Articles from this Category
16 September 2005
Introducing Tehran Tehran isn’t my favourite city because it isn’t the nicest city either with. It’s a concrete jungle with characterless blocks, traffic clogged with old and new Hillman Hunters (called Paykan) and sometimes stifling smog from these old technology vehicles. It has 14 million residents and 12 ski-fields, which is great for people who […]
15 September 2005
Above: Old phone in my room at the Naderi Hotel in Tehran. Leaving Singapore I woke around 0130 and dozed till 0500. My aunt insisted that I have some breakfast so I had a peanut butter sandwich before taxiing to the airport around 0540. The check-in desk for my 0745 flight to Doha was deserted. […]
14 September 2005
I had only one important task to do today. That was to go to the New Zealand High Commission at Ngee Ann City to transfer my returning resident’s visa from my old passport to my new one. I was also able to vote for the New Zealand election by doing a special vote. With that […]
13 September 2005
After a ten night stay in my hometown, Kuching, I said goodbye to my family. It had been a busy stay attending to things like renewing my passport; researching and opening a bank account. Without internet at the house, it was a chore to have to drive to an internet cafe every few days to […]
8 September 2005
Admin My last few days have been busy. We celebrated Mum’s 78th birthday but other matters were more of an admin nature. Things like renewing my passport and opening a bank account. Some things are harder than they sound as I have to ensure that the bank has a fully-featured internet banking facility which is […]
15 May 2005
Sukhbaatar to Naushki The train appeared stationary while I was in the dozing hours before I woke properly. I got out of bed around 0830 while we were in Sukhbaatar. We had made a seemingly long stop and the toilets were locked. I had to hop out of the train to use the station toilet. […]
14 May 2005
We have a night-time departure from Ulaanbaatar to Irkutsk on the train tonight. That gave us a whole day to kill, starting with a leisurely breakfast. We then walked to town to check out the museum. It had interesting displays of Mongolian culture and history, eg. costumes, the expanse of Chinggis Khan’s empire, the Communist […]
13 May 2005
Interrupted night I woke three times through the night, each time wary that someone had crept into the ger. It was the girl from the family, coming in to stoke the fire. Not the best job in the world, having to do that several times in the cold dark night. For all the occupied gers […]
12 May 2005
Continuing to Ulaanbaatar To my surprise, we slept really well and woke up around 0900. We wandered to the breakfast car and found it to be different from yesterday’s. We now have a rickety but ornately decorated (with carved light wood) dining car. A breakfast of tea, omelette, slaw, bread and pancaked was CNY60 (NZD10). […]
11 May 2005
All aboard! We woke at 0545 for check-out at 0630, in order to check-in for our rail adventure at Beijing West station across the road. We had some muesli in the room for breakfast before setting off. At the impressive-looking station, our luggage were x-rayed before we entered and turned left into the international waiting […]