South-East Asia

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Muara Tebas

Admin My last few days have been busy. We celebrated Mum’s 78th birthday but other matters were more of an admin nature. Things like renewing my passport and opening a bank account.  Some things are harder than they sound as I have to ensure that the bank has a fully-featured internet banking facility which is […]

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With family

With family in Singapore Yesterday was spent with family, including my aunt.  And I didn’t hear from Pat and Fiona, meaning that they must have got on their standby flight to Auckland. As for me, I fly out tonight.  I had the day to kill.  Mum and step-dad took me to East Coast beach for […]

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Chilling

Pat and Fiona were meant to try to get back to Auckland on standby tonight but they changed their mind.  They decided they would try to get on tomorrow night, whereas I’d try get on the night after that.  So, we had time to just chill today. I went to Hougang Mall for shopping with […]

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Getting bumped

Kim and I managed to wake up at 0900 despite the unfavourable time change.  We spent the day shopping at a couple of IT malls in Singapore and managed to get ourselves a Palm Pilot each.  Normally, tech products in Singapore are cheaper than in New Zealand but with the exchange rate at present, it […]

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Little India

Due to my body being on Auckland time, I woke at 0330, then 0430 and 0630.  But I lazed till 0730.  Kim’s mum, Fiona rang while we were having breakfast.  Last night, their taxi driver had a little trouble finding their hotel.  Then their aircon malfunctioned which necessitated a shift to a different room. Kim […]

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Homeward bound

We have a night flight back to Auckland tonight, which meant we had plenty of time to kill. After a trip to the supermarket where we bought some fruits, we visited my aunt and uncle. They were both well and in good spirits in their old age. Back in the city, we collected our printed […]

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Shopping and eating

Mum took us for a Nyonya lunch at a restaurant called Ivin’s. Nyonya (or Peranakan) food is hard to find in New Zealand and parts of Malaysia, so I really appreciated the choice of restaurant. We had otak-otak, beef rendang, chicken curry, ayam tempera and bubor chacha. The tempera was a dry version, different from […]

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Flying to Singapore

We woke at 0500 and were in the courtesy shuttle at 0600 for the short ride to Dubai airport. Check-in was swift and we used up our remaining dirhams before boarding the Emirates B777-300. We departed about 30 mins late due to having to offload the bags for people who were turned away at the […]

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A day in the city-state

Killing a day Due to the time difference, I woke at 0430 but dozed till 0630, and then till around 0800. We have the day to kill in the city-state until our flight after midnight tonight. Jess, my step-bro’s girlfriend dropped us off in the city. We priced some electronics at Sim Lim Square and […]

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Wash-out

Today we have the last of our tours from Chiang Mai. After breakfast, we waited over an hour for our tour pick-up. The van arrived rather late around 0900 due to heavy rain, flooding, detours and traffic jam.     The tour for the day is called Elephants at Work. When we got to the […]

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