Articles from this Category
6 July 2017
Above: Docked at Mataking briefly. Today is the first day of three days diving with Sipadan Scuba (officially North Borneo Scuba), an operator I’ve used twice before over a period of eight years. They’re very reliable in terms of guaranteeing Sipadan quota slots once booking has been made and paid for online (non-refundable though). Our […]
5 July 2017
Picture above courtesy of Tony Li. Arriving in Kuala Lumpur for our Transit We were advised to go to the Transfer Desk to find out about our connections. But I had retrieved our booking online and knew that we were on the 0650 to Tawau (a day later than booked). The queue at the Transfer […]
30 April 2017
Today, friends Tim and Elena invited me to join them for a drive to their beach property near Lundu. They had at one stage thought of building there but for now, there is no building there. It was a lovely outing to get away from the hustle and bustle of Kuching.
22 April 2017
I had always wanted to ride on the North Borneo Railway (the only rail service in Borneo) but when I last checked, it was not operating. The tracks were supposedly being refurbished and I expected the service would die a quiet death but surprisingly it was back in operation. I had thought of taking Uber […]
25 July 2016
Above: Scenery of Mount Kinabaulu on the drive from Kudat to Kota Kinabalu. Driving to Kota Kinabalu I woke early again and set off around 0730 after breakfast. I have big day in front of me getting from Kudat to Kuching by road and flight. First up was the drive from the Tip to Kota […]
24 July 2016
I woke around 0600 to an overcast morning. The sun does rise early here being in the far east of the time zone but it wasn’t so apparent. I had breakfast after 0700 which was way before the official start time of 0800. The tide seemed quite right for swimming but I didn’t want to […]
23 July 2016
Above: The 30 min flight is a good alternative to the 2h speedboat to Nunukan, then a 2h speed boat from Nunukan to Tawau. Flying to Tawau This was my latest wake-up since leaving Auckland over three weeks ago. I woke at 0700 after retiring after midnight. Quite a change from the 2030 bedtime and […]
22 July 2016
Above: Today, I fly from Berau to my last stop in Kalimantan, the island and town of Tarakan. The 25 minute flight replaces 2h30 by bus to Tanjung Selor followed by 1h30 by speed boat to Tarakan. I woke relatively late today at 0600 and had breakfast at 0630. It was a good spread […]
21 July 2016
Derawan advice & summary The diving is awesome but come with a friend to share the cost of the boat to the best dive sites. One friend is adequate ‘cos with more people, you need a bigger boat and the price so it doesn’t really get cheaper. It is more of a local getaway and […]
20 July 2016
Getting going I arrived at the diveshop before 0830 and Doris was along shortly after. There was a short wait for the catering from next door before we set off on a small boat “Ferari” (sic) captained by a half-Chinese half-Bajau man (who didn’t look Chinese at all). It was very overcast, which is supposedly […]