After our usual breakfast, with the addition of some toast, we headed from rainy Taupo to Napier on the east coast to try and get some dryer weather. The sun was shining in Napier when we arrived but the odd shower did blow through whilst we wandered around the art deco town. We decided to have some mini golf fun whilst the sun was shining and up until hole 12 it was very close scoring with Helen in the lead. Then disaster stuck with two holes taking at least 10 shots meaning Dave eventually snuck victory.

We found the Napier Photographic Gallery which exhibited some nice work from local, national and international photographers. Neither of us were quite sure about the stage at the one end of the room partitioned off for a portrait photographer with some lack-lustre images and dodgy branding. If it’s to be a gallery with a cafe, keep it simple and keep it about the art on the walls!

Looking for somewhere cheap and cheerful can be difficult sometimes so bearing that in mind we did not want to pay the Napier prices for accommodation in a holiday park. Jason’s camping and caravan guide led us to Clive and the Clive Holiday Park at $14 each per night. They had some nice facilities and the sun was indeed shining. A 15 minute drive away is The Filter Room beer and cider tasting which offers the sampling of 6 decent sized glasses for $12! Great value and the beer garden made us feel very much at home. The 14% scrumpy was our favourite so we purchased a litre bottle to make the night fly that little bit more quickly.

After cooking our evening meal we explored the camp site and walked along the river path until sunset.

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

After a surprisingly comfortable and warm night in the tent we headed to the sand dunes trail, not really knowing what to expect. The dunes are HUGE! Stretching for 50 miles of coast line and in some places a few miles deep, however the weather was not kind, overcast and foggy, we still scaled some of the dunes and took in the sites before packing up our camping gear.

Florence which is situated on the coast with a river running through the middle is a very nice little town. Plenty of places to eat and after sampling some Clam Chowder we can vouch for the quality of the seafood. We stopped off at a coffee shop for some Chai and free internet. At around midday we ventured back into the National Dunes area and parked our car in one of the state car-parks. We walked out to the sea which was around a 1 mile walk across the thick dunes area and when we got to the ocean we were surrounded by misty fog. It was really surreal, the sun was out and so the fog was very bright and we could only just make out the waves, in either direction the visibility was very low. We felt like we were on another planet in some sort of dream, really worth the effort.

When we left the 40 mile stretch of sand-dunes we made our way further down the Oregon coast to Gold beach which was our next destination to camp. We checked into The Indian Creek Resort costing us $18 for a camping spot. We were at the back of the RV park but had access to the facilities and had the laundrette on our list of things to do! We stopped in a foggy town and picked up a few bits for dinner. The fog cleared at one point and we could see the shipwreck on the shore. Back at the campsite we enjoyed the delights of yet another laundrette to do some clothes washing whilst also finding time to work on the blog.

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

We had a late start to the day with the idea that we wanted to set the tent up to give it a clean, do some writing and clothes washing. So by 1pm we were ready to set off and we walked to a local Dim Sum restaurant called Dim Sum King! It pretty much lived up to its expectations but we always forget that they don’t tend to have a big vegetarian or fish selection in these places! Even the sticky rice had minced pork inside!

After some research into car hire and a trip to REI‘s flagship store we managed to pick up a few essentials for our camping trips ahead. We continued our urban hike through the hilly streets to the funk that is Capitol Hill. It’s very different from the main parts of the city and offers more of an eclectic atmosphere with lots of bars, cafe’s, vintage shops and restaurants. We stopped for some food at Oddfellows, perhaps not so great for the budget conscious but we shared a salad, a veggie lasagne and some fries, which was more than enough for us both and the food was very good! This place has kept it’s charm with original features, signs and a mish-mash of wooden furniture.

With our stomachs full we continued to wander the streets of Capitol Hill and a few doors down from Oddfellows is the Elliot Bay Book Company where we picked up some Joe Nesbo novels (one of which we dug deep for in the bargain books area) and a couple of notebooks for us to draw in, write and so on. The bookstore is amazing, it’s got a lovely charm to the place within its layout and it has a huge listing of books available, really something that we could do more of in the UK! We finished our evening by walking back through the streets from Capitol Hill to our neighborhood! We probably clocked up around 10 miles or so – if you’re doing Seattle by foot, wear trainers!

(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)

We said we were never going to go to Vang Vieng, we’ve been told many a horror story of people ended up injured from their tubing and partying experiences and we thought we’d just skip it and explore another part of the country. However chatting to fellow travellers we got the impression that Vang Vieng offers more than the opportunity to go tubing down the river and get inebriated on toxic substances.

We took a bus journey to Vang Vieng which was around 5 hours from the capital and arrived at a decent enough time to start looking for accommodation. There was a group of us looking and we all managed to get into our first choice La Jardin Organique, Dave and I ended up sharing with Corrine to lower our costs for a few days and so it was 100,000 kip between the 3 of us which wasn’t a bad deal at all considering the costs in Vientiane. They have a good selection of accommodation here with bungalows, guesthouse style rooms and cheaper rooms for 40,000 with shared bathrooms, also the owners are very accommodating indeed and the female owner certainly seems to be the one negotiating prices with tourists over her husband!

With accommodation sorted early on we set off in search of finding some kind of trek/kayak trip that would cater to our needs. We went to a few companies along the main back street of Vang Vieng and found a company located around 10 minutes walk up the street from Le Jardin Organique on the right hand side, there are so many but these guys offered a 2 day tour that included hiking, caves, waterfalls and kayaking. The more of us that were interested in booking the tour then the price would come down, so after a good mint and lemon shake at the organic cafe in town we opted to book the trip and later on found out that Doug and Emma would also be joining us so that would shave off some of the cost. The total came to roughly £50 for the two of us to do this trip with food and one night’s accommodation included. That evening we went back to the organic cafe and enjoyed some good home-cooked soups and curries.

We met the next morning at 8.30 am for the tour and hopped onto a song thaw along with others who were going on a one day kayak and cave tour of the area. We all got off at the same point but the kayakers went one way and we the other. We started with a Buddhist cave in a village around 15km north of Vang Vieng along the Nam Song river, the cave is called Phu Kham cave and hosts a reclining Buddha along with a shrine and other symbolic Buddhist monuments. We were there for 5 minutes or so and our guide then started the trek. The first part of the trek was very steep indeed and took us up a karst peak, through dense jungle like foliage and we had a few clear moments where we could look out over the area, but otherwise it was quite hard work and in the heat we sweated lots. The walk led us to another cave, this one being much more interesting than the first, with no other tourists around for a start which is always a treat! We were led through one part of the cave where new stalagmites and stalactites were forming and the light shining into the cave was beautiful. Our guide started to get a barbecue going and said lunch would be around15-20 minutes later. So we explored the cave, Doug enjoyed the spa like water coming from the river and we cooled down after the heat of the walk.

Lunch was really simple but very good indeed; barbecued kebabs with vegetable fried rice, a baguette and bananas, it certainly filled us up and did the trick. After lunch we continued to walk through the secret eden forest area which is a valley in the middle of the peaks where no-one goes through other than the villagers as it’s surrounded by steep peaks all around. It was once an area where a hill tribe village lived and no-one knew of their existence until the Indo-Chinese war and then they left for more mainstream areas…we do try to remember this information when it’s told to us by our guides! We then carried on back up the peak and out to the other side, followed by a further hours walk to the eco-lodge built next to the river where we had stopped earlier in the day to drop off our bags. We got into the river to cool down and waited for our rooms to be organised, there seemed to be some confusion as to where our accommodation was but after a while we found ourselves in a wooden lodge which was simple but did the trick. We enjoyed a good local meal cooked by our hosts, accompanied by our guide Noi and this was followed by some card games.

Another good part of the tour was that we could choose our own breakfast from the menu at the eco-lodge, this was a first on a tour!! We had a bit of a wait for the tour guide and kayaks to turn up and whilst doing so the rain decided to come down, our fist rain shower in a long long time, it was really refreshing. The rains don’t last very long so we were able to get into the kayaks and start the first leg of this part of the tour. This time we were heading in the direction of Vang Vieng as we would eventually land up there later in the afternoon. The first part of the kayak took only half and hour and we got off to start trekking again, we were all aching a little from the steep climbs of the trek the day before but today we were promised it wouldn’t be so steep! This was the case though and after half an hour of walking we landed at our third cave of the trip, it was huge, we were able to walk through one entrance under the peak and out to the other side. During the wet season water comes crashing through from a river located further up the hill and right now it was completely empty with only large tree branches and trunks as evidence that water does come through at great speeds and volume. It was very cool indeed, we walked with head torches and took in the scale of the cave, not as bit as one’s we’d seen in Tha Khaek but impressive in other ways. On the other side we climbed out into the sunshine and our guide asked us if we wanted to go to another cave or to the waterfall up the hill. We opted for the waterfall and began the walk upwards. It didn’t take too long to reach though and when we got there we met a few other people on tours, including Ann who we’d met in Tha Khaek. We enjoyed another dip in a deep pool, it was much colder than the river temperature so it wasn’t long before we were sat warming up on rocks and enjoying another kebab and rice style feast.

The last part of the tour was kayaking all the way back to Vang Vieng, it was around 13km or so to get back and we took in a few rapids along the way, they were pretty tame though but we had fun going through them all the same. We passed through where the tubing starts and were faced with hundreds of happy go lucky backpackers enjoying the Vang Vieng tubing and zip lining into the water. It is a pretty mental site, from the peacefulness of the valley and mountains to an Ibiza style day by day party, music blasting out and everyone getting wrecked, really odd! As we got closer to Vang Vieng we passed more and more tubers coming to the end of their little adventures and we landed at the bay just where La Jardin Oraganique is located, perfect for us. We had already pre-booked a room there so we were able to check in straight away, they had an even cheaper room for us 80,000 kip between the 3 of us and it wasn’t any worse than the last other than it wasn’t in a bungalow.

Later on we attain town at a Lonely Planet recommended restaurant which didn’t really live up to it’s reputation, although opting for the local barbecue was the best option, for those after western tastes don’t expect to be in a rush. Still this is Laos after all!

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

We woke up early to the sound of eager cockerels the first going off at around 4.30am. It wasn’t the best night’s sleep with a very hard mattress indeed and snoring echoing throughout our eco-shack. We had a cooked Laos style breakfast in the form of noodle soup, eggs and fruit, Helen was getting her appetite back and starting to feel a little more like herself again. We left the village at 8.30am and began to trek once more through forest land, past more karst peaks and made our way up and down a hilly terrain which required a little more effort than the flatness of the day before. We had a few descriptions of plant-life and the area and we walked for a good 4 hours before arriving at the second village for a home cooked lunch. We sat inside someone’s home at the back of a shop and chilled out awaiting more food, it was really kitsch inside with old wardrobes, bright wall colours, retro tiles and clothes everywhere. It was a good little stop for photographing! More rice, more soup and stir-fried egg and we were all ready for a nap. No time for this though as we were waiting for a pick up to take us to the Blue Lagoon.

On the usual itinerary there is a tractor ride involved whereby you get pulled along on a cart by one of their home-made style tractors; not like ours at home. This didn’t happen for us because there were 8 in our group and the tractor wouldn’t cope with all of the western weight. So we had a mini-van take us to the lagoon instead with music blasting out of the over-hyped stereo. It took around 15 minutes to drive to the lagoon, packed in on a bumpy ride. The lagoon lives up to its name and is a very intense copper sulfate looking colour, it’s hard to believe that the lagoon is natural as it seems more like a chemical phenomenon. There were no scientific descriptions available from the tour guides only spiritual ones. It’s quite deep and plays host to shoals of large fish. Most of the group plunged in for a cooling swim after we walked around the edge of the lagoon, we both decided to photograph and observed from the sidelines. We hope the photographs show the intensity of the colours and the subtle reflections that glowed.

After a group photo we continued in the minivan to a point from where we walked a further 2 km to meet our pick up trip. At around 3pm we met our pick up back to Tha Khaek and we were back in the town at just before 5pm with an en-route detour to the bus station so that we could book bus tickets for the next day of travel. Back in Tha Khaek we checked into the Travel Lodge along with the rest of the group and settled in for a relaxing evening of food, chat and planning. It’s a really good spot for meeting other backpackers and they have a good outdoor seated area. We would recommend staying there and the dorms are good value for money if you’re on a budget, we paid 50,000 kip for a double with shared bathroom.

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

31 today!! Eek!! A far cry from last years fancy dress vintage themed party with all my best mates at Holyrood!! Still being in Beijing was pretty special and we made the effort to go and see some sights for the day. Dave bought me a lovely notebook from the Frank Gehry exhibition shop, I’m always jotting and sketching down thoughts, plans and ideas so it was very warmly received! A Porridge and banana special for breakfast and we were on our way.

We set out for the Beijing Botanical Gardens, inspired by the success of our bus journey a few days ago we attempted to tube and bus it to the site. The lonely Planet were not entirely accurate in providing information as to which bus to get so we ended up on the wrong path. A quick turn around for a taxi and we arrived at our destination. It isn’t perhaps the best time of year to visit the Botanical Gardens as not much is in flower, but we did find some lovely paths out towards a temple and icey lakes to throw stones on. There was a fair amount of ice on the lake and some gorgeous frosty views. Its well out of the city so you do feel far away from the business of central Beijing.

The tropical greenhouse (much larger than your average garden greenhouse!) was a nice place to get warm and enjoy some cactus growing plants alongside more brides and grooms to be having their pre-wedding photographs taken amongst the orchid garden.

On our way back we stopped off for a quick birthday bite at Japanese fast food chain Yoshinoya. A place that didn’t really entice us whilst we were in Japan but is definitely projected as being a more upmarket food chain over in China, interesting! They even had vegetables on the menu! We went back to the apartment and decided to get ready for our night out.

We had very good intentions of going for a massage at Dragonfly, our favourite and slightly self-indulgent massage parlour in Beijing! What stopped us in our tracks however was an hour delay at Xinjeikou metro station, this was so far our favourite stop as there were never as many people using it and it was well located! So we changed plans and head straight for Gouladjie which was only a few stops away, there was a Malaysian restaurant recommended to us around that way that we wanted to go to. We found Cafe Sambal on the left hand side a couple of streets down from the tube stop set in a Hutong area. It’s a little hidden away behind some wooden doors but inside was a very nicely lit ambient bar and restaurant which was packed to the ceiling with locals and westerners…good so far! At the bar we waited for a table and drank mojitos. We love it that you can buy mojitos over here for around £3, I’m pretty sure we’ve had one for as low as £2! The food was very good, although they could do with upping their portions a little! The room was a little chilly where we sat, but having said that the atmosphere was lovely and as far as birthday settings go this was again pretty frickin’ sweet!

After dinner we went for a walk along the street and came across a very cosy little desert cafe. This was enough to entice us in and we sat with our ginger teas, apple cake and chocolate truffles whilst watching the world go by.

Thank you Dave for a lovely day! I think the 30 year plus grumps came across me when I realised I am now past the tender year of 30, which has been a blooming marvellous year so far!

All my love and thanks for all the birthday messages on Facebook.

Helen x

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

We have taken the final nights sleep at our first accommodation of our adventure. Bye bye Hotel Sakura you have done well. It’s time to leave the city-scape and head into the hills. First stop is the local underground station to get to the overland train. With one change of train along the way, we settle into our seats. Even the ordinary class, non-reserved seats are very comfortable with lots of leg room and space for bags etc. We see people eating out of wooden boxes that contain a surprisingly nice looking assortment of food items. We think we may have to get something like this for a quick and easy meal.

Views along the second train are great and the sun is shining. Blue skies adorn the mountain trees and the small plots of land that people tend for vegetables and fruits. So much is grown locally for personal consumption its great to see. The Ryokan owners supplied us with a free pick up from Fuji Yoshida station so while we waited, we popped into the food store and bought ourselves a takeaway boxed meal. Looked good.

Our pick up arrives and we are taken out of town to the smaller village Oshino where our Ryokan is based. Inn Fujitomita is lived in and run by a lovely couple along with their three children. It’s a big place and we learn that we are the only guests for the next two days. The film “The Shining” springs to mind with the retro 70′s carpet and long corridors. Never the less we are shown around and given instructions of what to do. There are a few rules you must follow when staying in more traditional guesthouses in Japan; not shoes in the house and slippers are provided, no slippers on Tatami mats and we are told the correct way of wearing a Yukati gown. The room is huge, about four times bigger than Sakura rooms and its very traditional Japanese in style with a great view of the “Shy mountain”, Mt Fuji. Now this is what we have been waiting for!

Feeling the need to get out and see whats around we set out for the nearest lake in Yamanaka. When I say nearest it is about 4km away but we thought we could make it there and back before dinner at 6.30pm. After a long highway path we eventually made it to the lake, a quick photo and then a turn around to walk back along a slightly different road. Oh how quickly it gets dark here in Japan. Before long we were walking in the dark following a map that wasn’t exactly accurate. We even had to stop and ask at a hotel in the village to ask for directions. Time was rapidly approaching 6.30pm! We made it with 30 minutes to spare but it was a quick last few km to make it on time. Freshen up and a change of clothes then dinner. Dinner at Inn Fujitomita was outstanding! We will leave it to the photos to tell that story! There were a couple of strange flavors and textures but we pretty much demolished the lot.

Our host Hiromi, asked us if we would like a lift to a nearby village in the morning. We accepted and headed to the Onsen bath. Very hot and soothing on our weary legs. Back up to the room followed by a little bit of photo editing, free wi-fi and then off to bed.

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