Articles from this Category
19 September 2005
Above: Imam Reza’s shrine takes up quite an expansive area, as you can see from the two photos stitched up above. I felt shattered today and slept till 0800. I decided to have the day off. I couldn’t handle another day of long bus trips especially if the sights were only so so. I took […]
18 September 2005
With a little bit of Malaysian time in my system, I woke up early at 0630 and was downstairs for a delicious breakfast at 0730. Crunchy cucumber, ripe red tomatoes, thick yoghurt, cheeses, bread, eggs, omelette and boring cornflakes. My plan today was to do a daytrip to Torbat-e Jam. I took a taxi to […]
17 September 2005
Above: View of Imam Reza Shrine by night, from my new hotel room at Razavieh Hotel. About Mashhad The holy city of Mashhad is home to 6 million people, saffron and the Coca Cola factory. Yes, Coca Cola Iran trade embargo notwithstanding. It is in the far east of the country, near the Turkmenistan and Afghanistan border. […]
16 September 2005
Introducing Tehran Tehran isn’t my favourite city because it isn’t the nicest city either with. It’s a concrete jungle with characterless blocks, traffic clogged with old and new Hillman Hunters (called Paykan) and sometimes stifling smog from these old technology vehicles. It has 14 million residents and 12 ski-fields, which is great for people who […]
15 September 2005
Above: Old phone in my room at the Naderi Hotel in Tehran. Leaving Singapore I woke around 0130 and dozed till 0500. My aunt insisted that I have some breakfast so I had a peanut butter sandwich before taxiing to the airport around 0540. The check-in desk for my 0745 flight to Doha was deserted. […]
14 September 2005
I had only one important task to do today. That was to go to the New Zealand High Commission at Ngee Ann City to transfer my returning resident’s visa from my old passport to my new one. I was also able to vote for the New Zealand election by doing a special vote. With that […]
13 September 2005
After a ten night stay in my hometown, Kuching, I said goodbye to my family. It had been a busy stay attending to things like renewing my passport; researching and opening a bank account. Without internet at the house, it was a chore to have to drive to an internet cafe every few days to […]
8 September 2005
Admin My last few days have been busy. We celebrated Mum’s 78th birthday but other matters were more of an admin nature. Things like renewing my passport and opening a bank account. Some things are harder than they sound as I have to ensure that the bank has a fully-featured internet banking facility which is […]
28 June 2005
We arrived in Auckland early in the morning. We checked at the lost luggage counter for an update on whether our luggage had been found. We were expecting them to arrive in the next day or two, and were expecting to sign forms that would allow them to be cleared by customs in our absence […]
26 May 2005
Mini sightseeing I woke around 0600 and managed to get ourselves downstairs for breakfast at 0700. Kim organised a rental car by phone with Lucky Cars located at the Howard Johnson Hotel. They have some very beaten up cars that wouldn’t be legal in some countries. Kim s is a regular customer of theirs on […]