Home sweet home

It was an early start for my 0850 Singapore Airlines flight to Auckland.  The queue at check-in was long but I lucked out scoring a seat seat in a group of two rather than three, making it a tad more private.  I still had to share it though with an IT guy who made good […]

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Singapore nighstsop

Today I travel back to Singapore via Johor Bahru, in preparation for travel home to New Zealand tomorrow morning.  This time I was flying in relative luxury on Malaysia Airlines rather than the budget carrier, departing Kuching at 1755. Malaysia Airlines normally has buses that connect Johor’s Senai Airport to Singapore but there was no […]

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Fancy dinner

Above:  Magenta Restaurant looks like something out of a magazine. I had  heard about a nice restaurant called Magenta.  It’s not often that we get to go out for a nice dinner in Kuching beyond just street or coffee shop fare.  So my brother and Benny dragged Mum and step-dad along. The ambience of the […]

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When is a Singaporean a Malaysian?

Above:  Satay at the compound of Arif Hotel. Singaporean as a Malaysian Last night I was helping step-dad with his application for “Malaysia My Second Home” visa.  One of the forms asked for the date of his first arrival in Sarawak.  That would probably be in the 1950s and had to flick through all the […]

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To my hometown

Today I travel with Mum and step-dad to Kuching.  As usual, we do it on the cheap by crossing the border into Johor and flying from the airport there across the South China Sea to Kuching.  That saves on the hefty Singaporean airport tax and the higher airfare as well. Jacob picked us up around […]

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To the Lion City

With angry people while in transit I landed at Kuala Lumpur on time at 0805 for 55 min connection to Singapore departing at 0900.  My connection turned out to be at the same gate on the same aircraft 9M-MKR.  I only had to disembark and re-enter the gate via the security screening. While at the […]

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In Delhi again but briefly

Arriving in Delhi Disembarking passengers at Jaipur around 0500 woke me up but I was able to doze and lie-in till around 0930.  The 1110 arrival time passed and the Jaisalmer – Delhi Express was in the urban area but not at Delhi station.  Then came a painful 45 min wait at the penultimate station.  […]

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Train to Delhi

Last of Jaisalmer I checked out around 0900 before heading out for breakfast.  I have a departure on the overnight train at 1600 back to Delhi, so I had plenty of time to kill.  I read the newspaper; more about that later. Afterwards I visited the palace using an audio guide.  While it was nice, […]

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Jain temple

I had a horrible night sleep.  Being full moon, dogs were howling.  Then the temple chanting went into the wee hours of the night.  And at dawn, the azan from the mosques had their turn. I didn’t make it to breakfast at Krishna’s Boulangerie till after 1000.  I continued to the Jain temple around 1100.  […]

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Skipping the desert

The Desert Jaisalmer is also where people normally go camel-trekking into the desert. I gave this a miss because I have been to and slept in far better deserts (real dunes with no scrubs).  And I’ve been on camels too. Strangely, after I had made my decision, I met a Belgian couple that told me […]

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