How It All Began When the Foo Fighters announced on 5 June that they would be touring Australia and New Zealand in the summer of 2023 to support the release of their latest album, But Here We Are, I knew immediately that I needed to watch this concert, because I loved the new album so […]
Author: Holden
Just an avid traveller who loves exploring the world and sharing my experiences...
24 September 2023, Sunday After the action-packed day yesterday, we had a lighter slate on our plate today, with only two main sightseeing objectives – Penang Hill and Kek Lok Si Temple. Yesterday night, I had pre-purchased tickets for our Penang Hill visit, because I read that the queue to take the funicular can be […]
23 September 2023, Saturday For our second day in Penang, our main agenda was to visit George Town. The historic core of the city was prescribed a UNESCO World Heritage Site along with Malacca City in 2008. Penang and Melaka were the two historic port cities along the Straits of Malacca during British colonial rule […]
22 September 2023, Friday (Exchange rate: S$1 = RM3.40) Rise and shine! It was finally time for our short family getaway to Penang, a former British colony located on the northwestern coast of Peninsular Malaysia. I have been to Penang twice as a child, in 1987 and 1991, when I was 5 and 9 years […]
Asia | Ipoh (Hor) Fun 2023 | Malaysia
Ipoh (Hor) Fun 2023 – Day 3 & 4: Cameron Highlands / Ipoh / Singapore
4 January 2023, Wednesday It was a cool 16 degrees C when we woke up at 7am this morning. Always nice to experience a bit of natural, chilly weather away from the constant heat and humidity in Singapore. At 8am, we checked out of our Golden Hills apartment and drove to Brinchang for breakfast, just […]
3 January 2023, Tuesday It’s a special day today because it’s dad’s birthday, and that’s why we came on this trip in the first place, so happy birthday dad! This morning, we left Uncle S and Aunt V’s apartment at 8am and drove to a kopitiam nearby for breakfast. When we arrived at 8:08am, there […]
2 January 2023, Monday (Exchange rate: S$1 = RM3.25) First trip of 2023, and we had a super early start to the day. After a light breakfast at home, we headed down to meet our Mercedes taxi driver, who arrived at 4:20am sharp as scheduled. Last night, I made an advance booking on the Zig […]
Day 3: 31 July 2023, Monday For our third and last full day in Kuala Lumpur, we had a light agenda: shopping in the morning and afternoon, followed by dinner with IK. At 8:54am, we hopped on a Grab car to take us to an eatery in Bukit Bintang called Capitol Cafe for breakfast. It […]
Day 2: 30 July 2023, Sunday Despite not sleeping much after returning late from the MUSE concert last night, I still managed to crawl out of bed at 6:20am. WY was too tired so she elected to sleep in. We had another early start to the day because IK and S were taking us out […]
How It All Began When English rock band MUSE announced in February that they would be staging a concert in Kuala Lumpur on 29 July 2023, I knew I had to go. The tour is in support of their latest album, Will of the People, released on 22 August 2022. It was a little surprising […]
What To Pack For Your Mount Rinjani Climb Before climbing Mount Rinjani, I read several blogs and heard from my friend who had done it before that it would be very tough. I knew it would test me physically, but I was hoping that it would not be dangerous, like Mount Agung in Bali. You […]
Asia | Indonesia | Mission Rinjani 2023
Mission Rinjani 2023: Day 4 & 5 – Pos II / Mataram / Singapore
15 April 2023, Saturday Woke up at 5:45am this morning and it was a cool 20 degrees C outside. I climbed out of our tent and saw the sun just peeking out from above the mountaintop. 24 hours ago, I was making the strenuous climb towards the summit, hoping to make it there before sunrise. […]
14 April 2023, Friday I had set my alarm clock for 2am but I was woken up an hour earlier by the alarm from the tent next to ours and I couldn’t go back to sleep again. I continued lying in bed but my blocked nose didn’t help. At 2am, I crawled out of the […]
13 April 2023, Thursday After a good night’s sleep, we woke up bright and early at 5:30am, packed our bags and went for breakfast at our Rudy Trekker guest house at 6:30am. Breakfast comprised of a simple omelette, toast, coffee, watermelon and pineapple – just the way I liked it. For the 3D2N trek, it […]
12 April 2023, Wednesday [Exchange rate: 10,000 Indonesian Rupiah (IDR) = S$0.90] I woke up at 4am this morning, had my usual breakfast of bread and coffee, then left home at 5am. As always, mum and dad accompanied me to the airport. We arrived at Changi Airport Terminal 1 at 5:30am and met up with […]
Asia | Cambodia | Vietnam Cambodia Cycling 2022
Vietnam Cambodia Cycling 2022: Day 10 & 11 – Siem Reap / Singapore
4 December 2022, Sunday And just like that, we have come to the last full day of the trip. After a hearty breakfast, we left our hotel at 7:37am and reached our starting point 10 minutes later. After the usual warm ups, we started cycling at 8am, for one last time. As with previous days, […]
3 December 2022, Saturday Despite the “fiasco” of our La Residence Blanc D’Angkor hotel last night, the bed in the room was comfy and I slept pretty well. We checked out early at 7:05am to go to our new hotel for the next two nights, Angkor Paradise Hotel. It was only seven minutes away by […]
Asia | Cambodia | Vietnam Cambodia Cycling 2022
Vietnam Cambodia Cycling 2022: Day 8 – Phnom Penh / Siem Reap
2 December 2022, Friday After the brief hiatus yesterday, it was back to business today, as we (somewhat) resumed our cycling in Cambodia. Breakfast was at the usual 6:30am before we checked out of our lovely Frangipani Royal Palace Hotel in Phnom Penh. We also bade farewell to two members of our group, A and […]
1 December 2022, Thursday After four days of cycling, we had a day off today to let our bodies rest a little, and to do some sightseeing in Cambodia’s capital city. I took the opportunity to sleep in and had a late breakfast at 7:30am. At 9:17am, we left our hotel for the National Museum […]
Asia | Cambodia | Vietnam | Vietnam Cambodia Cycling 2022
Vietnam Cambodia Cycling 2022: Day 6 – Châu Đốc / Phnom Penh
30 November 2022, Wednesday We started our day later today, with breakfast at 7am instead of the usual 6am. That meant we got to sleep in an hour longer, which was great because I was starting to feel the fatigue building up from the past five days. Maybe some of it was self-induced from sleeping […]