Articles from this Category
6 March 2026
Above: The pool at our sister hotel, Bintang Bali. After breakfast, I felt it was mandatory to go use the large pool at the sister hotel next door, Bali Bintang. While asking about pool towels, we were shown the shortcut across there. Kim had been walking out to the road to get there and finally […]
5 March 2026
Above: View from near our hotel. Surprisingly, the hotel buffet breakfast wasn’t great. The chicken was hacked up Asian style with lots of bones. I happily had the chicken porridge and soup instead. We went out to a nearby mall for a wander. I toyed with the idea of buying some cooking sachets to take […]
3 March 2026
Above: Gurney Paragon Mall incorporates the historical St Joseph Novitiate Building. It was a much-needed lazy day starting with rehab exercises in the hotel gym, a massage, cut-throat shave then lunch. I went to the blind massage shop which I had been before but being Ramadhan, there was only one masseur there who happened to […]
2 March 2026
Above: View from the hotel rooftop pool area. The Malaysia Airlines flight left Hyderabad a little earlier than the scheduled time of 0030. A meal was served soon after, followed by a bar service which included spirits and wine that were absent during the meal. We landed into Kuala Lumpur 20 mins early and I […]
1 March 2026
Above: World class Hyderabad Airport’s departure area. I fly out to Malaysia after midnight tonight (technically tomorrow morning) and have the day to kill. I have paid to use the room till 1930 today. After breakfast, I took the metro one stop north, with the intention to visit a big pharmacy where I hope to […]
28 February 2026
Hotel hassles I told the hotel to hold the idli for breakfast this morning and just give me the thosai; otherwise, it would be too much. After breakfast, I sorted out my stay for tomorrow night when I had a booking made through trip.com for the purpose of a late check-out. The hotel told me […]
27 February 2026
Charminar and Makkah Mosque The hotel breakfast, starting at 0700, consisted of the very South Indian thosai and idli, plus accompaniments. I headed out by auto-rickshaw to the Charminar (literally four minarets) in the centre of town where I caught, by pure chance, not one celebration but two! The Charminar monument has become the symbol […]
25 February 2026
Panam Nagar I repeated yesterday’s awesome breakfast before meeting Nur at 0915 on the ground floor of the hotel. We walked to a tea shack where tea was being sold, despite Ramadhan, but hidden behind canvas so that no one would then be drinking in public. That’s like Indonesia, but not Malaysia where one could […]
24 February 2026
Arriving in Dhaka I could smell the pollution even before the cabin doors opened as we arrived at 0130. It took 10 mins and USD50 to get my visa-on-arrival. The first officer said a Letter of Invitation was required (which I didn’t have) but when I said I was a tourist, a second officer said […]
22 February 2026
My time in hometown over the Chinese New Year had been quite social with family and friends. Despite that, I managed to fit in gym workouts on all days except one. I confirmed that my hip issues responded very well to rotational cable exercises and cable kickstand hip hinge. I also had a very good […]