Good Frinight at San Fernando and travel advice

Evening processions at San Fernando At about 1700, I took the jeepney back to San Fernando by myself (the Poles had moved on). I saw a few beautiful floats along the way. In the Cathedral courtyard, there were a small but growing number. Close to 1800, the courtyard was full and it was a glorious […]

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Good Friday at San Fernando

Today is the big day of my trip. It is the day of the gory Good Friday crucifixions. At the Cathedral (Whippings and Cross Bearers) Szymon (whom I met yesterday with his wife-to-be Magdalena) knocked on my door at 0800. He had read that we needed to go really early as Cutud was near Angeles […]

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To Pampanga via Clark

Even though my alarm was set for 0600, my bodyclock woke me at 0530. My flight to Clark near Manila was at 0945. I checked out at 0615 and managed to get a bus at 0640 after having just missed one. At this time, there wasn’t much traffic and I was at the airport around […]

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Lazy day

I woke up at 0600 after 8h solid sleep. With the gloomy weather, my plan to go for a hike on Lamma Island was scrapped. That meant I could do everything in slow motion today and didn’t leave the room till around 1000. Actually there isn’t much point going out early here as very little […]

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Back to Hong Kong after a long absence

In Hong Kong, we were lucky to pull into a gate very near to immigration. I do dislike the airports multiple escalators to get down/up the trains that take you to/from the gates. Immigration queue was long but fast-moving. I took the A11 bus to Causeway Bay and hopped off for my short walk to […]

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Leaving home

The highlight of this trip is to see the crucifixions near Manila on Good Friday. While this had always been an idea, I decided to make it happen when Air New Zealand announced flights to Manila. Eventually, the proposed service quietly disappeared into the ether. But I decided to continue with the idea when Qantas […]

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Home sweet home

We landed into Gold Coast about 25 minutes late despite leaving KL only about 10 minutes late.  Perhaps we tried to avoid some turbulence.  The transit was done in the one hour timeframe except we lost a passenger.  While we were retrieving and offloading her luggage, she turned up.  Poor little old lady; bless her. […]

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Homeward bound via JB & KL

Above:  Peeling my mango like a banana, for breakfast. I finished my last mango this morning, opting to peel it like a banana. It was juicy and I had to eat it over the sink. Muesli followed later after I packed my stuff away for the last leg home. Checkout was 1100 so I went […]

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Thaipusam on the Eve

I walked out to Serangoon Road nearby after breakfast hoping that the Thaipusam procession would be underway and sure enough it was. Devotees witih various forms of kavsdis dribbled through. It wasn’t a continuous stream. I’ll let the pictures do the talking. Since I couldn’t get any antihistamine cream and my sandfly bites were in […]

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Back to Singapore for Thaipusam

I chose to take the 1130 ferry to Singapore as it meant I could leave close to my hotel checkout time and get to Singapore around the checkin time (with an hour time difference). After my breakfast of muesli, papaya and milk, Anton picked me up at 1015 and dropped me at Harbour Bay a […]

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