Malaysia

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Border market and a cave

Today, we had an excursion to the Serikin Border Market at one of the border crossings with Indonesia.  It is about 1h30 from the apartment and to avoid the heat ,we left at 0545 with a detour to Aunty Margaret’s.  We ended up proceeding with a headstart and arrived at 0730 We paid for parking […]

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End of the rail adventure

I had set the alarm for 0745 as we had a windowless room. Combined with the 1h time change from Bangkok it is very easy to oversleep. We headed out about 0930 by train to Pasar Seni and Kasturi Walk. It was just for a wander so that Jo can say that she did something […]

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The adventure turns electric

Breakfast was served around 0800. The steward converted my bed back into seat and I had mine there with the gentleman from the upper bunk. Jo had hers in bed; oh what luxury. We stopped at Hat Yai Junction soon after. With the uncoupling of the Sungai Kolok vs Padang Besar carriages, there was a […]

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Kota Bharu to Hat Yai

We woke to some birdsong, more like chirping actually, even though we had a windowless room (there may have been a birdhouse for swifts to make nests nearby).   We investigated breakfast options around the hotel and decided against walking to the market so that we wouldn’t get too hot and sweaty before the long […]

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Exploring Kota Bharu

We remained horizontal (due to lack of choice), had some pastries and canned coffee for breakfast. The scenery outside was pretty gorgeous living up to the line’s nickname “The Jungle Railway”. There was dense jungle and in sparser areas I could recognise breadfruit, rubber and coconut trees. As we headed further north, we saw some […]

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Rail Adventure Begins: Kuching to Kota Bharu

Our rail adventure begins today for we fly from Kuching to Singapore, train to Johor Bahru and then the overnight train to near the Thai border on Malaysia’s east coast and overnight at Kota Bharu. We woke at 0600 and had a light breakfast at home before using a Grab (like Uber) service to the […]

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Sarawak Cultural Village

I went to the Sarawak Cultural Village about 26 years ago. It is a living museum of Sarawak’s tribal cultures. With Jo visiting, I thought it was good to go and show her what makes Sarawak special. The traditional dwellings were interesting for her and we tried the sago pancake, tumpik which turned out to […]

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Orang Utans at Semenggoh

With Jo still on New Zealand time, it made sense to go to the Semenggoh Orang Utan Rehabilitation Centre early in the morning. We got there a little before 0900 and were hurried along by staff as the two animals were already hanging around. We observed them for a while before being led to another […]

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Siniawan Night Market

Today Jo arrived from New Zealand after a nightstop in Singapore. With an afternoon arrival, it made sense to pick her up at the airport and continue to the Siniawan Night Market not too far away. It was an interesting introduction to Borneo for her. Old buildings there are a rarity as the wooden structures […]

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Capsule nightstop

We landed in Kuala Lumpur International Airport about 30 minutes late around 2110. I made my way to KLIA2 by train to experience my first capsule hotel stay. Without luggage, I managed to make a reasonably speedy exit. I never expected that my initiation into the capsule hotel experience to be in KL! Necessitated by […]

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