Asia

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Ueno, Asakusa and Akihabara

Leaving Haneda I started the day with a buffet breakfast in the hotel. It was a sumptuous Japanese and Western spread. EVA Airways crew were there and they didn’t hold back. Gotta have the energy to work I guess. I left the hotel for the metro station a few minutes away by foot at 1000. […]

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Arriving at the Big Smoke … make that the Biggest Smoke

Above:  Waiting to leave my hometown Kuching. I left Kuching at a civilised time of 1040 for Tokyo via Kuala Lumpur on AirAsia and then AirAsia X. The two hour transit in KL gave me enough time to fit in a quick light lunch at the lounge before boarding the flight to Tokyo, the world’s […]

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State funeral

I accompanied my aunt to church this morning in her old neighbourhood of Serangoon.  As we were early, we drove around and saw how her old house (and many others) had changed from simple single storey to typically three. After church, we had a simple lunch at home.  The heavens had opened and wept for […]

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A nation in mourning

We managed to get our last-minute paid upgrade to Business Class for the flight to Singapore departing at 0115. Despite the ungodly timing, I stayed up for the supper service before sleeping, because I was hungry. I had expected to skip it in favour of a longer downtime but my tummy rules. I did have […]

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World’s Largest Flower

I had called the state forestry office yesterday to enquire whether any rafflesias (world’s largest flower) were in bloom. Rather unexpectedly, they said “Yes, there is one on its last day” and encouraged me to go. So, it was a disappointment for me to wake up to a wet day. While the rain wasn’t torrential, […]

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Gateway to the Heart of Borneo

It has been about 18 years since I had been to Sibu, where my mother hails from. As a child we had gone there to see grandma frequently. I thought I was long overdue for a visit there and had bought the air-tickets cheaply and impulsively some 10 months (sounds contradictory but it was impulse […]

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Away with the ferries again

With such a full day yesterday, I seem to have come down a little under the weather with a sore throat. I slept in but after breakfast regained my motivation. I headed out with several ideas in my head but my feet took me to Kabatas where I boarded the 1130 ferry to Prince’s Island. […]

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Away with the ferries

Chora Church and Cruises I got my motivation back today and felt the urge to go do things that I hadn’t done in Istanbul. It was tempting to just repeat the old best-loved sights of Istanbul. I wanted to combined the Chora Church with one-way journey between there and the Bosphorus. Due to fog, I […]

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Random walks

I went up to the top floor for breakfast and saw that the sky was black. Soon enough it started raining. As this was my fourth time in Istanbul, there was no pressure to go do anything so I didn’t really go out till the sun was out in the early afternoon. It is quite […]

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On a friend’s farm

An old classmate runs a farm outside of Kuching, near the Wind Cave and Fairy Cave.  He had organised a gathering of old friends so that us city folks could enjoy a touch of the Borneo outdoors.  We had a picnic by the stream and some of us finished the day with dinner at Siniawan […]

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