Articles from this Category
5 February 2020
I had a leisurely morning at the museum. Pekanbaru’s museum is named after Sang Nila Utama, the prince from the broader region that founded Singapore, changing its name from Temasek to Singapura (which the English later changed to Singapore). It was a simple museum where I learnt new things about the familiar, things that I […]
4 February 2020
Leaving hometown Today I make my way from hometown Kuching to Pekanbaru via Kuala Lumpur, so that I’d end up in Singapore and then Bali in a few days time to get back to New Zealand. The Pekanbaru stop was brought about by some frequent flyer points which were expiring. So why, not?! My departure […]
20 January 2020
Long awaited arrival We descended into Bali airport and landed at 0050 with the cabin lights dimmed rather than off. It was still plenty bright, just like during take-off some six hours ago. I wonder if there is a maximum permissible brightness. Other airlines I fly with simply turn the lights off completely. There was […]
22 September 2019
Paotere Port Despite sleeping late last night, I woke around 0630. Today I leave the big country with 17,000 islands in the evening. With my flight to Kuala Lumpur at 1730, my plan was to do some minor sightseeing before returning to eat and rest till checkout. I wanted to revisit Makassar’s Paotere Port as […]
21 September 2019
Leaving Gorontalo After the bad sleep on the ferry, I woke at 0550 after nearly 9h of sleep. Not hungry, I spent some time writing before having breakfast around 0800. With my flight to Makassar in South Sulawesi at 1115 I thought I’d leave at 0900. With an estimated journey time of 45 mins to […]
20 September 2019
Back in civilisation There was some commotion as I stirred in the morning. We were preparing for arrival. I got up, walked around a little and we pulled into Gorontalo’s port around 0540. It felt like we were back in civilisation on mainland Sulawesi. With a 1h delay at departure, I had expected us to […]
19 September 2019
Getting to Wakai Today, I have to travel to Wakai to catch the big ferry Tuna Tomini to Gorontalo. My original plan was to catch the public speedboat which takes 1h. But seeing that some people had trouble with it being full, despite holding (unpaid) bookings, I thought I’d try sharing a private boat (which […]
17 September 2019
After breakfast, my dive buddies from yesterday (Marco and Barbara) set off on our long day trip at 0850. The boat had a capacity of four, and as all other guests were couples, we didn’t have any luck with anyone else joining us. It was a two hour ride to the jellyfish lake where a […]
16 September 2019
I like to remind myself how little I need in life once in a while. Pokipoki is my back-to-basics paradise with 5h of electricity each day for lighting (and pricey slow satellite internet for important communications). They are fullboard with simple meals made up from local ingredients: Breakfast of pancakes or homemade bread and fruit […]
14 September 2019
Exploring earthquake-stricken Palu I woke at 0330 and lay, not even dozed, till 0530. Subconsciously, I wanted to wake early to explore Palu before leaving. That combined with the fact that I retired 2100 last night. It was already light at 0550 when I left the hotel for a walk to explore Palu, to see […]