Articles from this Category
7 April 2025
Orange Island Changsha was meant to be a stop simply it was along the way. The main sight was Orange Island and even then, it was more iconic rather than a must-see. I did want to go to Dufu Pavilion if convenient but wasn’t keen on Mount Yuelu as we had many mountains ahead on […]
6 April 2025
Bullet train to Changsha Today we move on to Changsha by bullet train at 1126. With the station far away, we started around 0800 with breakfast at last night’s wonton shop. We had specially made an arrangement for them to open somewhat earlier for us. We took two separate cars to Wuhan station where everything […]
5 April 2025
Yellow Crane Pagoda E & BW had arrived late last night and despite the late night arrival, they were ready at 0830 to begin the day with breakfast at Hubu Alley before heading to Yellow Crane Pagoda. BW is fluent in Mandarin and can read. Until now, I was the best Mandarin speaker amongst us […]
4 April 2025
Qingchuan Pavilion With my bodyclock on New Zealand time, I woke at 0540, lazed around before having breakfast of muesli and coffee (from the machine in the lobby). I arranged to meet KL & M at 0900 downstairs before going out to explore Wuhan. First up, we took a car to Qingchuan Pavilion. There we […]
3 April 2025
Continuing to Wuhan On the flight from Auckland to Haikou, I had about 4h30 sleep then sat with my eyes closed for a further 1h30. We landed about an hour earlier than the scheduled time of 0500. Immigration at Haikou was super-fast. KL & M had missed the arrival cards on the plane as they […]
10 December 2024
Arriving in Hong Kong My flight landed in Hong Kong at 0600. One set of immigration queues were closed, leaving the remaining one backed up. Despite that, I was outside in about 45 mins waiting at the pick-up area. Alice picked me up and took me to her nearby apartment about 10 mins away […]
8 December 2024
Today’s my last day in Nashik. I’ve done everything I wanted to do here apart from visiting Sula winery outside of town. Roshan and Andrew had planned on going there for dinner, so I spent most of the day indoors catching up on online chores. I had been very far behind! Unfortunately, it was dark […]
7 December 2024
With the wedding over, I was finally free to explore the old area of Nashik city. Jen was flying in the evening and had the day to kill, so he joined me by meeting at the Panchavati Ghat area around 0900. There were many people praying and bathing in the waters of the Godavari River. […]
6 December 2024
Note: As I consider a wedding to be a private occasion, I have not included many photos of the hosts or guests. Wedding ceremony Today’s the big day of the actual wedding. I turned up at the wedding venue (rather than the apartment) for a change around 0920. After about an hour, the bride was […]
5 December 2024
Note: As I consider a wedding to be a private occasion, I have not included many photos of the hosts or guests. With the wedding tomorrow, the bride and groom go through the turmeric ceremony this afternoon. While there wasn’t anything formally going on in the morning, I was invited to the family’s apartment for […]