Articles from this Category
12 May 2009
We boated out to Sipadan Island around 0800. It was sunny and calm as we took the journey to the Sipadan area, about an hour away. Text continues after this gallery. The Dive Master surprised me when he said that we were at Barracuda Point … where I had specially come to, but […]
11 May 2009
Today was the first of three days diving we had booked online with Sipadan Scuba. We left Semporna about 0830 towards Sibuan Island on a narrow locally-built speedboard … it started off somewhat as a race between us and this 10 year old girl who was in sole charge of a motorised sampan carrying her […]
10 May 2009
Travelling to Semporna, the diving Gateway We took a short flight from KK to Tawau this morning and were transferred by van to Semporna (which means perfect or complete) in Malay. It poured down for part of the way on the road … things have changed since I started taking an interest in travelling … […]
9 May 2009
When we visited in 2001 we visited the neighbouring islands, the foothills and villages. Kota Kinabalu seems to have it all. It is a city by the sea next to South-East Asia’s tallest mountain. So this time, we treated this visit more of a stopover. So it was the usual food and mall stuff. As […]
8 May 2009
Interstate travel woes We switched allegiances from “World’s Best Cabin Crew” (Malaysia Airlines) to “World’s Best Low Cost Airline” (Air Asia) when we flew from Kuching to Kota Kinabalu (which everyone calls “KK” …. err … nearly everyone … the exception was the now defunct Australian Airlines which called it “Sabah”. That’s like calling Melbourne […]
4 May 2009
I rang my blind masseur Mr Stewart to arrange an appointment. He advised that he had moved and gave me an inspecific address (as people do here). Even with the aid of Google Maps, the place was nowhere to be found. Phoning for directions didn’t help … Me: I’m at the technical college; is it […]
2 May 2009
I have a week with family in my hometown Kuching. There’s nothing much to report but the eating seems to be the thing to do. We also took a look around the city and noticed some new buildings in addition to the familiar.
5 September 2008
Mooncakes are my favourite Chinese sweet apart from oni (a concoction of mashed taro/yam with lard and sugar). They are eaten during the eighth lunar month in the lead-up to the Moon Cake Festival (aka Mid-Autumn Festival) … supposedly secret messages passed in these cakes helped overthrow an oppressive regime. And then there was something about […]
4 September 2008
Above: Bunga kantan or torch ginger flower. A fragrant addition to some Malaysian dishes. Today we celebrated Mum’s birthday again. It felt like only weeks ago that we did this on a bigger scale but that was 9 months ago … when we celebrated it on her passport date-of-birth … but now we’re doing it […]
3 September 2008
My time in Kuching coincides with Ramadhan. The downside is that good Malay food is hard to find during the day … but the night markets come alive before sunset as people break their fast. Unfortunately I didn’t have time to patronise the goodies at the night markets due to other commitments and rainy nights. […]