Articles from this Category
5 November 2004
Kim and I managed to wake up at 0900 despite the unfavourable time change. We spent the day shopping at a couple of IT malls in Singapore and managed to get ourselves a Palm Pilot each. Normally, tech products in Singapore are cheaper than in New Zealand but with the exchange rate at present, it […]
13 October 2004
Due to my body being on Auckland time, I woke at 0330, then 0430 and 0630. But I lazed till 0730. Kim’s mum, Fiona rang while we were having breakfast. Last night, their taxi driver had a little trouble finding their hotel. Then their aircon malfunctioned which necessitated a shift to a different room. Kim […]
26 May 2003
We have a night flight back to Auckland tonight, which meant we had plenty of time to kill. After a trip to the supermarket where we bought some fruits, we visited my aunt and uncle. They were both well and in good spirits in their old age. Back in the city, we collected our printed […]
25 May 2003
Mum took us for a Nyonya lunch at a restaurant called Ivin’s. Nyonya (or Peranakan) food is hard to find in New Zealand and parts of Malaysia, so I really appreciated the choice of restaurant. We had otak-otak, beef rendang, chicken curry, ayam tempera and bubor chacha. The tempera was a dry version, different from […]
24 May 2003
We woke at 0500 and were in the courtesy shuttle at 0600 for the short ride to Dubai airport. Check-in was swift and we used up our remaining dirhams before boarding the Emirates B777-300. We departed about 30 mins late due to having to offload the bags for people who were turned away at the […]
2 May 2003
Killing a day Due to the time difference, I woke at 0430 but dozed till 0630, and then till around 0800. We have the day to kill in the city-state until our flight after midnight tonight. Jess, my step-bro’s girlfriend dropped us off in the city. We priced some electronics at Sim Lim Square and […]
3 November 2002
Today we have the last of our tours from Chiang Mai. After breakfast, we waited over an hour for our tour pick-up. The van arrived rather late around 0900 due to heavy rain, flooding, detours and traffic jam. The tour for the day is called Elephants at Work. When we got to the […]
2 November 2002
After another marvellous but early hotel breakfast we were picked up for our day tour to the Golden Triangle after 0700. In the vehicle were a group of Canadians (mainly family) who turned out to be great companions. We left Chiang Mai for Chiang Rai stopping at Chiang Saen, the capital of the old Lanna […]
1 November 2002
Relaxing I love Thailand and Malaysia when it comes to the buffet breakfasts at the hotels. Today was no exception at Imperial Mae Ping’s coffee shop. It was the usual East-West spread of congee, kwayteow, eggs, pastries, fruit etc. It was a busy place as there wasn’t a table in sight when we entered but […]
31 October 2002
Above: Last minute mending on the streets of Kunming. Today we leave China for Thailand. We started with a hotel breakfast in a garden-like setting. There was a good mix of Asian (congee, pau, red bean pastry etc) and Western (eggs, baked beans, toast etc). There was no western tea for Kim but only Chinese […]