Author archive
7 June 2025
Above: Malaysia Airlines A330neo interior. Trip Overview This trip started with an intention to go to Europe for summer, to escape New Zealand’s wet and windy winter. We managed to get confirmed tickets on points from Taipei to Vienna and later on added budget airline flights around to various sunny spots, and then it kept […]
30 April 2025
Despite the 90 min delay out of Singapore, we arrived in Auckland only 55 mins late. Despite all the food I was carrying, I was kerbside within 30 mins of landing. I credit this to having taken photos of my food haul, to show the quarantine staff that they are of low risk (eg. not […]
29 April 2025
Leaving Kuching It had been a productive six day stay in hometown. Apart from the optician, I had a good dental visit and for the first time in about 20 years, I managed to get all air-conditions in the apartment working properly. I had been having intermittent AC problems, a fix for which proved elusive […]
23 April 2025
I leave Kuala Lumpur today for hometown, after a whole in the big city. The day was spent having lunch in Kampung Baru, a long massage and dinner with friends Faiz and Colin. I woke at 0615 to take the 0700 train to the airport. I did a lot of work at the landside lounge […]
21 April 2025
My AirAsia X was full but I was fine, having requested and paid for an aisle seat. We landed in Kuala Lumpur at 0700 and parked at one of the furthest gates. Once landside, I checked if I could use the Plaza Premium lounge located landside in the shopping mall, based on my boarding pass […]
20 April 2025
Final sightseeing It’s my last day in Xian and China today before a flight out after midnight. I had they day to kill and I chose to do that with E & BW. Kim went out with Dennis instead, to do car “things”. KL & M had departed this morning for Penang. The morning was […]
19 April 2025
Transport to Huashan Today we have a trip to Huashan. I had booked the entrance and cablecar tickets as a combo with return transport from the city to Huashan which is about 2h away each way. We had the choice of meeting at a set pick-up point or from our hotel. But because our […]
18 April 2025
Main site Today we revisit the Terracotta Warriors outside town, combined with the Huaqing Palace near to the warriors site. It is possible to do it by public transport but some of us decided it would be eaiser getting a private car. It turned out to be a great decision as it was a long […]
17 April 2025
Moving to Xian Today we take the bullet train from Chongqing West to Xian North, a journey of less than 5h30. We took two taxis to the station for the 1057 departure. As it was a big station, getting there an hour before hand gave us less waiting time than at previous stations. Because […]
16 April 2025
Above: Chongqing skyline in the background. Yangtze River Cableway We wanted to take the cable car across the Yangtze during our stay in Chongqing, to get a good overview of the city. To avoid the crowd, we started early and was aided by the fact we were 5 mins away from the cable car […]