Author archive
6 May 2003
After a good buffet breakfast we drove up to a viewpoint to get a panorama of Kandy Lake, the Temple and the town. We continued to a gem museum. The place wasn’t as flash or polished as in Chiang Mai but they were very informative about different stones. As we emerged from the museum a […]
5 May 2003
Climbing Sigiriya Today is the day I’ve been anticipating, as this is the day we are visiting Sigiriya. It is an ancient fortress built on top of a huge rock. We will visit it on our move to Kandy. We had to wake early and was at breakfast before 0700. Text continues after this gallery. […]
4 May 2003
Visiting Polonnaruwa The air-con had iced-up overnight and stopped cooling. That was our priority before leaving on our excursions this morning. We organised a room change after a breakfast of eggs any style, fruit, toast, jam and coffee/tea. Today we visit Polonnaruwa, the second most ancient kingdom after their invasion of the prior kingdom of […]
3 May 2003
Setting off Our hotel at Negombo beach, near Colombo’s airport, included a buffet breakfast. It was a small spread of food which included a potato curry and a chicken curry. We took a look at Negombo Beach, made use of the hotel pool before getting picked up at 1000. Shortly after starting our […]
3 May 2003
Above: Negombo beach from our hotel near the airport. Flying to Colombo We boarded the Emirates B777-200 bound for Colombo at 0030. The flight had originated in Jakarta. It wasn’t as full as I had expected so we had some spare seats. The delicious rendang meal was served on a full-sized tray with sides by […]
2 May 2003
Killing a day Due to the time difference, I woke at 0430 but dozed till 0630, and then till around 0800. We have the day to kill in the city-state until our flight after midnight tonight. Jess, my step-bro’s girlfriend dropped us off in the city. We priced some electronics at Sim Lim Square and […]
1 May 2003
Singapore’s Changi airport is so efficient that our bags were nearly disappearing having done one circuit of the conveyor when we got there. We were outside within minutes. We went from Terminal 2 to Terminal 1 to the Emirates Airlines office to collect our onward ticket to Colombo and Tehran. This was for our departure […]
1 May 2003
Kim’s Mum took us to the airport for our 1155 Air New Zealand flight to Singapore. Check-in was slow with only two counters open until a third opened two hours prior to departure. The flight was pleasant with the crew led by Tina, a former travel agent from Queenstown. I had met her working in […]
6 November 2002
I managed to sleep for 3h on the flight in the centre block of seats near the end of the cabin Kim on the other hand had two seats on the side and didn’t sleep as much. We landed in Auckland late in the morning to be picked up by Kim’s mum upon arrival. We […]
5 November 2002
We took the Star Ferry to meet Kim’s friend Chris for yum cha breakfast. He took us to a tall-ish round building with a revolving restaurant at the top. While the restaurant we went to wasn’t in the top revolving portion, it still offered a spectacular view up at about level 60. They did very […]