Matt & Kat

Really nothing to write home about. Neither Kat or I found any aspect of the city that appealed to us, or would entice us to want to go back there. I think it suffers from over promising and under delivering, especially having just come from Singapore, which is definitely an example of a beautiful city. We’re now in London (despite a 2.5hr delay leaving Dubai while Emirates tried to fix the plane we were flying on) and are just about to go down and have some breakfast before starting our first day in Europe.

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We were in Singapore from April 13th – 15th and had a chance to look around the city, do some shopping and catch up with some cousins of mine who live there. Here are the highlights of what we did during our stay: Singapore by night: On our first night in Singapore we had dinner with my cousin Elian and her husband Teng Huat. We ate some great Thai food and then walked through the city to the waterfront.

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Saturday the 7th found us again at Miri airport (5th day in a row of flying in/out of there for Kat and I!). This time bound for Sibu in central Sarawak as the transit point for our stay in Sarikei. Sarikei is where Kat’s father, Alfred, grew up and many of the Yii family still live there alongside the family farm. It’s a much, much, much smaller placevthan Miri and we found the pace quite slow for the three days that we were there.

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The day after returning from the Mulu Caves (Thu 5th), we found ourselves at Miri airport again, this time bound for the tourist mecca of Kota Kinabalu. Kota Kinabalu, named after the famous Mt. Kinabalu (the highest peak in Southeast Asia), is north of Miri, in the state of Sabah. Kat’s Uncle Louis and Alfred came with us on this trip, and Kat’s uncle generously booked us all into the Sutera Pacific resort, part of the magnificent Sutera complex (5 star), which appears very similar to something like Golf Harbour in New Zealand.

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One of the things I enjoy when coming back to Malaysia is the food. There are lots of things that I only eat on a trip back to Malaysia and many that you just don’t get in New Zealand or most other places in the world. I enjoy things like tropical fruit, satay, red bean desserts, little layer cakes and bbq pork buns… mmmm yum. There are more tropical fruits here in Malaysia than I can count.

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The first round of Photos are now up. The Gallery This covers up to Wednesday last week. After that we went up to Kota Kinabalu (in Sabah) for one night, then back to Miri for one night, and we’re now down in Sarikei (central Sarawak). More photos to come at some point 🙂

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We have just come back from two days away at the Royal Mulu Resort, just a 30 minute flight from Miri and set in the middle of the rainforest. Mulu is a world heritage site famous for its caves. There are something like 60 caves in the area but only 4 are accessible to the general public to walk through. On the first day we walked through the rainforest to get to two caves: Lang Cave and Deer Cave.

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The adventure has begun… and is off to a fairly sedate and uninteresting start. The Emirates flights from Auckland to Brisbane, and Brisbane to Singapore, were completely full, with no spare seats anywhere in the plane. I’m not sure if my memories of emirates were better than reality, or whether Air NZ’s new economy class clabins have set my standards too high, but one way or the other Emirates only gets a 5 out of 10 for me for comfort and convenience based on the trip so far.

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Yes, only three sleeps to go until we fly out of New Zealand!!! Matt and I have been busy these last few days packing up and making final preparations. The adventure starts soon and the reality is just starting to kick in. I’m leaving on a jet plane, don’t know when I’ll be back again… I’m feeling excited and eager to start the traveling but this is also twinged with sadness at leaving all our family and friends behind in New Zealand.

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I’ve accepted a job with Google and we’re shifting to Dublin! Back in January, Kat and I decided that it was about time we put thoughts into action, and booked some one-way plane tickets to get ourselves to Europe. Our plan is to spend at least a couple of years (more if I have my way) exploring the other side of the world and generally broadening our horizons. We leave NZ on the 31st of March flying on Emirates to Singapore.

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