A visit to Borneo and some Pacific Islands May-June 2023 In week one we went to Borneo (top left) and saw some Orangutans and stood on the equator. In weeks two to four we flew to some obscure Pacific islands including New Britain (upper centre) and Tuvalu. (top right). We spent week five in Auckland, New Zealand. (16 flights, one international bus and one domestic bus.) Week 1 - Borneo Malaysia, Sarawak - Kuching Sat 6th May. After going through two sets of immigration checks and stamps for one country (for Malaysia and Sarawak which is part of Malaysia) we arrived in Kuching. We discovered that a taxi company called 'Grab' is the equivalent of Uber here but fixed price, and they do very good value pickups from the airport - it was just £2.50 for us and an Australian couple to share a taxi all the way to the town centre. We went to the Waterfront hotel but they only had a suite available for £200 so we walked down the road to the Harbour View hotel and got a nice room for £50 a night on the 6th floor with a great view of the Kuching riverfront and a Chinese temple. We unpacked a bit and planned to go for a walk round in the sunshine, but the sun disappeared and a tropical storm took its place (this seemed to be a daily pattern we learned). So we waited until about 6pm then put on our raincoats and walked down the road to the Havana Café. We had a pleasant couple of Kilkenny and Tiger beers and chatted with Daryll and Alicia, two of the customers and John the bartender. Then we went next door to Cha-Bo restaurant for a delicious meal of spring rolls, stir-fry prawns in garlic, stir-fry salty anchovies and Thai red curry beef. First impressions of Kuching are very good! Sun 7. I had a pleasant walk along the riverside in the morning sunshine then we got a Grab taxi to the big weekend market just outside town. It was large and fascinating, full of veg and fish stalls, a flower stall with a lovely bonsai tree (no Sheila, you can't ship it home!), and a live band playing in the café/food stalls area. After strolling around taking it all in we asked a very helpful passerby to order a Grab for us (our phone only works attached to wi-fi) and they even stayed to make sure the driver found us. We went back to town to the Old Court House and went to Commons Café / restaurant in a big airy room in the historic old building, and had a very nice brunch of tagliatelli carbonara and Caesar salad with a passion fruit and orange drink. We got another taxi to the central bus terminus (outside town, not central at all) and booked a ticket to Pontianak for Wednesday. When we left the Court House the sun was shining and it was hot outside, but as we drove out of town the black clouds were gathering and as we left the bus station the rain was coming down. The rain eased off and I had a look in the Chinese temple opposite the hotel, then another pleasant riverside walk in the other direction past all the fancy high-rise hotels. In the evening we had a walk along Carpenter Street, the Chinatown area, but most of the shops were closed on a Sunday. We went to The Den, a bar inside the Old Court House, and sat beside the grassy central courtyard. We had a nice meal from the adjacent Commons Café, delivered by our cheerful waiter from the Den. Then we walked over to the fancy footbridge across the river to the government building, where we had a good view of the colourful musical fountains when they did their 8:30 performance. Sheila finished off the evening with a big bag of candy floss from a street vendor. Mon 8. We got a taxi to the Indonesian Consulate to try to get a visa but they said they didn't issue tourist visas any more and we should go to the border and they will issue it there. We shall see. We got a taxi back to the centre of town and went to a shopping mall but Sheila declared it was identical to every other mall all over the world so we went back to the Commons for a cake and a coffee. We went into the Ranee exhibition in a nearby room in the Court House which was all about the remarkable life of Ranee Margaret, the wife of the second Rajah Brook and effectively queen of independent Sarawak from about 1870 to 1917. We walked around the bazaars and Chinatown shops and then went for lunch. I was set on having Laksa noodles, a Sarawak speciality, but the recommended restaurant for them was closed completely and the two cafés near our hotel had run out. In the end we settled for a rather bland stir-fry at Green Hills Corner, our local café. Today the weather reversed itself to sunny in the afternoon, so I went for an afternoon walk admiring the wall art near our hotel. I found Top Spot seafood, an interesting seafood-based food court on the top floor of a multi-storey car park. We went back to Top Spot about 7pm and it was very busy, we went to one of the fish stalls and chose eight tiger prawns, a big plate of assorted veg and a plate of fried rice, all of which they cooked up and brought out to our table - it was delicious. We had a stroll along the river front and went to the Royal Chamber on Carpenter Street, a nice bar with dark woodwork and had a Tiger beer and a nice Australian red wine. Tues 9. We went in Kelvin's taxi to the Semenggoh nature reserve and Orangutan rescue centre half an hour outside town. The orangutans roam freely and don't have to show themselves to visitors but the staff put food out at set times and they often come (but not when it's raining). After an introductory chat we walked along a tricky path with big tree roots trying to trip you up, to the observation area. After a while a teenage male orangutan came and showed off his skills for us by climbing through branches and balancing on ropes, then climbed down to the feeding platform for tasty bananas and oranges. Then news came through of another male at the feeding platform on the other side of the visitor area so we went over there and were treated to another display of forest dexterity. It was fascinating. Next Kelvin took us a bit further out of town to Jong's Zoo and crocodile farm. The highlight was numerous pools of crocodiles of all sizes from small to huge and menacing. We went to the feeding pond where at 11am they winch morsels of food out across the pond and the big crocs 'jump' up and grab them. There were lots of other animals including big lizards and a petting zoo where we stroked a goat (we're just big kids). Even better than this was the 11:30 fish-feeding session at the nearby fish pond full of huge Arapaimas, the largest freshwater fish in the world, and catfish that were almost as big. We returned to town very happy with our morning's outing and went to Commons Café again, where Sheila had fish and chips (big chunks of extremely tasty battered sea-bass, best fish and chips we can remember) with her favourite drink passion fruit and orange juice, and I had Laksa noodles at last, the local speciality, a massive bowl of very spicy noodle soup with prawns, sliced vegetables, eggs, coconut curry and spices - delicious. In the evening we went back to the shop where Sheila had spotted a brass incense burner that she just had to buy, then because we were still full from lunch we returned to the Den and had Tiger beer, red wine and packets of peanuts from the aeroplane for dinner, then walked back along the riverfront watching another musical fountain show as we went. Indonesia, Kalimantan - Pontianac Weds 10. The normal international bus to Pontianak costs £16 each but we chose the VIP bus for £20 and it was excellent. We checked in at the bus station at 10am as requested and got our 'boarding card' then went to a café for a nice laksa noodle breakfast. The café proprietor started trying to sell us some patented anti-ageing creams (too late for us I'm afraid) so we politely left and boarded the bus which left on time at 11am. The seats were huge and luxurious and we had a very pleasant comfortable journey. After two hours we reached the Indonesia border and crossing it was a doddle, despite the dire warnings of some of the Malays we had met. We went to the Visa on Arrival desk, paid the £30 pp fee which you can pay in Malaysian or Indonesian cash, got a sticker in our passports and we were through. A cluster of money-changers stood round the building's exit to change cash to Indonesian rupiahs, which is useful to get some small change but their rate is worse than the money-change offices in town. Then we realized we'd forgotten our luggage which had been offloaded from the bus so we hurried back to the drop -off point (only 50 metres or so), walked back through the immigration hall with our bags, put them on the bus and we were on our way again. About four hours later, including one stop for refreshments at a roadside café, we arrived in Pontianak. The city is huge, much bigger than we expected and we drove through suburbs for quite a while before arriving at the big modern bus station. We expected the usual hassle with taxi drivers but it was all very civilized, the people at the information desk told us the price of the taxi and arranged with the driver for him to stop at a money-change office on the way to change the rest of our Malaysian ringits. The only problem was finding our hotel, the Aston, which turned out to be through an archway and down a side street that we drove past three or four times before we spotted it. We didn't have a reservation for the Aston but it had been recommended in Kuching and it was very nice, with a large well-furnished room and all the usual accoutrements. There were two restaurants and a bar on the ground floor so we sat in the bar with wine and beer, choosing meals from the two different menus, which they brought to our table. I went for an Indonesian rice soup dish which was very tasty and very spicy, while Sheila had the safer option, a big club sandwich. Thurs 11. We went and stood on the equator. On the edge of town there is an 'Equator Monument' marking the spot, so we have now walked across the equator on three continents. It's more tricky in Asia because there are only 3 or 4 Indonesian islands on the equator, most of the continent is further north. Back at the hotel we had lunch in the Dynasty restaurant, sharing a 'Steamboat' which is a huge plate of veg, seafood and meat that you cook in a steamer on the table, half of which has spicy broth and the other plain broth to cook it in. Delicious! I went for a walk a km down the road to Kaiser (Caesar's), a big bakery, supermarket and department store but no café, so I stopped for a tea at a local stall on the way back. In the evening we went to the hotel bar again and had a pleasant evening with wine, beer and peanuts but we didn't add any food because we were still full from the big lunch, and we persuaded ourselves this meant we were having no calories! Fri 12. We set out on another city tour with a taxi driver who spoke reasonable English. First we went to Tamon, a park by the riverside, but it was closed because today is Friday, the Muslim weekend. So we went a bit further upriver to near Pinisi harbour where there is a pleasant riverside walkway but no boats, they are all moored in the dockside area nearby. We drove over the bridge to the other side of the river to Istana Kadriyah, the 300-year old traditional wooden longhouse which was the palace of the local sultans. It too was theoretically closed for Friday but the people there, apparently part of the former royal family, kindly let us in to look around the impressive building with thrones and collections of royal portraits. After stopping for a 12-pence haircut on the way back while our driver went to the mosque, we returned to the hotel and had satay and fish and chips for lunch. In the afternoon a thunderstorm rolled in and we had another nice evening in the hotel bar. Jakarta and Bali Sat 13. Having completed our Borneo holiday we started our convoluted journey to the Pacific. We flew from Pontianak to Jakarta in the morning, had a lengthy trek from terminal 3 to terminal 1 in Jakarta airport by skytrain and on foot, and flew to Denpasar in Bali. Rather than stop over in an airport hotel we got a taxi to the Adhi Jaya hotel where we stayed six years ago on our last trip to Bali, and walked down the road to Bamboo restaurant and had a wonderful meal of lobster thermidor (Sheila's first but definitely not last this holiday) and seafood noodles with sangria and red wine. Weeks 2-4 - Pacific Islands Melanesia and Australia Sun 14. After a nice breakfast at the Adhi Jaya we continued with a flight to Cairns. We arrived at 6pm having lost two hours to the time difference and went and got a room at the Cairns Colonial Club. This used to have a good reputation but it wasn't quite what we expected, it's become more like a family holiday resort for kids. Nevertheless we had an excellent Barramundi and chips meal at the café in the grounds. Papua New Guinea Mon 15. We continued our convoluted journey by checking in to Air Niugini at Cairns International airport. The airport was quiet as there were only three international flights leaving today, and it got quieter as the other two left and our incoming flight was delayed as we sat around waiting. We got talking to Tom and Lily who make this flight frequently because they have houses in Rabaul and Cairns and Tom was certain we would miss our connection in Port Moresby despite the promises of the friendly airline ground staff. Eventually we got going and arrived at POM to find that our connecting flight had been cancelled anyway but, knowing the ropes, Tom and Lily got us onto another flight that was about to leave and we dashed through the airport behind them as our names were called on the loudspeakers, and scrambled onto the plane where all the other passengers were waiting and did the walk of shame to our seats (Tom and Lily were invisible in business class). In the end we arrived in Rabaul not far behind our original schedule. Better still, Johnny from the hotel was there to meet us and as the sun set he drove us to the lovely but expensive Kokopo Beach Bungalows. We had a large, wooden bungalow with all modern fittings and a view from the balcony over the lush gardens to the beach beyond. It was all delightful. We had pre-dinner drinks in the large, airy bar/restaurant with a high wooden ceiling held up by sturdy, smooth tree-trunks, then Sheila's favourite dinner of lobster thermidor (yes, lobster again already) while I had a tasty sizzling seafood platter. Excellent. Tues 16. After a pleasant breakfast we went for a stroll round Kokopo town but it didn't take very long. We looked around three supermarkets, two Chinese-run ones that were very dark and claustrophobic and the third that was more bright and airy and had a good range of imported goods. Then Sheila went for a sunbathe by the pool for as long as she could stand the heat while I read a book in the shade. She lasted just an hour which was good going. In the evening we had another lovely meal in the bar/restaurant - ceviche to start and stir-fry with ginger and spring onions and lobster for Sheila of course. Weds 17. We went for a half-day tour to the peninsula and Rabaul town. We drove along the coast road to 'new' Rabaul which is essentially the port, and into old Rabaul which was destroyed by the volcanic eruption in 1994 (the volcano, upper middle, is still smoking menacingly). The streets and even some street signs (Mango Avenue, the former main street) were still there, but the city blocks have now returned to jungle with a few ruined buildings such as the Travelodge (centre) poking through. Back in new Rabaul we looked into St Mary's church and wandered round the market with endless stalls of sweet potatoes along with various other vegetables. We drove up the hill behind the town to the Observatory and lookout with great views of the town, harbour and bay, and to a wartime Japanese submarine base, trudging up a hill riddled with Japanese tunnels and an anti-aircraft gun. We drove back to Kokopo on the 'top' road over the hills and through villages and looked around Kokopo market before returning to the beach bungalow. For dinner we had the ceviche starter again, lobster again and sizzling fish platter again in the atmospheric restaurant at Kokopo Beach. Australia again Thurs 18. Up early for the 5:30 taxi to the airport and another day of flying via Port Moresby to Brisbane where we arrived at dusk. We stayed at the Best Western airport motel and went down the road to a 'sports bar' which was a combination of casino, betting shop, bar and restaurant, where we had a big plate of barramundi fish and chips. Solomon Islands - Honiara Fri 19. Up early again for the 6am taxi to Brisbane airport, which is one of the nicest airports we've been through. It's a shopping mall of course like all airports, but with a nice selection of cafes and restaurants and lots of ATMs (which give out four different currencies) and an airport lounge where we had a good breakfast. We had a pleasant flight with Solomon Airlines to Honiara then an awful drive into town through an endless traffic jam caused by the endless road works, attempting to make a fine new road ready for when the Solomons host the Pacific Games in November. We returned to the King Solomon hotel where we stayed on our last visit 12 years ago, a characterful hotel with a funicular railway up the hill where the rooms are situated. But we didn't get off to a good start - the funicular was out of order and our allocated room near the top of the hill didn't have working air conditioning (essential in this heat and humidity). We waited a while and they allocated us a nice, large room lower down so that we could struggle up the stairs to it (68 stairs each way). This was OK because the view of the sea we wanted from higher up didn't exist any more because of the big buildings they had built since we were last here - in fact we didn't recognize the town at all because it had changed so much and not for the better. We gradually cooled down, unpacked and went and got a seat in the restaurant for the evening Polynesian dance show which was really good. It was accompanied by a nice pizza from the restaurant and Australian wine and beer. The final hitch came when we couldn't get back into our room - for some reason there were two locks on the door and both had engaged but we only had a key for one of them. After a lot of waiting and deliberating the staff decided there was no key available for the rogue lock and a man with a big hammer and chisel came and broke the door open, then hammered the frame more or less back into shape. People in nearby rooms came out to see what on earth was going on, but finally we were secure and went to sleep. Sat 20. We had a walk down to the post office to post a letter then across the road to the Heritage Hotel to check their dinner menu. In a craft market next door we found the very nice Palm Sugar café and had an excellent breakfast of eggs benedict and an American-size stack of pancakes from their extensive menu (Sheila left most of it but was still full). We walked on past the Mendana hotel and checked their menu, and on to the extensive market full of veg, fish, colourful tropical flowers and all sorts of other goods, as well as all sorts of fascinating local people who were all very friendly and wished us good morning. Strangely, the only 'pushy' sellers were the purveyors of watermelons. On our walk round we saw an Indian restaurant called the Taj Mahal on the upper floor of a building, so that evening we went to try it. However, the whole building was locked up and deserted and someone told us the restaurant was permanently closed. We got a taxi to the Honiara hotel where on our last visit we had found a lively bar with Toohey's Old brown beer and several Australians who we chatted to. Now though, there were no imported beers and it was bare, uninviting and Chinese-run and the restaurant was very expensive so we returned to the King Solomon and had another excellent pizza. There was no music or dancing though, Saturday night seems really quiet everywhere, Friday is when it all happens. Sun 21. It's quiet this morning as well because everyone's at church. We went and listened to a few songs in a nearby happy-clappy church with a very good 'rock band' and group of singers, then to Palm Springs café for another nice brunch and to the Breakwater café next door for some take-away pies for our picnic tonight. We thought about going for a sightseeing taxi ride for a couple of hours but apart from WWII battlefields, wrecks and monuments there's not really much to do or see here unless you're into water-sports (which have rather left us behind) or people-watching (which we hope to resume tomorrow at the market). So we lay by the swimming pool for a while until it got too hot to bear. In the evening we had a late birthday celebration/picnic on our balcony and in our room, with a bottle of Prosecco from the bottle shop and the pies from the café this morning, listening to the jungle noises from the gardens of the hotel (Sheila really knows how to throw a party!). Mon 22. After a fruitless search for a reputed bookshop we continued to the central market for some more people-watching and obscure vegetable-spotting. Hot and exhausted we went to Breakwater café for a turmeric omelette and pot of tea in blissfully air-conditioned surroundings. After a bit more sunbathing by the pool we went to the restaurant for several drinks and (after a two-hour wait) the best pizza ever - a well-stocked smoky pepperoni with onions and peppers. Polynesia Fiji Tues 23. We had another nice breakfast of bacon and egg pie and cheesecake at the Breakwater café, then went to the airport for our Air Niugini flight to Fiji. True to form the incoming flight was an hour late but when we did get going we had a nice flight with a pleasant lunch and as we had no connecting flight we didn't mind being late. We went to the Nadi Downtown hotel right on the main street of Nadi (pronounced Nandi) town which was rather basic but fine for one night. Weds 24. We walked past the market to the bus station to see what the express bus to Suva was like and it looked pretty good so we collected our bags from the hotel and went back to catch the 10:50 Pacific bus advertised in the timetable. However, at the bus station we were assured it didn't exist so we decided a bus in the hand was worth two on the timetable and got the 11:00 Sunbeam express instead which was just as good. It was an interesting, comfortable 3-hour ride through jungle and villages, past beaches and resorts. The only trouble was, it started raining soon after we left Nadi and continued for the rest of the day. At the bustling Suva bus station we hurried across the road to find a taxi and drove around trying to find a hotel near the centre of town, but they were either full up or horribly expensive (£200 a night for an ordinary room at the Holiday Inn). Eventually we found a room at the Peninsula Hotel a little way up the hill outside the town centre which was alright. After a quick unpack we went back to the town centre by taxi, looked round the market and shops a bit then had a drink in the Traps Tavern, a dark but friendly bar (because the restaurants don't open until 6pm) and a very nice Indian meal at the Ashiyana on the balcony of the historic, wooden old town hall building. Tuvalu, pronounced To-vaaa-loo (formerly Ellice Islands) Thurs 25. We were up early and our friendly taxi driver from yesterday took us to Nausori (Suva) airport. We were there quite early and were checking in at a leisurely pace when a couple called Carla and Quintus urged us to bypass some other people and check in rapidy - Carla was an airline employee who had access to information which showed that the plane was overweight and Air Fiji were offloading passengers and baggage so we might not get there. We found out that this was because Tuvalu had run out of aviation fuel so they had to fill up for the return trip to Suva as well. We had to take one of our big bags as hand luggage and heave it up into the overhead locker because they were limiting the weight of checked baggage. Once the panic was over we swapped travel stories with Carla and Quintus who were collecting countries (like us but even more so!) and because of their airline benefits they could get standby tickets on more or less any flight. It was a pleasant flight for those of us lucky enough to be on it and we left the cold rain of Suva to arrive in hot, sunny Tuvalu. We checked into the pleasant Esfam Lodge which had the two essentials for modern travel - a/c and wifi - then went for a stroll around Funafuti in the sunshine. In the afternoon I went for a walk round the whole country (well, the entire town end-to-end and side-to-side) then in the evening we had another short walk across to the port to see the sunset. We went to the Funafuti Lagoon hotel for a drink, intending to go on somewhere else for a meal, but we got talking to a nice Australian man working here for the Australian government and had tasty stir-fry prawns and fried fish and a few more drinks. Fri 26. We had a nice toasted bacon butty from the breakfast buffet, then read books and waited as a tropical downpour drenched the island. About midday I strolled down to the other end of town to have a cup of tea at 3Ts restaurant which had been recommended but it was closed, with a rather old notice 'open at 5pm' outside - seems unlikely. So I strolled back up the road and had a cup of coffee at Sue's kitchen, a popular little café in a converted cargo container by the side of the road. In the afternoon the rain hammered down again but it stopped by 6pm so we walked up to Nang Chinese restaurant and had nice chicken noodle soup, pork stir fry and beef curry, and because they didn't have alcohol, we shared a bottle of wine that we had brought from the duty-free at Suva. Sat 27. After another bacon butty breakfast we checked out of the hotel, the owner gave our luggage a lift 100 meters down the road to the airport and we checked in for the flight back to Fiji. This time they took both our cases as checked baggage and it was much too early to go into the departure lounge (where there were no facilities) so we went across the road to the Filamona Lodge and met Carla and Quintus again and swapped more travel stories with them and a Japanese couple who had taken a year off work to do all the 'U.N. 193' countries. Our incoming plane was an hour or so late but eventually we took off and had a pleasant flight back to Suva. Fiji again We went to the Quest hotel, serviced apartments on the 5th floor of a block in the centre of downtown Suva, much more central than the hotel a couple of days ago. It included a laundry room with two washing machines and two tumble driers which Sheila immediately took over, washing all our clothes whether they were dirty or not. We were soon back in Traps Tavern for a pre-dinner drink and another delicious Indian meal at the Ashiyama on the balcony of the old town hall. Sun 28. It poured with rain most of the day so we dodged from shop to shop and had a tasty brunch in the food court of a mall. In the evening we got a taxi to the lovely old Grand Pacific Hotel (where the Queen stayed when she visited Fiji). It was closed and run down when we visited 12 years ago but now it's been beautifully renovated and has a very pleasant ambience. We had a look round and they kindly showed us one of the heritage rooms in the historic old building which was wonderful - Sheila informs me we will be staying in one of those next time we return. We sat on the terrace and had a couple of drinks from the bar and appreciated it all. Still hooked on Indian food we went to the Maya Dhaba, a highly-recommended restaurant down the road and it was extremely good. Mon 29. We were told that there was a parade through town at 9am then festivities at Albert Park until midday so we set out to have a look. We found that the parade went by at 8am so we missed it, and the festivities would start at 10am, so we had a cake and a coffee on the terrace of the Grand Pacific hotel opposite the park. It was all in honour of Ratu Sukana, a Fijian war hero who had served with the French Foreign Legion for many years, and there were military marching bands and the president of Fiji gave a speech and the weather stayed warm and sunny. After the speeches we went over to the grandstand to watch displays of tribal dancing which were very impressive and much appreciated by the crowds, who understood the stories behind them and cheered and laughed at the appropriate points. We went back to the hotel and had leftover curries for lunch and our usual evening routine of drinks by the pool at the Grand Pacific and a delicious curry at the Maya Dhaba. Tues 30. We wandered around Suva centre and the market doing bits of shopping now everything was open again after the long weekend. There was a big betel-nut stall in the market even though spitting out the red juice onto the pavement has been banned. Sheila went to a beauty parlour for the full range of treatments and I went to the Lazy Bean café in Jack's department store and had a chicken and greens panini and a coffee sitting on the upper storey balcony watching the world go by below. We had another perfect evening of drinks on the terrace at the Grand Pacific, said goodbye to the friendly bartender who looked after us so well, and had curries on the balcony of the old town hall. Weds 31. We bought a couple of paninis from Lazy Bean to eat along the way and got a taxi for the three-hour drive to Nadi. The driver took us for a tour of Denarau Island which had been created on land reclaimed from mangrove swamps and was full of upmarket villas and expensive hotels. Then we went to Club Fiji resort for a day of the resort experience. It was very laid back, down a rough dirt road away from everything, not like the flashy poser resorts, but it was in a lovely setting on a beach in a bay, overlooked by the restaurant and bar in a large thatched wooden building. We had drinks sitting in the garden near the sea watching a traditional Fijian dancing and singing show then had a nice meal of seafood chowder, Fijian curry and sizzling New Zealand rib-eye steak in the restaurant. Week 5 - Auckland, New Zealand Thurs 1 June. We left the tropics behind and flew to Auckland where it was cold and misty. We got the free shuttle to the Best Western motel not far from the airport and went to an Indian restaurant across the road and had a very disappointing meal. Fri 2. We were feeling rough with colds we had caught from a two-toothed taxi driver in Suva, the weather forecast was awful and car hire was very expensive so we abandoned plans to drive around North Island and went to stay in the Sheraton Four Corners hotel in downtown Auckland instead. They kindly gave us a double-aspect corner room on the 13th floor with views down Queen Street, the main shopping and eating road, to the Town Hall and the Sky Tower, which was very nice. It also had a huge bath which, every time I turned round, Sheila was in it. We had a walk round and a nice brunch of eggs benedict and croque madame in one of the very few non-Korean or Japanese café/restaurants. In the evening we went to Father Ted's, a rather rough but friendly Irish bar close by, and had Kilkenny beer and a big plate of nachos. Sat 3 to Tues 6. We had nice walks down to the waterfront and around the shops, sometimes in sunshine and sometimes dodging the pouring rain. I had cups of coffee and cakes in Bites café in a big department store and at the Terrace café on Town Hall square with views of the old Town Hall and (on the right) our Four Corners hotel. We had two excellent dinners at the Confidential Bar in Vulcan lane where there is a cluster of bars, one a meats and cheeses board and the other braised beef cheek and prawn and crayfish gumbo, and a wonderful dinner at the Queen's Head eatery - delicious prawn tacos for starters (tiger prawn pate, sriratcha sauce, shallots, tobiko, chives, radish and lemon) and equally delicious laksa noodles and beef short rib for main courses. On the last evening we had a sunset drink in the rooftop Churchill bar of our hotel. Wed 7 to Thurs 8. We flew for 25 hours to London via Hong Kong with Cathay Pacific, still a very good airline - for the first time for a long time we were handed proper menus for the meals. If you would like to see more of our travels just click the map.