Places

Articles from this Category

Koalas eat kiwis

I took a ferry to Staten Island this morning. Return ferry services are free for everyone, can you believe it?  I didn’t feel the urge to climb up the Statue of Liberty so I decided this would be better value than the any other harbour cruise considering the sad grey skies.     In the […]

Read more

City that never sleeps

I began my exploration of the Big Apple by going up its most famous landmark, arguably.  I went up the Empire State Building …  funny name considering this country had not Empire, Emperor or Empress! Text continues after this gallery.     I then continued walking around the skyscrapers and landmarks of Lower Manhattan, then […]

Read more

The Big Apple

It was my first time in New York, the Big Apple.  My Emirates flight arrived around 1415 into JFK airport. I’m Couchsurfing with a lady by the name of Anne-France, who is actually from France.  Located in lower/mid Manhattan, I take the AirTrain to a station called Jamaica before changing to the subway.  She had […]

Read more

Big Buddha

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 […]

Read more

Back to Hong Kong

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 […]

Read more

Casino-ing

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, […]

Read more

Slice of Portugal

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 […]

Read more

Back to the Vegas of Asia

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 […]

Read more

Resistance is futile

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 […]

Read more

Forty-four hairpin turns

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 […]

Read more
Go top