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Quake damage and my little deathtrap

Exploring earthquake-stricken Palu I woke at 0330 and lay, not even dozed, till 0530.  Subconsciously, I wanted to wake early to explore Palu before leaving.  That combined with the fact that I retired 2100 last night. It was already light at 0550 when I left the hotel for a walk to explore Palu, to see […]

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Monkeys & Sulawesi

Proboscis Monkeys Breakfast at the Gajah Mada was pretty good local food with two generous big fish (two share) and lots of meaty chicken curry.  I left the hotel around 0800 for the Mangrove and Proboscis Conservation Area about 5+ minutes away by foot.  The weather was still pleasant and not too hot. Speaking in […]

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Down the east coast of Borneo

Breakfast at the Lucky Hotel was simple with soup, fried small fish and rice.  It’s not very often I get a smiley fish for breakfast with chilli.  It was actually delicious and I had two, almost went for a third. As I relaxed in my room offered to take me out for coffee, to which […]

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Borneo’s international sea crossing

Kuching to Tawau by flight I left home by Grab car at 0830.  The driver took an unusually long route directed by Google Maps getting me to the airport around 15min later than I had expected at 0915.  I had breakfast at the lounge before settling in to do some last minute work on the […]

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Hazy experience

It had been kinda depressing being with aunt.  Few years ago, she was still swimming 20 laps in an Olympic-sized pool but now she is barely walking.  I try to put it into perspective with the fact that she is 90 years old. Fortunately, my uncle (and aunt) from Christchurch dropped in and we went […]

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Dutch Old Town

I woke early today, kinda as a result from previous days’ sleep pattern.  I tried to skip a big breakfast and made do with a coffee and a bun before Grab’ing to Tawang station for my exploration of its Dutch Old Town around 0800. In general Indonesia doesn’t revere its colonial heritage, including architecture. And […]

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Onwards to Java

My new flight on Wings Air required an early wake up at 0515 for a 0730 flight to cross the water to Semarang in Java (via Pangkalan Bun).  The driver, booked for 0600 was early for the short ride to the airport.  I chatted with him and he told me about the Sampit Conflict, which […]

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Ethnic cleansing in Borneo

Escaping the Kiwi winter in 2020 I woke earlier than I needed to.  AirAsia had a sale but I hadn’t prepared myself for it.  But I had this rough idea of using my free Air New Zealand ticket from Auckland to Seoul, then Buenos Aires to Auckland.  The idea was that from Seoul I can […]

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Day 3 of Klotok Trip

I woke several times through the night and but I cope quite well with little or interrupted sleep.  We set off for the our return journey after breakfast.  Our itinerary says that we just go straight to port in the morning but Ita said we had a village visit. Not long after we started, we […]

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Day 2 of Klotok Trip

Feeding at Pondok Tanggui We set off at 0830 after breakfast  for the 0900 feeding session at Pondok Tanggui.  It took about 45 mins before a mum and a baby orang utan showed up.  She was rather shy, taking some food and then retreating up to the branches above. Back on the klotok, we started […]

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