Turku - Tallinn - Riga - Warszaw - Berlin - Paris - Italy

Having done my admin I wasn't keen on flying back, at least not with Vueling on the grueling flight from Barcelona - Helsinki that I had arrived with. 

Turku house with fresh snow 

Trip to Genoa

As I needed to have some watches serviced I took the train to Genoa and at the same time made a date with my ex Chief Engineer Daniel for a meet up as well as checked that Pier had his watch shop open. 

Train station Genoa Brignole

Vacation in Philippines p2

 As we had returned from Malaysia the traffic and people got really heave so were kind of confined to Calatagan and only scootered around to beaches etc.

Calatagan market lighting

Trip to Malaysia

As I was in Philippines for a short time I decided to go visit my Malaysian friends in Lumut area. The trip started a bit roughly with us spending a day in Singapore and in evening taking the overnight bus to Sitiawan. It was not bad but the AC in the bus was freezing and I hadn't packed any long-sleeved clothes so ended up huddling all night whilst dog-napping. Whilst in Lumut we got taken around all the nice restaurants serving different Chinese cuisine as well other ethnic groups. Always nice to visit Malaysia for food. Below are some pictures from the few days spent there.

911 MB, not Porsche ;)

Going to Malaysia

15th I was on the way to Hat Yai as my Thai visa was expiring and I needed to exit the Kingdom of smiles. I had a rendez-vouz with the hooligans in Lumut. I was dropped off in Hat Yai bus station where I bought a ticket to Ipoh as there were no buses to Lumut so I chose the biggest city close-by. I bid my friends goodbye and boarded the bus that soon enough filled up and we were on our way.

News clipping in bus station of how the city was flooded just a few weeks ago

Mumbai - New Delhi - Mumbai by train

As we were stationary and due to move into the docks for the rainseason I planned to go and visit Saini on his vacation in Hariyana during the weekend. I bought the train ticket easily as a foreigner but had to pay hard foreign currency, one way it became abt 1500 INR, not bad for a 16h train journey on 3rd tier A/C.

Mumbai train station

Sights in Delhi

Jantar Mantar

After getting our car and driver hired we set the route and out first point of call was Jantar Mantar. It is a compound with huge observation instruments (yantras) for celestial movements, azimuth & altitude and also time. Originally built by the Maharaj Sawai Jai Singhji of Jaipur in 1710 it is still standing (restored 1910) and it is also listed as a UNESCO preservation site. One could still see the carefully carved measuring scales on the stones and each instrument had a plaque explaining for what celestial body was being measured (declination, time, etc). I did not linger long and left for our next stop.

One of the Yantras