Author archive
14 October 2019
Exploring Asia In my various stays in Istanbul, I’ve never explored the Asian shores, except for getting to Sabiha Gokcen Airport (SAW). I’ve been close to the various parts on the ferries, but that’s it. Today, I thought I’d remedy that. I walked to the ferry terminal at Eminonu and found the pier for Kadikoy. […]
13 October 2019
Locating places Sightseeing wasn’t a priority today as I had been to Istanbul many times. I thought I’d locate a few places to smoothen the way for later: First up, I found the Eminonu bus stop for getting to the airport. While I expected it be directly across the multi-lane road from where I had […]
12 October 2019
Flying out of Suvarnabhumi My flight to Istanbul was scheduled for 0925. Istanbul is the gateway to my next adventure in Iraqi Kurdistan and then Sharm el Sheikh. I woke at 0545 and left the hotel at 0630 for Suvarnabhumi Airport. I had pessimistically allowed an hour’s ride on Grab to get to the airport, […]
11 October 2019
Token sightseeing Having been to Bangkok three times in recent years, I didn’t feel like doing any sightseeing. But as Kim hadn’t been here (in earnest) for a while I thought I should show him the nearby sights. We set out after breakfast at 0930. It was stinking hot when we walked to the Chao […]
10 October 2019
Saying goodbye to Samui I said goodbye to Samui last night after a good cheap dinner in the open-air markets nearby. For a change, food was good and also good-value.. A very meaty chicken panang was only THB70 with rice and a meaty chicken kebab only THB40. Juices were only THB45. To avoid getting ripped […]
8 October 2019
Our paradise We’re really pleased with our selected location, at Lamai Beach and also with our property. We are close to the beach and a few minutes walk from food. The hotel is very quiet and so is much of the Lamai Beach area (and the whole of Samui); apparently it is low season. Our […]
6 October 2019
Getting going Today we travel from Chiang Mai to Koh Samui, an island in the Gulf of Thailand. We had organised a hotel car to take us to the airport at THB160 instead of Grab’s rate of ~THB200, which was a surprise. With breakfast starting at 0730, we organised a pick-up at 0750 to allow […]
5 October 2019
Kim spent the day attending to pressing business from home while I did some admin. We didn’t feel like we were missing out on anything Chiang Mai had to offer. The idea of going to see elephants or patting tigers weren’t that novel at our age. After a massage in the evening, we went out […]
4 October 2019
Like yesterday, we only have half a day of sightseeing today dedicated to the sights around Chiang Mai. Actually, the one thing on the agenda was going to Doi Suthep temple on the hill out of town. With a leisurely start after 1000 by Grab we got there around 1100. The 300 step hike was […]
3 October 2019
Today I had planned a half-day of sightseeing by foot to nearby sights within Chiang Mai’s old city walls. First up was Wat Chedi Luang. It was home to the Emerald Buddha (now in Bangkok) and the largest structure in ancient Chiang Mai which consisted of a chedi (like a stupa I guess) partially ruined […]