Author archive
1 May 2003
Kim’s Mum took us to the airport for our 1155 Air New Zealand flight to Singapore. Check-in was slow with only two counters open until a third opened two hours prior to departure. The flight was pleasant with the crew led by Tina, a former travel agent from Queenstown. I had met her working in […]
6 November 2002
I managed to sleep for 3h on the flight in the centre block of seats near the end of the cabin Kim on the other hand had two seats on the side and didn’t sleep as much. We landed in Auckland late in the morning to be picked up by Kim’s mum upon arrival. We […]
5 November 2002
We took the Star Ferry to meet Kim’s friend Chris for yum cha breakfast. He took us to a tall-ish round building with a revolving restaurant at the top. While the restaurant we went to wasn’t in the top revolving portion, it still offered a spectacular view up at about level 60. They did very […]
4 November 2002
After arriving at Hong Kong’s international airport, we found the train to the city. At the city end of the ride, we had to transfer to connecting shuttle buses (included in the fare) to the Park Hotel. [Edit: in later years, we decided that the public bus is actually faster than the train if one […]
4 November 2002
Leaving Chiang Mai We had to wake at 0500 today for our 0700 flight from Chiang Mai to Bangkok. We had enough time for a light breakfast of fish congee, bacon and papaya. The crew for our flight was still eating as we left at 0605. At check-in we were given “CIQ” (Customs Immigration Quarantine) […]
3 November 2002
Today we have the last of our tours from Chiang Mai. After breakfast, we waited over an hour for our tour pick-up. The van arrived rather late around 0900 due to heavy rain, flooding, detours and traffic jam. The tour for the day is called Elephants at Work. When we got to the […]
2 November 2002
After another marvellous but early hotel breakfast we were picked up for our day tour to the Golden Triangle after 0700. In the vehicle were a group of Canadians (mainly family) who turned out to be great companions. We left Chiang Mai for Chiang Rai stopping at Chiang Saen, the capital of the old Lanna […]
1 November 2002
Relaxing I love Thailand and Malaysia when it comes to the buffet breakfasts at the hotels. Today was no exception at Imperial Mae Ping’s coffee shop. It was the usual East-West spread of congee, kwayteow, eggs, pastries, fruit etc. It was a busy place as there wasn’t a table in sight when we entered but […]
31 October 2002
Above: Last minute mending on the streets of Kunming. Today we leave China for Thailand. We started with a hotel breakfast in a garden-like setting. There was a good mix of Asian (congee, pau, red bean pastry etc) and Western (eggs, baked beans, toast etc). There was no western tea for Kim but only Chinese […]
30 October 2002
Above: At the markets. Kim’s mother rang us at the hotel this morning. She’s always interested and excited on our behalf when it comes to our travels. She’s always giving me newspaper clippings which she had collected from a long time ago, about interesting destinations. So perhaps she is living vicariously through us. I wanted […]