Articles from this Category
11 December 2023
Above: Maha Tower in Langkawi, as seen from my hotel room. Today I leave the little paradise island of Koh Lipe to return to Langkawi. I walked from my hotel to the ferry pier, the furthest of the three piers on Pattaya Beach, about 200m away. Having noticed how professional porters carry bags on their […]
4 December 2023
Leaving Penang Penang was the perfect recovery for me from the hectic days in Japan. As an introvert, I also needed some “me time” to attend to online and around-town chores. One day, however, didn’t seem enough to recharge. Today I move on to Langkawi where I will try do chill some more. I checked-out […]
2 December 2023
Friends and family in Singapore After spending yesterday with old uni friends from New Zealand, I spent today with my 94 old aunt. I visited her straight after the hotel’s 1100 check-out, sat with her for a while before having a late lunch. To my surprise, she fed herself quite well today, whereas mid-year, she […]
13 August 2023
I’m approaching the end of my stay in Kuching. This time it is a little different as I’ve given my up my apartment for eight of the ten nights to family visiting from Birmingham. I’m camping with my brother, sleeping on the mattress in the living room without aircon and having cold showers. During the […]
29 March 2023
At the gate at Changi airport, I was a little apprehensive about having done a gate-to-gate self-connect, only possible because I didn’t have checked-in luggage. Information on Scoot’s website suggested that I should have cleared immigration, meaning that I would re-enter the airside. I was afraid the re-entry into airside might have been captured from […]
13 February 2023
Above: The paler D24 and the more yellowish Musang King. Miserable Auckland summer I left Auckland two days after the first of three storms, the third being only yesterday. The latest one was Cyclone Gabrielle which resulted in all flights in Auckland and the northern part of the North Island being cancelled. This appears to […]
6 February 2023
Above: Itinerant fresh food vendor on motorcycle on our drive near Pemangkat. Our driver Jie To messaged me yesterday asking if we could “prepone” our departure to Kuching from 0700 to 0400, as he expected long queues at the border. We consulted the others and the response ranged from “No problem” to “No”. Other people […]
2 February 2023
Above: Orang Ulu mural at the Sarawak Cultural Village. Today, I took my guest to Sarawak Cultural Village for a taste of Borneo culture. It’s a place I always try to take my overseas visitors. Ivan, with peninsular Malaysian origins, would be quite new to most things Borneo as well. We started with a walk […]
1 February 2023
A friend Ivan arrived last night. Due to my upcoming departure to Singkawang, he stayed at a hotel rather than with me. I picked him up for a breakfast of Sarawak Laksa at Lauya Keng, a Teochew temple in old town. He was unsure if his empty stomach would handle the spice, so we tried […]
31 January 2023
The hotel restaurant ran out of all but two breakfast choices this morning. But they had exactly what I wanted, the Vietnamese sandwich. It was light but enough to tide me over till the lounge at the airport. I got to the airport by Ojek this time for a bit less than the ride in […]