Articles from this Category
30 April 2025
Despite the 90 min delay out of Singapore, we arrived in Auckland only 55 mins late. Despite all the food I was carrying, I was kerbside within 30 mins of landing. I credit this to having taken photos of my food haul, to show the quarantine staff that they are of low risk (eg. not […]
29 April 2025
Leaving Kuching It had been a productive six day stay in hometown. Apart from the optician, I had a good dental visit and for the first time in about 20 years, I managed to get all air-conditions in the apartment working properly. I had been having intermittent AC problems, a fix for which proved elusive […]
21 April 2025
My AirAsia X was full but I was fine, having requested and paid for an aisle seat. We landed in Kuala Lumpur at 0700 and parked at one of the furthest gates. Once landside, I checked if I could use the Plaza Premium lounge located landside in the shopping mall, based on my boarding pass […]
2 April 2025
Background This trip was conceived with a booking made 14 months ago with a single flight on AirAsia X from Xian to Kuala Lumpur to use up vouchers that were issued during the pandemic when the airline was went belly-up pending revival. Over the months, I slowly built up an itinerary to include places that […]
10 January 2025
We had a relaxing start today, hitting the road at 0900 for the drive to Auckland. We stopped at the supermarket to get some fruit as we didn’t have breakfast. That ought to sustain me till brunch which we had at Mokau River. Fortunately, Kim remembered that we had parked our car at a hotel […]
9 January 2025
Trip overview Today we fly to Wellington to look at and hopefully buy a car, then embark on a road trip to New Plymouth for a nightstop enroute to Auckland. If we don’t buy the car, we have backup standby flights from Wellington to New Plymouth and then to Auckland next day. As the flight […]
12 December 2024
My flight arrived about 10 mins later than the scheduled time of 0940. Auckland Airport, sometimes known for its awful queues at arrival due to biosecurity screening was a breeze today. Our flight had been selected for an express arrival trial. With nothing to declare and no luggage to collect from the carousel, I was […]
10 December 2024
Technical failure I have an evening flight to Auckland today. With the time difference back in India, I woke up early and had a snack before killing time and packing. Mid-morning, I went out to grab brunch but my preferred meal (cha siew rice) to finish all my HKD wasn’t yet available. So, I settled […]
9 December 2024
Flying to Delhi Today’s a long day for me with an early start in Nashik, flying to Delhi for a nearly 12h self-connect to Hong Kong, with the second flight being on standby. I left the hotel around 0640 by autorickshaw, summoned on Uber. It was colder than I had thought and I had to […]
18 November 2024
Long Istanbul self-connect It was around 0745 when I left the hotel after breakfast, walking to the taxi stand outside the hotel to find a cab to Travzon airport. The journey was quick on the highway which kinda followed the shore of the Black Seat. It’s a pity that the city didn’t have any kind […]