Colourful old town Kuching by night
Tonight, I hit old-town with some friends for dinner. I was hit with parking hell when I got there with three events on: the river regatta, a craft fair and a drumming festival.
But it was worthwhile as the place was alive with lots of food trucks. It was also my first time seeing the city’s huge flag pole relatively close-up and also by night. The opposite side of the riverbank was very nicely illuminated.
The catch-up with friends over dinner was good too!
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- Sarawak River and State Legislature by night.
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- Sarawak River and State Legislature by night.
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- Iban in warrior outfit at a drumming festival.
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- Iban in warrior outfit at a drumming festival.
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- Antique and craft shop.
Review of the Middle East airspace issues
Before leaving New Zealand, flights to Iraq had been a mess due to the odd missile exchanges between Iran and Israel over the situation in Gaza.
Iraq airspace had been caught in the crossfire and off-limits to many airlines except the brave ones including flydubai and Qatar Airways. Turkish Airlines on which I had been booked kept cancelling several days out and I was fortunate to use a schedule change to get a refund.
However, I’m now seeing that:
- Airlines generally avoiding Iran and flying through Iraq instead. That’s a complete reversal!
- Turkish Airlines has resumed flights to Iraq, now that I have changed to Fly Baghdad. But they will serve as a backup in case of issues with my new airline. In any case, it was a good risk-management move changing to Fly Baghdad as Turkish is more likely to cancel again if the situation escalates.
- Despite Iraqi airspace being perceived as safer than Iran, Emirates airlines has resumed flights to Iran but not Iraq!