some more good Trippers food. We’d already sampled the apple crumble which was delicious so we were looking forward to another relaxing evening. Most of the south of China comes without heating so it’s always good when we have the sun during the day, here though the weather was getting colder but we didn’t mind so much as Yangshou is a really pretty place and we were enjoying staying at Trippers so we decided to stay for a few more nights. That night we stayed in the cafe until quite late and as we were the only ones there asked if we could set up the laptop to watch another episode of Misfits. Addicted some might say!! We still made it to bed by 10.30pm though so we didn’t keep the staff up too late!

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

When we arrived in Yangshou we’d heard that the main cooking school ‘Yangshou Cooking School‘ offered some great half day classes so we booked this for the first part of the day. We had a pick up from our cookery master from Bamboo after checking out and we were taken to the local market, en route we picked up a few others who were also booked onto the cooking class and we arrived at the market ready for our first part of the class. It was really good to see the market in full swing, we’ve obviously seen many markets since traveling but each one always has something different. This one for example sold freshly cooked Dog meat, rabbit and a few sad cats were kept in baskets ready to await their doom. Both of us are cat lovers so seeing them there was pretty distressing, the dogs were already cooked and ready to eat. It’s a veer strange thing for westerners to witness but we don’t have them same approach to food as the east and especially in China food is food and you eat what you can, when you can. This mind set is still very much in place in the south. We were told not to photograph the dogs, and to be fair it wasn’t a pleasant experience, but it’s all part of the process of finding out about different cultures. The rest of the market place was bustling with energy and it was great to see all of the fresh produce and also have an explanation into the different food types.

Following the market tour we were piled into a van and taken to the cooking school. They are situated very close to the harbour where we got the boat to and they’re location is perfect for the environment. They have an open kitchen where everyone has their own cooking place, wok and sauces, the head chef stays at the front of the class for demonstration purposes and then we cooked what she did straight after, as she came around the make sure everything was going to plan. This is the best cooking class we’ve done so far as we did most of the preparation and all of the cooking for each dish. In total we had 4-5 dishes varying from stuffed vegetable/canopy style appetisers to the local delicacy beer soaked fish. The latter really was a delight. After each course we sat outside and ate as a group, except for the last two courses which we ate as 2 dishes togethers.

All in all the cooking class was excellent, the teacher was really coherent and patient and we enjoyed good food and company in a wonderful setting. We would recommend the school to anyone visiting Yangshou for sure.

After the class we went back to Bamboo to collect our bags and walked to the next village along from the pier Shi Ban Qiao the hostel we were moving to ‘Trippers Carp Diem‘ had been recommended to us by fellow travellers and we’d already scouted out the area on our bikes a few days ago so we knew it was in a good location. We sacrificed comfort for location on this one and saved our pennies in booking a dorm room. There is always plenty of space in the dorms in China but the beds are often a little hard. This was the case, but considering the quality of the service, food and location we couldn’t complain too much.

We had some food at the hostel and then set off for our New Years Eve bash at Monkey Jane’s. When we arrived it was pretty quiet, but before long the card playing crew came along and Helen succumbed to wearing the official Monkey Jane t-shirt. We enjoyed some more card games and the beer flowed freely. More and more people arrived and before long the rooftop bar was rammed. The cards stopped and we enjoyed a funny game of beer pong against a couple of the lads, much to our despair we lost!! And we watched them win time and time again afterwards, we think this was something to do with their distracting crazy dancing each time the opposition took a turn!

We met some fun people and a other travellers making the same trip as us – over many drinks, dances and ole langs sine we agreed to meet Emma and Doug the following night for food. The party was a good laugh, it was just great to go out, have a few drinkies and lot’s of fun too!! We enjoyed a good little boogy when the music hit it right and there were even a few fireworks to keep us entertained!

We left at around 2am and walked home along the dark paths to the village. What a fab end to 2010!! Happy New Year!!

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

We left one big bag behind at Cloudland hostel as they offer a free luggage storage service for 3 days (thereafter its 3yuan per day). So we took advantage of this and packed most things into one main rucksack and had the smaller ones for cameras and so on. The bus left from the one bus station in Kunming which is way out of town, it takes around 45 minutes to get there and will cost 50 yuan by taxi. We were lucky as two girls from the hostel were making their way to the bus station so we shared the taxi ride with them. They were also going all the way to Yuanyang so it was good to know there were more travelers making their way there.

The bus left at 10am but it was a chilly start to the day, much cooler than previous days and all the way to Yuanyang this weather seemed to stick with us. There were a few stops along the cliff edged roads, one of which led us to some interesting outside toilets others were drop offs for extra parcels and passports the driver seemed to be transporting. There was a bit of a traffic jam coming into Xinjie where the main buses will stop at for the terraces and we eventually pulled up at 4pm. Greg from Sunny’s Guesthouse was there to meet us, he’d been staying there for some months helping out and as their English speaking guide for the guesthouse. His English was perfect and this in itself was very helpful in negotiating the mini bus fare back to their village. The two girls we had met on our way to the bus also joined us, so all in all we had managed to save a few yuan by sharing taxis and so on.

It was pretty foggy which we’d heard is very common at the terraces as they are set at altitude so often the mist settles into the valleys and takes a day to clear. We stopped at a few vantage points along the way which gave us a hint of what to expect when the weather clears. Sunny’s Guesthouse is one of very few accommodations in the Douyishi village. It is run by husband and wife and their sun Frank, they are currently doing some renovation work (as is often the case in off season China) and they are limited when it comes to heating, but it has amazing rooftop views and is located at the foot of the rice terraces in the village so we were spoilt for choice! We opted for a double room mainly due to body heat, it was freezing!! We did have an electric blanket though so there was comfort in that. The mist didn’t clear but we got a few shots of the landscape before dinner and two of the other guys staying there turned up from a stroll so there was a good group of us around the table. Dining takes place in a separate outer building from the main guesthouse, Frank is the chef and he kept churning out top quality home-cooked organic dishes one plate after the other. We also enjoyed the red rice which is grown in the Yuanyang rice fields. The family ate at the table next to us which is great in itself as they really do welcome you to their home. We stayed up and chatted next to the little fire in the communal area and then settled in for the night in anticipation of a good sunrise the next morning.

We woke early but the fog was still with us so we stayed in the warm bed a little longer before getting up to join some of the others for breakfast. They were disappointed as the whole time they were there the fog was too! Still even the fog offers some great opportunities pictorially. For breakfast we enjoyed an eggy bread style theme; egg pancakes with jam (very tasty) eggy french bread (good) and fried egg…it did the trick but was a little too stodgy! Still it was hot food and the air was cold. Nathan from San Francisco had arrived at 5am so he joined us and we chatted about plans for later on hoping to catch the sunset if the fog cleared.

After breakfast we went for a stroll into the village. Still foggy, adding atmosphere to the surroundings, we wandered past the pigs, chickens and cows roaming around people’s houses. There is very much a sense of community here and we learned that the rice terraces belong to the villagers and they share out between themselves what they grow, we figured it must be the same for the animals. The houses are very simple, many with straw roofs and it’s a very basic way of living (although we’re sure they have large flat screen TV’s tucked away in some of them!) It’s a very picturesque place and making our way down to the terraces was really rewarding even in the fog. You can walk into them quite far on the small paths, the terraces can be quite abstract too with left over rice plants sticking out of the water. At times the sun peeked through the cloud and offered some strong reflections, but the fog would soon swallow it up again.

We arranged to meet Nathan, Frank and one of the girls at 4pm to head out in search of some better weather later on. This meant we had the day to catch up on editing, the electric blanket was turned on, we wore all the clothes possible and every so often we would pause for a run up onto the roof terrace to catch the views before going back down again. Helen got pretty cold so along to the Chemical Brother’s Push the Button album she had a boogy in the room to warm up!

We met up with the others at 4pm to go in search of a sunset, Frank had heard that the sun was out in a few areas of the region so we went off to find them. Some of the best views were found at roadside platforms where we could catch the terraces for free, the bigger more well known viewing areas are all charged on entry so we had to toy with the plan…if the weather isn’t going to be good over there let’s see what we can find for free rather than getting there, paying and having no views. When we originally came into the Yuanyang region we managed to avoid the entrance fee by sitting in the back of the mini van and being unnoticed by the gateway keepers. To access the villages alone there is a 60yuan per person fee for tourists, but if it’s foggy, the weather is bad or you can hide behind local drivers then you will miss this fee. We were nearly charged on the second day but Frank managed to talk us out of it.

Finally we reached an area that had clear views and strong sunset colours reflecting off the water filled terraces. It was quite a special moment, we could see the fog coming in on different sections of the terraces. Wow! The terraces go on for what seems like miles, and this was only one section!

We did have to pay Frank for ferrying us around but it was only 30yuan per person so that wasn’t too bad at all, he also took off some money for us as he didn’t take us all the way to other viewing areas, this was mainly because the weather wasn’t as clear there anyway so it did us a favour. Back at Sunny’s we enjoyed another family meal, perhaps not as good as the first night, but there was plenty of choice and we were joined by some more guests. We stayed up with Nathan and Greg sipping on hot tea and chatting away until it was bed time. We were leaving early the next day but had vowed to be on the rooftop for the sunrise.

6.30am and we were on the roof watching the sun rise over the mountain tops and Dave shot some more slow shutter imagery on the Olympus Pen. If we’d have had more time we would have loved to stay for that day as we knew the weather was getting better, but we had other plans to go further north from Kunming and we were happy with what we had seen.

A quick breakfast and we were all squashed into the mini van to take us back to the bus station. This time we shared the journey with 4 others so once again costs were reduced. The bus left at 8.30am and along with Nathan we made our way back to Kunming. It was a much warmer day all round and we arrived in Kunming at 5pm, Nathan shared our taxi and covered the costs as a work expense which we were very grateful for. We said our goodbyes and landed at Cloudland at around 6pm in time for dinner.

A few hellos to other travelers we had met in Shanghai and we went out to one of the local eateries for some great cheap local food. This was followed by a quiet night at the hostel and arrangements to take a bus to Dali the following afternoon.

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

Having decided on our next destination we bought our tickets from the bus station for Tunxi. This required an underground subway ride but it didn’t take too long. Taikang Road Art Centre has a nice exterior and looks very modern so we decided to take a look inside. They were exhibiting a collection on Luilu glass art which was nice to look at but not that attention grabbing. Across the road is a western style small supermarket and we found ourselves some weetabix for breakfast for the next few days, the small things can make all the difference to the traveling experience, especially when eating them out of a metal thermos flask!

We proceeded to walk around the backstreets of Shanghai and we found Kommune situated at the heart of the Taiping Road Art district is a cafe/restaurant recommended in The Lonely Planet which has some tasty Chinese and western fusion food on offer, it’s a little pricey but the food and setting kind of makes you overlook this a little. In this area there are quite a few photographic galleries, some are very much aimed at the tourist with some nice(ish) images, but nothing that we haven’t seen before and a lot of repetition in imagery, style and so on. However one or two galleries have some really high end work and do manage to stand out above the rest. Its quite a contrived arts area but there have been some good renovations to the buildings and most things on offer including food and tourist tat is all a little over priced. We walked onwards towards the French Concession part of Shanghai which offers not-surprisingly very European style architecture and landscaping. Streets are much narrower and buildings are only up to 5-6 stories high. It’s really pleasant and does take you to somewhere in the Med. A nearby park once more offered some strong photographic opportunities in the form of men flying kites (a popular hobby in China) women gossiping, people exercising and practising Tai Chi along with the usual card and betting games. There’s always interesting things to document in these kind of environments.

As the afternoon passed we made our way over to Pudong well in time so we could get some good sunset views. We were perhaps a little over eager in getting to the viewing platform in The Jinmao Tower which is a very ‘Gotham City’ style looking building that looks out over Shanghai with the TV tower placed right in the forefront of your view. We stayed up there for a good few hours and waited for the sunset, they always disappear into a smoggy haze over the major cities in China, but from behind the glass we had some amazing views and met a few other travellers up top too.

On our way back to the hostel we found a great little cheap restaurant a few streets away from where we’re staying and managed to have braised tofu, green beans and a meaty dish for dave, along with rice for around £4. It really is amazing how cheaply you can eat over here!! It never ceases to surprise us! The waiters here were dressed in a retro military style uniform and our particular waiter entertained us by singing Beatles tracks as soon as he found out that Helen is from near Liverpool! Very entertaining! We followed this with a quick call to the folks and then few games of pool back at The Hiker YHA, our first game against each other and against all odds Helen won! This was the most important game of course, all others will be forgotten quickly… but this one will be held high in the list of sweet success.

(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 came across The Hutong earlier in the month when we attended a Christmas event at The International Canadian School of Beijing. They had a stand showcasing some of their events and we picked up a schedule for the month. We’d already attended the Tai Chi class a week ago and booked ourselves onto a Chinese vegetarian cooking class too. Our teachers were Sophie from The Hutong who translated for the main chef; a lady from Inner Mongolia. The food we were taught was from the North that you wouldn’t really get in Beijing unless you were cooking it yourself.

On the menu we had:

Vegetable Kung Po with tofu.
Egg & tomatoe with green peppers,
& mushroom and celery stir fry.

We learned how to use the blocky knives that everyone cooks with over here, the head chef was pretty strict when it came to “The” way to chop carrots, tofu and the like. With the Kung Po dish everything was meant to be the same size so that the cooking time is equal. Some of us were spot on with this…whilst others perhaps a little more experimental!!

When it came to cooking there was a hell of a lot of deep frying going on- eek! Especially with the first two dishes. The tofu was cooked first and then put aside whilst the remaining ingredients were cooked, it then rejoined the dish towards the end with the seasoning. The egg and tomato dish is a classic Chinese meal and this was Dave’s chance to shine! He seasoned the dish very well with more pepper, chili and green peppers! We actually preferred this to the one that was cooked earlier on!! Helen had a go at the mushroom and celery dish, which was more like stirring the wok ingredients whilst the chef adds what’s required!

We didn’t get to do much hands on cooking however we really enjoyed the class and eating the food afterwards. There was a great rice dish which we took down the recipe for, although didn’t actually cook as it was ready to eat with the food. Sophie who works there is a lovely lady too! She had great knowledge about the foods we were cooking and info about why dark mushrooms are good for you in the winter.

After the cooking class we walked to the Drum and Bell Towers. They’re based not to far away from Nanluoguxiang and so we knew where we could go to warm up as it was foggy and bloody cold! The views across the city were limited but it always adds an atmospheric feel to the photos when it’s like that. We reached the towers in time for their drum performance, this too is impressive and a nice change from the norm. It was too cold to stay for very long but we lasted until the end of the performance before heading for some hot tea down the road.

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