Articles from this Category
12 September 2018
Getting going I had set the alarm for 0600 and asked the frontdesk to call me as well just in case. But I woke at 0430. Realising that there was no phone, I figured that the receptionist would have to walk up two floors to wake me. So I WhatsApp’ed them to say I was […]
11 September 2018
Today I fly to Miri for an overnight before going inland to Borneo’s highlands for my mini-adventure. I ordered a Grab car on the app but none were available in my area. I tried numerous times and it was starting to worry me even though I had three hours till my 1500 flight. Perhaps it […]
14 August 2018
Bird’s eye view of Saigon I had enquired about a late check-out till 1600 for half a day’s rate. Anything beyond that would he at the full day’s rate. I decided against it in the end and checked-out at 1100, leaving my pack at reception. I took a Grab car to Bitexco Tower. I read […]
13 August 2018
I had a lazy start today, staying indoors after breakfast till 1100. I headed out for my massage to Pham Ngu Lao. I tried choosing the place carefully again, trying to avoid the many that had skimpily dressed female touts. I stumbled across one with a young masseur. The massage started off well, then about […]
12 August 2018
As expected, I woke early in Saigon and dozed till around 0530. I took breakfast on the hotel’s rooftop in their main building; I was housed in their annex. Surprisingly, they had no pho for breakfast so I settled for an omelette accompanied by a very good personal baguette. It was very light inside and […]
11 August 2018
We landed at Saigon’s Tan Son Nhat airport about 30 minutes early around 1915. With no luggage, I was out quickly. First priority was to get money from the ATM. Both the ones I tried imposed a local fee. I chose the one with the cheaper fee and withdrew what I expect to spend for […]
29 June 2018
I thought I’d take Kim to Princes’ Islands today as it is a good and cheap way of seeing Istanbul from the water. We got on the public ferry around 0930 for a 1000 departure. It was vert busy on board with many Middle-Eastern tourists, some domestic tourists and a few foreigners. We called into […]
28 June 2018
Breakfast at the hotel was served on the rooftop overlooking the Golden Horn and the minaret of the mosque next door. Lovely! The plan for today to repeat for Kim, the sights we saw 26 years ago. I had repeated them in recent years and can easily show him the way there. And they’re all […]
27 June 2018
It is amazing how we made the morning disappear with doing very little before our long bus ride to Istanbul at 1200. We walked to Serdika Bus Station (next to the Train and Central Bus stations) where the bus was already there. Surprisingly, Metro Turizm, a Turkish company has Bulgarian-registered buses with Bulgarian livery. Onboard […]
14 June 2018
I chatted to Sebastian from France at breakfast. We had a similar flight time out of Imam Khomeini International; mine at 0435 tomorrow morning and his at 0600. He had similar plans for killing time and we decided to stick to do things together and head to the airport by metro around 1730. We headed […]