We started the day with a visit to some very inspiring inspiring exhibitions housed at the SFMOMA and the Contemporary Jewish Museum. Galleries don’t open until 11am-midday in the city so we edited and wrote in a local cafe before getting the bus to the SOMA district where most of the galleries are based. SFMOMA played host to a fantastic photography exhibition called Face Of Our Time featuring 5 photographers’ work surrounding their interest in making pictures about the current condition of our world. One series that stood out for us was And Misrach’s depiction of the graffiti left behind in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.

They were also hosting a private viewing of Richard Serra retrospective, closed doors for that one. But another project that definitely drew us in was The Lunch Break Times by Sharon Lockhart, it gave us quite a few ideas for our hopeful exhibition when we return to the UK. We moved on from the SFMOMA and crossed the street to the Contemporary Jewish Museum where an exhibition about the life of Houdini was taking place. This was a really cool exhibition offering us both an insight into a person we knew very little about other than the magic!

So we’d had our morning of art and then it was time to meet the boys and get ready for our Alcatraz tour. We’d booked onto an evening, sunset tour so as the boat set off and we listened to the tour guide describing the evening’s events we also got to enjoy the sun setting over Golden Gate and the Bay area. The tour was presented as an audio tour with a few rangers and guides around to help and answer any questions. There were extra activities and talks taking place throughout the evening making it different from the day tours and the hospital was open too. We learned about the prisoners, those that were famous, those that were deadly dangerous – Robert Birdman being one! And we had a really good experience of the prison as it was. By night everything seemed a little eerie and the evening ended with a description and presentation of the cell doors being slammed. The evening ended back in North Beach at an old favourite Italian bar.

The next day we had quite an easy one starting at our friend the laundrette before heading into Mission and Castro to explore the streets some more. We found a few vintage shops and independent clothing stores and waited for the boys to make an appearance (Dave’s friends that is!) and not the naked men on the streets we bumped into later on! Yes in Castro it’s legal to walk around naked in public as long as they have a flannel to sit on the bus with! So when we strolled around Castro Helen felt like she was out with her gay friends – only girl…4 men! ha ha! We had a few drinks and later on enjoyed a really good Thai meal back on Mission street.

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

We got an early bus to Koh Kong, although as per usual it took over an hour to leave the city and then we were still stopping along the way to pick up other passengers, many of whom didn’t have seats so were sat on plastic chairs in the aisles. After around 5 hours or so we landed in Koh Kong at a bus stop a little way out of the main streets, tuk-tuk drivers once again were hassling us to take pick up into town, but we knew from the scale of the map that it wouldn’t be too far to walk. We met Ali and Carl who’d been traveling mainly in India on the bus and we all decided to walk in together. We landed at The Dugout Hotel, which is quite easy to find on the main street leading towards the market. The manager is Australian and pretty helpful when it comes to advice in the area, we opted for a room that was more than we were hoping to pay but thought we’d just stay there the one night. They have a small pool there too so we were keen to go in for a dip to cool down from the afternoon heat.

Later on we met up with Ali and went to have a chat with a local eco-tour operator ran by a friendly chap called Mr T, his office is located at Dugout, and they are owned by the same guy who runs the Oasis Bungalow resort a little way out of town. We found out about tours on offer and what was possible for us to do and see on Koh Kong Island, after going back and forth and realising we couldn’t stay on the Island, Mr T made a few calls and pretty much made up a tour for us on the spot. We could take a 2 day boat trip to Koh Kong Island, visit the beautiful beaches, have barbecues on the beach, all of our food and stay at a fishing village called Alatan that is connected to the island via stilts and wooden bridges. For the 4 of us to go it would cost $55 each! This was a good price considering the tours we had paid for in Vietnam. So we agreed and decided to leave the following day. If you do go to the tourist office at The Dugout please note that this isn’t a tour they do on a regular basis so don’t expect it to be advertised. They offer other types of tours including jungle treks and mountain biking in the area, Koh Kong itself doesn’t have much going on, it’s a small town which can be used as a handy base to go off and explore.

We were picked up at 8am and taken to the harbour where we had a boat, driver and guide waiting with us along with a fridge full of food. It was a long boat that they had decked out for our comfort, Mr T came along to make sure everything was ready and set up for us and off we went. The first part of the boat trip took around 2 hours and on the way we even bought our fish from a local fisher-mans boat! We took a brief stop at beach number 1, we all jumped off the boat and went for a swim in the crystal clear waters. The beach was beautiful with no-one else around so we were excited about going to the further afield beaches.

After around half an hour we carried on towards beach number 3, here we stopped and the driver threw in the anchor. We had until around 4pm here, and so we swam, sunbathed, ate a fantastic fish barbecue meal, swam some more, the guide built us a shelter from the sun, Carl tried to catch a crab and so on. All in all it was absolutely gorgeous, we had the whole place to ourselves, the sea was beautiful and clear and it was so serene. At last we had found a paradise. We had heard that not many people come to Koh Kong Island other than on day trips because the military operate the Island so it’s not the safest place to stay, also the trips only go when there are more than 4 people so this meant we didn’t see any other tourists, only fishing boats.

After a lazy afternoon on the beach we got back into our boat and made the hour journey to Alatan fishing village. We weren’t expecting what awaited us at all. The village is build up of around 50 or so houses all built on stilts going away from the Island for around 1km. As we arrived many local children were waiting for us, all shouting hello and smiling and laughing nervously in anticipation of our arrival. We instantly felt very humble and privileged to be there and were taken into the house which would be our base for our stay. As soon as we got inside the children were posing for photographs, asked Dave to do some English spelling and took us up onto the Island where their school is based. We were quite overwhelmed by the whole experience, they were so happy for us to be sharing their home with them, showing us around their school and attempting to speak English with us. The photography opportunities here were fantastic.

After an hour or so of playing with the children we sat down for dinner and enjoyed more fish, rice, salad and fruit. We had previously seen two full size snooker tables in one of the houses a little further away from where we were and asked if we could play some snooker/pool. We have no idea how easy or hard it was for them to get those things in there, we were amazed that they had them and they clearly kept them in mint condition. It was also amazing to see how each family have some way of making money; either by fishing, selling groceries, a little cafe at one end and then the snooker hall!

So we played for an hour until going to bed at around 10pm, we had an audience watching us the entire time and Helen didn’t play well at all. We kind of just wanted to be unseen at this moment in time wishing for a game of pool on a snooker table to end!! Unfortunately for us Ali and Carl beat us 2-0, but Helen always makes a point that pub sports…just ain’t her thing! ha ha!

So to our bedroom which our hosts had vacated for us for that night, 4 of us all lined up on a thin mattress, with water underneath and noises from loud televisions, babies’ crying and the like meant we were on for a restless night. Still the experience of being there far outweighed any of this and we were very happy to have stayed in Alatan that night.

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

Having had a great experience with the Chinese Cultural Center last week on the Great Wall of China hike we booked up another tour for the Silver Mountain and Pagoda Forest which are about 1.5 hours out of Beijing at a cost of 250 RMB each. We arrived early as usual due to not knowing how bad the traffic would be and relaxed with a coffee and green tea. Our comrades for the day arrived and we began introducing ourselves and making friends before heading off in the bus. Upon finally arriving at the village (a driver even in China without a sat-nav is useless) we headed for the hills with enthusiasm ready to stretch the legs and get some fresh rural air in our lungs.

The CCC guide Michael was the friendly coordinator from last weeks trip so he lead from the front and we followed, not knowing he had only done this walk once before last year in the summer-time following someone else. Soon we were shoulder deep in thorny brittle branches climbing into the rocky hills. Our faith was intact and spirits high as we ambled onwards towards the blue sky, the scenery was very good and the Leica and Pen were working hard. Before long it became apparent that we were not on the right “path” and could well be on the wrong side of a very large steep hillside with no sign of the Pagoda Forrest destination. Mobile phones from the CCC guides began ringing and a few of the hikers were getting nervous, it had only taken an hour to get up to where we were and wouldn’t take long to get down. Midday had only just passed when we decided to head down and get the bus to the Pagoda Forrest where the CCC would pay for our entrance fees. Whilst waiting for the bus we got to know the locals and their donkeys, ate local produce and drank coffee. These trips are a great way to meet fellow travelers and we got chatting to Dave and Chris from the UK and Jen from California, lovely people!

The Pagoda Forest loomed from the bus window and we proceeded to have a look around the site. The guide gave us 30 minutes to have a walk around, but this was clearly not long enough and feeling like naughty school children cheated by our previous adventure we headed into the hills to get to the top vantage point. It was worth all the steps to get there as the views were great. The eight renegades made it to the bus 30 minutes late but all was fine and we had a group photograph with everyone on the trip. The CCC offered us 100RMB each refund for the trip so that eased the pain of a tour that failed to match the Great Wall visit.

Helen’s friend Lizzie in the UK has a sister working in Beijing; Jess, who we organised to meet with later that evening, so after a quick freshen up we headed over to meet her at The Bookwork followed by a lovely meal at a nearby Yunnan food restaurant. It was lovely catching up and chatting away.

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

So I finally left my home of 4 years this week & moved in with my parents who live closer to Liverpool. This has been one of the major hurdles for me in the build up to our trip. Not just in the sense that I have managed to accumulate a lot of things during my time on the lovely Burns Street and getting it out of there in time before new tenants were to move in! But the fact that I’ve really loved living there, it’s been my own place to do what the hell I want, when I want & I’ve loved it! So having to let go of it (a material thing) has been really difficult for me, but I feel that the excitement & planning involved with notworkrelated has kept me well distracted & it was only this week that got to me.

This move means we are getting closer to our leaving date…I have so much sorting out to do & we still have travel plans to finalise, but I guess this is part of the parcel of going away for a year…at least that’s what my parents keep telling me. I will enjoy my time here with them though & make the most of seeing my family whilst we’re still here. Over the next few weeks I’ll be seeing close friends, catching up with my brother, his girlfriend & their beautiful daughter Sukie, as well as buying our last minute items for the trip, so no doubt we will have a few more updates before we go.

So fairwell to my happy home that has given me a real sense of security over the last few years, I will miss my home and friends in Leicester, but now it’s time for someone else to enjoy living there.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f2.0, processed in Photoshop)

We just wanted to write a quick post regarding the visa & camera insurance for the trip. It’s been really difficult getting insurance for a full year from either of our own camera insurers; Photoguard & Towergate. Although they offer great insurance for UK & worldwide, their trip coverage is limited to either 90 days or 6 months & so this has left us with an issue of finding a company who will insure us for what we want for as long as we want. After some research I came across Aaduki camera insurance who were really helpful & guess what…? They offer insurance for a year worldwide. They also have a very comprehensive cover that enables us to backpack, train travel, walk, drive, run, cycle etc & not be too worried about how our cameras are being ported around! Downsizing has also given us a little freedom on the cost front, yes we still have equipment to cover, but by not having 3 lenses each & two professional DSLR bodies with us means that the cost of our gear is less, along with the size, the weight & the premium for insurance!

With regards to the visas, we just wanted to point out how easy it was to file our own visa applications for China & Vietnam. We printed off the forms from the embassy websites & sent off with our passports, within 2 weeks of sending for both we have both visas sorted & at a much lower price than going through a 3rd party or travel agent. The Chinese forms were far more comprehensive than the Vietnamese one & the only thing that came up is that when traveling into Hong Kong from mainland China & then back into mainland means that you need 2 entries. It also means that each entry is valid for 60 days! It is more costly to have a multiple entry visa, but this gives us the flexibility of going in & out of mainland China.The Vietnamese tourist visa is for 30 days single entry, for Cambodia & Laos you can have up to 30 days on entry & for Thailand we’ll be sorting out a 90 day visa once we reach Laos.

So that’s the informative part done with! I hope it’s been insightful!

After our little chat that night in the pub we decided that we would need to do some research. How long do we want to go for?  Where do we want to go? How much money will we need? And the list goes on.

Dave started emailing me routes whilst I was sat at home editing the weeks photographic work, a map using Star Alliance saw us plan a route from Tokyo making our way south-east across Asia down through to Australia & New Zealand eventually flying home from New York. We figured out that if we want to do this properly then a year would be a good amount of time to do what we want to do. Toying with round the world tickets, which did seem like a really good option, we decided that we didn’t want to be fixed into a route, or a time frame, instead allowing for more freedom & flexibility with our ideas & plans.

So we have booked a one way ticket to Tokyo to leave on the 18th October leaving in style with Lufthansa from Manchester airport. The plan so far is that we’ll spend a fortnight or so in Japan before heading across to China & that’s all we need to know right now. At this point we don’t know whether we will fly or sail to China, but it’s defintely something we need to look further into. I love the idea of doing as much overland as we can. I guess this way hopefully we get to see more & if we want to stay in a place for longer then we can. We may hear about places & recommendations that may be of interest to us that are more off the beaten tourist track, so we feel this gives us the flexibility.

With our flight booked the pressure has been relieved a little. Referring to our Lonely Planet – First Time Around the World, at this moment in time we seem to be on track!! The next thing we need to book… Travel Insurance; a meeting with David at Leicester’s STA Travel has given us lots to think about & comparing STA with other insurance for backpackers they stand out, offering the most comprehensive cover & at the best price. Our other items of interest; travel guide books so we can start reading into places more thoroughly & have a better understanding of where we want to go & why. To start with we are taking The Lonely Planet series for Japan & China, along with Japan by Rail by Trailblazer Publications. This last publication is proving to be a very useful tool & I’m sure is going to be very handy with planning our rail routes across Japan. The plan is to post back our guide books as we travel so that we can build up our collection & pick up second hand books from hostels & bookshops as we go.

We have lots of reading to do & are in the process of deciding on camera gear & vaccination advice – what cameras do we take? What injections do we need? Other things on our minds… When does Dave want to hand in his notice from work? And I am hoping to rent my house out whilst we are away so I have to start thinking about estate agents & getting all my gear back to mum & dad’s… Yes lot’s to think about.

Once upon a time, on our 6th date, sitting in The Vine pub, Wombourne, over a glass of dry white wine & a pint of lager Helen & I began to discuss the idea of going traveling.

Helen has some travel experience to parts of Asia, America & Australasia but has always craved the long trip away. I on the other hand have traveled little further east than Cyprus! Ever since leaving University I’ve focused on my career as a designer & up until more recently I have become quietly passionate about the possibilities photography has to offer. After being introduced to Helen, already working as a freelance photographer, possessing a free spirit & a strong inclination to travel, I realised that perhaps traveling was something we could do together.

A few glasses later & we were pretty certain that heading off for a year or so would be the best thing we could ever do at this moment in our lives.

So… How are we going to do this? Where do we want to go? And how do we get there?