Articles from this Category
15 August 2018
Having left Saigon on time, I was surprised we landed in Auckland around 30 minutes late. With no luggage I was out in no time but had to wait for Kim who was expecting that I’d endure a bit more processing. That concludes a cheap little break. The total cost of airfare upgrade, taxes, hotel […]
11 August 2018
It’s a long story but I had two free trips to use up, so it was a quick trip to Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) and a couple of weeks later to my homeland Borneo and then Bali. The Borneo/Bali trip had been planned in advance but the Saigon was a last minute decision after […]
30 July 2018
We landed in Auckland at 0500 which was 30 min ahead of schedule. Despite airbridges being available, we had a remote/bus gate. The airport had subcontracted the tarmac buses to Skybus which meant that we finally had decent buses. They’re still street buses rather than airport tarmac buses but at least they’re nice and modern. […]
28 July 2018
The 777-200 was very noisy on the ground even before the engines started. It was largely the ventilation noise. We were seated in Premium Economy which was very comfortable and it was at a small surcharge to the Economy standby fare. We took off a little ahead of schedule. The catering out of Buenos Aires […]
18 July 2018
Today we fly from Guayaquil to Panama City on Copa Airlines,on a 22h42 overnight transit to Buenos Aires. This would allow us to go see the Panama Canal tomorrow before continuing. Long transits like this are a good trick for getting a glimpse of some cities at virtually no cost. Often indirect routings are cheaper […]
3 July 2018
We walked to Plaza de Espana to save on one metro interchange to get to the airport. Our nearest metro would require two changes instead of one. It was much easier than our arrival trip except that at peak hour, it was very busy. We hadn’t used our Tourist Pass (for the metro and other […]
30 June 2018
We woke to our alarm at 0500 and readied ourselves. Hopping out of the lift at the ground floor, we clambered over the breakfast items laid out on the floor, waiting to be carted to the rooftop restaurant. The receptionist insisted that we had some coffee/tea and ordered the waiter, busy with transporting breakfast, to […]
15 June 2018
Death-defying taxi ride The taxi turned up at my Tehran hostel a little late and we set off at 0020. The driver was rather aggressive: weaving, squeezing between cars and tailgating until the car in front moves off. This was all done at high speed. I was surprised there was some traffic jam after midnight. […]
2 June 2018
Leaving family After 9 nights in Kuching, I leave today for Kuala Lumpur connecting to Tehran. It was great to meet my step-sister for the first time since childhood. We worked well together on various issues facing our elderly and deteriorating parents … her dad with dementia and my mum who had suffered a fall […]
24 May 2018
I had spent yesterday in town with my cousin and her son. Strangely, I showed them two great places that I’m surprised they didn’t know. Firstly, the Singapore superstore that is called Mustafa. It kinda has anything and everything ranging from nightmarket cheapies to Mont Blanc belts side-by-side! There’s electronics, clothing, luggage, pharmaceuticals … but […]