Author archive
27 January 2023
Above: Auckland airport international terminal flooded. Disaster hits Auckland I’m due to fly to Singapore in two days, on a three-week trip which will include hometown Kuching and also Singkawang across the border in Kalimantan. However, a natural disaster hit Auckland tonight in the form of extreme rainfall which resulted in a state of emergency […]
26 November 2022
Arriving back into Auckland I woke and it was already breakfast time! Wow, five hours of the flight had suddenly disappeared! Breakfast was super-generous and the slice of cake would have been better placed on last night’s dinner tray. The crew continued to be cheerful despite having worked hard with special meals and only having […]
25 November 2022
Flying from Kuching to Kuala Lumpur I got to Kuching airport by rideshare 2h20 before my 1520 departure to Kuala Lumpur with the ultimate destination being Auckland. I was quite excited to be heading home after having been unwell for a few days. With little queueing, I was airside 2h before my flight to kill […]
24 November 2022
Above: Some of my dental bills. Coronation Day Today was my Coronation 👑 Day. Sometimes bad things strike at the best times. During my two stays in Kuching this trip, I learnt that I had a tooth decay that had killed the tooth and needed a root canal and then a crown 👑. I had […]
19 November 2022
Above: Inking is a relatively recent measure to minimise allegations of individuals voting more than once. Having lived outside of Malaysia since attaining adulthood, I’ve never voted here. Today, I exercise my constitutional rights by voting for the very first time in the Malaysian General Elections. My brother and I arrived at the nearby polling […]
15 November 2022
I spent about 1h30 in the Kathmandu airport lounge but ate little since we had eaten just before. As our flight had a 40 min delay, I headed to the gate around midnight and cleared security to enter the departure hall. We boarded the Malaysia Airlines B737-800 to Kuala Lumpur and pushed back around 0050. […]
14 November 2022
Killing the day in Kathmandu Without an alarm, we woke after 0700 but slowly readied ourselves for breakfast at 0845 at a nearby café. Straight after breakfast, the shops were open for us to get our last-minute shopping items. We both managed to find everything that we wanted at satisfactory prices. Santosh, the manager of […]
13 November 2022
Ride to Kathmandu We woke at 0530 for breakfast at 0630. Harry had ordered us a taxi for 0700 to take us to Pokhara’s bus station for our 0730 bus back to Kathmandu. At the station, our bus was nowhere to be seen. Locals are helpful and when they see the colour of our bus […]
12 November 2022
Sarangkot Viewpoint Today is our day of rest after the Mardi Himal hike. We slept in without an alarm and took a late breakfast. My calves were sorer than yesterday. [Edit: They remained discernibly sore until 17 November, ie. a week after the hike!] Harry suggested that we take a trip to the Sarangkot Viewpoint […]
11 November 2022
Ride to Pokhara We woke around 0630 after 8h sleep. I had a little soreness from the long downhill hike in my calf muscles. Today, we have no more hikes but only a ride to Pokhara, because of the long slog that we did yesterday all the way to Sidhing. After breakfast we set off […]