Olkon Island North, Lake Baikal, Russia

May 19, 2013 by Both Ways

After a being slammed with such spectacular views on our first day, we booked ourselves into a mini-van tour which would take us around the northern end of Olkhon Island to see some of the treasures Lake Baikal had to offer. We were cramped into another soviet mini-van (we had the same mini-van in Mongolia) with a group of young German & Austrian couples. We got talking and exchanged travel tips, recommendations and horror stories. They laughed a hearty germanic […]

Categories: Russia • Tags: baikal, boat, campfire, cow, fish soup, flag pole, Flowers, frozen, gulag, ice, island, lake, love rock, mini-van, mountains, olkhon island, prayer flags, russia, siberia, soviet, sunset, wild horses

Darkhid Valley, Mongolia

May 12, 2013 by Both Ways

Mongolia, home of the great Genghis Khan, where every restaurant, shop and beer is named after him. Our adventure would take us to from Ulaanabatar to the legendary Darkhid Valley, said to be  Gengi’s boyhood stomping ground. Nestled in the heart of the valley, cloaked in forests and sprinkled with goats, cows and steppe horses is Yaadama and Davasuren’s homestead, the place we were to call home for our short stay in Mongolia. The drive from Ulaanbaatar to Darkhid was […]

Categories: Mongolia • Tags: archery, bow & arrow, calf, candle, candle light, candy, cottage, cow, Darkhid Valley, fur, ger, goat, horns, horse riding, kids, Kopobka, milking, mini-van, Mongolia, mountains, outhouse, pelt, porridge, quiver, saddle, skin, skinning, skull, soviet, steppe horse, wolf, wood stove

District 798 / Beijing, China

May 9, 2013 by Both Ways

798 Art District / Beijing While making our way northwards through China, one of the reoccurring trends we’ve seen is the move towards modernization and development over restoration. Sadly, we’ve seen a lot of old neighborhoods demolished and replaced with acres of ‘copy & paste’ skyscrapers. It seems like the Chinese place far more value in the new and shiny over the old and ancient, the only concession seems to be if tourists are interested in something old, they’ll happily […]

Categories: China • Tags: alfredo aquilizan, art, artists, bronze, chinese, coffee, contemporary, design, dinosaur, dog, dragon, drawings, exhibition, gallery, graffiti, hand, horse, illustrations, industrial, inspiration, installations, isabel aquilizan, light bulbs, light show, love, mao, painting, posters, propaganda, rabbit, sculpture, sketches, street art, toilet, toys, transformer, tree, typography, UCCA

Muslim Quarter / Xi’an, China

April 29, 2013 by Both Ways

Perhaps the most intense market we had ever visited. Ever. From the moment we stumbled into the flowing crowd, we were crushed and churned through a wave of sweaty, hungry locals – all after a tasty snack or a slick deal. The entire street was transformed into a dirty wonderland of sticky sweet treats, buzzing neon toys and screaming hawkers – all haloed against the warm glows of open flames and steaming cauldrons of ‘unknown’ concoctions. If you managed to […]

Categories: China • Tags: animal, bbq, cheap, china, chinese, colour, dangerous, dirty, flame, food, fried, fruit, hooves, jelly, jewellery, jewelry, juice, kebab, lights, mallet, market, meat, muslim quarter, neon lights, noodle, pot, prawn, prunes, skull, stalls, street, sweets, toys, trotters, unclean, xi'an

Chinese Opera / Chengdu, China

April 14, 2013 by Both Ways

Staying in the old part of Chengdu (about 400 years old), gives you a real slice of history with an authentic experience – even our hotel felt like a  museum. This meant hunting & gathering meals was also a purely authentic experience – with nothing in English. With stubbornly unhelpful staff and no picture book menus, we ventured into the streets for some curb stall food instead. We had an incredible array of choices from meaty rabbit skulls, to scorpions […]

Categories: China • Tags: actor, buddah, buddah zen hotel, costume, dumplings, face changing, fire breathing, fish, garment, headdress, historic, lanterns, make up, manhole cover, mask, noodles, puppet, shadow puppet, squid, stage, statue

Samye Monastery / Tibet

April 9, 2013 by Both Ways

Authentic Tibetan ferry crossing with local bus ride to Samye Monastery. Pics for now, the rest of the write up to come.

Categories: China • Tags: bell, buddhism, Bus, compassion buddah, cow, ferry, monastery, monk, painting, prayer flags, prayer wheels, sand storm, stupa, Tibet, yak skull

Tibet, China

April 8, 2013 by Both Ways

Tibet is a place that makes your heart race and leaves you breathless. Quite literally with it being the highest place on earth, sitting above 12,000 feet…

Categories: China • Tags: mountains, prayer flags, river, rock piles, sacred, snow

Yuexiu Park / Guangzhou, China

April 6, 2013 by Both Ways

If Hong Kong is a little stepping stone, Guangzhou (aka Canton) plunged us right into the deep end from the highest diving board. More of a businessman’s playground than anything else and therefore doesn’t really cater for tourists. We were thankful that we had a transfer organized from the airport because there’s no way we would have found our hotel – even our driver got lost for a while. Guangzhou takes the title for ‘Urban Jungle’ – an impressive 7000-9000 […]

Categories: China • Tags: ancient, bbq, board game, city, cityscape, fridge doors, gold fish, hacky sack, historic, monument, park, plaques, river boats, souvenirs, stadium, statue, tai chi, trinkets, walls

Hong Kong SAR, China

April 5, 2013 by Both Ways

Hong Kong was a ‘nice’ stepping stone into China, a fusion between east and west. Rumor has it that everyone speaks English in Hong Kong, this is probably true if you’re there to just do some shopping in the big malls or to visit the tourist hot spots. Our experience has been quite the contrary however. Navigating by metro and discovering the city by foot, we got to see a whole different side to Hong Kong. Yum Char as we […]

Categories: China • Tags: chinese breakfast, crickets, dumplings, Flowers, Hong Kong Avenue of Comic Stars, incense, kowloon, market, mural, parrots, Signage, temple, toucan, turtles, yum char

Hobby and Toy Museum / Hong Kong

April 4, 2013 by Both Ways

Our first impression of the Hong Kong Hobby & Toy Museum was that it felt like a dodgy drug deal. You slide into a non-descript door from the back entrance of the Shanghai Street building where you climb a dark and dingy stairwell. We were über alert, watching every corner to avoid being mugged or raped. That aside, sheer curiosity kept us soldiering on and our courageousness paid off. The exterior definitely didn’t reflect what awaits you inside… It was […]

Categories: China • Tags: 9, aliens, angry birds, anpanman, arnie, batman, battle star galactica, coca cola, corpse bride, DC comics, dick tracy, ET, ghost busters, godzilla, gremlins, gundam, herbie, lord of the rings, mars attacks, marvel comics, match box cars, meccano, mr men, ninja turtles, orcs, pan's labyrinth, popeye, potato men, power puff girls, predator, robo cop, robots, rocket ships, spawn, terminator, tin toys, tom & jerry, toys, transformers, usavich, wall-e, where the wild things are, wooden top

Tai-O / Lantau Island, Hong Kong

April 3, 2013 by Both Ways

We arrived in Hong Kong at the ungodly time of 6am. Having about half a day to kill before we could check-in to our hotel… What does one do in Hong Kong? The airport is located in Lantau Island so we had several options: a) The Big Buddah / b) Disney Land / c) Tai-O (aka ‘The Oriental Venecia’). This required some serious thought. We’ve seen our fair share of Buddahs from our Thailand trip ranging from miniature statues right […]

Categories: China • Tags: boats, fish, fishing, houses, jetty, market, shrine, stilts, village, walk ways

Tiger Kingdom / Chiang Mai, Thailand

March 31, 2013 by Both Ways

It was quite a sublime feeling hanging out with such big fur-balls. Was very cool to get so close and personal. Even better that we got to leave with all ligaments intact! Definitely worth paying the extra baht to experience both the younger and older kitties. Date travelled: April 2011

Categories: Thailand

Chiang Mai, Thailand

March 31, 2013 by Both Ways

I don’t think we have enough photos of Buddha’s and dragons in this post… We’ll have to make a return trip and take some more. My favorite shrine has to be the wax statue of the old monk – it was so detailed that we stood there for a few minutes waiting to see if he was breathing or not. Walking through the streets of Chiang Mai, we couldn’t help but be completely immersed in the rich Thai culture that surrounded us. […]

Categories: Thailand • Tags: bells, buddha, cultural, dragon, flags, Flowers, Markets, ruins, shrine, temple, tuk tuk, water lilies

Landshut, Germany

March 31, 2013 by Both Ways

Prounced: “Laance-hoot”: The town looks like a  delicious little candy store with all the buildings washed in the same pastel palette. Unaffected by the war, much of the town hasn’t changed from the 1200s and is in surprisingly good nick. We were only there for one night, but finished off the evening in a 1000 year old beer garden, being served by ‘Helga’ the stout german barmaid. Our stay was short and sweet, and definitely a place we’d like to […]

Categories: Germany • Tags: beer garden, calligraphy, Signage

Berchtesgaden, Germany

March 31, 2013 by Both Ways

We had a super short stop in Berchtesgaden, literally enough to take in the sights, dip our toes into numbingly cold water and get back to the car. Was very tempted to get a little lederhosen outfit – suspenders are making a comeback after all! Fun fact: Berchtesgaden was the holiday destination for lots of very high ranking Nazi officials during the war, even the big cheese himself – Hitler was given the ‘Eagle’s Nest’ for his 50th b-day. Date Travelled: […]

Categories: Germany • Tags: bavarian, Eagle's Nest, lake, lederhosen, mountains, suspenders