Author archive
3 June 2018
Flying to Tehran With the aid of a sleeping pill after supper, I slept for around 3h30 and rested for another 30 minutes before opening my eyes. The entertainment system (marked with Olympic Airways who kindly specified thick wide sumptuous seats with plenty of legroom) was not utilised. A snack of a very good quality […]
2 June 2018
Leaving family After 9 nights in Kuching, I leave today for Kuala Lumpur connecting to Tehran. It was great to meet my step-sister for the first time since childhood. We worked well together on various issues facing our elderly and deteriorating parents … her dad with dementia and my mum who had suffered a fall […]
28 May 2018
Today we had organised a family at the estuary village of Muara Tebas. It is noted for its fresh seafood but my brother had driven his own fish from a recent fishing trip here yesterday, so it could be nicely marinated for our meal today. What a champion! We had to be ready at 1030 […]
27 May 2018
Today, we had an excursion to the Serikin Border Market at one of the border crossings with Indonesia. It is about 1h30 from the apartment and to avoid the heat ,we left at 0545 with a detour to Aunty Margaret’s. We ended up proceeding with a headstart and arrived at 0730 We paid for parking […]
24 May 2018
I had spent yesterday in town with my cousin and her son. Strangely, I showed them two great places that I’m surprised they didn’t know. Firstly, the Singapore superstore that is called Mustafa. It kinda has anything and everything ranging from nightmarket cheapies to Mont Blanc belts side-by-side! There’s electronics, clothing, luggage, pharmaceuticals … but […]
22 May 2018
Today I fly from the big republic that is Indonesia to the smaller one, Singapore. I started the day with a breakfast of muesli and milk with papaya, purchased from the supermarket yesterday. I checked out around 0930 and used Grab to order a ride to the airport. The driver got near the airport and […]
22 May 2018
Sumatra is the birthplace of the famous Rendang and Nasi Padang, but it has a lot more to offer than that. Edit: Includes Batam and Natuna as they are politically part of Sumatra. Posted by Alex Chan on Saturday, July 9, 2011
21 May 2018
With no hotel breakfast today, I went down to McDonald’s located within my hotel building. I ordered their Nasi Uduk which came with a piece of fried chicken (spicy option), egg, sambal and crispy shallots. It was yummy. Even the rice, by itself tasted good. It was compressed into a cube-like lump but very moist, […]
20 May 2018
I was surprised to be issued breakfast vouchers (but realised they were given by mistake and there would be none for subsequent days). It was a simple buffet of rice, chilli fish, veges and a few other things. Despite Ramadhan, I did see some Muslims eating. It appears that Indonesia is more relaxed than Malaysia […]
19 May 2018
We landed about 10 minutes late into Singapore but it didn’t bother me as I had a scheduled 4h40 self-connect to Jetstar to Palembang (a flight that was nearly free apart from Singapore airport’s ever-increasing taxes). As with my last trip, we were parked at the far end of T3 at Changi which required a […]