Articles from this Category
8 September 2008
Just before noon, I flew to Malaysia’s “big smoke” and capital Kuala Lumpur. Air Asia’s sister-company, had amazing deals with rooms at MYR35 (about USD10). The room and stylish ensuite itself was only about USD3 but you pay for your air-conditioning by buying credits which was another USD3 … plus I loaned a towel for […]
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. […]
31 August 2008
Today, as Malaysians, we celebrate our National Day. Fifty one years since we were released from the clutches of a foreign power and came together as a nation. Errr … actually that’s not quite right. 31 August 1957 which is fifty one years, as of today, refers to the independence of Malaya from British Rule. […]
30 August 2008
Today I fly from Macau at 1035 to my hometown Kuching, on the Malaysian part of Borneo, for some family time. AirAsia recently introduced direct flights from Macau to Kuching and this trip was initiated to make use of this new link. International flights from Kuching are limited and the occasional new routes don’t seem […]
11 May 2008
I had some banking to do today … we walked past the Lembaga Tabung Haji (Pilgrims’ Savings Fund) office. I couldn’t help noticing a very familiar boxy cubicle which had a note stuck on the outside saying it was an sample of an aircraft toilet. Cute! Seriously, some pilgrims save for most of their lives […]
5 May 2008
Today we flew from Hong Kong in the morning to Kuala Lumpur, to connect to Kuching on Malaysia Airlines. It was a seamless 1h connection at Kuala Lumpur and we landed in Kuching in the afternoon. We have just one night in hometown Kuching. We couldn’t help it but take up AirAsia’s free (just taxes) […]
15 November 2006
Above: Magenta Restaurant looks like something out of a magazine. I had heard about a nice restaurant called Magenta. It’s not often that we get to go out for a nice dinner in Kuching beyond just street or coffee shop fare. So my brother and Benny dragged Mum and step-dad along. The ambience of the […]
14 November 2006
Above: Satay at the compound of Arif Hotel. Singaporean as a Malaysian Last night I was helping step-dad with his application for “Malaysia My Second Home” visa. One of the forms asked for the date of his first arrival in Sarawak. That would probably be in the 1950s and had to flick through all the […]