Author archive
7 November 2016
Again, the forecast was for rain. It looked OK around 0700 so I progressed with my plan to take the 0710 bus to the jetty for the ferry to Home Island. In general Malays live on Home Island while white people on West Island. This was my chance to see how Cocos Malays live. Both […]
6 November 2016
The forecast was for rain today. It didn’t look promising when I woke up very early. But by around 0700 things cheered up; I gotta remember that I am waking up very early and the clouds can burn off. I cycled south this time to Scout Park which came highly recommended. The headwind was awfully […]
5 November 2016
Leaving Perth I woke at 0300, before my 0315 alarm. I had not allowed myself to adopt to local time yesterday because of this ghastly wake-up required for today. The taxi arrived at 0345 as booked and dropped me at the airport more than 2h before the flight at a cost of AUD42 (including some surcharge […]
4 November 2016
Today was a lazy day around town. Perth is a lovely city but it wasn’t my first time. I went to the supermarket to buy some muesli to bring along to Cocos but ended up with some canned food (beans, tomatoes, tuna) to make up lunch there plus my muesli and milk. I decided that […]
3 November 2016
The 7h30 flight went pretty quickly with a great meal, some comedies, reading and pre-landing supper. As it turned out, we arrived 30 minutes early. Disembarking, I looked out for an international transfer desk which I could utilise when I fly CCK-PER-KUL and XCH-PER-AKL later in the trip. Worse than that, there wasn’t even a […]
3 November 2016
This trip aims to explore parts of the Malay Archipelago that are now also part of Australia, namely Cocos (Keeling) and Christmas Islands. Despite their proximity to each other, I have to visit them separately from Perth, one on the way to Malaysia and the other on the way back. This is due to cutback […]
22 September 2016
I come from a background of hot and spicy food. So, in this region of bland food, I rediscover my taste buds and appreciate the real flavour of the produce. Posted by Alex Chan on Tuesday, August 16, 2016
19 September 2016
The American Airlines flight to Auckland turned me around in terms of my perception of the airline. The ground staff and crew were pleasant (rather than nasty as seen on previous flights). They served a generous meal about 30 minutes after take off; it was what I call a Qantas-style meal with a bit hot […]
17 September 2016
We had a day to kill before our flight to Auckland at 2310 tonight. We checked out at 1030 and had plenty of time till our appointment with my old school friends Joanne and Jeff at a Korean restaurant in Torrance. So we stopped by a Walmart along the way. Just as well we bought […]
16 September 2016
Today, Kim took us to Venice Beach. It was new for Dai but not for me. We were very lucky with parking near the Venice Canals which was close enough to the beach. We had a nice walk in the perfect sunshine and stopped for coffee as well. From there, we drove northwards passing various […]