Author archive
28 October 2024
With my body clock on New Zealand time, I woke up early and my host, Wen took me out for a little exploration. The southern tip of Singapore is all new to me. First up, we drove up to Kent Ridge Park for a view of the port area. While the port looked busy and […]
26 October 2024
We landed in Singapore nearly an hour later than the scheduled time of 1650. With the aircraft parked really close to the arrival hall, we had to wait for our luggage, something that rarely happens at Changi. Wen kindly picked me up and took me to his place in the south of the island before […]
26 October 2024
Leaving Auckland I had missed the email that arrived after midnight advising that my 1105 flight to Singapore had been delayed by under an hour. I could have had a bit more sleep instead of waking at 0700. Kim dropped me at the airport around 0900 and due to the kindness of a friend, I […]
13 August 2024
The 787 Dreamliner departed on time at 0100. The crew on board were most obliging, especially with the lady across the aisle from me: The lady across the aisle asked to check that her checked-in baggage had been loaded due to having been rebooked. Even just before doors closed, the crew took her boarding pass […]
12 August 2024
Above: Air China’s First Class lounge in Terminal 3E of Capital Airport. Flying to Bejing I woke up to an email advising of a one-hour reschedule to my flight from Urumqi to Bejing from 1440 to 1540. I had purposely chosen a 6h30 connection to Auckland at 0100 rather one 2h shorter or 4h shorter. […]
11 August 2024
Train to Urumqi I walked to Hami’s railway station around 0900 after breakfast in my room. I didn’t have to wait long before the queues formed for boarding the train to Urumqi. Departing at 1010, time went quickly as I attended to online chores on my phone. I chose to arrive at Urumqi South where […]
10 August 2024
Hami’s sights are concentrated all in one place in the south-west of the city which I reached by taxi. Kings’ Mansion I lined up to buy the ticket for the Mansion (or palace) of the Hami Kings just before it opened at 1000. Like my old guidebook said, it is a bad recreation of the […]
9 August 2024
Flying to Urumqi I had the alarm for 0445, time for a pre-arranged pick-up at 0530 by a taxi. It was a fixed rate arrangement, with probably a 50% premium, as I was worried that taxis may not be available at this ungodly time, especially when people consider 0530 to be 0330. Waiting on the […]
8 August 2024
What I’m not doing I’ve done most of the things I can do in Hotan. There were a couple that I decided against doing: Mazar of Imam Asim: This mausoleum lies out of town and Uyghurs used to pray here. More recent reports have suggested that the area is off-limits to foreigners. Yue Tu Gan […]
7 August 2024
Train to Hotan I took a taxi for Kargilik station at 0815 for my 0919 train to Hotan. At the security checkpoint for the station, they had trouble summoning a cop and I had to wait about 20 mins. When boarding came, I noticed they had trouble locating my train booking at the turnstiles. I […]