Author archive
3 February 2023
Above: Sambas palace. Departing Kuching We checked out from the OYO Golden Lounge before 0600 for our ride to Singkawang in West Kalimantan, the venue for possibly the most colourful Capgomeh (last day of Chinese New Year) celebration in the world. Our ride would depart from Siang Siang Corner food court across the road. Boo […]
2 February 2023
Above: Orang Ulu mural at the Sarawak Cultural Village. Today, I took my guest to Sarawak Cultural Village for a taste of Borneo culture. It’s a place I always try to take my overseas visitors. Ivan, with peninsular Malaysian origins, would be quite new to most things Borneo as well. We started with a walk […]
1 February 2023
A friend Ivan arrived last night. Due to my upcoming departure to Singkawang, he stayed at a hotel rather than with me. I picked him up for a breakfast of Sarawak Laksa at Lauya Keng, a Teochew temple in old town. He was unsure if his empty stomach would handle the spice, so we tried […]
31 January 2023
The hotel restaurant ran out of all but two breakfast choices this morning. But they had exactly what I wanted, the Vietnamese sandwich. It was light but enough to tide me over till the lounge at the airport. I got to the airport by Ojek this time for a bit less than the ride in […]
30 January 2023
I woke at 0130 after 7h of sleep and continued to doze and sleep till 0600. That’s nearly 12h in bed. I must have needed it after the stress of the last few days. The included hotel breakfast at 0730 was awesome. I chose the Vietnamese style kwayteow with pork steak. I went for a […]
29 January 2023
Arrival Despite the 55 min delay departing Auckland, we arrived into Singapore about 10 mins early. As usual, Changi airport arrival is a breeze and I was in the public area pretty quickly. No wonder it’s often rated as the world’s best airport. Transport to the J8 proved expensive at SGD31 on Grab app. Ojek […]
29 January 2023
Above: Check-in queue for Air New Zealand. Checking-in manually I woke at 0630 and was pleased to see that my 1105 flight had not been cancelled whereas most morning flights had been. It was still no guarantee as flight can be cancelled last-minute. When a 55 min delay notification came through, I felt some relief […]
28 January 2023
Above: Auckland skyline during better times. My flight cancelled I woke at 0600 to learn that my flight 1105 flight to Singapore had been cancelled. Not unsurprising as a result of the flood inside the airport terminal. I quickly shifted my booking to tomorrow before other people could do the same. As I had been […]
27 January 2023
Above: Auckland airport international terminal flooded. Disaster hits Auckland I’m due to fly to Singapore in two days, on a three-week trip which will include hometown Kuching and also Singkawang across the border in Kalimantan. However, a natural disaster hit Auckland tonight in the form of extreme rainfall which resulted in a state of emergency […]
26 November 2022
Arriving back into Auckland I woke and it was already breakfast time! Wow, five hours of the flight had suddenly disappeared! Breakfast was super-generous and the slice of cake would have been better placed on last night’s dinner tray. The crew continued to be cheerful despite having worked hard with special meals and only having […]