Author archive
17 December 2023
Background When I planned my Saudi Arabia trip back in Feb this year, I realised that I fares to Saudi were over NZD200 more than to some European destinations with a stopover in Saudi. So, I booked an itinerary to Spain (into Madrid, then Valencia, Andorra and finally out of Barcelona) with a 3 week […]
14 December 2023
Transport comparison to the airport I left my hotel behind KL Sentral monorail at 0700 and caught the 0730 bus to the airport. Despite my fears of rush hour traffic, I got to KLIA Terminal 2 in 50 mins. In fact, I don’t recall having ever been stuck in traffic on this route. The bus, […]
13 December 2023
National Mosque For some reason, I woke at 0430 today, feeling like I didn’t need anymore sleep. I attended to online matters, had some cereal before heading out around 0830. Today I thought I’d do something new. Even though I’ve visited countless mosques overseas, I had never visited one in my own country. So, I […]
12 December 2023
Flying to Kuala Lumpur I had my first bad night sleep, perhaps from having slept too much recently. I woke at 0700 and got to Langkawi airport at 0830. AirAsia’s check-in and bag-drop process is very quick nowadays with a touchless kiosk, where one does the actual work on the phone app. At the airport, […]
11 December 2023
Above: Maha Tower in Langkawi, as seen from my hotel room. Today I leave the little paradise island of Koh Lipe to return to Langkawi. I walked from my hotel to the ferry pier, the furthest of the three piers on Pattaya Beach, about 200m away. Having noticed how professional porters carry bags on their […]
10 December 2023
My take of Koh Lipe Even though Koh Lipe is hard to get to from mainland Thailand (but easy from Malaysia), it certainly isn’t a quiet little island. It has a lively centre with lots of eating and drinking. I only noticed two small places in the flesh trade, which is very sanitised for this […]
9 December 2023
Choosing a dive centre While in Koh Lipe, I did two dives with Forra Diving, located at the beach end of the Walking Street. I chose to dive with them for a few reasons: Azri (Malaysian) whom I had enquired with, was super helpful in explaining the various sites, in particular that much of diving […]
8 December 2023
Above: A couple of PromptPay QR codes. International QR Pay Travel in Thailand has become so much easier money-wise now that the Malaysian Duitnow (QR Scan and Pay) has been expanded internationally to neighbouring countries. In the case of Thailand, it is particularly godsent because: Banks here charge a hefty THB200 (NZD9) per cash withdrawal […]
6 December 2023
Leaving Langkawi I’m feeling more myself after a day spent largely indoors yesterday in Cenang Beach to attend to “to-do” lists. My afternoon swim yesterday, planned to coincide with the tide unfortunately coincided with rain and was therefore shortlived. My room had come with two breakfasts per day, available from 0700 to 1100. My idea […]
4 December 2023
Leaving Penang Penang was the perfect recovery for me from the hectic days in Japan. As an introvert, I also needed some “me time” to attend to online and around-town chores. One day, however, didn’t seem enough to recharge. Today I move on to Langkawi where I will try do chill some more. I checked-out […]