Articles from this Category
30 October 2008
I had booked a night into a relatively cheap Panorama Deira Hotel in Dubai for my overnight. With the scheduled flights arriving from JFK at 1945 and departing for Sana’a at 0710, it would have been a little cruel to oneself to spend the night at the airport after a sleepless night flight. But it […]
29 September 2008
I had hoped to do something a little different this time in Hong Kong. Often with my overnights, there’s not much I can do at all. So this time I chose to visit the Big Buddha on Lantau Island, which is by-and-large a relatively untouched part of the territory. After consulting Paul, my host, I […]
28 September 2008
Kimball and I took the ferry to Hong Kong today. We had enough time to fit in a yumcha before he went to work, winging home to New Zealand. I taxied up the hill to stay with my Couchsurfing host, Paul. To my surprise, he was a mature gentleman a little older than me. Quite […]
27 September 2008
Kimball was “on call” with his job as an international flight attendant in New Zealand. He asked if he could be called out for a Hong Kong duty and crew control said “Yes”. He ferried over from Hong Kong and stayed at my hotel here in Macau. Since I enjoyed my sampling of Macanese cuisine, […]
26 September 2008
Today I explored the historical sights of Macau … it is one of several places in Asia which have a Portuguese heritage (and with bricks and stones still standing to show for it). It takes about half a day to do most of the bigger historical attractions (Portuguese and Chinese) and maybe another half-day if […]
25 September 2008
I left Padang at 0830 on a short flight to Kuala Lumpur where I self-connected to Macau. I took a bit of a gamble with my self-connection allowing only 2h50 between flights. ETA coming from Padang was 1040 and ETD to Macau 1330. Upon arrival at Kuala Lumpur the immigration officer greeted me with “Selamat […]
24 September 2008
Not a bed of roses Today, Mike and I travelled from Bukittinggi to Padang together and stayed at the same hotel. Text continues after this gallery. While looking for lunch we met Ricky (a Chinese Indonesian who works for the maker of the famous Kopiko sweet found around the world). He was absolutely […]
23 September 2008
Above: Today’s ride was about 32km in each direction and included 44 Hairpin turns each way! 44 Hairpins Down and 44 Hairpins Up Today Mike and I with our drivers headed to Lake Maninjau about 32km away. It is a volcanic crater lake and from the top of the rim looking down, we had to […]
22 September 2008
Above: Approximate route for the day. Highland on two wheels I hired a motorcycle and driver for the day to take me around to various Minangkabau cultural sights, especially the beautiful architecture set amongst the green countryside. Travelling with me was a 21 year old English student Mike and his driver. Strangely he’s studying English […]
21 September 2008
“Maiden” flight I woke at 0430 in order to make my 0750 flight to Padang comfortably. While checking-in, I checked out my fellow passengers. It was largely a a maid-and-worker flight. There were a few couples helping their maids with the process eg. making sure they weren’t pinged with baggage charges unnecessarily. It felt good […]