Malaysia

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2017 Day 1: Underwater Massacre at Mataking

Above:  Docked at Mataking briefly. Today is the first day of three days diving with Sipadan Scuba (officially North Borneo Scuba), an operator I’ve used twice before over a period of eight years. They’re very reliable in terms of guaranteeing Sipadan quota slots once booking has been made and paid for online (non-refundable though). Our […]

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Hello to the world’s best diving

Picture above courtesy of Tony Li. Arriving in Kuala Lumpur for our Transit We were advised to go to the Transfer Desk to find out about our connections. But I had retrieved our booking online and knew that we were on the 0650 to Tawau (a day later than booked). The queue at the Transfer […]

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By the sea

Today, friends Tim and Elena invited me to join them for a drive to their beach property near Lundu.  They had at one stage thought of building there but for now, there is no building there.  It was a lovely outing to get away from the hustle and bustle of Kuching.  

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Riding the North Borneo Railway

I had always wanted to ride on the North Borneo Railway (the only rail service in Borneo) but when I last checked, it was not operating. The tracks were supposedly being refurbished and I expected the service would die a quiet death but surprisingly it was back in operation. I had thought of taking Uber […]

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Back to Borneo

I woke before the alarm at 0530 and hopped to check-out. I told the frontdesk to hold off entering my departure into her system so I could continue to use the wifi to order a Uber cab. Unfortunately there was already a small surge pricing at 0600; it would be more expensive than an honest taxi […]

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End of my Circle Borneo sub-trip

Above:  Scenery of Mount Kinabaulu on the drive from Kudat to Kota Kinabalu.   Driving to Kota Kinabalu I woke early again and set off around 0730 after breakfast.  I have big day in front of me getting from Kudat to Kuching by road and flight. First up was the drive from the Tip to Kota […]

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Tip of Borneo

I woke around 0600 to an overcast morning. The sun does rise early here being in the far east of the time zone but it wasn’t so apparent. I had breakfast after 0700 which was way before the official start time of 0800. The tide seemed quite right for swimming but I didn’t want to […]

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Leaving Kalimantan for Sabah

Above: The 30 min flight is a good alternative to the 2h speedboat to Nunukan, then a 2h speed boat from Nunukan to Tawau.   Flying to Tawau This was my latest wake-up since leaving Auckland over three weeks ago. I woke at 0700 after retiring after midnight. Quite a change from the 2030 bedtime and […]

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A glamorous wedding

Above:  Stage at the wedding. Today, I experienced something different. In my half-century, I hadn’t experienced a Malay wedding. Tonight, I attended a wedding reception for Adlie and Amal. Adlie is the son of a friend and also nephew of an old school mate. They had married on Christmas day, exchanging their vows, but today […]

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Back to civilisation

Above:  Goodbye Mulu, hope it won’t be 21 years before I come back. Today I head back to civilisation (and internet again) in Kuching. I relaxed in the morning before going to the airport at 1145 for my 1315 flight. I based my timing on walking there but the owner was available to take me […]

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