South-East Asia

Articles from this Category

Flying to the highlands

Getting going I had set the alarm for 0600 and  asked the frontdesk to call me as well just in case.  But I woke at 0430.  Realising that there was no phone, I figured that the receptionist would have to walk up two floors to wake me.  So I WhatsApp’ed them to say I was […]

Read more

Nighstop before my mini-adventure

Today I fly to Miri for an overnight before going inland to Borneo’s highlands for my mini-adventure. I ordered a Grab car on the app but none were available in my area. I tried numerous times and it was starting to worry me even though I had three hours till my 1500 flight. Perhaps it […]

Read more

Final sight-seeing

Bird’s eye view of Saigon I had enquired about a late check-out till 1600 for half a day’s rate. Anything beyond that would he at the full day’s rate. I decided against it in the end and checked-out at 1100, leaving my pack at reception. I took a Grab car to Bitexco Tower. I read […]

Read more

Slothful day

I had a lazy start today, staying indoors after breakfast till 1100. I headed out for my massage to Pham Ngu Lao. I tried choosing the place carefully again, trying to avoid the many that had skimpily dressed female touts. I stumbled across one with a young masseur. The massage started off well, then about […]

Read more

Around Saigon

As expected, I woke early in Saigon and dozed till around 0530. I took breakfast on the hotel’s rooftop in their main building; I was housed in their annex. Surprisingly, they had no pho for breakfast so I settled for an omelette accompanied by a very good personal baguette. It was very light inside and […]

Read more

Saigon once more

We landed at Saigon’s Tan Son Nhat airport about 30 minutes early around 1915. With no luggage, I was out quickly. First priority was to get money from the ATM. Both the ones I tried imposed a local fee. I chose the one with the cheaper fee and withdrew what I expect to spend for […]

Read more

Lunch at the estuary

Today we had organised a family at the estuary village of Muara Tebas. It is noted for its fresh seafood but my brother had driven his own fish from a recent fishing trip here yesterday, so it could be nicely marinated for our meal today. What a champion! We had to be ready at 1030 […]

Read more

Border market and a cave

Today, we had an excursion to the Serikin Border Market at one of the border crossings with Indonesia.  It is about 1h30 from the apartment and to avoid the heat ,we left at 0545 with a detour to Aunty Margaret’s.  We ended up proceeding with a headstart and arrived at 0730 We paid for parking […]

Read more

SIM registration and mall time

With no hotel breakfast today, I went down to McDonald’s located within my hotel building.  I ordered their Nasi Uduk which came with a piece of fried chicken (spicy option), egg, sambal and crispy shallots. It was yummy.  Even the rice, by itself tasted good.  It was compressed into a cube-like lump but very moist, […]

Read more

Around Palembang

I was surprised to be issued breakfast vouchers (but realised they were given by mistake and there would be none for subsequent days).  It was a simple buffet of rice, chilli fish, veges and a few other things. Despite Ramadhan, I did see some Muslims eating.  It appears that Indonesia is more relaxed than Malaysia […]

Read more
Go top