Author archive
4 August 2010
We had to wake up at 0630 for the 0800 departure from Rarotonga to Aitutaki. We hadn’t thought of the “2 hour” time difference (but a day behind) when we planned to catch the early morning flight. Yawn! We got to the airport at 0715 and the place was dead. Things opened up shortly after […]
4 August 2010
We departed from Auckland at 0900 bound for Rarotonga. But it was an early set-off from the house at 0630 to avoid the Auckland traffic. But before that, I had to spend about 15 minutes on the computer as AirAsia had a sale for their new flights from Kuala Lumpur to Seoul … so I […]
3 August 2010
Above: Cook Island domain names end in “co.ck”. Due to crossing of the International Dateline we were back to Tuesday the 3rd of August! One day before we left New Zealand … We walked across the road from the small airport terminal for our overnight stay at Aquarius Rarotonga hotel. It was a tidy place […]
29 July 2010
From Kuala Lumpur to Melbourne, I managed to get 3 seats because some passengers moved. So each seat cost me about NZD10 only! For 8 hours!! I’ve always noticed that the Airbus A330 (which operated the flight) is eerily quiet, especially if you sit near the engine (ironical). Many a time I have hopped off […]
28 July 2010
I departed Banda Aceh for Kuala Lumpur at 1245. On the way to Banda Aceh airport I noticed a woman with a very short skirt on her motorbike. I queried the taxi driver if she would get in trouble … he replied to the negative, as she was Chinese and not a Muslim. While the extreme […]
27 July 2010
The Tsunami of 26 December 2004 This morning I took the ferry from Pulau Weh to the mainland and checked into a hotel for the night. I chose to take in some of the reminders of the tsunami which killed 170000 people in Aceh but, not the mass graves which are available for visits. The tsunami […]
26 July 2010
My Two Dives I did two dives today with Lumba Lumba Dive Resort, as planned … but not quite. The manager suggested that I do a refresher dive as I wasn’t highly experienced (15 dives) and it had been about 9 months since my last dive. Of course I suspected this was at an extra cost […]
26 July 2010
My Two Dives I did two dives today with Lumba Lumba Dive Resort, as planned … but not quite. The manager suggested that I do a refresher dive as I wasn’t highly experienced (15 dives) and it had been about 9 months since my last dive. Of course I suspected this was at an extra cost […]
25 July 2010
Fashion Crisis Takes a New Meaning I checked out from the airport Tune Hotel and walked to the nearby terminal for my 1155 departure from Kuala Lumpur to Banda Aceh, I had time for a leisurely curry breakfast (rendang, tempeh, cucumber and pineapples) after dropping off my bag at the baggage drop, then taking the […]
24 July 2010
I left a family dinner a little early to catch my flight to KL departing at 2150. I was very fortunate to have been able to see my brother-in-law visiting from the UK. Walking through the tarmac at KL Airport (LCC or Budget Terminal) at midnight offered a different insight as nearly all AirAsia’s red […]