South-East Asia

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PADI Open Water Course Day 2

We got picked up from our hotel to go to Vista Mar Hotel for our first day of hands-on training. We started off in the pool with basic skills for about one hour then walked down to the beach for my first ever dive in the sea.  Everything was a new experience, including the basics […]

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PADI Open Water Course Day 1

Day 1 of our PADI Open Water Course consisted of 5 hours at our Scuba instructor’s home for the theory part of the course. We were doing this course in 2.5 days when most courses take about 4 days. Fingers crossed we’ll be fine! The theory course consisted of getting exam questions and taking a […]

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Missing bags

We had bad start to our journey from Kuching to Cebu via Kota Kinabalu flying Malaysia Airlines, on two separate bookings. Our first flight was delayed by two hours making for a very touch-n-go connection in Kota Kinabalu. Fortunately we made it … but our luggage didn’t … something we realised upon arrival in Cebu.Malaysia […]

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Rebranding faux pas

I had some banking to do today … we walked past the Lembaga Tabung Haji (Pilgrims’ Savings Fund) office. I couldn’t help noticing a very familiar boxy cubicle which had a note stuck on the outside saying it was an sample of an aircraft toilet. Cute! Seriously, some pilgrims save for most of their lives […]

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Call me Daddy

What Jakarta lacks in sights, it makes up with surprises .  The thing that struck me about Jakarta (beyond the obvious factors like heat, grime, crowd) was the friendliness of its people. For a city of 17 (or is it 9 … depends on who you speak to) million people, I find that people have […]

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Exploring Batavia

Jakarta isn’t a city I had planned visiting by itself … perhaps as a gateway to Java and the more interesting cities. But AirAsia had just launched a new route from Kuching to Jakarta and offered free flights both ways! Fuel surcharge and taxes excluded. It was an offer too good to refuse especially when […]

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Home briefly

Today we flew from Hong Kong in the morning to Kuala Lumpur, to connect to Kuching on Malaysia Airlines. It was a seamless 1h connection at Kuala Lumpur and we landed in Kuching in the afternoon. We have just one night in hometown Kuching.  We couldn’t help it but take up AirAsia’s free (just taxes) […]

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Final sightseeing

It’s quite an irony that I had been learning Thai massage at Wat Pho Thai Traditional Medicine School but hadn’t actually visited the wat this trip.   Since we had some time before check-out and the evening departure, I thought it would be good to go along with Mum and step-dad. Text continues after this gallery. […]

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Shopping day

I’m truly not a shopper but when in Bangkok, I feel like I should make an effort.  There are good bargains to be had and it makes the day more interesting for my oldies.  After breakfast we took a taxi to Jatujak Market. After a while, the oldies rested and had lunch.  I continued looking […]

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Passing with flying colours

Above:  Splashing water on the streets is part of the Songkran tradition. Today is Songkran or Thai New Year.  Despite the auspicious day, our Thai massage course and exam is proceeding normally.  It was with some surprise that I got to school dry and not drenched by merry-makers as per the Songkran tradition. Our instructional […]

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