Author archive
8 November 2018
I woke around 0630, way before my alarm at 0800. I had an email from AirAsia confirming that my late May 2019 super-cheap flight from Auckland to Kuala Lumpur had been cancelled due to route withdrawal. I worked through some options and I wasn’t going to be too adversely affected as I have an industry […]
7 November 2018
We arrived into Kuala Lumpur at 0245, some 25 minutes ahead of schedule. The first bus into the city goes at 0430. There was one at 0330 from Terminal 1 but I wouldn’t have been able to get there in time. I debated waiting vs catching a Grab car. I opted for the latter at […]
6 November 2018
It is late spring in New Zealand and the weather is a mix of cold and warm days. It’s not so bad that I’d want to go away for a month. I had booked this trip a year ago when November was horrid. I really wish I wasn’t going. Nagaland seemed like a good idea […]
5 October 2018
We woke at 0540 after a slightly restless sleep. I’m not good with sleep before an early flight. It didn’t help that the bed wasn’t the most comfy, with plastic sheeting underneath the sheets. At check-out the receptionist very kindly offered to summon a Grab car for me as taxis have a surcharge before 0700. […]
4 October 2018
My early wake-ups at 0640 for the last three days put me in good position for a similar wake-up time in order to get to Denpasar airport for our 1325 flight. We summoned a Grab vehicle around 0830 when the streets were quiet but when the vehicle arrived, a taxi tout had appeared and told […]
3 October 2018
After yoga and a light lunch of Vietnamese sandwiches, we rested before starting a cooking class at a nearby restaurant. We were taught to make things the old fashioned way with a cobek (grinding stone) and lesong (mortar/pestle – stone mortar and long wooden pestle used standing up, as opposed to the Malaysian one used […]
3 October 2018
Today was much like yesterday with yoga and not much else. Except that I wanted to re-sample Babi Guling and try Bebek Bengil’s crispy fried duck. The former, we were able to do lunch-time at Ibu Oka. It was delicious: the pork was tender, the crackling crispy and the floured deep-fried pork nice and salty. […]
1 October 2018
I had set the alarm for 0640 so I could have breakfast at 0700. That would give some time for brekkie to settle before yoga at 0800 at Yoga Barn. With 4 nights in Ubud (three full days), I thought I’d get myself into a routine of daily yoga. It’s not often I get to […]
30 September 2018
We had organised transport to take us from Lovina to Ubud today. This will be our move inland and somewhat of a highland at 600m. The driver Putu turned up a little ahead of the agreed time of 1030. He had worked in New Zealand three times as a seasonal worker on kiwifruit farms. The […]