Saturday 2 March: Gangtey – Sylvia We had a leisurely start to our day, meeting Chimi and Singye at 9:30am after a late breakfast. As with all the other lodges, we started with healthy shots. I have been blown away by the flavours they are able to get into the food here. Every meal we […]
The Kingdom of Bhutan: part III – Bumthang
Wednesday 28 February: Bumthang – Roger At 7:30am we wandered down to the spa where they had a couple of yoga mats set up for the yoga stretch and flexibility class. I was a little apprehensive, as in the early 90’s I did yoga quite intensively with a lovely lady, Mandy White, who taught Iyengar […]
The Kingdom of Bhutan: Part II – Paro
Sunday 25 February: Tiger’s Nest – Sylvia Breakfast arrived at our villa at 6:15am this morning and we metChimi and Singye at 7:00am to head for the base of the Tiger’s Nest walk, abut a 45 minute drive away, on the other side of Paro town. The Tiger’s Nest is probably the most iconic site […]
The Kingdom of Bhutan – Part I: Thimphu
Wednesday 21 February 2024 – Roger It’s around 2100 when we head to Auckland International Airport. The way through security is really slow with only one lane open. We then went to the currency exchange – warning: do not buy currency here unless you order in advance – we got 10% less in USD than […]
Vegas, Arizona, DC – January 2024
Sunday 21 January 2024 With last year being a bit lighter on travel I spent only around 200 hours in planes, having based myself in New Zealand the majority of time. This is my first trip overseas since October last year, when we returned from the Philippines and Singapore. Sylvia worked several weeks from New […]
A Day in Almaty Kazakstan 2 October 2023
Monday 2 October 2023 We arrived in Almaty last night and were given a VIP escort through customs before being driven to our hotel by Glebe, the Royal Canin country manager. Sylvia had a breakfast meeting with Janibek, the Ukrainian GM, who lives in Almaty, before heading off to visit the company office and do […]
United Arab Emirates and Oman (Rogers 100th Country)
Monday 25 September 2023 On arriving into Dubai late yesterday, we checked into the Fairmount Palms, where Sylvia is attending a conference. This morning I took the shuttle into the Dubai Mall, about 20kms from here. There I had booked a VIP visit to the tower; at 825 meters tall it is still the tallest […]
A visit with my sister Racheal in Frankfurt:17 to 20 September 2023
Sunday 17 September 2023 A mid morning flight from Marseille landed me in Frankfurt around noon, where I was met by Rachel and, after checking into my hotel in a not too flash part of Frankfurt, we drove to her flat in the village of Steinbach, about 20 kms from Frankfurt. Her youngest son, Killian, […]
The Quarries of The Van d’Enefer – 16 September 2023
Saturday 16 September 2023. We were privileged to have a visit from Sylvia’s Mum, Rosie and partner, Lardy, along with her uncle Roger, aunt Wendy and their friend Alan, who had al arrived just before I headed to London. They had spent the week while I was away exploring the local sites and relaxing by […]
London and the HMS Belfast 12 to 15 September 2023
I was in London attending the Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEI) trade show, which I am not going to write much about. I did get to try out the new helmet for the Typhoon pilots, with its heads up display linked into the plane’s cameras. If you look down you can see the ground […]