Author archive
19 November 2025
Leaving Taipei Today I will head to a new country, Palau, not that I’m on a quest to count countries. I woke a few times through the night before the 0615 alarm. Not a bad thing, as often I struggle to adapt flying from west to east and oversleep. Perhaps the fear of missing my […]
18 November 2025
Breakfast hype Even though I woke at 0630, my tummy wasn’t ready for the highly-recommended breakfast that’s nearby. I waited till about 0800 before joining the queue which snaked up the stairs into a food hall. No other stall in that food hall appeared to be open at that time, so perhaps they are all […]
14 November 2025
Dubai Marina I had set the alarm for 0640 so I could go explore before it got too hot. Yes, it’s November but the temperatures are still on the warm side in the sun. I felt groggy upon waking even though I wake at 0400 in Beirut. After the hotel buffet breakfast, I took the […]
13 November 2025
Leaving Beirut I woke a little later today at 0500 instead of 0300, which is still good as I have a long day ahead, flying to Dubai at 1155 with the intention of exploring there till late at night. Checking out of the hotel at 0730, I ordered a car which got me to the […]
12 November 2025
Above: Temple of Bacchus. Note the person on the extreme left, for scale . Getting to Baalbek Today, I make my fourth visit to Baalbek, a place that’s very special in all my travels. It started with a short taxi ride at 0645 to Cola station. It was an awfully long wait from 0700 till […]
11 November 2025
Tripoli Railway Station I woke at 0300, which is good for adjusting back to East Asia. I dozed for a while and headed out at 0630 by foot to Mina, which is Tripoli’s port area nearby. The route took me through a different side of Tripoli which was clean and modern. Some 25 mins later, […]
10 November 2025
Breakfast I had been keeping to roughly Malaysian or Chinese time for much of the trip, but the extra hour time change in Lebanon saw me wake at 0300. I dozed a little before heading out at 0700 to get breakfast at a place that came highly recommended because I’m Malaysian. It’s a fatta shop […]
9 November 2025
Crossing to Lebanon Today, I leave Hama in Syria to cross into Lebanon for my two nights at Tripoli. I had originally planned to just over night but have arrived early, having saved a day in Aleppo few days ago. This is a route I had done twice before in reverse in the days when […]
8 November 2025
Lazy morning I had hoped to make my third visit to Palmyra today but it wasn’t meant to be. I wanted to see what damage had been done during the civil war. Abdullah had appeared to discourage us from going and priced the trip at a prohibitive level. Instead, he suggested a half-day trip instead […]
