Articles from this Category
26 October 2025
Swatow’s old centre Dennis left around 0530 today to catch the train to Guangzhou for some errands. Kim and I, Swee and Chen had booked to go to Swatow (Shantou) for an overnight stay to explore a different part of the region. At around 0900 Kim and I walked to the Vienna hotel where Swee […]
25 October 2025
Breakfast and wet market I woke around 0600 with only one interruption around 0130. We left home around 0700 to go to Dennis’ aunt’s place. Aunt took us for a little walk to a local eatery for breakfast. The local specialty here was the Tenghun (which is literally the same words as the Cantonese Cheongfan). […]
24 October 2025
Arriving and transit in Bejing With one sleeping pill, I slept soundly for about 4h30. With about 3h remaining till the breakfast service, I reluctantly popped another half a pill which gave me another 2h. Magic! We landed in Beijing Capital about 1h before the scheduled arrival time of 0530. It was quite cool as […]
30 July 2025
A bit of a fright I had a bit of a fright this morning with my flight departure time to Kuala Lumpur which I had thought was at 1320. I had thought of going to the airport at 0945 to have brunch at the lounge but didn’t think I could last till then without […]
25 July 2025
No jetlag Three nights after landing from Europe, I’m happy to report that I haven’t had any jetlag. That’s quite unheard of, for me, especially flying towards the east. I’ve had not trouble falling asleep and have been OK to wake with the alarm at 0715 each morning. And my nature calls were nearly on […]
2 July 2025
Chateau de Blois We packed up and left around 0800, telling the hotel that we were very disappointed that their aircon wasn’t working properly. Since we had missed Chateau the Blois last night, we drove into town to have a quick look. Parking was still free at this time, with charges starting at […]
15 June 2025
Killing a day before the night flight We have a big day with a night flight to Vienna at 2345. When I woke at 0500, I allowed ourselves to sleep a bit more till the alarm at 0715 and then somehow it was suddenly 0845. That’s nearly 10h sleep for me! I guess we’re on […]
14 June 2025
Yehliu Geopark Today we hired a car and driver to cover a few places that are part of a common tour itinerary. Two of three were places I had been to, but it’s a good way to spend the day with friends. The car was organised through the hotel rather than online as we had […]
13 June 2025
Dihua Street MH & WL had woken up at 0330 and been out for breakfast before sunrise whereas I had some muesli in the room. We took a taxi out around to Dihua Street. The street is lined with nice character buildings, some from the Japanese era, selling traditional dried foods. MH was looking for […]
12 June 2025
Above: My Indonesian lunch. The weather turned as I prepared to venture out today, with intermittent drizzle continuing through the day. It wasn’t forecast and even when it was raining, the forecast said it was currently cloudy! That’s so unusual as forecasts show a rainy icon with the slightest showers. I had thought of going […]