Day 2 – John O Groats to Glasgow

Today was the designated travelling day; and travel we certainly did. From JoG back to Glasgow, there was barely enough time for us to grab our grub, grub being a good trip to the breakfast table, loading up on 5 varieties of cornflake, enough rounds of cooked breakfast to give us a particularly nasty form [...]

Oslo – Day 2

ext morning, waking up in the lovely Cochs Pensiojat, in a heated room that had evidently seen better days, I mulled over how much I was willing to let my 40 pounds burn. (Literally, given the heating was purring like a champion steed.) My vague memories of the night before – stumbling from one menacing-looking [...]

Oslo – Day 2 – IV. Holmenkollen

We leave off our narrative as I alighted the precocious Tram No. 18; one heck of a long-distance runner. On its way to Majorstuen, one of those places of ubiquity that shoots to fame on the spurious grounds of being an accidental public transport nexus, it passes Gronland (easily the only run-down part of Oslo, [...]

Oslo – Day 2 – III. On Snow-Capped Hills

Knowing Oslo, I was intent on a ski lift to call my own; and by Jove did I get more than I bargained for. Wielding my transport pass, I hopped off Bus 30 at the Nationaltheatret, in the process convincing myself that I did NOT need another Lebara SIM; my rock-solid constitution, naturally, crumbled, when, [...]

Oslo – Day 2 – II. Aker Brygge to Line 18

We leave the narrative in a shady 7-Eleven, manned by a girl with roughly equivalent eptitude (if that is what remains when you remove the “in” from “ineptitude”. But if English was that simple, how does one account for the proliferation of summer schools in Kent and Surrey?) as some of the glitzier Formica tabletops [...]

Oslo – Day 1

In a rather interesting shift in focus, I will post, daily, a record of my travels to many foreign lands, all populated exclusively by the big-boned white man, or woman, and staffed almost exclusively by the Chinese takeaway and Indian corner shop, before, I belatedly realise, it all slips my mind in the blink of [...]

Nambuyukon

A mountain too far off the beaten track, Nambuyukon lies in the shadow of its sister entity, the mighty Tambuyukon, 3rd place in Malaysia. At around 1400m, Nambuyukon is a lightweight; still it proved a tough nut to crack, all 8 hours of it. Conrad, from Borneo Native Homestay led this expedition – 4 Sandakan [...]

Miri – Day 2 – Beaches and Hills

Day 2. Woke up at 9. Oops. Mr Hanson extends one of his least warmest (grammar?) welcomes to Malaysia. SMS Record: “Mr Hanson here. where are those bloody DOE bags?” Paraphrased, evidently, but hopefully, the urgency of the situation is communicated. So the next half hour vanishes in two discernible blurs – the one washing [...]

Miri – Day 1 – Churches and Parks

Day 1.8.30, early morning Sunday kickoff. Am I good at this jetlag business or WHAT. My mucus has turned a scandalous green. Sarah, the First Year Medical Success, gravely informs me I have “an infection”. Good. It, at least, means I am a physiologically normal person, a fact I was beginning to doubt after my [...]

Miri – Day 0 – Hello Miri

Day 0. hello miri. touchdown – 1055 pm. Once again I am wistfully reminded of KK airport, the descent plunging precariously into a bleak darkness. This sensation only at night, when there are no indications, apart from the runway, one is landing on more than an island in the sun. Walking out, I am assaulted [...]