Perth for a hot sunny Christmas

An impromptu trip down to Perth with only less than a month of planning. This was my third (and last) overseas trip of 2013 - did not expect myself to travel again after my Taiwan trip (oh yes, I've yet to finish blogging about my Bali and Taiwan trip). My friend got cheap tickets and that prompted us to fly over to Perth. A nine-days trip was great with nice sunny weather (but at times, it was scorching hot). The third Aussie trip for me.

A summary of what we did and detailed blogging will be up (soon, I hope).

Day 1:

Basically, we reached the airport in the evening. Nothing much can be done on this day (by the way, it's a Friday and shops in Perth are closed at 9pm instead of the usual 5 or 6pm). From the International Airport, we took a shuttle bus to the Domestic Airport to catch the bus connecting to the city. It costed AUD15 per person while the cab will cost around AUD50. Thus, if you have more people sharing out the cost, it is more worth to take a cab straight to your Hotel. We just wanted to try this service, and thus, we embarked on this mode of transport to our Hotel. We stayed at Hotel Ibis for the trip except 2 nights when we were at Swan Valley. 

To wrap up the first night, we went to Fast Eddy's cafe for dinner.

Day 2:

We booked a tour day via this website for a Full Day Pinnacles, Koalas and Sand Boarding 4WD Adventure before we departed. This tour costs AUD215 and top up another AUD15 and you will get a lobster lunch (plus a can of coke). Trust me, unless you are allergy to lobster or seafood, you should just upgrade to the lobster lunch. Most of our travel mates ended up paying AUD30 for the lobster lunch and that was on top of the normal lunch (I think is chicken or beef with salad). 

With this tour, the first stop was to the Caversham Wildlife Park in the Swan Valley to view koalas and hand feed kangaroos. Then to the Lobster Shack at lobster fishing town of Cervantes. Next, we went to the Pinnacles Desert at Nambung National Park. Highlight of the day would be the sand boarding and 4-wheel driving over the vast sand dunes of Lancelin. It is about a 10 hours tour and we ended up back in Perth after 7pm. 

Day 3:

A trip down to Fremantle for the weekend market as well as for the Sunday live music at Fremantle Arts Centre. We took the Railway Train from Perth to Fremantle and it only took us half and hour or so to reach. Personally I think that in Perth, if you planned your itinerary carefully, it would be awesome to simply take their public transport instead of doing a self-drive. Thus, for non-drivers, you will still enjoy Perth as much as I did. Get a Family Rider ticket at AUD11.70 (for 2 adults and 5 children) and you can take any bus and train for the day. As easy as that and you would not need to worry too much about the transport  fare. 

We went for a Fremantle Prison tour and it was quite interesting to see this heritage building built by the convicts back then. A very informative tour. Like Perth, Fremantle has its own Fremantle Cats (Central Area Transit service) bus. It is a free bus service that takes you round Fremantle and you can hop on and off to see the different parts of the city. However, there is a timing to it. So stick to the timing and you will be fine. 

As Fremantle is a fishing port and thus, we went to the Harbour Port for Fish and Chips - Fresh and Nice!

Day 4:

We went to Rockingham Wildlife Encounter on this day. We booked a Dolphin, Penguin & Sea Lion Adventure Cruise prior to our trip through this website. They do run some promotions here and there. With the promotion on hand, we saved AUD20. Taking a train and bus down to Rockingham was not hard and trust me, the timing of the bus/train are really accurate. Take a brochure from the information centre and you will never miss your bus/train. 

The weather was pretty nice to us and so were the dolphins. It did not take long for us to see them 'jumping' out of the sea for air. Pretty amazing. Next off to the Penguin Island to see the cute Penguins. They never failed to make my day. Do take note if you are going to Penguin Island. There is no cafe there and thus, grab a bite before you head over or grab some food to bring over for a picnic. 

Day 5:

Today was the start of the 3d2n trip to Swan Valley. We were quite ambitious on this side trip which we thought we could walk to our B&B and walk around the place freely. Nightmare came when we had to walk a 5km route under the hot sun. Luckily we met great people along the way and we managed to hitch a hike to our B&B. I'm so grateful to the couple and well, I forget to ask for their names! I will take more about the Fantastic stay at Keller's Bed and Breakfast in my detailed post of Day 5. 

On this day, we managed to walk to Yahava Koffee, Margaret River Chocolate Factory and Lancestor Winery. A hot day but the Ice Koffee was totally worth the walk. 

Day 6: 

Breakfast at B&B was great as most of the food were homemade - from fresh juice to fresh milks to scrambled eggs (fresh eggs from the hens) and jam (yes, they grow their own fruits). Totally love it.  In the morning before breakfast, we went for some farm activities, like milking the cow, collecting the eggs and feeding the animals. Simply love this life - How I wish I can own a small farm and lead a farmer's life!

After breakfast, we cycled to Guidlford to embark on a heritage bike trail as all of the shops were closed. Yes, Christmas day it was and shops are closed for the day. What else to ask for but to simply cycle round the town. 

Day 7:

Breakfast was once again enchanting. The owner, Marija, was nice enough to bring us round the place before dropping us off at the Railway Station. Lucky for us, if not, we needed to walked for hours before reaching back to Perth. Back in Perth, we shopped around as it was Boxing day sales - City wide sales to be exact. Nearer to evening, we went to Cottesloe beach for a beautiful sunset and picnic. Simply relaxing. 

Day 8 & 9:

We bought the 48hours Citytour Bus ticket and we basically roamed round the place. Dropping off at some stops to tour the place was great. King's Park was amazing nice for a walk, looking at the flowers, the magnificent view of the city buildings. Crown Perth was simply boring unless you love Casino. Last minute shopping and lunch at Jamine's Italian basically end up the trip. 

Good mate, and till we meet again!

Beauty of Perth, Western Australia

Gyoza at Osaka Ohsho Raffles City

A off day out to Shopping was simply great. Less people on the street, less people in the shops. And what's more, there are less crowd queuing for food as well. 

Went to Osaka Ohsho, Raffles City for a shopping break. Ordering your food is no longer through the service crew - it is a self service ordering using the tablet provided. Browse through the tabs and choose your food. Lastly to submit your order and simply wait for your food to be served. Good way to ordering of food. No longer need to feel the tension of the service crew standing beside you and waiting for your order. 

Order from this tablet

Needless to say, I ordered the handmade gyoza (meat dumplings) which they are famous for. Half a dozen costs S$3.90 and a dozen is just S$7.80. The gyoza was skilfully pan-fried, making it crispy on the oustide. The filling consists of tender pork meat as well as cabbage and garlic made it so juicy. Served piping hot, you could simply pop into your month one after another. Not oily but tasty. 

Gyoza (6 pieces)

Really love it and I guess I will be back to try their gyoza set soon!

Raffles City Shopping Centre,
#B1-75, 252 North Bridge Road

Curry Udon at Tamoya (Chinatown)

Not my first time to Tamoya. I had been to the first outlet at Liang Court earlier this year. After looking at the menu, I decided to try the Curry Chicken Udon. As what the sign says "please wait to be seated', I stood outside for like mintues before realising that no service crew attempted to serve me. Not wanting to look like an idiot, I walked straight to the cashier and asked if I should order from her. She pointed to the front counter when there is a chef cooking the udon. 'Order from there' was what she told me. Feeling puzzled, I walked to where the chef was and asked if I should order from him. "Yes" was his answer. So here's the ordering system at Tamoya:

They have this self-service system: 

1. Order (tell the chefs at the counter what you want) 

2. Collect your noodle and select the fried items ( if you want any)

3. Proceed to cashie

4. Add your own toppings or sauces at the nearby counter

My suggestion to Tamoya could be just state these instructions and placed it at the entrance. It does help to orientate the customers. 

Enough said of the situation, I ordered the Curry Udon with chicken as well as a croquette. Okay, I had to say, I would prefer the udon in soup based rather than the curry. But trust me, the udon is quite nice and you can easily slurp into your mouth. The croquette was normal and I wished I had ordered the pumpkin tempura instead. Well, Tamoya is definitely on my list to return for more Authentic Japanese food. 

Curry Udon with croquette

133 New Bridge Rood,
Chinotown Poinl,
#Bl-48/49

Bali 2013 - Day 2

"Cycling tour is a must try" went the comment from my friends when they knew I was heading to Bali. So I implanted this idea into the trip and I'm glad both my travel companions loved it too. 

Prebooked the cycling tour together with the Mt Batur Sunrise trek through this Bali Eco Cylcing website. By booking two tours, we managed to get the tours at a discounted price of 750,000 IRD. The standalone price for the cycling trip is 360,000 IRD and that for Mt Batur is 450,000 IRD. 

As I had mentioned earlier that we stayed at Seminyak, we needed to be ready by 7am for the pick up. Luckily for us, breakfast at Sense Hotel starts as early at 6am. After picking up the rest of the tour mates, the first pitstop was not to the Penelokan (Kintamani) for breakfast. Yes, this tour includes breakfast. The first stop was a view of the rice paddy. "This is a Kodak photoshoot spot" went the tour guide. Oh well, the view was great and it felt so green and relaxing to be immersed in the surrounding. 

Rice Paddy View

Afterwhich, we headed to Kintamani for breakfast. Ok well, forget about the breakfast. It was not very great but the place does really portray one of the stunning views in Bali for me - Mt Batur, an active volcano, and its cater lake. Nice weather to accompany the view was the best 'postcard' we can ever get. 

Mt Batur and its Cater Lake

Next up, we were brought to a fruit and coffee plantation whereby the tour guide introduced the plants to us. Okay, this was not really my cup of tea but it was still nice to know some of the plants. We were also allowed to try some of the coffee varieties, ranging from hazelnut to caramel. However, we got to share the coffee cups with our tour mates. Thus, if you are not comfortable with it, I guess you might want to give it a miss or to order a cup of coffee on your own expenses. One of the tour mates ordered the Coffee Luwak, the unusually produced and most expensive coffee in the world. We managed to watch how this coffee is being brewed. 

Coffee related

After the "coffee break", we are finally off to our cycling tour. We were brought to collect our bicycles. One of my friends was not confident in cycling on her own and we were so glad that they offered a tandem bike. The tour guide offered to ride the tandem bike with her. A very good service from them. 

The first stop is to the including a visit to a Balinese home. The tour guide told us the structure of the house and also some of the Balinese culture they have. An interesting insight is how we can gauge the wealthiness of the family by looking at their house compound. He also mentioned how the government conducted their census. The number of people staying in the house to the family nuclei are clearly stated in front of the house.  

Cycling through the village did attract the attention of the locals and the children were extremely excited. We stopped by the rice paddy and was given the chance to walk through the field. Unfortunately, it was not the harvesting period. We also stopped by an enormous Banyan tree for some photo-taking. Basically, it is so enormous that I felt a bit being compressed by it. 

Oh, just to mention that Balinese were celebrating Galungan and they actually hang this Celebration decoration known as penjor (bamboo poles weighed down by offerings suspended at the end) in front of their house as well as along the street. Interesting to know this as we were quite curious about the decoration when we first saw it on our first day. 

Scenes through cycling

This tour includes lunch as well. A nice ambiance restaurant to have a balinese buffet lunch. The satay was great but it was not free flow. If not, I would have grab a few more sticks. Yummy.

After the whole trip, we reached back our hotel at around 4pm. We decided to head to Seminyak Beach to take a look and we managed to catch the beautiful sunset.

Sunset

Dinner was back at near Seminyak square, but we decided to head to small eatery. It was not crowded at all and we actually hesitated before walking in. The rest of the cafes/restaurants along the stretch are not selling local food. I'm glad we went in. We ordered a couple of dishes to share and the food was quite nice.

First of all is the pineapple rice. It was a little oily but the taste was great. The second dish was the chicken satay rice with kangkong. The satay sauce was quite different from that we tasted in Singapore. It was not very 'peanut'and gave a sweeter taste. The blanched kangkong with the chili was a great one. Without the chili, it was just normal though it was fresh. But once you mixed it with the chili, it was real spicy. Trust me, if you do not take spicy food, do not order this dish. Last but not least on the table was the gado-gado. Totally different from what we get in Singapore. It consists of more leafy vegetables. I liked! Avocado shake was the drink to end off the dinner. Thick and nice.

Balinese Food

Before heading back to hotel, we bought a 10,000 IRD gelato as desserts. Cheap and yummy to end off the day!

Bali 2013 - Day 1

Taking an afternoon flight is always not a good choice for a short flight. We reached Bali at around 1pm via Tigerair to Bali. From the airport, if your hotel does not offer a transfer, you can simply get a cab and travel down. Take a look at this link. It states down the fixed price for the different destination. The official taxi counter is located outside the arrivals hall (exit arrivals turn right). Pay the fare accordingly and the cab driver will lead you to his cab. To note, we stayed at Sense Hotel Seminyak and the price should have been 60, 000 rupiah. However, the counter told me to pay 80,000 rupiah for our hotel location. Not wanting to create a fuss upon arrival for just SGD 2 dollars, we paid accordingly and board the cab. 

The journey was quite short, taking around half an hour to reach. The Sense hotel is situated along the lane near to the Seminyak Beach. It is also within walking distance from Seminyak Square which is at Jl. Laksamana Oberoi/ Kayu Aya, Bali. This street is more lively and nosier due to many boutique hotels and restaurants/cafes/pubs. Sense Hotel is actually a good choice for a quieter night rest. 

The cost of the deluxe room with breakfast for per night was around SGD 150. The cost included an additional bed for the three of us. Quite affordable and I had to say, the service crews are great. They are very attentive to our needs and even helped us to confirm our tours when we were not in the hotel . Thumbs up for them.

1. Deluxe Room
2. Swimming pool

Anyway, for Day 1, we did not plan much activities since we reached in the afternoon. After check-in and wash up, we headed to the Seminyak Square. This place became a routine place for us to settle our dinner for the next few days. 

Lunch was definitely on our mind as we did not had any food on the plane. We settled down at Kafe Betawi after browsing through the menu. This place is quite nice to hang out, given that there was not much crowd.

Here's my first meal for the trip - Nasi Uduk Ayam. Nice and comfy food as it tasted like food that we can find in Singapore. To note, the meat was a little tough though overall, it was great. 

Nasi Uduk Ayam

After eating, we decided to walk along the street in hunt for Bintang Supermarket which is at Jl. Raya Seminyak No.17, Seminyak, Bali, Indonesia. I read online that this is a relatively big supermarket that sells many things. I am a supermarket-lover when I travel. It is always interesting to see what they sell. I love to buy back interesting food stuff for myself or as souvenirs. However, this hunt was a real long hunt. I would recommend to take a cab if you are someone who does not like to walk. But to us, walking and do sightseeing at the same time was not that bad afterall. I did not really note down the timing we took but I guess it was around 45 minutes to reach the supermarket. 

After touring in the supermarket for an hour or so, we were happy with our buys. Walking back to our hotel was a little smoother, given the fact that we no longer need to keep looking out for the destination. We even pop in to some smaller shops.

Back at Seminyak square, we saw this pushcart selling corn. Not a roadside food lover, but I could not resist this. There are two flavours to choose from - Spicy or Salt and Butter. Great food.

Grilled corn by the roadside

This pretty much ended our day 1 at Bali. Time to hit the bed as we had a whole string of adventurous activities for the next few days.

For a summary of our trip, click here.

Macpherson BBQ Seafood - Clarke Quay

Do not be mislead by the shop name - Macpherson BBQ Seafood is not located at Macpherson but at Clarke Quay. It is always crowded during weekday lunch and the selling point of this shop is the affordable 'Tze Char' menu. For a price of $5.80 nett, you can enjoy good bbq stingray rice that comes with a poach egg. The chili that is served on top of the Stingray was marvelous. Not too spicy for me and if you can't really take spicy food, you can jolly well scrap the chili off the stingray. Seriously besides the fresh stingray, the chili is the selling point. It goes well with the steamed rice too. The serving of the stingray is just nice for me. 

Stingray Rice

Besides stingray rice, they also sell many 'Tze Char' dishes ranging from sweet and sour pork rice to fried hor fun to slice fish bee hoon. Just a  point to note if you are heading there for lunch - reach before 12pm or go after 1pm. In this way, you will be able to find a table easily. 

34 South Bridge Road
Clarke Quay

Redhouse Feast

Hurray! Been looking forward to this December as Miss H has promised to treat us to a Seafood feast. Crab was on her mind and she suggested going East Coast Park. However, as we were meeting on a Friday night, we decided to go somehwere nearer town. Redhouse at Robertson Quay was the final decision and that's great as I have never been there.

This restaurant is located further down from the Alkaff Bridge at Robertson Quay, away from the main stretch of restaurants. It is walking distance away from Clarke Quay MRT station and we reckoned it might be nearer to walk from Chinatown MRT station as well. 

First to be served the Red House Combination Platter (小红楼拼盘). It consisted of 4 dishes, namely birdnest fried with egg, prawns, seafood cake and some meat (I forgot what's the meat). We ordered  the small share which was just nice for the five of us. This appetizer was not really appetizing. Can give it a miss to save the stomach. 

Next up was the Wasabi Mayo Shelled (芥末沙律虾). This dish was great. First of all, you needed not deshell the prawns yourself. Secondly, I like wasabi. Topped the dish was strands of cucumbers which makes it very refreshing. The prawns were fresh and the i is a good combination for a seafood dish. 

The third dish was the Tiger Garoupa (老虎斑) steamed with Superior Soya Sauce (豉油皇汁). Fish is a dish that really test the chef's cooking skills. I had to admit the fish is fresh but I am not a fish lover. I guess that applied to my friends as well. This was the most expensive dish on the table (yes, much more expensive than the crabs) and we did not even finished it. What a waste. Go for it if you really love fish. I guess fish-lovers will really appreciate it. 

Got to be healthy was one of our beliefs. We ordered the Sautéed （蒜茸炒) Broccoli (香港芥兰). A very simple and refreshing dish from the heavily flavoured seafood dishes. 

Feasting at Redhouse

Here's the anticpating dishes - Sri Lankan Mud Crabs. We ordered two crabs with two different cooking style - Golden Salted Egg Yolk (黄金咸蛋螃蟹) and Red House Chili Stew (辣椒螃蟹). Marvelous!!!

Let me start off with the Golden Salted Egg York crab. A relatively dried version as compared to others that I had tried before. But this was great. You could literally eat the salted egg york. As it was not the gravy type, it was less messier to attack the dish. 

For the Chili crab, with the thick and sweet chili gravy, everything had to be put on hold. Delicious gravy paired up with the fresh crabs is the best combination. With the sweetness added to the gravy, this dish is not very spicy and everyone including children can definitely try it.  We ordered the or Fried Buns (炸馒头). Fantastic Combination. The bun is a great way to finished up the gravy. But basically, dip anything with the gravy and it can never go wrong. 

1. Golden Salted Egg Yolk (黄金咸蛋螃蟹)
2.Red House Chilli Stew (辣椒螃蟹)

Ending the dinner was a plate of Deluxe Seafood Fried Rice (红楼海鲜炒饭). A sumptuous meal with great companions made a wonderful day. This dinner took me two hours or more to complete - mainly due to savouring the crabs. One thing to note that we realised that the restaurant is patronised by more foreigners than the locals. But no worries, the service crews were very attentive and they would promptly changed our plates or to fill up our tea. No complains on the service. A good downtown place for a nice seafood feast. 

Red House Seafood Restaurant (Quay Side)
60 Robertson Quay
#01-13 The Quayside

Taiwan 2013 Prelude

Finally a long trip out to Taiwan, my first trip to the Heart of Asia. Been wanting to visit the place since years back but always not able to make it come true. Finally, this year, having many days of leave to clear, decided to go for a long trip there to eat and play. 11 Nov to 22 Nov, 12 full days in Taiwan (we reached at 6am and departed only on 23 Nov midnight), we had our fun. Itinerary was planned well ahead but we shifted it to suit the weather. Had been raining since we reached and Sis decided to push the shopping days ahead as she said that we should not be going up mountains during rainy days. So here's the actual itinerary we took for the 12 days - a prelude to the trip. I really have a lot of photos to sort them out. 

We took mostly public transport to reach our destination, except for Kenting which we had a driver to drive us to Kenting from Zuoying and also co-hired a driver with a couple to visit the tourist attractions. Likewise for the Hehuanshan (合歡山) which we had to wake up as early as 3.30am. The transport network in Taiwan is well-connected and the High Speed Rail is very convenient to bring us from Taipei to Tainan area. 

Day 1 & 2:

We visited the Mengjia Longshan Temple (艋舺龍山寺), Bopiliao Old Street (剝皮寮老街) in the morning after leaving our luggage at the hotel. Intial plan was to visit Yang Ming Shan (阳明山) and to visit a hot spring for a wash up. But it was drizzling and we decided to push forward some indoor activities. Thus, we went on to the National Palace Museum (國立故宮博物院) and National Revolutionary Martyrs' Shrine (忠烈祠). Dinner was back at Ximending (西門町). 

Day 2 was a shopping day for Sis. Happened that Sogo is having their anniversary sales. I wandered off to visit the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall (國立中正紀念堂管理處) and Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall (國立國父紀念館). We met up for lunch at Din Tai Fung (鼎泰豐) first branch. Afterwhich, I proceeded to Taipei 101 while Sister continued her shopping. We arranged to meet up at Shida Night Market (師大路夜市) for dinner and to shop. 

Stayed: CityInn Plus Hotel (Ximending)

Taipei (day 1-2)

Day 3 & 4:

These 2 days were devoted to Kenting (墾丁) located at the southern of Taiwan. We took the High Speed Rail (高鐵) to reach Zuoying station (高鐵左營站) where we waited for the driver to pick us up to our Minsu (民宿) at Love Sea 126 ( 戀海126). We eventually reached our 民宿 at 4pm though we left Taipei at around 10am. Long journey but totally worth it. We just laze around and went to the beach for a stroll, hoping for a sunset view. Then off to the night market for dinner. Splendid food there, really enjoyed eating along the street. Or rather, there wasn't much to do at night and thus, food was the only entertainment. 

Day 4 was the co-trip with a couple from the USA. And we went for a trip round Kenting, covering some of the tourist attractions like beaches, lighthouse, which I will go into details later on. 

Stayed: Love Sea 126 - 戀海126

Kenting (day 3-4)

Day 5 & 6:

Said Goodbye to the beach and off to Kaoshioung (高雄). Luckily for us, the weather had been great since we left Taipei. We reached Kaoshioung before noon and we went to the Lotus Pond ( 蓮池潭) which is a a man-made lake and popular tourist destination. There are Pavilions, temples along the trail. Made one round and we ended up back at Zuoying Station where we had our lunch and off to our accommodation - Jia's Inn.

Then we went to the Singuang Ferry Wharf (新光碼頭) and Dream Mall (統一夢時代購物中心) before heading to Ruifeng Night Market ((瑞豐夜市). According to the hotel service crew, tt is a very localised night market. There, we played games, ate and shopped.

Day 6 was a cycling day for us. We planned to head to Cijin Island (旗津島). At the train station, we rented the bicycle for the whole day at NTD 90. Cheap deal but the catch would be we will be cycling along the cars and trucks to the ferry terminal. Really an experience which we would never do in Singapore. Almost spent the whole day at Cijin Island where we had seafood. Back to the main island, we visited the Takao Railway Museum, Love Pier/Pier 2 Art Centre (驳二艺术区) and any places that we happened to pass by which attracted our attention. Back to Liuhe Night Market (六合夜市) for dinner. 

Like I said, the weather was great for us that my tan-line was formed. No rain but the scorching sun was there. 

Stayed: Jia's Inn (高雄佳適旅舍六合館 )

Kaoshiong (Day 5-6)

Day 7:

From Zuoying Station, we travelled to Taichung Station (高鐵台中站) to take a Nantou bus to Cingjing Farm - where the sheep are. We also went to the Little Swiss Garden, ate at the Carton King Cafe. Highlight was the sunrise trip to Hehuanshan (合歡山). 

Stayed: Misty Villa (雲濛仙境)

Cingjing Farm (Day 7)

Day 8, 9 & 10:

Half of day 8 was spent loitering around Cingjing and travelling back to Taipei. After check in at 3pm, we made our way to Shilin Night Market (士林夜市). Once again, we ate and shopped. Sinful!

Day 9 was spent going to Jiufen (九份) and Shifen (十份). Scenic views with history of the mining industry. Further to that, these areas are fairly influenced by the Japanese Culture. Interesting. Visiting the Jiufen Old street would mean eating and shopping again. Here, we managed to get some food souvenir back home. Shifen is the place where we can release Sky Lantern - Pen down your wishes and may your wishes come true as it flew up the sky. Initially we wanted to visit the Shifen Waterfall, but we missed the train from Ruifang (瑞芳). So be mindful of the timing of the train to Shifen. It seems to come in an hour's interval.  From Shifen, we decided to head back to Taipei Main station for dinner as well as to shop around. Finaly stop for the day was still Ximending since it was so near to our hotel - a plus point to stay near XMD. 

First half of Day 10 was to  Xin Beitou (北投) for a walkabout as well as hot spring. We managed to follow a walking trail which I found online. The route went like this: Ketagalan Culture Center > Beitou Hot Spring Museum > Millennium Hot Springs (which we went for Hot Spring) >  Plum Garden > Beitou Thermal Valley > Puji Temple > Lunch. 

Second half was to Tamsui (淡水). We walked through the The Old Street (淡水老街) to the Fort San Domingo (紅毛城), then to the Little White House (小白宮). Finally, we took a bus to the Fisherman's Wharf & Lover Bridge (情人橋) as it was quite a long distance to walk. Dinner was of course spent at the Old street after taking a ferry ride back from the Fisherman's Wharf. 

Stayed: CityInn Plus Hotel (Ximending)

Taipei (Day 8-10)

Day 11 & 12:

On Day 11, we decided to take this Taiwan Tour Bus which caters this Crown North Coast Route.The route went MRT Tamsui Station⇔Qian Shui Bay⇔Sanzhi Visitor Center and Gallery⇔ Baisha Bay Visitor Center⇔Shimen Wedding Plaza⇔Teresa Teng Memorial Park(Yun Garden)⇔Juming Museum⇔Shitou Mountain Park⇔Yehliu Geological Park⇔Feicui Bay⇔Dawulun Industrial Parks⇔Keelung Railway Station. For the one day ticket that cost NTD 100, you are allowed to alight at any stop and board the next bus again. However, do note that the bus comes in an interval of one hour and it could be late. They will not wait at the bus stop for anyone. So be on time. One advice is that you could not possibly visit all the places of interests in one day. Thus, make some research on the places that you are really interested in. This really helps. We did not do much research and we dropped off at the beaches where there were no activities going on - we just had to wait for the next bus and did rush through those places that we could have spent more time at if we did not drop off at the beaches. Dinner was at Miaokou Night Market (廟口夜市). Our last dinner at night market and we just whack whatever was recommended. 

Last day in Taipei and Yang Ming Shan was the only places of interest that was left on the list. Sister requested to start the day slightly later so as to catch up with some sleep - she had the impression that YMS can be conquered in half-a-day. By the time we started our YMS journey, it was around 11am. Trust me, to fully appreciate YMS, cater one day to it. There are many walking trails in each different stop which could lead you to nice scenery. Like above, the bus does have its timing and thus, do not alight at the wrong stop. If not, you've got to wait again. One of the must visit place in YMS is Qing Tian Gang (擎天冈). We almost wanted to skip it as it was getting a bit late. But luckily we did not. As for why, I will leave it to my YMS detailed post. 

Last dinner or rather supper was at  马辣顶级麻辣鸳鸯火锅 before we headed to the airport. Goodbye Taiwan and may we meet again. 

Stayed: CityInn Plus Hotel (Ximending)

Taipei (Day 11-12)

More information on how we travelled, more pictures of what we did there will be posted up soon. Till then... 

My getaway from Singapore - Bali 2013 Prelude

Finally settled down from my 2 getaway trips from Singapore - First to Bali in late Oct and a relatively trip to Taiwan in Nov. Here's the prelude to the Bali trip while trying to sort out the photos I have took. And before that, I am now thinking and looking into a third and final trip for 2013, that is to Perth. May my wish come true!

Bali (24 -27 Oct)

Cheap tickets and the desire to travel out of Singapore as soon as my hectic work schedule slows down was the pushing factor for this trip. Tigerairway was having their promotion during April and the deal went as low as around SGD150 for a trip to Bali, but without any check in luggage. Going to a Beach and relaxing trip does not require check in luggage was the thought for me then. I notified a couple of friends on this deal and 3 of them agreed on the trip. Out of the 3, 2 know each other and I thought why not. Travelling is all about meeting new people and therefore the 4 of us confirmed. But I guess, 6 months was too far stretch for one of us and she pulled out in the end. Nonetheless, the 3 of us went ahead for an adventurous instead of a chillax trip. We booked day trip out of Seminyak for the 3 days. For night life lovers, I guessed Seminyak would be good. For shopping and chillax lovers, Kuta would be great as recommended by the guide. For people like us who like nature, Ubud would be good as less travelling time to the destination. As for us, we booked our hotel - Sense Bali Hotel - without doing much research and confirming our itinerary. Thus, our travelling time was quite long. But nonetheless, we took the time to rest and relax. 

Day 1: 

We reached Bali at around noon and we took the time to relax after checking in - Walked to the Seminyak Square for meal and to the Bintang Supermarket to stock up. 

Day 2:

Booked the Bali Eco Cycling trip which brought us to Penelokan (Kintamani) for breakfast with stunning view overlooking the active volcano, Mt. Batur and its crater lake. Then off to start off our cycling trip where we will pass by Balinese plantation, travelling through lush forested areas, plantations, small villages and lush rice paddy panoramas, including a visit to a Balinese home/compound. Pretty nice relaxing day trip where tourists get to see the other side of Bali. No worries if you do not know how to cycle. Go for a tandem bike or just hop on to their van. 

Day 3:

Booked a private car which brought us to Water Rafting at Ayung river, Ubud Monkey Forest and Tanah Lot for Sunset. Supposedly there was a guide to bring us round and the duty of a guide was supposedly to inform us of the place. But he was not doing much but to bring us to the destination, dropped us off and picked us up again. I guess, we could just pay less for a driver. Nonetheless, we did enjoy ourselves that day.

Day 4:

The highlight of the trip was here. We woke up at 1am to prepare for our Mt Batur volcano sunrise trek. Amazing trip which only 3 of us went with a private guide. The couple who was supposed to join us backed out int he end. A 3 hours trek up but the fabulous sunrise blew our tiredness off. Totally worth the lack of sleep, the treks for it.

Day 4 was the last day in Bali. And I guess the next time I am back in Bali, it would definitely for some other volcano sunrise trek.

Till I blog on a more detailed Bali trip with more photos, here is the summary of the beautiful Bali, captured by your truly.  

Bali Beauty

Poulet - Raffles City

Meeting up with Random Friends to celebrate the youngest's birthday. Should be done in December but two of us will be away in Vancouver. Thus, we brought forward the celebration, especially when we last met up in September. 

Decided to patronize Poulet, a casual French restaurant, by the Thai Express group, at Raffles City. Been wanting to visit it since I heard quite good comments about the place. We had to queue for half an hour or so in order to get a seat and while eating, the queue never stopped till after nine plus. Good food but though not really that fantastic that I will be queuing half hour for it. 

Poulet

As a potato lover, french fries is the best starter for me. I would also try to order a share of french fries whenever possible. Huge chunky fries was great at Poulet. Complementary it was the chili sauce. Normal chili sauce which we can buy it off shelf . We could not understand why the service crew gave us such a small portion which we eventually asked for the 5th serving. Come on, looking at the serving of the fries, would really recommend them to fill it up to the brim instead of 1/5 of the saucer. This does not make sense! 

French Fries

Next up the table is the restaurant’s star dish - Poulet Rôti (roast chicken). The both of us shared the whole chicken. The portion was just nice and my friend was looking for the wing. She couldn't find it and I did not take note of the wings when eating. Seems weird, where are the wings? Anyway, the Mushroom Sauce complimented the tender meat. But towards the end, I got a bit sick of the sauce and dipped the chili sauce instead. Not sure if we did not enjoy the sauce or they really served the chicken with a lot of sauce - when we finished the chicken, there was still a lot of sauce leftover. But for around 30 dollars, personally I do not find this dish worth. Still, go ahead and order as this is, after all, my personal preference. 

Poulet Rôti (roast chicken)

Off to Mr Punch rooftop pub at Seah Street. Nice place to chillax as there was not many people there. Recommend to go!

Hairy Crab meal at Mouth Restaurant（地茂馆）

Sister's treat to Mouth Restaurant (地茂馆) for the Hairy Crab set meal. Initially she had a date with her friend but her friend was busy with work. Thus, I got a free meal from Sister as she had craving for Hairy Crab since long. 

If I remembered correctly, this is a November promotion and for $30++, you get to eat - 

1) Double Herbal Boiled Conch meat with Black Chicken Soup

2) Steamed Hairy Crab Meat Dumpling

3) Steamed Hairy Crab

4) Crispy Noodle with Chicken & Egg 

5) Ginger Tea with glutinous rice ball 

Not a bad combination but to a dim sum restaurant, it is quite a must to order Liu Sha Bun (流沙包). It is actually salted egg custard filling. Nice way to start the dinner as it took quite a while to serve the dishes though we had made reservations. Nonetheless, the bun was great. The first bite and the salted egg filling was oozing out. Yummy is the word to describe it despite the fact that I had 2 ulcers sitting at the top and bottom of the left side of the mouth.

Liu Sha Bun (流沙包）

The dishes did not arrive in order. We had the Steamed Hairy Crab Meat Dumpling served first. It tasted like normal xiao long bao (小笼包) and I did not taste any crab meat. Could it be the mixture of the meat that stole away the crab meat taste? I was not sure about it and seriously, before I looked carefully at the menu, I really thought I was eating the normal dumpling. What a waste that was!

Steamed Hairy Crab Meat Dumpling

Next up was the Double Herbal Boiled Conch meat with Black Chicken Soup - served pipping hot. I liked this soup. The chicken meat was tender and the soup was tasty. Get a chance and try the herbal soup in the restaurant, I think it is worth the price!

Double Herbal Boiled Counch meat with Black Chicken Soup

Next up is the highlight of the meal - Steamed Hairy Crab. The service crew helped to de-shell the crab first and removed the innards. Initially we thought that she will help to de-shell and gave us the meat. But fat hope. We needed to put in effort in order to enjoy the crab.

I took nearly half hour to forty-five minutes to finish the whole crab. As small as it was, it really needed time and patience to eat crab. I guess the smaller it was, the harder to do it. As the crab was steamed, we could taste the freshness of the crab - Nice. Best food is one that we can taste the original taste - No sauce, no nothing, just the meat.

Steamed Hairy Crab

Sis was complaining that the crab was small and she was not full. She was still suggesting to head to Chinatown for second round. But next dish up was the crispy noodle. The order of food was like that of a wedding banquet where the staple food was served well before the desserts. They did not take note that I was still enjoying my crab and served the noodle. Thus, by the time I get to the noodle, it was no longer crispy and had become soggy. Nonetheless, the noodle finally gave sis and me the full feeling.

Crispy Noodle with Chicken & Egg

Last dish of the meal was the Ginger Tea with glutinous rice ball. Oh crap, personally I do not like Ginger Tea. The glutinous rice ball was sesame and it tasted quite good for dessert. I really could not complete the tea, not that I was really full, but the taste was too strong for me. Ginger tea is good for health or whatever purpose, thanks but no thanks. Maybe the restaurant could give some options to desserts. That would be fantastic!

Ginger Tea with glutinous rice ball

A nice meal with a nice ambiance. The meal I took more than one hour to complete. Not fine dining but savouring on crabs really needs time and patience. The restaurant was not crowded and their service crew were very attentive to us - making it a point to refill our teacup, clearing the plates the soonest we finished the dish. A bit stressful for me as it seemed that someone was staring at you while you ate. Quite a nice place to have dinner. They have a branch at China Square and another at Plaza Singapura. Go for the outlet at China Square as it is less crowded. 

22 Cross St,
Singapore 048421

DIY Pedicure

Bought this Juicy Cocktail Polish from Etude House quite some time ago. Love the orange glittery feel. However, I had only used it once during the Chinese New Year. I can't really paint well with my left hand, thus, I can only do Pedicure on my own. 

Juicy Cocktail from Etude House

Here we go, here's my newly painted nails. By right, we should be painting Bottle 1 on the whole nail, followed by Bottle 2 on the upper half and lastly Bottle 3 on the upper quarter of the nails. But I decided to follow suit only for the big toe. For the rest of the toes, I did a random polishing. Can't really see it clearly from the photo though. 

Nonetheless, I love my toe nails now!

Covet London Nail Colours

Free express manicure - Covet London Nail Colours - at Tangs. 

New colour to welcome the weekend. I think this colour goes well with short nails. I love free manicure as my manicure always does not last for more than 3 days. I need to be more lady-like, I guess!

TCC, once again!

Three months in a row and I'm back at TCC for lunch again. This time round, I went to the Wisma Outlet. The ambiance was quite good but the service crew was not very alert. I waited for five minutes before someone noticed me at the entrance.

I had Pasta in August, Main Course in September and thus, for the month of October, I am going to try the Sandwiches. But just bread for lunch, not that. I ordered the New England Clam Chowder to start off the lunch. S$10 for the soup, not worth but with the 50% discount, I found the price reasonable. The soup was not very creamy or thick but it tasted good. There were not many clams served, many around five. The garlic bread was nice but I wished it was served warm. The soup was overall flavourful with the clams, potato cubes and chicken ham. 

New England Clam Chowder

Next up was the Cheeso Portobello Sandwich served with greens and potato chips. The problem I always have with sandwich or burger is that I need to 'dismantle' them in order to cut and eat them. Same goes to today's snadwich. The pan-fried portobello steak with cheddar and parmesan cheese was flavorful. I liked it. The turkish bread was cripsy and it went well with the portobello. The Teriyaki glaze and Japanese mayo was a bit too much for the dish. It was the first time I had sandwich at TCC, a good choice, I must say. The greens was there to make the dish more healthy but with the potato chips, my friends said otherwise. But lighted salted chips won't do much harm, don't you agree?

Cheeso Portobello Sandwich

To end off the meal, we had coffee instead of desserts. Well, I'm out with the small eaters so no choice. A decent hazelnut latte with caramel and chocolate bits. Love it. But actually, I quite missed their Osmanthus latte (I hope I mentioned the right drink at the right place).

Caramel Hazelnut Latte 

That's all for TCC. I hope I won't step into TCC till Year 2014! 

Lok Lok - Malaysian Local Delights @ Tanjong Katong

Three years ago, I was in Malacca and I heard about this Satay Celup. I had wanted to try it but I read about them reusing the pot gravy - that is for the whole night, they will just replenish the gravy instead of changing a new pot for the new customers. Oh man, my friend backed out on this food trail and till now, I have not tried this yet.

Sometime back this year, my friend, Cutie Wc whatsapp-ed me a picture showing "Malaysian Local Delights" with many satay sticks. I thought she went Malaysia for a food trail but to my surprise, she was having loklok in Singapore!!! But I wasn't in the mood for food back then and this shop slowly faded away. until recently, I decided to find some unique food to bring cuzzie around and this shop suddenly reappeared and off we went. Pretty excited  for the both of us as it is something different from the usual steamboat that we have.

When we reached around 1pm for lunch on a Friday, to my horror, there was no one in the shop eating the steamboat. We were quite upset that we travelled all the way just to find it closed. So I decided to ask about the opening hours for dinner such that we can come back later. Pretty surprised that the person at the counter says the steamboat buffet is on and led us to a table. We were the ONLY customers in the shop. As cool as it could be, it was quite boring as food is supposedly to be shared by many people. But well, it was a Friday afternoon and people had to work, unlike us. 

So apparently, there are two prices - S$24.80 for Monday-Thursday and S$26.80 for Friday-Sunday. The person explained that there is a 10% discount at this timing as the food range is limited. Well, there are more choices for dinner crowd, I guess.  

For around $24 per pax, I won't say it is cheap but the idea is refreshing enough for us to go try it! We were counting that if 1 stick of food is worth 50 cents, we would have to eat at least 50 sticks to make the money worth. By the way, the price includes free-flow drinks. 

For the sauce, we chose the satay sauce and the penang prawn soup base. The Penang Prawn soup is slightly spicy and the satay sauce tasted great.

The soup base

The food are all placed in the fridge and you can just take them from it. It is slightly different from the normal buffet places where the food are placed in open air. But it was tiring to open the door just to grab some food. I guess you can take a lot at one good - helps to save the environment.

Raw Food in the Fridge

I did not take many photos of the food, was busy eating instead of snapping. Here are some of the food I took - Pork Slice, Small intestine, Meat balls etc. There are also beef, vegetables and those yong tau food ingredients. By the way, the boss told us to cook the raw food using the soup base instead of the satay sauce. This is because the satay sauce is only lukewarm and could not really cook the food. Thus, we put the food into the penang prawn soup base, cooked them and dipped them into the satay sauce.

The Raw Food

Okay, have you tried Prawns in Satay sauce before? This is cool. Nice innovation to cook the prawns. And the prawns are fresh and we can easily peel off the shell. Not much of a hassle to eat prawns. But I guess we can first cooked the prawns, shell it before dipping into the satay sauce. In this way, our hands will not have satay sauce. I loved the prawns and I had quite a couple of them.

Prawns

Here's some of the other food I ate. My cuzzie was saying that they all looked the same once we dipped them into the satay sauce. I was wondering why I did not try the original flavour before dipping them into satay sauce.

Some other cooked food

Here's my achievement at the end of the feast - 63 sticks of food. VERY FULL!

My achievements

For the innovative idea of satay steamboat, I definitely recommend this place. But would I come again? Maybe not in near future!

Malaysian Local Delights
224 Tanjong Katong Road

Hainanese Curry Rice @ Beo Crescent

After watching Eric Khoo's new film about Dementia and Hainanese Curry Ric - Recipe (回味) on Sunday night, I had a craving for Hainanese Curry Rice. I always hear people raved about the curry rice that is situated in the neighbourhood of Beo Crescent. It is relative near to my place but with no direct bus, I seldom travel near there.

But with the craving and that the place is near, I decided to 'walk out of my comfort zone' to visit the place. For about 20 minutes walk or so, I finally reached Beo Crescent and trust me, you can easily spot the curry rice shop by looking out for a long queue forming outside a coffee shop. The old school stall has no sign board and everyone calls it the Beo Crescent Curry rice. It is a really small coffee shop with tables and chairs outside the shop. Strangely, I guess due to its own structure, there is no seat inside the coffee shop. 

I queued for almost 30 minutes before I placed my order. I might be stupid to be queuing with the lunch crowd. As I was alone and I could not see any available table, I decided to takeaway the food. (better than looking lost with the plate of food and searching for a table)

Their famous pork chops are on the must-try item and the person in front of me ordered S$5 for eat in and another S$5 for takeaway. Anyway, I ordered their pork chop, with the cabbage and a fried egg. I reckoned that being alone, we can never try many dishes. I better gathered my family again for good food soon. 

I thought with me packing my food, the Pork Chop will lose the crispiness as it will be dipped in the curry gravy curry for long. But to my surprise, the thin sliced pork chops were still crispy when I had them. It was like eating Keropok. The curry gravy was nice and complemented the Pork Chop very well. Love it! Here's a picture of my food, I'm sorry that this picture did not bring justice to the good food. 

Crispy Pork Chop

No Name Hainanese Curry Rice
Blk 40 Beo Crescent

TCC - The Connoisseur Concerto @ Orchard Ion

Amused by the number of friends that own the TCC card. 50% off the payment once again. This time round, I decided to look at the main course instead of the pasta. Can't imagine myself having to eat a big plate of pasta again. Looking through the menu, my friend realised that TCC does not have many dishes with the icon "Chef recommendations" and many of the "NEW" items have existed long ago. Our guess is that they do not update and reprint their menu. And this will also mean that they do not have new dishes for a long time.  

After pondering, the sides of the main dishes caught my attention - onion-roasted potatoes, lotus root slices and broccolini. So my choice for the day was Pan-seared Chicken Breast with Shogayaki Sauce. 

Found the Shogayaki sauce too salty for my tongue - does not like it. The chicken breast was not well marinated but the edamame cream proved to be special. Luckily the sides did not fail me. The lotus root slices are crunchy and the potatoes are soft. Good!

Pan-seared Chicken Breast

We ordered the Shrooms Bite as snack to share. It is definitely cooked when ordered as they were served real hot. So be mindful and do not put the entire piece into your mouth. The pastry was puffy and the mushrooms are great. 

Shrooms Bites

Complete the meal with my drink. This round, I ordered the Honey Citrus Fizz. It is soda that is mixed with orange, mango and honey. A fruity and thirst-quenching drink, feel so great after eating the salty sauce. 

Honey Citrus Fizz

ION Orchard
2 Orchard Turn #B2-49 

Homecook Japanese Chicken Curry Rice

Cooking day when I decided to take a break from work. As sis has some leftover japanese curry cubes, I decided to cook Japanese Curry Rice. Simple recipe to follow:

Ingredients:

1/2 tablespoon  olive oil

1/2 onions, diced - you can add more if you like onions, original recipe recommends 2 medium onions

2 medium potatoes, cubed

1 carrots, cubed - original recipe mentioned 2

Some Rice cakes (optional)

Chicken, pork or beef, cubed - I just prepared the quantity that I think we will finish - original recipe says 250g

700ml water

60g curry roux brick, mild

60g curry roux brick, hot

Ingredients - Carrot, Potato, Rice Cakes

Chicken 

Directions:

1. Heat the pot for a while and add olive oil and fry the onions until they are fragrant (2 minutes or so)

2. Add the potatoes, carrots, rice cakes and meat and continue to stir fry until the meat is cooked (about 5 minutes)

3. Add water and bring the mixture to a boil before cooking it on medium heat for about 20 minutes or when the meat is tender.

4. Remove the pot from the flame and add the curry roux bricks and stir until the curry is well mixed.

5. Stew the curry over low heat until it thickens (about 15-20 minutes)

And after an hour or so, here's our very own Japanese Chicken Curry Rice. Yummy!

Our very own Japanese Chicken Curry Rice

Basically, you can add in other ingredients that you like and create your own version of curry rice. For example, eggplants, broccoli, or even seafood. But do take note about the cooking time just in case some ingredients get cooked faster than the others. Manage your timing well and you can really enjoy cooking and of course, the end product - your yummy food!