High Latency on Certain gaming servers

Playing PUBG, when playing on SEA servers, I have a considerably higher ping (220ms) compared to friends in the same city (CHCH) but are on different Internet Providers.

I have a trace route

Tracing route to 74.201.102.172 over a maximum of 30 hops

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 192.168.1.12 2 ms 2 ms 2 ms 27.252.7.2543 3 ms 2 ms 2 ms 10.200.12.294 139 ms 139 ms 139 ms 216.218.236.1025 141 ms 140 ms 140 ms 216.218.236.1016 168 ms 168 ms 168 ms 184.105.222.1147 180 ms 179 ms 179 ms 184.105.64.508 199 ms 199 ms 199 ms 184.105.81.2109 200 ms 199 ms 199 ms 206.223.119.10710 224 ms 224 ms 224 ms 64.95.159.18111 223 ms 223 ms 223 ms 64.95.158.18512 224 ms 223 ms 223 ms 64.95.158.6513 224 ms 224 ms 224 ms 63.251.128.5314 225 ms 224 ms 224 ms 74.201.104.7015 * * * Request timed out.16 224 ms 224 ms 224 ms 74.201.102.172

Have called Vodafone multiple times with promises of call backs etc etc but no word on the cause.

Anyone able to she light or have similar experiences?