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Exploring Kinmen Island

Half-Day Bus Tour The day was cool and was forecast to remain that way with chance of rain.  What a change from yesterday’s scorcher.  I put on longs and had breakfast of congee, doughsticks and some pastries. I weighed up the idea of renting a bicycle vs taking the sightseeing bus, taking into consideration the […]

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Taiwan’s Fujian Province

Flying to Kinmen I woke early again at 0500, continued to lay down a bit before tidying up and having breakfast at 0730. I was out the door at 0750 for the metro to Songshan Airport. I’m bound for Kinmen where one of my great-grandfathers originated from. Before planning this trip, I thought Taiwan consisted […]

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National Palace Museum

With the time difference, I woke early at 0600.  Breakfast wasn’t available till 0730 so I had some time to kill. My plan for today was just to do the one thing I didn’t managed to do over a year ago on my previous visit.  That was the National Palace Museum.  I set off at […]

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Homeward bound

My little holiday After four nights but three full days, I’m homeward bound.  But because I use to word “home” to both mean Kuching and Auckland, I’d better clarify!  Today I leave Bali to fly back to New Zealand.  It had been a nice stopover while being the most economical way of getting from Kuching […]

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Little holiday

Having seen what airports can be like after the festive season, I headed to the airport around 0800 for my 1125 departure for Kuala Lumpur and onwards to Bali.  This was the most economical way for me to get from Kuching to Auckland in the post Chinese New Year period. It’s a bonus that I […]

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Back to Kuching briefly

After a good breakfast at the Kingwood Hotel in  Sibu, I used Grab to get to the airport.  I could see a long queue for the kiosk and it looked like bedlam in the bag-drop area.  With no luggage and a moble boarding pass, I went airside and waited over an hour till the scheduled […]

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Gateway to the heart of Borneo

Flying to Sibu My cousin in Christchurch was going to be in Sibu for part of Chinese New Year and was hosting a large dinner for my cousins (whom I haven’t seen for a while) and their families.  Flying around the festive season doesn’t come cheap but his kind invitation to me was too good […]

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Leaving India

With a 1520 flight from Imphal to Kolkata and then onward to Kuala Lumpur and Melbourne, the 1200 check-out was near perfect.  I delayed breakfast till around 0900; the hefty buffet at the hotel would mean that I can skip lunch. I lazed till checkout and killed 30 minutes in the lobby before taking a […]

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Sightseeing partial fail

I woke around 0300, which was a couple of hours earlier than I would have expected. Fortunately, after a snack, I managed to sleep again till around 0730.  Maintaining that first wake-up time would have been good adjustment for Melbourne coming up, but not very good for my night flight departing Kolkata at 0105 on […]

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Long squashy ride

Getting the ticket (or not) Today I travel by bus from Kohima to Imphal.  This had been a concern because there was rumour of road blocks by insurgents. With the bus departing at 0730, I had been told to get the tickets around 0600 to 0630.  It seemed like an overkill to be there 1h30 […]

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