South-East Asia

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Thai Massage school

Above:  Thai massage class in progress. Despite the huge time difference between Morocco and Thailand, I woke up at 0630 and had breakfast. I took a taxi to Wat Pho.  I continued to have difficulty finding the registration centre and had to pay for internet to actually locate the place. The five day Traditional Thai […]

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Fancy dinner

Above:  Magenta Restaurant looks like something out of a magazine. I had  heard about a nice restaurant called Magenta.  It’s not often that we get to go out for a nice dinner in Kuching beyond just street or coffee shop fare.  So my brother and Benny dragged Mum and step-dad along. The ambience of the […]

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When is a Singaporean a Malaysian?

Above:  Satay at the compound of Arif Hotel. Singaporean as a Malaysian Last night I was helping step-dad with his application for “Malaysia My Second Home” visa.  One of the forms asked for the date of his first arrival in Sarawak.  That would probably be in the 1950s and had to flick through all the […]

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Sightseeing

Batu Caves The hotel buffet breakfast was of the usual standard at good hotels in Malaysia, meaning awesome.  I had chicken curry, sambal, ikan bilis, peanuts and fruit.  I had to skip the omelette and Nyonya cakes. I had a tour booked to visit Batu Caves today.  We could have done it ourselves but the […]

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Bintan back to Singapore

I was hoping to have an early breakfast today so I could fit in as much as possible of Club Med Bintan before our departure.  But Mum had a bad night sleep due to indigestion and needed to sleep in.  We ate breakfast about 0800. I checked-out the gym around 0915 and did a workout […]

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On the flying trapeze

With the one-hour time difference from Singapore, I woke early at 0630.  How cool is that while on holiday.  I could go back to sleep for another hour till 0730.  We had breakfast as a family around 0800. I was keen to do or try out as many activities as possible during my only full […]

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Club Med

We took a taxi to the Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal near Changi Airport for the ferry to Bintan, Indonesia where we would spend a couple of nights at Club Med.  Check-in went smoothly and I was impressed that our Indonesian arrival and departure cards had been filled in for us! The terminal wasn’t maintained to […]

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Chinatown by night

Above:  Chinatown by night in the lead-up to the Mooncake Festival. In the evening, Jacob and Janet took us out for a drive and a wander around Chinatown.  The area was very nicely illuminated and decorated with lanterns for the Mooncake or Mid-autumn Festival.  Janet was very proud of how Singapore celebrates the various multi-ethnic […]

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Unpleasant conversations

It was after 2100 when I was picked up by step-dad, Lawrence, from Changi Airport.  Roaming charges in Singapore are quite reasonable and I was able to ring him from inside the plane before disembarking, so that I didn’t have to wait too long. Back at Lawrence’s place, Mum had been out and was dropped […]

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Scaring the Singaporeans

I hate flying from west to east because it’s hard to get up in the mornings.  I woke at 0700.  After a momentary doze, it was 0900.  There’s not much we had to do anyway, being with parents who are approaching 80 years of age. Step-dad’s relatives Jacob and Janet came to visit.  Mum asked me […]

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