Despite the sleeping pill, I didn’t sleep that deeply this time. During one of the interruptions, I took another half and had about 4h in total. I managed to catch the crew as they were wrapping up their sale of breakfast. I was surprised that I’d be hungry at 0400 Malaysian time, which was 2h prior to landing.
The breakfast of lomaikai (sticky rice) with assorted chicken dumplings was quite good. Actually the rice was yummy but the dumplings were OK. I thought the dumplings could have been bouncier but that’s normally achieved with additives like borax or root vegetable starches.
It was 9 degC when we landed at Avalon airport 10 mins early at 0910 . I had left my polar fleece and shoes behind in Kuching for a future trip. I only had a pullover and sandals. Big mistake! It had been 34 degC in Melbourne last week but with my guest in Kuching, I had been too busy to recheck the forecast. In my mind, I thought it could only get down to something bearable like 20 degC but I was so wrong! Talk about travel blunders!
I was first off the plane today; it sure was nippy! Despite a failed attempt to buy a brandy for my aunt at the airport duty free, I was first out to the public area. It took minutes! The joys of using a small airport.
It was short wait on the Skybus before it departed with a full load at 1000. Seated on the top deck at the front windscreen, the journey took one hour today to Southern Cross station. It was another hour till I reached my aunt’s place due to a short wait for the connecting shuttle, taking a circuitous route on the shuttle and finally a longer-than-previous walk due to the drop-off point having been relocated.
I have a three night stay with aunt which I’ll also use to see friends and cousins. I had to borrow a jacket and shoes to go for an afternoon walk to kill the day. Fortunately, I found some nice emergency shoes at Big W (a cheap department store like K Mart) for only AUD15!
Aunt and I had dinner at a Chinese restaurant before getting a takeaway dessert of Red Bean Pancake (deep fried and crispy).
Emergency shoes for AUD15.