Indonesia

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Forty-four hairpin turns

Above:  Today’s ride was about 32km in each direction and included 44 Hairpin turns each way! 44 Hairpins Down and 44 Hairpins Up Today Mike and I with our drivers headed to Lake Maninjau about 32km away.  It is a volcanic crater lake and from the top of the rim looking down, we had to […]

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Matriachal homeland

Above:  Approximate route for the day. Highland on two wheels I hired a motorcycle and driver for the day to take me around to various Minangkabau cultural sights, especially the beautiful architecture set amongst the green countryside. Travelling with me was a 21 year old English student Mike and his driver. Strangely he’s studying English […]

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The home of Rendang

“Maiden” flight I woke at 0430 in order to make my 0750 flight to Padang comfortably.  While checking-in, I checked out my fellow passengers.  It was largely a a maid-and-worker flight.  There were a few couples helping their maids with the process eg. making sure they weren’t pinged with baggage charges unnecessarily.  It felt good […]

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Call me Daddy

What Jakarta lacks in sights, it makes up with surprises .  The thing that struck me about Jakarta (beyond the obvious factors like heat, grime, crowd) was the friendliness of its people. For a city of 17 (or is it 9 … depends on who you speak to) million people, I find that people have […]

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Exploring Batavia

Jakarta isn’t a city I had planned visiting by itself … perhaps as a gateway to Java and the more interesting cities. But AirAsia had just launched a new route from Kuching to Jakarta and offered free flights both ways! Fuel surcharge and taxes excluded. It was an offer too good to refuse especially when […]

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On the flying trapeze

With the one-hour time difference from Singapore, I woke early at 0630.  How cool is that while on holiday.  I could go back to sleep for another hour till 0730.  We had breakfast as a family around 0800. I was keen to do or try out as many activities as possible during my only full […]

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Club Med

We took a taxi to the Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal near Changi Airport for the ferry to Bintan, Indonesia where we would spend a couple of nights at Club Med.  Check-in went smoothly and I was impressed that our Indonesian arrival and departure cards had been filled in for us! The terminal wasn’t maintained to […]

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