South-East Asia

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On a friend’s farm

An old classmate runs a farm outside of Kuching, near the Wind Cave and Fairy Cave.  He had organised a gathering of old friends so that us city folks could enjoy a touch of the Borneo outdoors.  We had a picnic by the stream and some of us finished the day with dinner at Siniawan […]

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Flying to KLIA2

Last little bit of sightseeing in Makassar With the 1h time difference between Ambon/Papua and Makassar, I woke up early. With two half-days in Makassar, I wanted to make the most of my sightseeing opportunities to catch sights that I didn’t get to do few years back.I was out the door soon after 0700 to […]

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Old Gowa (not Goa)

The hotel doorman knocked on my door at 0545 to wake me up even though I hadn’t organised a wake-up call. He knew my car had been organised for 0615 so did me a courtesy. Then he dragged me into the dining room for breakfast which wasn’t meant to be ready till 0700 but had […]

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Exploring Ambon

This morning I explored one of the cafes which make up Ambon’s cafe scene that’s not seen elsewhere in the country. At the Sibu Sibu cafe, I downed a delicious milky ginger coffee with some local cakes. Ambon is famous for having a disproportionate share of good singers in the Indonesian music scene, and their […]

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Leaving Papua & parting thoughts

Leaving Papua Today I’m leaving Papua after 21 days, going to Ambon. It was a relaxed morning before checking out at 1200 and going to the airport for a departure at 1405. I spent most of the morning in the room of the Rumberpon Hotel till checkout and went to the airport nearby. I was […]

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Chilling in Sorong

There are two ferries from Waisai to Sorong today, at 0900 (Mon and Wed) and also 1400 (daily). I woke up and went to the ferry at 0800 and was amongst the first to get the ticket. We left about 0930 with lots of empty seats unlike the outbound journey. I took an ojek to […]

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Leaving Kri back for Waisai

Leaving Pulau Kri for Waisai After breakfast, I went back to Yenkoranu to pay for yesterday’s trip on credit card. I had tried yesterday but the data connection on the island is very intermittent and often best in the wee hours of the night and first thing in the morning. So, the connection worked fine […]

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Pulau Fam

Arrangements I was staying at Koranu Fyak homestay and had dived with them already.  To be with friends that I had been hanging around with, I chose to dive with Yenkoranu Homestay next door.  I had approached them for their homestay too but their boat transfer appeared overpriced due to a mistake in their webpage. […]

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Pianemo and Diving at Pulau Fam

The trip to Fam Island had been described by outgoing guests as the highlight of their stay. With that recommendation, we were all very keen to go. Brian staying at Yenkoranu next door managed to negotiate a deal for IDR1m per head including the long boat ride and 2 dives. The extras included a stop […]

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Pulau Kri

Staying on Pulau Kri at Koranu Fyak homestay, I made two dives with their dive shop, the Wobbegong Dive Centre.  It was a much needed affordable homestay and dive centre. After breakfast, I fitted my gear. They didn’t have a good range of sizes of wetsuits and most were rather small for me and the other […]

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