Articles from this Category
25 May 2011
We visited Ho Chi Minh’s mausoleum this morning. The queue was a couple of city blocks but it was very orderly and moved at walking pace for most of it. To be honest, he didn’t look very different from Lenin. We then taxied to the Temple of Literature. This Confucianist temple is a quiet oasis […]
24 May 2011
Singapore’s Tiger Cub Check-in in around 0730 at Singapore Airport’s Budget Terminal was a surprise to me. It was much smaller than KLIA’s LCCT … and the place was more like a quiet hospital … whereas KL was like a busy bus station before Hari Raya. It became obvious that Tiger Airways is not of […]
9 February 2011
Kek Lok Si (or Temple of Supreme Bliss) has been Penang’s big attraction for decades. The Chinese-Buddhist temple complex at Ayer Hitam is massive … there are many shrines in addition to the old main pagoda built in an eclectic style … Chinese, Thai etc all put together. More recently there is a ginormous statue of […]
8 February 2011
Today I said goodbye to family and flew to Penang again, leaving at 1220. It is my third time there this trip, using the island as a hub. It has turned out to be a good plan as I love the food and the character. It’s like an authentic version of Singapore … Singapore with […]
1 February 2011
It was another early morning start for me, to catch the 0810 AirAsia flight from Chennai to Kuala Lumpur. Less than four hours later, I was in KL, landing at 1430. It was a much nicer time to fly the route compared to the traditional schedule of the full service airlines, leaving at night and […]
14 January 2011
Today I went to the Butterfly Farm near Teluk Bahang. The bus ride took me through Batu Ferringhi which is the beach-hotel district. There were some nice resorts and the sea looked quite blue further out but brownish in many parts closer to land … I’ve been told by many that they don’t bother swimming […]
13 January 2011
Above: From the AirAsia inflight magazine on my flight from Medan to Penang. Begs the question … is there a minimum age for carrying a kavadi? He hasn’t got any body piercings … no skewers through the cheeks, no limes attached to his back with fish hooks (I think, since we don’t have a photo […]
13 January 2011
I fly back to Penang from Medan this evening, so there’s enough time to do the sights around Medan. I’ve done the Chinese/Nyonya attraction (Tjong A Fie mansion), so it’s time to do those related to the Malay royalty and the Muslim population. Firstly to Masjid Raya which is kinda next door from the hotel […]
12 January 2011
Visit to the Posh Hospital I went to the doctor today to have my cold looked at … I was cycling through various symptoms for the last 3 weeks plus … caught it in Hong Kong when Kim and I were there. I felt it was affecting my chest and ears. I can’t let it get […]
11 January 2011
Above: I was surprised my guesthouse provided a peluk, gulung or bolster. It’s a cuddle pillow. Leaving Berastagi I woke to a dry morning, thinking that it would be OK for me to attempt climbing the volcano Sibayak. Popping out, I couldn’t see the two nearby volcanoes. The whole sky was grey. I thought, if […]