Short Break in Singapore

Went to Singapore last week, just for a short break with Lez and her folks. We stayed at Mandarin Hotel on Orchard road which is one of the busiest parts of Singapore also where all the shopping malls are. Its like almost Christmas and the people there clearly take their xmas decorations seriously. The whole stretch of Orchard is like decorated like a giant float except its actual buildings being covered up in all sorts of xmas stuff. I've been to Singapore before but have not seen it pre xmas season.

 

 

First batch of yoghurt

First batch. Boysenberry. Thanks mum!

-- Post From My iPhone

The Magnificent Fish & Chips Bar

So we went out to eat in kl again. Forgot to take a photo of the front of the place though! So I randomly googled for one.

It's near Twenty.One which you'll find if you go back a post or two.




A pint of heinie! It's great getting real pints here instead of what you get if you askfor a pint in Australia.


Barra n chips. I justate the fish without the batter as there was an awful lot of it. The chips were real potato chips though, not that mashed reconstituted stuff you get most places.

Calamari. Delish!

Bangers n mash for Lez. Biggest. Sausage. Ever. Look at it!! Was also delish.

-- Post From My iPhone

Dinner tonite @ Twenty.One Kitchen+Bar

Went out to a restaurant named Twenty.One Kitchen + Bar tonight at the Changkat Bukit Bintang area of Kuala Lumpur. Food was just ok, but it's more the area of KL that was enjoyable for me. Reminds me somewhat of the back of Sydney.



-- Post From My iPhone

Deepavali

Somewhat out of order of events, but I'm doing it as I go.

Deepavali, festival of lights, was just last week. To celebrate a lot of places had a large kolam (google it for homework) placed out front. The one below was taken right in front of Pavilion, a big shopping center in Bukit Bintang area of Kuala Lumpur:




Quite gorgeous really, I'm glad I get to see such things.
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Lets try this again

I've been somewhat lax in updating the blog with pictures for some time now, so I'm going to put some up that I've got sitting here on my phone. I was in Tawau, Sabah ( East Malaysia ) for the annual Hari Raya Aidilfitri celebrations with Lez and her family (will post pics of the events on a separate page soon).



This one is a panoramic of the waterfront outside where I stayed in Tawau. Not so much of a beach to speak of, but the house is a mere 20 or so meters from the ocean, it is quite relaxing.



This is of the house itself, it's quite large with 4 huge bedrooms each with ensuite, and maid quarters as well. Thankfully there's also Internet so I could keep up to date with work



This is taken facing out from the righthand aide of the house as pictured above. Not much to see, but this way lies the pool...




Quite nice having this pool all to ourselves for a week. Had quite a time, although the water would get quite warm as the day progressed, so to enjoy a cooling experience you need to go early.

That's all I have for the moment from my tawau trip, there's more photos still but they're on the camera and will be done another day. Here are just 2 more pictures from the park on the hillside of Lez's house in Kota Kinabalu ( 40 mins flight from Tawau ).





-- Post From My iPhone

Just trying things out

Picked up a new app today to let me post via my phone. Handy for when I'm out and about. Just trying it out seeing if it works


-- Post From My iPhone

Day 3 Hong Kong : Tung Chung & Central

Finally we get to have a non wet day as the sun has blessed us with some much needed sunshine!

Today we journey up to Tung Chung in Lantau Island to visit the Giant Buddha at the Poh Lin monastery which is a half hour ride on the Ngong Ping cable car.



The view was very calming and picturesque and as far away as the hustle and bustle of HK city as you can get and is only about an hour away.





Ngong Ping village is basically this touristy attraction with chinese styled villages and inside these villages were souvenier shops, restaurants, cafes and of course there had to be a Starbucks there as well! There were other paid attractions as well but we were more interested in saying hi to the giant buddha.





It took about 15 minutes walk from Ngong Ping village to the bottom of the Giant Buddha and Poh Lin monastery. The girlfriend and I took the challenge of climbing up the countless stairs to reach the top! It was very exhausting and tough on our unfit bodies. The girlfriend did better than me though as she got to the top faster.



Oh my god my legs... it didnt feel like it belonged to me anymore at this point. But I am happy I made it. It was very windy and cooling up here.



We then climbed down the stairs to the monastery to have our very healthy vegetarian lunch.


( this very funky looking mushroom like vege in our soup... we have no idea what it is)







We ventured back to civilisation and stopped over at IFC mall in central to get some french macarons from Le Gouter Bernardaud. The girlfriend did some shopping for shoes and bags while I was almost asleep on the comfy couches.





Dinner was a Korean affair Faye and Jo. It was my first time having the seafood hot pot and it was really delicious and the broth was very very tasty. Am going to make sure I try out some of the korean restaurants in Kuala Lumpur.




The girlfriend and her karaoke session...