Hazy experience

It had been kinda depressing being with aunt.  Few years ago, she was still swimming 20 laps in an Olympic-sized pool but now she is barely walking.  I try to put it into perspective with the fact that she is 90 years old.

Fortunately, my uncle (and aunt) from Christchurch dropped in and we went out for a nice lunch at the nearby Swimming Club.  They over-ordered so I ate a little too much.

Soon it was time for me to say goodbye to them.  I got to the airport for my 1845 flight to Kuching three hours prior to departure.  It must be non-peak hours as there wasn’t much of a queue despite only two immigration desks open.  I was directed to self-process immigration exit through the kiosks despite the signage saying it was only for Singaporeans and residents; the reality is that foreigners who had thumbprints captured upon entry are OK to use them too.

I had some time in the lounge more to relax than to eat.  My Scoot flight to Kuching was short and sweet landing in hometown at 2010.

Interestingly my total payment for the ticket was SGD48.60 of which taxes were SGD16.90.  That wasn’t right as it appeared that the biggest component of the tax of around SGD30 had been missed out by the airline.  Normally the taxes alone come to just over SGD50 🙂

My ten night stay in hometown Kuching turned out to be a new experience.  About halfway through my stay the weather turned hazy from burning to clear land.  This was traditional practice by small scale farmers but nowadays it is also employed for large scale farming or palm oil plantations.  I had never experienced anything like this in my childhood days but apparently there was a worse situation about 20 years ago.