Author archive
30 September 2003
Our evening departure at 2045 from Auckland wasn’t like our usual. We had Kim’s parents Pat and Fiona with us, along with friends Matt and Steph. All of us are hopefully bound for Los Angeles on standby, and subject to space on the aircraft continuing to London Heathrow. Before check-in, there was random manual baggage […]
27 May 2003
Despite the Business Class seat, I didn’t sleep on the flight home. We landed back in Auckland around 1010 and was picked up by Kim’s dad from the airport. What an adventure we have had in Sri Lanka and especially Iran, a rarely-visited gem that is so misunderstood. I can’t wait to see more of […]
26 May 2003
We have a night flight back to Auckland tonight, which meant we had plenty of time to kill. After a trip to the supermarket where we bought some fruits, we visited my aunt and uncle. They were both well and in good spirits in their old age. Back in the city, we collected our printed […]
25 May 2003
Mum took us for a Nyonya lunch at a restaurant called Ivin’s. Nyonya (or Peranakan) food is hard to find in New Zealand and parts of Malaysia, so I really appreciated the choice of restaurant. We had otak-otak, beef rendang, chicken curry, ayam tempera and bubor chacha. The tempera was a dry version, different from […]
24 May 2003
We woke at 0500 and were in the courtesy shuttle at 0600 for the short ride to Dubai airport. Check-in was swift and we used up our remaining dirhams before boarding the Emirates B777-300. We departed about 30 mins late due to having to offload the bags for people who were turned away at the […]
23 May 2003
Today we have a daytrip, with a pick-up at 0830, to Buraimi Oasis and Al Ain via Hatta and Hajar Mountains. Our driver James, from Karnataka drove us through sandy dunes on the side of the motorway before entering more rugged territory. At Hatta Fort, it was a brief stop as it was closed being […]
22 May 2003
We rose around 0600. The sky seemed quite light way before the actual sunrise time. After breakfast, we set off in our Land Cruiser to Camel Rock where the sand was redder and there was no vegetation. We were taken back to our hotel around 0930 and were fortunate enough to be given a room […]
21 May 2003
The real Dubai After a simple of breakfast of items from the supermarket we took the hotel shuttle to Deira for the Gold Souk. The traffic was a shocker, just like yesterday evening. It was already hot when we wandered around, despite in largely sheltered alleys. The gold necklaces and adornments of various types were […]
20 May 2003
We ate a simple breakfast of cereal, mango juice and some cake in our room. Our hotel is in the same group as the Jumeirah Beach Hotel and we used their free shuttle to get there. The water in the sea by the hotel was just stunning. It was a gorgeous turquoise to look at […]
19 May 2003
Leaving Iran We woke at 0445 as we have a morning flight from Esfahan to Tehran to connect on to Dubai. Kim had a bad night sleep and had been fighting a cold. We collected our passports at reception and set off for the airport at 0530, arriving there at 0600. It was another half […]