Articles from this Category
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 […]
28 June 2005
We arrived in Auckland early in the morning. We checked at the lost luggage counter for an update on whether our luggage had been found. We were expecting them to arrive in the next day or two, and were expecting to sign forms that would allow them to be cleared by customs in our absence […]
26 May 2005
Mini sightseeing I woke around 0600 and managed to get ourselves downstairs for breakfast at 0700. Kim organised a rental car by phone with Lucky Cars located at the Howard Johnson Hotel. They have some very beaten up cars that wouldn’t be legal in some countries. Kim s is a regular customer of theirs on […]
24 May 2005
We woke early again. it was a combination of our body clock (train lag), noise and light. We dozed and took it easy until breakfast around 0800. Today’s kinda our spare day in case things don’t go smoothly. So we didn’t have any big plans. Perhaps just repeat some sightseeing and explore a bit more. […]
23 May 2005
With a two hour time difference from Ekaterinburg, we woke early. Around 0500 local time, or 0700 where we were yesterday. The breakfast downstairs was quite nice; it was tasty stew of potato and meat, but I went off it when I realised it was kidney and liver. The cabbage stew was tasty with a tinge […]
22 May 2005
Departing Ekaterinburg We were woken by our alarm at 0645. Today we take the final leg of our train journey from Ekaterinburg to Kazan. It’s a relatively short ride today, in fact, just a day-trip. But it is a significant day as we cross from Asia to Europe today. We fuelled up on a breakfast of […]
21 May 2005
Around the city We woke on the sofa bed around 0730 and arranged breakfast for 0900. Our hostess prepared a very nice breakfast of jam-filled blinis, cheese pastry, bread and yoghurt washed down with tea. The blinis were the best I’ve had; crispy on the edges, soft and warm, and filled with jam before being […]
20 May 2005
Above: Our lovely homestay was located in this humble Soviet-style apartment block. Onboard We woke around 1030 Irkutsk time or 0730 Ekaterinburg time after more than 10h sleep! We must be adjusting to the local time. The countryside appeared quite green. Even the birch trees are green. We had breakfast with the Japanese boys. It […]