<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<rss version="2.0"
	xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/"
	xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/"
	xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"
	xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"
	xmlns:sy="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/syndication/"
	xmlns:slash="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/slash/"
	>

<channel>
	<title>phingelicious.com &#187; food</title>
	<atom:link href="http://phingelicious.com/tag/food/feed/" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
	<link>http://phingelicious.com</link>
	<description>Deliciously Me</description>
	<lastBuildDate>Fri, 30 Jul 2010 02:21:34 +0000</lastBuildDate>
	<generator>http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2</generator>
	<language>en</language>
	<sy:updatePeriod>hourly</sy:updatePeriod>
	<sy:updateFrequency>1</sy:updateFrequency>
			<item>
		<title>12-hours-makan-all-the-way trip!</title>
		<link>http://phingelicious.com/2010/06/12-hours-makan-all-the-way-trip/</link>
		<comments>http://phingelicious.com/2010/06/12-hours-makan-all-the-way-trip/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 27 Jun 2010 12:43:36 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>angeline</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Ipoh]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[annoucement]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[food]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[outdoor]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[photos]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Dim Sum]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://phingelicious.com/?p=1903</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I&#8217;m super fulllllllllllll!
Just came back from 1 day trip to Ipoh for makan-makan session! We &#8216;flew&#8217; from one place to the others. Some are good, some are erm.. disappointing. Some are closed, but already made up our minds to visit them next time.
We even visited the caves, giving our tummies some time to digest them [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p style="text-align: center;">I&#8217;m super fulllllllllllll!</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Just came back from 1 day trip to Ipoh for <em>makan-makan</em> session! We &#8216;flew&#8217; from one place to the others. Some are good, some are <em>erm.. </em>disappointing. Some are closed, but already made up our minds to visit them next time.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">We even visited the caves, giving our tummies some time to digest them before starting eating again. <em>Lol</em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">I&#8217;ll specifically cover them one by one soon! Right now I need to shower, finish up my Indon posts and pre-pack for my coming trip!</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">See you!</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://phingelicious.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/Breakfast-at-Fohsan.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1902" title="Breakfast at Fohsan" src="http://phingelicious.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/Breakfast-at-Fohsan.jpg" alt="" width="580" height="866" /></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://phingelicious.com/2010/06/12-hours-makan-all-the-way-trip/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Indon IX: Ngurah Rai, here we come!</title>
		<link>http://phingelicious.com/2010/04/indon-ix-ngurah-rai-here-we-come/</link>
		<comments>http://phingelicious.com/2010/04/indon-ix-ngurah-rai-here-we-come/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 26 Apr 2010 14:21:45 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>angeline</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Indonesia]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[backpack]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[food]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[photos]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[AirAsia]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Bali]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[hostel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jakarta]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[NZN ice cream]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[shopping malls]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://phingelicious.com/?p=1575</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I woke up early in the morning, at about 6 something. I couldn’t sleep well because of the cold. Knowing that there are only 2 bathrooms/toilets available on each floor and nobody was up yet, I took my own sweet time bathing, washing hair and brushing teeth, Haha. Then I woke Sat up and the [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p style="text-align: center;">I woke up early in the morning, at about 6 something. I couldn’t sleep well because of the cold. Knowing that there are only 2 bathrooms/toilets available on each floor and nobody was up yet, I took my own sweet time bathing, washing hair and brushing teeth, <em>Haha.</em> Then I woke Sat up and the girls in my room.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">While going in and out of the room to the toilet, I bumped into an Indonesian guy who stayed in the room opposite ours. From exchanging smiles to small talk, all I know about this guy is he&#8217;s from another part of Indonesia (can’t remember where now &#8211; I think it&#8217;s Medan) and he’s in Jakarta for work. He then asked where am I coming from. When I told him that I’m from Malaysia, he revealed that he used to work in Malaysia in the city of Kuala Lumpur long, long time ago. After that I went back to my room and he went to the toilet.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Had Yakult as breakfast! <em>Hoho!</em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="alignnone" title="Yakult!" src="http://img687.imageshack.us/img687/7640/indon037820100119.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="402" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Then it was time to go. I took my backpacks and went down with the rest. We waited for our <em>pre-booked</em> Alphard Taxi at the verandah. After getting call from the company saying that the taxi is somewhere near the area, we walked out to the main road, Jl. Jaksa since the company claimed that the taxi is too big for the small lane.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img title="Bloem Steen entrance" src="http://img530.imageshack.us/img530/2278/indon038120100119.jpg" alt="" width="450" height="672" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span id="more-1575"></span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Again, I bumped into the same Indonesian guy and he bid goodbye to me. I said goodbye to him back. Sat was puzzled on why a <em>stranger</em> saying bye to me and I responded. <em>Haha!</em> I then explained to him the whole thing and he finally understood.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img title="Bloem Steem Hostel" src="http://img35.imageshack.us/img35/8956/indon038420100119.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="402" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Spotted an <em>Astro</em> mini satellite while walking out. <em>Hoho! </em>The peach colour building behind is La Margot Hotel.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="alignnone" title="Astro dish!" src="http://img263.imageshack.us/img263/6858/indon038620100119.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="402" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Sat pre-booked two taxis but only one came. The other one claimed that he got caught in the jam. So we sent one taxi off first – the one carrying Aaron, Elise, Lasker, Daniel and David. The rest of us waited at the junction anxiously for our cab as we need to check in by 10.  After all, we were told that the morning traffic in Jakarta is always heavy, so we’re hoping not to be caught in one.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="alignnone" title="The junction to Bloem Steen Hostel" src="http://img594.imageshack.us/img594/6932/indon038820100119.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="402" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="alignnone" title="Morning look of Jl Jaksa" src="http://img532.imageshack.us/img532/658/indon039020100119.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="402" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">An interesting looking tourist information corner with a helmet as representative. <em>Haha.</em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="alignnone" title="Taxi information? Haha" src="http://img687.imageshack.us/img687/7493/indon039320100119.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="402" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">About half an hour later, our taxi came. He apologized for his lateness and then we boarded the taxi. I was a little bit disappointed as I was hoping for outgoing, outspoken driver like Dade (the driver we got the night before).</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="alignnone" title="our Taxi Alphard" src="http://img341.imageshack.us/img341/7039/indon042720100119.jpg " alt="" width="600" height="402" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">In the entire journey, he just kept quiet and listened to local news and prayers on the radio, while the rest of us looked out to faces of Jakarta in the day.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="alignnone" title="Java Department Store" src="http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/2227/indon040220100119.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="402" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="alignnone" title="LV store!" src="http://img411.imageshack.us/img411/105/indon040520100119.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="402" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="alignnone" title="Another department store" src="http://img695.imageshack.us/img695/7379/indon041420100119.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="402" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">And I concluded that Jakarta looks better at night. <em>Lol! </em>In the day, it looks like Beijing. @_@ Don’t ask me why.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="alignnone" title="nice roundabout but very jam!" src="http://img200.imageshack.us/img200/5932/indon041220100119.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="402" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="alignnone" title="The only toll we have to pay in Jakarta. Hehe" src="http://img245.imageshack.us/img245/7472/indon042520100119.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="402" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="alignnone" title="airport!" src="http://img707.imageshack.us/img707/3601/indon043420100119.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="402" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">We reached the Soekarno-Hatta Airport Terminal 2 for domestic flight to Denpasar at about 9 something. The journey is shorter I guess, as I paid only 34.000 Rupiah (RM12.60) for the taxi ride including toll I think. Forget to jot down if that’s the taxi payment alone or with the toll. Paid the driver, took picture with the car and then went in the airport for check-in.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="alignnone" title="our luxury ride!" src="http://img532.imageshack.us/img532/9999/indon043720100119.jpg " alt="" width="600" height="402" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">The security was quite tight there. The lady security officer would only allow people in the hall if we showed her the boarding pass. But how can we get a boarding pass when we bought the ticket online? Luckily, Sat printed out the flight itineraries (as he said he foresees this would happen) and we went in smoothly.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Like usual, we <em>turkeyfied</em> our check-in backpacks for 30.000 Rupiah (RM11), followed by checking-in our <em>turkeys</em>, getting our boarding passes and paying the departure tax of 40.000 Rupiah (RM15) which is not included in when purchasing our flight ticket.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">My <em>turkey</em> weighted 10kg upon checking-in. I don’t understand why there’s 900 gram difference as I didn’t add anything in. In fact I threw 2 things out – my out-of-shape-blue-top and a pair of long-pants-with-holes. Was it because of the air that got trapped in the backpack? Or the way I squeezed my stuffs into the backpack.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Feeling hungry, we went food-hunting to fill our stomachs. Spotted NZN outlet at the airport, so I pulled Sat over to have a look at the ice-cream choices – to see they’re selling the same favours or they have those we couldn’t find back home. Upon scanning, I found out we never had ‘Spotty Dogs’ flavour before, or maybe I didn’t remember seeing it previously. Then Sat bought 2 scoops, one scoop of Spotty Dogs and another scoop of his favourite flavour for me to try. <em>Slurps</em>. Can’t recall how much it costs, but I think it’s almost the amount we used to pay in Malaysia after conversion.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Yup, all the way in Jakarta to have New Zealand Natural ice cream. True, loyal fans right? They should award us by giving us free ice-cream for loyalty. <em>Lol</em>!</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">While Sat and me hovered over the NZN counter, the rest went and bought gigantic curry puffs at the other side of the booths. After seeing them munching the curry puffs (where they purposely showed me the filling of eggs, and chicken chunks), I asked Sat to get one to try.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Can’t remember how much the curry puff is priced at because I forgot to jot them down. <img src='http://phingelicious.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_sad.gif' alt=':(' class='wp-smiley' />  But I think it’s about 5.000 Rupiah (Rm1.85) per piece? Or maybe 10.000 Rupiah (RM3.70) one as the size is big.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="alignnone" title="Sat with curry puff" src="http://img256.imageshack.us/img256/4474/indon044120100119.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="402" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">We sat at the tables belongs to the curry puff’s outlet before going into the Departure Hall. Quickly finished our food and then calculated last night’s dinner. Though we kept the receipt but it was rather complicated to calculate as it didn’t tally in the first place! Somehow we managed to settle it after few rounds of calculation and David was again loaded with Rupiahs! <em>Haha</em>!</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Feeling like going to the loo, I asked Sat to accompany me to the loo, but he didn’t follow – which I didn’t know why. Probably because he saw me walked behind Ailing and Emily, thinking that they went too. I don’t remember if they went too, but I REMEMBER as I was in the toilet’s cubicle <em>weewee-ing</em>, I heard a guy whistling in the LADIES TOILET, and then a loud bang on my cubicle’s door!</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">I was super duper <em>kan cheong</em> (panicked) at that time as I was <em>weewee-ing</em> halfway through only when the thing happened. Still, I prepared myself to launch an attack should the guy try to break open my door or do some silly stuff.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Luckily, nothing happened after that. I quickly flushed, opened the toilet door, scanned left and right, quickly washed my hands and ran out of the toilet to where the rest were.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">And obviously I complained to Sat for not accompanying me. <em>HMPH!</em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Then it was time to board the plane. <em>Woohoo!</em> Finally the hard-core backpacking days were over and hello to the tour-style! <em>Haha!</em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em><img class="alignnone" title="fabulous view!" src="http://img163.imageshack.us/img163/3978/indon045620100119.jpg" alt="" width="450" height="672" /></em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Our flight took off slightly later at around 11 am. The whole journey took 1 hours and 45 minutes. Initially Sat and I thought that it would take us 2 hours and 45 minutes to reach Bali but we were wrong as we forgot to minus an hour off to the calculation as Bali is one hour ahead of Jakarta and Yogyakarta.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">We napped not long after flying. But soon, I got hungry and woke Sat up. Haha. Damn evil <em>la</em> me. Then I ordered Air Asia’s <em>nasi kuning</em> for him, <em>nasi goring sate ayam</em> for me and a bottle of water. Damn <em>potong stim</em> upon seeing the size of the bottle. Moreover, I need to drink lots water especially flying on plane and the bottle definitely wouldn’t be enough for both of us.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="alignnone" title="Nasi Kuning" src="http://img685.imageshack.us/img685/6123/indon044520100119.jpg " alt="" width="600" height="402" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="alignnone" title="Nasi goreng sate" src="http://img192.imageshack.us/img192/5812/indon044820100119.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="402" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Still, we can’t afford to order another bottle as we were running out of Rupiahs! <img src='http://phingelicious.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_sad.gif' alt=':(' class='wp-smiley' />  Thus, both of us tried drinking as little as possible to last us the entire flight. But eventually, my throat was so dry that I had to finish up the bottle and asked the stewardess for another bottle of water.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">She came to me and told me that they have already closed the counter and gave me a cup of warm water instead! Without charging me anything!</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Ahhh! I felt so thankful for what she did. She saved me from possible sore throat (which I didn’t want to have during travelling) and the fact that the water was warm is even better! My throat felt better instantly and I gave half to Sat to quench his throat. He was also surprised to see the lady passing me the water without charging me.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Probably they didn’t know how to charge me <em>gua</em>. Moreover it’s just water, not some fruit juice or wine or beer.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>**If you are offered wine by the air stewardess, please opt for fruit juice or water, because wine and beer will make your throat feel even worst after that. Believe me, as I tried that before. Out of glamour (because first time being offered as usually the First Class and Business Class only got it), I took a glass of wine from her hand, slowly drank it and found myself requesting for 2-3 cups of water an hour later. LOL**</em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Soon, I could see land and sea from the plane window. I assumed that land is Surabaya as we’ve flown more than an hour. Lovely view, took few shots and continued whispering and giggling with Sat.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="alignnone" title="camwhoring in the plane!!!" src="http://img266.imageshack.us/img266/8971/indon047820100119.jpg " alt="" width="600" height="402" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Then announcement of landing was made, where we were asked to fasten the seat belt, push up our seats, etc etc. I looked out of the window, and I saw this beautiful bay, lovely moon crested sand island just few metres away from the shore (which looked like highway built on top of the sand island. <em>Haha!</em>) and boats going in and out from the bay. I asked Sat to have a look at the place, and he asked me back, <em>“where is that place? Kuta?”</em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em><img class="alignnone" title="a curve sand island?" src="http://img69.imageshack.us/img69/9908/indon047120100119.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="402" /></em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">I have no idea on where is that place. So I told him, <em>“ya gua.” Haha.</em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em><img class="alignnone" title="white boats!!!" src="http://img714.imageshack.us/img714/2707/indon047220100119.jpg" alt="" width="450" height="672" /></em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Our plane began descending lower and lower and lower till the sea felt near. Okay, this plane is not a water plane (it&#8217;s not Maldives anyway), so it wouldn’t land on the sea. But because part of the runway is surrounded by the sea, that’s why the sea looked and felt near to me.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="alignnone" title="can you see the sea?" src="http://img408.imageshack.us/img408/893/indon048020100119.jpg " alt="" width="600" height="402" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img title="airport!!!" src="http://img530.imageshack.us/img530/3618/indon048320100119.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="402" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Didn&#8217;t know why those <em>senget</em>/blunder photos look nicer than the straight ones? <em>Hmm.</em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">I never been to Hawaii, but the moment I stepped onto the land of Bali, I felt like I was in HAWAII! <em>Haha</em>. My mind must have been jumbled up, or maybe I yearn for Hawaii too much that I <em>see</em> Bali as Hawaii – as they say Bali is the Hawaii of the East.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="alignnone" title="Hello Bali!" src="http://img101.imageshack.us/img101/757/indon048820100119.jpg" alt="" width="450" height="672" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">At that moment, I wished I bought the oversize lady straw hat in Prambanan for 20.000 Rupiah to cover my head and face. I didn’t take that as the lady refused to go a little bit lower at 15.000 Rupiah, and my mind forgot to convert the 20.000 Rupiah into RM7.50 at that moment. So yup, I should have close the deal! <img src='http://phingelicious.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_sad.gif' alt=':(' class='wp-smiley' /> </p>
<p style="text-align: center;">As we were walking, the breeze coming from the sea felt like tho welcoming us to the land of Bali. Despite the sun shining directly on our skin, I didn’t feel any <em>pain </em>or hotness. Probably the wind made the rays gentler.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">We walked into the Arriving Hall of Ngurah Rai International Airport, took our backpacks and then spotted our fellow friends, Jess, Steven and KeatMeng standing with the locals. Jess was holding signboards bearing “<em>Adokys Travel – Mr. Satkuru</em>”</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Together with them were our guide, Mr. Yoga and a personnel from the agency – which I can’t remember his name. <em>Ops.</em> The travel personnel  introduced our guide to the rest of us and then accompanied us to our vehicle.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">I was super excited upon seeing all five of them as it further confirmed that the Bali trip would be well-taken care of by the agency Sat engaged with. Finally we can totally relax and enjoy the whole trip. Before that we felt like we were living on a ticking bomb. T_T</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">When our van came (a-13-seats-van), we quickly loaded our backpacks and sat in the van. Then the travel agent bid us goodbye and our van left the airport with high spirits.</p>
<p><strong>Multiple post : <a title="The Journey" href="../2010/03/indon-i-the-journey/" target="_self">1</a> | <a title="The hidden treasures" href="../2010/03/indon-ii-the-hidden-treasures/" target="_self">2</a> | <a title="The lost temples" href="../2010/03/indon-iii-the-lost-temples/" target="_self">3</a> |  <a title="Night fiesta" href="../2010/04/indon-iv-night-fiesta/" target="_self">4</a> | <a title="Loro Jonggrang" href="../2010/04/indon-v-loro-jonggrang/" target="_self">5</a> | <a title="The King’s playground" href="../2010/04/indon-vi-the-king%E2%80%99s-playground/" target="_self">6</a> | <a title="Wow Jakarta!" href="../2010/04/indon-vii-wow-jakarta/" target="_self">7</a> | <a title="Backpackers’ Heaven" href="../2010/04/indon-viii-backpackers%E2%80%99-heaven/" target="_self">8</a> | <a title="Ngurah Rai, here we come!" href="../2010/04/indon-ix-ngurah-rai-here-we-come/" target="_self">9</a> | <a title="it’s a big world in GWK" href="../2010/05/indon-x-it%E2%80%99s-a-big-world-in-gwk/" target="_self">10</a> | <a title="Monkeying at Uluwatu" href="../2010/05/indon-xi-monkeying-at-uluwatu/" target="_self">11</a> | <a title="Chilly night" href="../2010/05/indon-xii-chilly-night/" target="_self">12</a></strong></p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://phingelicious.com/2010/04/indon-ix-ngurah-rai-here-we-come/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>5</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Indon VIII : Backpackers’ Heaven</title>
		<link>http://phingelicious.com/2010/04/indon-viii-backpackers%e2%80%99-heaven/</link>
		<comments>http://phingelicious.com/2010/04/indon-viii-backpackers%e2%80%99-heaven/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 24 Apr 2010 15:06:50 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>angeline</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Indonesia]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[backpack]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[food]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[photos]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jl Jaksa]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[night life]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://phingelicious.com/?p=1562</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Jl. Jaksa is famous among the backpackers. Since it’s a popular place, we see no harm in staying there. The place is so alive, with people walking around the area, and most restaurants on sides of the street were fully patronized.
We walked along the streets, scouting for reasonable local food. We stopped by few restaurants, [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p style="text-align: center;">Jl. Jaksa is famous among the backpackers. Since it’s a popular place, we see no harm in staying there. The place is so alive, with people walking around the area, and most restaurants on sides of the street were fully patronized.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">We walked along the streets, scouting for reasonable local food. We stopped by few restaurants, with David occasionally walked in and asked for the menu. I was tempted to eat at one of the <em>warong</em> at the roadside, but Sat have told me earlier before the trip that he feared that some might have weak tummies; reminded me not to suggest that.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Done scouting all the restaurants, we walked back to a café somewhere near Hotel Le Margot as we felt that the place looks better until we saw ‘<em>roti canai</em>’ in the menu. We were puzzled for a moment, and then we realised, we’re actually looking at the menu that we can find back home!</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Immediately we walked out of the cafe, laughing. Then one by one pointed out that we should have noticed the silver chairs that can be found at the <em>mamak</em> stalls.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Somehow we ended up at the Jasa Bundo Padang Restaurant, as our Taxi Alphard driver, Dade advised us on trying the <em>nasi padang</em>. But he did remind us not to grab everything from the served dish, not even use the spoon to scoop it up; as one need to pay for that plate the moment you did that.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Not really understand what he meant by that, we walked in – with that warning in our heads. We were welcomed by the owner or I think he&#8217;s the owner of the restaurant. The one by one the waiters brought small plates of dishes and placed them in front of us. The owner then explained that those that countable will be charged according to the amount of pieces we take. For example, if we were to take a piece of fried chicken out of the 2 available on the plate, we’ll be charged for that piece only.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="alignnone" title="padang food" src="http://img691.imageshack.us/img691/2602/indon037120100119.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="344" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span id="more-1562"></span>As for the uncountable like vegetable, minced meat, we were charged 5.000 Rupiah (RM1.85) per plate.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Spoiled with choices and with the warning still ringing in our head, we carefully chose the plates that wanted to eat. I shared with Sat; only took if both wanted to eat that. I was so tempted to take the <em>cumi-cumi (sotong</em>) but one piece costs 8.000 Rupiah (~RM2.90) if not mistaken, so I stopped myself from taking it.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Only after finishing my meal, did I know that Sat also eyeing at the <em>cumi-cumi</em>; he didn’t take because he felt it’s costly. <em>Argh</em>, if he took that, then I can steal some from him! Lol.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Then Sat suddenly voiced out. I knew that he was boiling with anger after someone claimed that he was trying to rip the person off by asking him to pay the amount Sat have rounded as Indonesian currency doesn’t have smaller changes like in tens. They got have coins like 100 Rupiah, 500 Rupiah but even the Indonesians themselves didn&#8217;t round them up to thousand. He pointed out that he wasn’t angry if that person refused to pay 1.000 Rupiah which is like RM0.37 (as the amount wasn’t a lot to start a fight with), he was terribly upset and furious to know that the person voiced it out directly behind him.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">I know him. He’s the person who doesn’t really care about what people thinks of him, but if he’s already did so much to make this trip enjoyable and some funny fellow came and <em>cari pasal</em> just because he rounded the amount to the next thousand, he’ll definitely flipped!</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">If you don’t understand, then do this simple math: 85.000 Rupiah divided by 3. What do you get? 28.333 Rupiah right? Obviously one will direct pay the person 29.000 Rupiah.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">The atmosphere was intense. Ailing and Emily broke the silent by drinking quite loudly. Which made me giggled and the rest started talking and things went back to normal. I then consoled him and he told me he’s okay, just need to let this out to avoid other funny thing again. <em>(True enough, nothing funny happened after that! LOL)</em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">As we were talking over the dinner table, suddenly the faces of those sitting in front of me looked stun. Feeling weird, I turned back to see what gave them the look and I was stunned too.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">A <em>ahgua</em> was dancing indecently in front of the shop; shook and sway his body and slowly went down with both legs wide open. So disgusting!</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">The owner quickly as his waiter to give the <em>ah gua</em> some money and shooed him away. The <em>ah gua</em> left after being ‘paid’.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Seeing this, we quickly asked for bill. As much as we wanted to pay separately, the owner went and summed up all plates we took, including the chicken and <em>cumi-cumi</em> pieces, the bowls of oxtail soups and bowls of rice. David footed the bill first.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">After a fulfilling dinner (we ate a lot!), we decided to explore the city a little; by walking! Though I was feeling very tired and would gratefully fall dead on the bed in Bloem Steen Hostel, I gladly comply and dragged both feet around the area. I didn&#8217;t take pictures from and this explains the lack of pictures in this post.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">We went jaywalking. Passed by few decent looking <em>warongs</em>, where one of us would say, <em>“we should have come here earlier!”</em> Lol. Even walked by a very nice looking pub called, <em>Penang</em>. <em>Lol</em>. Never known Penang is so famous! Haha.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">We walked considerably quite far, before making a left turning. That road has even more restaurants and food courts, but most of them already closed up. There was rubbish piles at the side of the road, probably the council will clear them up early in the morning the next day.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Down the road, there was a crossroad. We turned left, walking back to our hostel. It’s like a big U-turn, with different things/buildings to see on the way back. There are even more <em>warongs</em> &#8211; stir-frying, barbequeing, grilling food; which made me salivated upon smelling them.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">We stopped by their local 7-11. Some went in to grab some drinks, while the rest stood outside chatting. I was getting very, very tired by then, and would gladly use a bed that time. <em>Haha.</em> David and Aaron came out, after buying the ‘<em>Love Potion’</em>.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">What an attractive name for a drink! Haha.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Further walks down, we reached the entrance of Jl. Jaksa. The street became more packed with people and cars. The bars were blasting songs loudly; all packed with people. We dropped by a mini-market somewhere near the nasi padang restaurant to buy drinks. I bought a can of local beer, a <em>Bintang</em> beer for 9.800 Rupiah (~RM3.60).</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Then we walked back to our hostel, and Ailing, Emily, Sat and I sat at the verandah, talking and drinking the beers we bought. David then joined us, where he tried to entertain us with his jokes. <em>Haha</em>.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">At the same time, we tried to contact the Bali gang. They were supposed to reach Bali at about 11 something Bali time. After knowing that they have reached safely and been picked up by the local agency we liaised with, Sat went out to the nearest cybercafé to wire the rest of the money to that agency. The rest of us were still there, chatting and laughing.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Realizing it was considerably late and knowing that we’re going to have a long day ahead the next day, we quickly finished our beer and called it a day.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">I quickly showered; packed a little, lie on the bed, talking to the rest until we fell asleep. The air-cond is set super duper low temperature that I shivered half way sleeping and used my small backpack to give warm to my feet.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="alignnone" title="beds in our room" src="http://img710.imageshack.us/img710/8538/indon037320100119.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="402" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">As the room’s lock isn’t secured, we used our backpacks as weights against the door. Emily told me the next morning that she had to push the backpacks one by one aside when she woke up for toilet in the middle of the night.</p>
<p><strong>Multiple post : <a title="The Journey" href="../2010/03/indon-i-the-journey/" target="_self">1</a> | <a title="The hidden treasures" href="../2010/03/indon-ii-the-hidden-treasures/" target="_self">2</a> | <a title="The lost temples" href="../2010/03/indon-iii-the-lost-temples/" target="_self">3</a> |  <a title="Night fiesta" href="../2010/04/indon-iv-night-fiesta/" target="_self">4</a> | <a title="Loro Jonggrang" href="../2010/04/indon-v-loro-jonggrang/" target="_self">5</a> | <a title="The King’s playground" href="../2010/04/indon-vi-the-king%E2%80%99s-playground/" target="_self">6</a> | <a title="Wow Jakarta!" href="../2010/04/indon-vii-wow-jakarta/" target="_self">7</a> | <a title="Backpackers’ Heaven" href="../2010/04/indon-viii-backpackers%E2%80%99-heaven/" target="_self">8</a> | <a title="Ngurah Rai, here we come!" href="../2010/04/indon-ix-ngurah-rai-here-we-come/" target="_self">9</a> | <a title="it’s a big world in GWK" href="../2010/05/indon-x-it%E2%80%99s-a-big-world-in-gwk/" target="_self">10</a> | <a title="Monkeying at Uluwatu" href="../2010/05/indon-xi-monkeying-at-uluwatu/" target="_self">11</a> | <a title="Chilly night" href="../2010/05/indon-xii-chilly-night/" target="_self">12</a></strong></p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://phingelicious.com/2010/04/indon-viii-backpackers%e2%80%99-heaven/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Indon VI : The King’s playground</title>
		<link>http://phingelicious.com/2010/04/indon-vi-the-king%e2%80%99s-playground/</link>
		<comments>http://phingelicious.com/2010/04/indon-vi-the-king%e2%80%99s-playground/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 16 Apr 2010 15:53:15 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>angeline</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Indonesia]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[backpack]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[food]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[photos]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Taman Sari Water Castle]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Yogyakarta]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://phingelicious.com/?p=1533</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[With about 2½ hours to kill before checking in at the airport by 3.30 pm, we decided to check out two Yogyakarta’s major attractions, the Taman Sari Water Castle and Kraton.
From Delta Homestay at Jl. Prawirotaman, it took only 10 minutes to reach Taman Sari Water Castle. The van driver parked his van at the [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p style="text-align: center;">With about 2½ hours to kill before checking in at the airport by 3.30 pm, we decided to check out two Yogyakarta’s major attractions, the Taman Sari Water Castle and Kraton.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">From Delta Homestay at Jl. Prawirotaman, it took only 10 minutes to reach Taman Sari Water Castle. The van driver parked his van at the car park area and again, knowing that we have to pay for the car park, we asked on the price. But our van driver told us to pay only when we’re leaving. Without wasting any time, we quickly got off the van. It was a sunny day, and I hate sweating after showering. <em>Blah</em>.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="alignnone" title="Taman Sari Water Castle" src="http://img100.imageshack.us/img100/4636/indon024520100119.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="402" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">We then sent someone (can’t recall who) to check out the entrance fee while we waited near the van. He came back with surprising news – something about taking camera in and has to pay 50.000 Rupiah (RM18.50).</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Shocked upon hearing the news, most of us decided not to take any pictures there. After collecting the money, we then walked in, with another two person (can’t recall who d) got the tickets on behalf of us at the ticket counter.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="alignnone" title="balai unit at Taman Sari Water Castle" src="http://img704.imageshack.us/img704/1524/indon024620100119.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="402" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Then the two came back to us with another price! &#8211;”</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span id="more-1533"></span>Only after the third time, we got the amount right. Haiyo. I think we spent like 15 minutes figuring out the correct entrance fee. <em>Pengsan</em>. The entrance to Taman Sari Water Castle is 7.000 Rupiah (RM2.55). To take photographs in the area, one needs to pay additional 1.000 Rupiah (RM0.37) only.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="alignnone" title="tickets" src="http://img651.imageshack.us/img651/3593/indon024820100119.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="402" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">We got ourselves a guide with no payment. He then led us to the four towers where the Sultan and his family would pray. There he explained the background of water castle – like when it was built, by whom, for what purposes, the earthquake, etc etc.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="alignnone" title="The garden" src="http://img412.imageshack.us/img412/8128/indon025520100119.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="402" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">I didn’t really listen to him as I got so impatient because of the weather, blah; but I remembered the important details; like the first Sultan of Yogyakarta built this for his family’s recreational as well as fort and was abandoned after being badly damaged in an earthquake. If not mistaken, the earthquake happened during the 4<sup>th</sup> Sultan ruling. Then the Portuguese government renovated the whole castle.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">He led us to the bathing area! There we could see two big pools on both sides. The one on the left is for the Sultan’s wives or concubines and the one on the right is for the Sultan’s children. Both pools now look inviting and fresh after renovation funded by the Portuguese government.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Made me feel like jumping in but I stopped after seeing a dead <em>tikus </em>(mice) floating in the kid’s pool.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="alignnone" title="Dead mice!" src="http://img202.imageshack.us/img202/6443/indon025820100119.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="402" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">At the side of the concubines’ pool, there’s a plant with small round green fruits. Our guide took one, squeezed it open, and then told us that in olden days, the ladies used this as nail polish. Then he asked for Elise’s fingers and painted on one of the fingers. Curiously, I offered my left thumb.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="alignnone" title="paint nail" src="http://img100.imageshack.us/img100/7636/indon026120100119.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="402" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">He painted. A shining layer appeared on top of my nail, and I happily showed off to Sat. Which made him said this, “<em>good, no need use money to buy nail polish d. Just plant this at home.</em>”</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">On the left side of the pool, there’s a watch tower. This was used for the Sultan to watch the ladies bathing in the concubines’ pool. If he interested in one or few of them, he would call for them to accompany him to bath at his private pool, which located at the other side of the watch tower.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="alignnone" title="Watch tower" src="http://img687.imageshack.us/img687/7412/indon026020100119.jpg" alt="" width="450" height="672" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="alignnone" title="the window to look at the ladies from the top" src="http://img29.imageshack.us/img29/33/indon027520100119.jpg" alt="" width="450" height="672" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">What an interesting life the Sultan had in past!</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">The Sultan’s pool is smaller compared to the others, but it’s big enough for him and his chosen ladies to play around.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img title="king's pool" src="http://img63.imageshack.us/img63/1677/indon026620100119.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="402" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">At the watch tower, there are also changing room and Sultan’s bedroom. The changing room is now empty (<em>like duh!</em>), but I can see that in the golden time, this room must be full of clothes and decorative.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">As for the Sultan’s bedroom, there are holes underneath the bed. That’s for the servants to burn the aromatic leaves/woods/potpourris to warm the bed and also to scent the room.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img title="King's bedroom" src="http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/9413/indon027320100119.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="402" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">We then walked to the back of the castle. The area is open up, with lots chicken running about freely. The chicken looked well fed too. Lol.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="alignnone" title="healthy prosperous chicken" src="http://img682.imageshack.us/img682/4844/indon028120100119.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="402" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">There the guide told us about the connecting route and on houses nearby the Kraton (Sultan’s Palace). He told us all houses here, including his, are occupied by the Sultan’s servants since the first Sultan till now, all generations are still working with the Sultan. He claimed that he and the other guides in the water castle work as guide free of charge, or in other field as way to show gratitude and loyalty to the Sultan for not claiming back the houses they stay. He added, in each generation, there must be one that must work for the Sultan; therefore it’s him who chose to work for the Sultan.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="alignnone" title="open field at the back" src="http://img18.imageshack.us/img18/9491/indon027720100119.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="402" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Asked if he works full-time as a guide, he said no. He said that all of them only required to work like 2 or 3 days per week. On other time, he would work other place.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">He spoke that they got nothing from doing such service, and off and on tourists would give them tips for doing the job well.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">When he spoke on the tips, it suddenly all made sense on why he’s telling so many things about this. Lol. But we all decided to chip in money for his tips, as he did do a good job in showing us around.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Then, he brought us to this handicraft shop located in the same area itself. Our guide told us that the people of the Sultan took handicraft skill to improve their living and hope that we could get something if we like.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="alignnone" title="batik designing" src="http://img687.imageshack.us/img687/3783/indon027920100119.jpg" alt="" width="450" height="672" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="alignnone" title="batik colouring" src="http://img683.imageshack.us/img683/5909/indon028020100119.jpg" alt="" width="450" height="672" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Living in Malaysia with the culture almost similar to Indonesia where we can find batik so easily, we scanned through the entire shop – I had my eyes on a piece of batik but never dare to ask the price because I scare it would be expensive and I would find it to be very difficult to say No after that. <em>Haha</em>.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">After that, our guide brought us out of the castle to another place. We walked past <em>kampong contoh</em> (excellent village) and could see that the villagers were quite stunned to see us. There’s one that said, “<em>arigato</em>” to me out of the blue and bowed! I was like &#8211; err… Do I look like Japanese? <em>Lmao. Lmao</em>.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="alignnone" title="going to another world" src="http://img684.imageshack.us/img684/6729/indon028220100119.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="402" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="alignnone" title="going to Kampung contoh" src="http://img46.imageshack.us/img46/6420/indon028320100119.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="402" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">We then reached a covered area with stairs descending down. Not knowing where we’re heading, I just followed the rest. The scenery changed from proper looking <em>kampung </em>to dilapidated brick houses. They are mostly abandoned.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="alignnone" title="old house" src="http://img213.imageshack.us/img213/2633/indon028720100119.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="402" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="alignnone" title="another abandoned house" src="http://img145.imageshack.us/img145/8465/indon028920100119.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="402" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Spotted an old bird cage. I guess it was used centuries ago. Unsure why it&#8217;s left there. <em>Hmm.</em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="alignnone" title="nice looking bird cage" src="http://img402.imageshack.us/img402/9649/indon028820100119.jpg" alt="" width="450" height="672" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Few turns to the left and right, and we reached to a nicer looking abandoned house.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="alignnone" title="Sultan's house?" src="http://img688.imageshack.us/img688/912/indon029020100119.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="402" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">If I’m not mistaken, this place is used to be the Sultan’s retreat house <em>gua</em>. It was quite dark, and deserted, and a bit eerie. There were no light, and the only light we had come from the sky. So I could imagine how dark it was in the past.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img title="king's bedroom" src="http://img684.imageshack.us/img684/3537/indon029120100119.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="402" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="alignnone" title="dark alley" src="http://img25.imageshack.us/img25/8373/indon029220100119.jpg" alt="" width="450" height="672" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Looking at the watch, we realised we had spent more than an hour there. Quickly we walked back to the water castle. Along the way, we collected money of 1.000 Rupiah (RM0.37) – some gave more and then passed to our guide once we got back to the entrance of the water castle.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img title="staircase" src="http://img710.imageshack.us/img710/1839/indon029320100119.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="402" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">But before leaving, I asked him if there’s such place where there are staircases all over the place in water castle?</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">He gave me a puzzled look, and asked me what’s the place called?</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">If I know about the place, I would have named it – instead of asking staircases place. Moreover, I saw that place in the photo album taken by my juniors during his visit to Yogyakarta last year! How can I be wrong? T_T</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Then he shook his head, and said, “<em>I’ve showed you all places here in water castle.”</em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Lazy on arguing about it, I gave some dumb excuses like <em>probably see the name wrongly </em>or<em> maybe not this water castle</em>; bid him goodbye and left this place. Sat passed 2.000 Rupiah (RM0.75) to our van driver for the car park and drove away after paying.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Initial plan of visiting the Kraton got scraped as we have only barely 1 hour left before checking in as our flight to Jakarta is at 4.30pm and we didn’t even had our lunch yet. Feeling VERY HUNGRY, we asked the driver to recommend us a place to eat.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">He then asked if we want to try seafood and went on describing about eating in middle of paddy fields, about freshness of the seafood.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Upon hearing the word seafood, we immediately said NO, and asked for cheap, local food by saying we were all students, not earning yet. Lol. Tell me <em>la</em>, how can we dine like Kings and Queens when it supposed to be a budgeted backpack trip? Lol. Moreover, that’s our 2<sup>nd</sup> day in Indonesia only. We can’t afford to toss the Rupiahs around on good expensive food when we could find the equivalent ones in 1/10 the price!</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">I guess the driver finally got that we’re the thrifty travelers that he brought us to Soto Pak Marto Taman Sari Cabang. We <em>buta-ly</em> (blindly) walked in, not knowing what was in store for us. Sat, Aaron, Daniel and me sat at different table as there weren’t enough for 10 of us.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="alignnone" title="menu!" src="http://img686.imageshack.us/img686/6896/indon029920100119.jpg" alt="" width="450" height="672" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">There is a big menu on the wall, based on the menu, we made our order. Curious on what’s <em>es jeruk</em>, I ordered that… just to know that’s lime juice with assam. Lol.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="alignnone" title="es jeruk" src="http://img638.imageshack.us/img638/9717/indon030120100119.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="402" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Few minutes later, the food came. Halfway eating the dish, I realised it contains beef. &#8211;“ And they only serves soto; either both mixed up (<em>soto campur</em>) or separately (<em>soto pisah</em>) like mine.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="alignnone" title="soto pisah" src="http://img687.imageshack.us/img687/8974/indon030220100119.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="402" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Feeling full from our lunch, the other table started to pay the bills at the counter. Just when the people of our table want to make move, a <em>ahgua</em> (she-male) walked in the shop, went around asking money. Seeing him coming near, I <em>buat bodoh</em>, pretended not to see anything and ignoring him at all.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">The next time I know, he uttered insults at me in don’t know what language. And the young girls in the store who understand that giggled and looked at me.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>WALAO EH!</em> If the same scenario happened in Malaysia, I would have scolded him back, in Hokkien. But since I was in foreign country and I got a plane to catch later, I just kept calm and continued acting dumb.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">The <em>ahgua</em> left after hurling <em>insults</em>. I then paid my lunch which costs 9.000 Rupiah (RM3.30). We had to pay for parking too, 2.000 Rupiah (RM0.75).</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">From our lunch place to airport didn’t take long. Probably about 20 minutes later, we reached the Adisucipto Airport. The van service ended there, and we paid 50.000 Rupiah (RM18.50) per person which amount to 500.000 (RM185) Rupiah for the 2<sup>nd</sup> day service. Since this country is known to tipping guides and drivers, we gave the guide a total of 20.000 Rupiah (RM7.50). That’s like 2.000 Rupiah (RM0.75) per person.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Then we walked in.</p>
<p><strong>Multiple post : <a title="The Journey" href="../2010/03/indon-i-the-journey/" target="_self">1</a> | <a title="The hidden treasures" href="../2010/03/indon-ii-the-hidden-treasures/" target="_self">2</a> | <a title="The lost temples" href="../2010/03/indon-iii-the-lost-temples/" target="_self">3</a> |  <a title="Night fiesta" href="../2010/04/indon-iv-night-fiesta/" target="_self">4</a> | <a title="Loro Jonggrang" href="../2010/04/indon-v-loro-jonggrang/" target="_self">5</a> | <a title="The King’s playground" href="../2010/04/indon-vi-the-king%E2%80%99s-playground/" target="_self">6</a> | <a title="Wow Jakarta!" href="../2010/04/indon-vii-wow-jakarta/" target="_self">7</a> | <a title="Backpackers’ Heaven" href="../2010/04/indon-viii-backpackers%E2%80%99-heaven/" target="_self">8</a> | <a title="Ngurah Rai, here we come!" href="../2010/04/indon-ix-ngurah-rai-here-we-come/" target="_self">9</a> | <a title="it’s a big world in GWK" href="../2010/05/indon-x-it%E2%80%99s-a-big-world-in-gwk/" target="_self">10</a> | <a title="Monkeying at Uluwatu" href="../2010/05/indon-xi-monkeying-at-uluwatu/" target="_self">11</a> | <a title="Chilly night" href="../2010/05/indon-xii-chilly-night/" target="_self">12</a></strong></p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://phingelicious.com/2010/04/indon-vi-the-king%e2%80%99s-playground/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Indon IV : Night fiesta</title>
		<link>http://phingelicious.com/2010/04/indon-iv-night-fiesta/</link>
		<comments>http://phingelicious.com/2010/04/indon-iv-night-fiesta/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 03 Apr 2010 14:04:09 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>angeline</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Indonesia]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[backpack]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[food]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[night life]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Street life]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Yogyakarta]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://phingelicious.com/?p=1509</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[By 6 pm the Yogyakarta time, we were on the way back to our humble hotel after visiting Borobudur and Candi Mendut earlier in the day. Everyone was so tired that they fell asleep. I wanted to sleep too, but somehow I can’t. I just feel that it would be a waste for not staying [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p style="text-align: center;">By 6 pm the Yogyakarta time, we were on the way back to our humble hotel after visiting Borobudur and Candi Mendut earlier in the day. Everyone was so tired that they fell asleep. I wanted to sleep too, but somehow I can’t. I just feel that it would be a waste for not staying up and look at the surrounding after coming all the way from Penang.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">At the crossroad, I spotted a man walking around the stopped vehicles; one hand playing the trumpet, the other hand held out, begging for money. He then showing off his skill in front of a <em>bajaj</em> (like the auto-rickshaw in India) carrying an <em>angmoh</em> lady and her local guide; until the lady took out money from her purse and passed it onto the trumpet man’s palm.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Interesting!</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">50 minutes later (the journey back took longer as there were more traffic on road), we reached our hotel. Sat requested for the van driver to drop us off Jl. Malioboro before he drove home and he agreed. He asked the driver to wait for us for half an hour.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">With such limited time to shower and rest, I quickly went to the public bathroom and shower while Sat went out to look for cybercafé to resolve some matter. He assured me that he’ll be back soon.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Now back to the public bath thingy, there’s no heater and public soap whatsoever, and I forgot to bring mine to the bathroom. I only remembered taking in the given towel, my clothes and hair shampoo! Goodness! Haha. So I used the hair shampoo as the body shampoo as well, washing myself in the <em>blardy</em> cold water! I was thankful for the clean water, but if the water was hot, then it would be better.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">By 7.20pm everyone already started gather at the poolside, but Sat was nowhere to be found! My anxiety level increased, and I asked for Ailing’s help to sms him. Afterall I didn’t want everyone to think <em>ill-ly </em>on Sat for not turning up punctually.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="alignnone" title="Swimming pool" src="http://img255.imageshack.us/img255/1416/indon008720100119.jpg" alt="" width="450" height="672" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">He finally showed up and quickly took a fast shower. I asked him what took him so long after we got back to the van. He said there were lots people in the internet café; have to wait for his turn to use.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span id="more-1509"></span>Our van brought us to this T-shirt lane, somewhere near Kraton, the Old Palace. We were clueless on why he brought us there, but we were very hungry and the shirts definitely wouldn’t feed us well. So, Sat told the van driver to directly bring us to the Jl. Malioboro where we can find decent food.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">There was a fiesta in the town at Jl. Alun-alun Utara, near the Kraton. We could hear music blasting out loudly, laser lights dancing in the sky, people talking over the speakers, urging more people to come in; mini-train with loud honk going round the area; vendors selling balloons, snacks, drinks – the area was lively and full of people!</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Our van driver stopped at the side of Jl. Senopati. Sat then told him to be here the next day at 8.30 in the morning as we engaged his service for 1 ½ day in total. That’ll be another 500.000 Rupiah (RM185 or RM18.50 per person) to be paid to him for the next day’s excursion and airport transfer.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">From there, we walked towards the Jl. Jenderai Ahmad Yani and 5 minutes later, we reached Jl. Malioboro! Oh my, there are lots food vendors, especially ladies grilling satays on a small barbeque pit on the walk pavement, while yelling “<em>Satay! Satay!</em>” However, the price of the satays got cheaper, and cheaper as we walked. Lol.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="alignnone" title="aunt preparing satay" src="http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/2379/indon009220100119.jpg" alt="" width="450" height="672" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Tempted and hungry, we tried those satays. We paid 4.000 Rupiah (RM1.50) for 10 sticks of satays and their local <em>lemang</em> (if I’m not wrong, that’s the <em>lemang</em>). I took one stick to try. To be frank, I felt like I was biting on chicken skin or chicken fat instead of meat. I was confused if all satays in Indonesia are like that or only the one at the streets.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">In front of the sate stall we bought from, is a kuih stall. Emily, Elise and Ailing were attracted to the colourful kuihs, therefore buying some from them. Can’t recall how much it costs but it’s definitely cheap.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="alignnone" title="kuih melaka?" src="http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/9013/indon009720100119.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="402" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">The above kuih is almost the same as our kuih melaka, except that the filling is partially hard brown sugar whereas ours is the melted brown sugar.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Few steps ahead, I spotted a wooden stall bearing the word – RON DE. Curiously, I went to the stall and asked the old man what’s <em>ron de</em>. He replied in very heavy Yogya’s Indonesian language – from what I know he spoke about <em>sup</em> <em>halia</em> (ginger soup) and the ingredients (he pointed to the ingredients in the stall as he spoke) all mixed together. Knowing that that soup wouldn’t harm me, and would help me kick off the wind in my tummy (because of the ginger), I ordered one bowl, sharing it with Sat.  It costs 4.000 Rupiah (RM1.50) too and it was heavenly!</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="alignnone" title="making ronde" src="http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/1563/indon010020100119.jpg" alt="" width="450" height="672" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">After seeing 2 thumbs up from me and Sat, Emily and Elise ordered a bowl each too, sharing with Ailing and Lasker. <em>Memang enak</em>!</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img title="Ronde stall" src="http://img532.imageshack.us/img532/7120/indon010520100119.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="402" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Jl. Malioboro is packed with people even on Wednesday night! There are shops selling cheap T-shirt (damn cheap like RM3 per piece, but lazy want to bargain more because don’t want to carry extra load on our back), all sorts of colourful snacks, souvenirs, shoes, bags, and so on. There are also food carts at the corner/side of the road, with mini tables and benches for their customers.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="alignnone" title="walking along the kaki lima" src=" http://img695.imageshack.us/img695/9921/indon011220100119.jpg" alt="" width="450" height="672" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">At the middle of the popular street, we decided to go to the funfair we saw earlier. That place looked more entertaining and since we don’t feel like buying things yet, we crossed the road to the opposite side, and walked the opposite way to the funfair. Along the way, we saw few <em>angmoh</em> and local kids playing 3-on-3 basketball on the pavement. There was a girl playing in there too! <em>Fuiyo</em>, girl power!</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="alignnone" title="crossing the road" src=" http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/4984/indon011020100119.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="402" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">About 15 minutes later, we reached the entrance of the funfair. At the entrance there were carts selling fried snacks. We bought some there, if not mistaken 500 or 700 Rupiah (RM0.20) per piece which amount to 3.500 Rupiah in total. But the lady didn’t have change when we gave her 4 pieces of 1.000 Rupiah, so she gave us extra one piece.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">And being so clumsy, while eating, one of the pieces – fried tofu fell off the plastic! <em>Boohoo</em>!</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Done eating, we entered the funfair. I think we were the only foreigners there! It was quite scary but since we’re in considerably big group, it should be okay. There are plenty to things to see – colourful decorated hermit crabs’ shells (which remind me greatly of Wenyan because she used to have one last time), cheap jeans and leather jackets, DIY T-shirt prints, and many more.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Also, one can find their local rides there.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="alignnone" title="Ferris wheel" src=" http://img444.imageshack.us/img444/8756/indon012020100119.jpg" alt="" width="450" height="672" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">One that caught our eyes is the <em>‘twister’</em>. Local would sit at the bench with their arms hold tightly at the wooden plank which acts as the back rest too, while the operators would pull and push the ride, making it swings up and down.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img title="Twister" src="http://img194.imageshack.us/img194/8264/indon012120100119.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="402" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Interesting yet dangerous!</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img title="Twister in motion!" src="http://img338.imageshack.us/img338/6892/indon012320100119.jpg" alt="" width="450" height="672" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Still feeling hungry, I begged Sat to feed me more food. He then pointed to a <em>Bakso</em> stall near the ‘twister’ ride. Not knowing what bakso is, I simply ordered that and I was very, very, very hungry!</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="alignnone" title="Teh Botol" src="http://img203.imageshack.us/img203/770/indon011520100119.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="402" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">The bakso costs 6.000 Rupiah (RM2.20), Sat’s fried rice costs 10.000 Rupiah (RM3.70) and a bottle of Teh Botol costs 4.000 Rupiah (RM1.50).</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="alignnone" title="Bakso" src="http://img402.imageshack.us/img402/5007/indon011720100119.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="402" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="alignnone" title="Fried rice" src="http://img269.imageshack.us/img269/3884/indon011920100119.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="402" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">After coming back to Penang only I knew that the meatball in the bakso is actually made of beef. Lol. But since I didn’t know about it when I ate that, I think I’m not that entirely sinful <em>gua</em>…</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Tired for not having enough sleep, everyone agreed that it was time to go home. We walked back to Jl. Senopati, hailed two taxis for 50.000 Rupiah (RM18.50) to our hotel, Delta Homestay at Jl. Prawirotaman.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">As much as I want to shower before I slept, but the thought of the cold water I had earlier totally turned me off. I washed my face, brushed teeth and fell asleep the moment my head touched the pillow.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">
<p style="text-align: center;">
<p style="text-align: left;"><strong>Multiple post : <a title="The Journey" href="../2010/03/indon-i-the-journey/" target="_self">1</a> | <a title="The hidden treasures" href="../2010/03/indon-ii-the-hidden-treasures/" target="_self">2</a> | <a title="The lost temples" href="../2010/03/indon-iii-the-lost-temples/" target="_self">3</a> |  <a title="Night fiesta" href="../2010/04/indon-iv-night-fiesta/" target="_self">4</a> | <a title="Loro Jonggrang" href="../2010/04/indon-v-loro-jonggrang/" target="_self">5</a> | <a title="The King’s playground" href="../2010/04/indon-vi-the-king%E2%80%99s-playground/" target="_self">6</a> | <a title="Wow Jakarta!" href="../2010/04/indon-vii-wow-jakarta/" target="_self">7</a> | <a title="Backpackers’ Heaven" href="../2010/04/indon-viii-backpackers%E2%80%99-heaven/" target="_self">8</a> | <a title="Ngurah Rai, here we come!" href="../2010/04/indon-ix-ngurah-rai-here-we-come/" target="_self">9</a> | <a title="it’s a big world in GWK" href="../2010/05/indon-x-it%E2%80%99s-a-big-world-in-gwk/" target="_self">10</a> | <a title="Monkeying at Uluwatu" href="../2010/05/indon-xi-monkeying-at-uluwatu/" target="_self">11</a> | <a title="Chilly night" href="../2010/05/indon-xii-chilly-night/" target="_self">12</a></strong></p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://phingelicious.com/2010/04/indon-iv-night-fiesta/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>9</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Ang ku kueh</title>
		<link>http://phingelicious.com/2010/03/ang-ku-kueh/</link>
		<comments>http://phingelicious.com/2010/03/ang-ku-kueh/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 13 Mar 2010 14:36:36 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>angeline</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[family]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[festival]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[food]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[penang]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Chinese New Year]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[kueh]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://phingelicious.com/?p=1353</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[For the first time, my aunt from Singapore decided to come back during Chinese New Year. It&#8217;s not that she never comes back before; she just chose not to during Chinese New Year because of the exorbitant flight ticket. She came back on the 7th day, just in time to lou sang with the rest [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p style="text-align: center;">For the first time, my aunt from Singapore decided to come back during Chinese New Year. It&#8217;s not that she never comes back before; she just chose not to during Chinese New Year because of the exorbitant flight ticket. She came back on the 7th day, just in time to <em>lou sang </em>with the rest of the family members!</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">So all of us were summoned to granny&#8217;s on 8th day of CNY.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">That day was the eve of Hokkien New Year (<em>Thni Kong Seh</em>) celebration. Due to maternal granny&#8217;s first year of passing, we didn&#8217;t give prayer and offerings at home.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img title="tortoise shaped dough!" src="http://img714.imageshack.us/img714/4871/cnydad01.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="402" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">When we reached, we realised that my aunts were busy making <em>ang ku kueh</em>. I never seen the process before, quickly took out my camera and shoot! <em>Keke</em>.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img title="the dough" src="http://img25.imageshack.us/img25/606/cnydad09.jpg " alt="" width="600" height="402" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span id="more-1353"></span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">I can&#8217;t recall what flour they used, probably some glutinous rice floor (I maybe wrong, never bother to check about it.. LOL), add red colouring, and water, little bit of oil, mixed them together. As for the filling, aunt used sweet potatoes; boiled, peeled and smashed. The skin (red dough) is flattened first, before wrapping the filling. Then it is placed into the wooden mould like the picture above.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img title="rolling and stuffing filling" src=" http://img641.imageshack.us/img641/4955/cnydad07.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="402" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img title="pressing dough into the mould" src="http://img714.imageshack.us/img714/7766/cnydad08.jpg  " alt="" width="600" height="402" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img title="knocking the dough out" src="http://img535.imageshack.us/img535/7707/cnydad04.jpg" alt="" width="450" height="672" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Give it a little knock to get the shaped dough out and the end result would look like this.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img title="closed up sample" src="http://img169.imageshack.us/img169/5586/cnydad02.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="402" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">My aunts made the process looked so easy; which I can&#8217;t say if it is as I didn&#8217;t participate. Would love to get my hand dirty on doing this, but I think I rather stand aside and watch &#8211; avoid screwing things up. Haha.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="alignnone" title="traditional stove" src="http://img717.imageshack.us/img717/9371/cnydad03.jpg " alt="" width="600" height="402" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="alignnone" title="tadaaa!" src="http://img707.imageshack.us/img707/8656/cnydad05.jpg" alt="" width="450" height="672" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Next, the shaped dough is steamed for about 10 minutes? You see, when I didn&#8217;t involve in making the <em>kueh</em>, I don&#8217;t know the exact detail. Haha!</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Yet somehow the shape looks not so attractive to me after being steamed. They look so puffed up, and the shape isn&#8217;t distinctive anymore. <img src='http://phingelicious.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_sad.gif' alt=':(' class='wp-smiley' />  I prefer the uncooked kueh. Haha!</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="alignnone" title="end result" src="http://img502.imageshack.us/img502/8629/cnydad12.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="402" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="alignnone" title="closed up" src="http://img28.imageshack.us/img28/3077/cnydad13.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="402" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">After the <em>angkukueh </em>were all steamed, it was time for <em>lousang</em>.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img title="yeesang!" src="http://img534.imageshack.us/img534/2091/cnydad10.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="402" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">There is nothing much to shout about the yeesang. Typical method of <em>lousang</em>-ing, <em>lou</em> it as high as possible until it was all over the table. Haha.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://phingelicious.com/2010/03/ang-ku-kueh/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>6</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Reunion Dinner 2010</title>
		<link>http://phingelicious.com/2010/03/reunion-dinner-2010/</link>
		<comments>http://phingelicious.com/2010/03/reunion-dinner-2010/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 10 Mar 2010 14:37:11 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>angeline</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[cookery]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[family]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[festival]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[food]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[photos]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[CNY]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[reunion dinner]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://phingelicious.com/?p=1295</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Yearly tradition. 8 significant entrée. Eve of CNY. Aftermath : Bloated tummy.
This year I was abit late in listing down the recipes and going around looking for the ingredients. Didn&#8217;t know what stuff I got so busy with until almost neglected the most important Chinese culture. Lol.
I almost told my mum to just buy the [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p style="text-align: center;">Yearly tradition. 8 significant entrée. Eve of CNY. Aftermath : Bloated tummy.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">This year I was abit late in listing down the recipes and going around looking for the ingredients. Didn&#8217;t know what stuff I got so busy with until almost neglected the most important Chinese culture. Lol.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">I almost told my mum to just buy the ingredients for steamboat because I got &#8216;lazy&#8217; just by thinking bout it! The agony of coming out with 8 entrée!</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">But then the tradition must go one &#8211; since it started by me. <em>*sendiri cari pasal la*</em> So, when the day came, I started chopping up the ingredients at 3.30pm as mum requested to eat earlier at 7pm.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Mum would drop by the kitchen, asking if I need her help. But thinking that I have plenty of time left, I told her that I&#8217;ll be fine on my own.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Little did I know, time really FLEW!</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">By 5.30pm, only 2 courses were done and I had to yell for my sister to help me in frying few things as I was busy preparing for the major dishes!</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img title="bacon wrapped scallop" src="http://img30.imageshack.us/img30/4570/reuniondinner08.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="402" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>Bacon wrapped scallop</em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em><span id="more-1295"></span></em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Sat came at 6pm &#8211; cause I told him too. And I thought of asking him to help up. But he dressed up so nicely and calling him to the dirty kitchen would mess him up.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">So just me and my sister. She went on deep frying 2 dishes, and stir-fry the vege on my behalf while I frantically ran in and out the wet kitchen getting more and more ingredients, the correct plate; did wrapping, decorate dishes and food tasting.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img title="assorted veges with love apple" src="http://img63.imageshack.us/img63/9816/reuniondinner01.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="402" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Stir-fry mixed vege with love apple</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img title="Guinness Stout pork ribs" src="http://img211.imageshack.us/img211/1708/reuniondinner02.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="402" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Guinness stout spareribs</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img title="firecracker prawn" src="http://img697.imageshack.us/img697/6406/reuniondinner04.jpg" alt="" width="450" height="672" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Firecracker prawn</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">By 7pm, the fish was put into wok for steaming and the plates were laid on the table, together with glass cups, chopsticks and spoons. Followed by the dishes soon after that.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img title="Restaurant style steamed fish" src="http://img37.imageshack.us/img37/3862/reuniondinner03.jpg  " alt="" width="600" height="402" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Restaurant style steamed white pomfret</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">The dinner started half an hour later as I got carried away with the timing. However the highlight of the dinner was still in the oven by the time we started eating. LOL!</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">After 15 minutes into eating, I took out the chicken from the oven. This dish supposed to be double-steamed, but because mum gave away the steamer to her friends last time which I didn&#8217;t know about that (&#8211;&#8221;), we have to &#8216;bake&#8217; the chicken.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img title="8 treasure chicken" src="http://img691.imageshack.us/img691/6812/reuniondinner10.jpg " alt="" width="600" height="402" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>Lotus wrapped 8 Treasure Baked Chicken</em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Thank god it turned out well despite the black burning of the lotus. *<em>Phew</em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">If you noticed there are only 6 photos available. That&#8217;s because I forgot to take picture of the dessert &#8211; which doesn&#8217;t really matter since it was half fail. Half fail because the tastewise was good, but lookwise it didn&#8217;t! Probably putting ice cream on top of the supposedly cake would make it nice! Haha!</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">As for another one, it supposed to be fruit salad &#8211; which I didn&#8217;t make because everyone couldn&#8217;t eat anymore at the end of the meal. We only took dessert 2 hours after dinner as we were too full!</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Having been the &#8216;major chef&#8217; on the CNY eve since 2006 continuously is seriously an honourific task. From choosing the right recipes (in order not to clash with superstition beliefs) to cooking the dish out and decorating them requires an enormous work and energy and time! But it&#8217;s all worthwhile. Afterall reunion dinner only occurs once a year, so no complains!</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Maybe next year I should reduce to 5 entrée and 1 dessert. 6 (pronounced as <em>lak</em> in Hokkien) sounds like LUCK tho the Cantonese&#8217;s &#8216;<em>fatt</em>&#8216; (8) which means PROSPER! sounds even nicer! Haha</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Well, we&#8217;ll see about that next year&#8230; <img src='http://phingelicious.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':)' class='wp-smiley' /> </p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://phingelicious.com/2010/03/reunion-dinner-2010/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>7</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Cambodia Ep 21: of massage, beer and slippers?</title>
		<link>http://phingelicious.com/2010/03/cambodia-ep-21-of-massage-beer-and-slippers/</link>
		<comments>http://phingelicious.com/2010/03/cambodia-ep-21-of-massage-beer-and-slippers/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 07 Mar 2010 02:50:13 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>angeline</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Cambodia]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[backpack]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[food]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[photos]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Angkor beer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Khmer massage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Siem Reap]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://phingelicious.com/?p=1317</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[After 5 days of walking, it&#8217;s time to pamper our body the Cambodian style! Sat had pre-arranged with Mr Kunn earlier to include in a free body massage for each of us. Initially Ailing doesn&#8217;t want to join, but after a little bit of tricks and much coaxation, we managed to pull her into this! [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p style="text-align: center;">After 5 days of walking, it&#8217;s time to pamper our body the Cambodian style! Sat had pre-arranged with Mr Kunn earlier to include in a free body massage for each of us. Initially Ailing doesn&#8217;t want to join, but after a little bit of tricks and much coaxation, we managed to pull her into this! Muahaha!</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">We were brought to this big white mansion. There were few ladies standing in front of the building and seeing our van pulling in, they quickly went in. (pic <em>stolen</em> from <a title="Emily" href="http://millymin.blogspot.com" target="_blank">Emily</a>)</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="alignnone" title="big mansion" src="http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/4720/cambodiaday5millymincom.jpg" alt="" width="389" height="581" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">I heard bout &#8217;special&#8217; massage in Thailand but unsure if there are such service in Cambodia. No taking any chances, I told Sat that <em>NO SPECIAL SPECIAL AH</em>, and he told me don&#8217;t worry about it. Lol!</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">We were greeted, rather coldly. Eh, wait. Were we greeted? All I know is we went in,and there was this lady behind the cashier who gestured us to sit at the rattan chair. I wasn&#8217;t sure if it was because we were foreigners where they couldn&#8217;t speak to us because the universal language is English or because there were girls in the group? I dismissed the second thought.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Then the ladies came with plastic hand basin of half filled water, a wash brush, and a towel. They placed the wash basin on the floor, hand signalled us to lift up our feet and placed them onto the washbasin. Then they started washing and brushing our feet!</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="alignnone" title="wash feet!" src="http://img710.imageshack.us/img710/6229/cambodiadsc0427.jpg" alt="" width="450" height="672" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span id="more-1317"></span>It was one hell of <em>gelicious</em> (ticklish) moment, making me felt like laughing out loud! But it was a quick wash. Just when I began to enjoy the foot wash, the ordeal finished. The lady wiped cleanly my feet with the towel she brought and then gestured us to the room upstairs.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">We were separated into 2 rooms situated just opposite of each other. In the room, there are 4 mattresses and 4 sets of pyjamas!</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Initially I thought we have to be naked! Thank god for the pyjamas! Haha. We changed into the pyjamas and took a picture of ourselves in PJ!</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img title="us in PJ!" src="http://img684.imageshack.us/img684/3228/jpeg02.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="402" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Then the ladies came in. And the nightmare begannn&#8230;</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">It started with the feet massage&#8230; and I remember laughing and giggling nonstop! Well, not only me who was laughing, but the rest too. Soon, the ticklish became bearable and the laughters stopped and we started talking to each other.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Not only us talking, the lady massagers talked too, to themselves. Haha.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">I can still remember, there&#8217;s this one pose she did on me, which was like mind-blowing.. BUT after she did that, my back felt very good! <em>*ahh.. I&#8217;m so in  need of a Cambodian massage now*</em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">No, there are no oil applied on the body. Just massage and <em>krakkkk</em>!</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">After nearly an hour, the massage session finished&#8230; again just when I began to enjoy the massage. Real potongstim-ness!</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">The ladies left the room and we quickly changed. We met with the guys on the way down, and their faces looked very pale &#8211; which was rather surprising. Then Sat told me, &#8220;<em>wait. I got something to tell u in the van.</em>&#8220;</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Which made me VERY VERY CURIOUS!!! And the rest HORRRRRRR! at him.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">We thanked them for their massage, bid goodbye . On the way out, my slippers broke and I walked like a crab from the entrance to the van. &#8211;&#8221;</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">The initial plan was supposed to send us back to lodge after the massage session. However, we asked Mr. Siya to sugest us a nice place to hang around at night.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">That&#8217;s when Mr. Siya mentioned the word &#8211; <strong>Pub street</strong>!</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Done negotiating with the van driver, our van made its way to the famous street. Sensing the atmosphere in the van was rather weird, I asked Sat what happened in the room earlier.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">He then said, &#8220;<em>Oh. The ladies asked us (the guys) if we want extra.</em>&#8220;</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">I was like <em>WTFISHHHH? Like seriously</em>? The rest of the girls were dumbstucked too.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Everyone went quiet.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Then I continued, &#8220;<em>then? what happen?</em>&#8220;</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">&#8220;<em>We say &#8216;don&#8217;t want&#8217; and nothing happened.</em>&#8220;</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Nobody spoke. Realising the odd silent, Sat said, <em>seriously! Nothing happened!!!</em> and the rest of the guys laughed.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">I almost stranggled Sat, but we reached our destination when I was about to do so. We got off the van, thank Mr Siya for his good care for the past 3 days. Knowing that we couldn&#8217;t see him again the next morning, we bid goodbye bitterly. <img src='http://phingelicious.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_sad.gif' alt=':(' class='wp-smiley' /> </p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Seeing the van went off, we walked towards the famous Pub Street. The place is super duper bopper happening! There are rows of restaurants, pubs, bars, cafes and shops!</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="alignnone" title="pub street!" src="http://img175.imageshack.us/img175/5405/cambodiadsc0468.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="402" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">I was having difficulty in walking since my slippers broke. Sat and I went around looking around for slippers while the rest scouting for restaurant. Found a stall, but the guy wouldn&#8217;t sell me one for the price less than USD3.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Me on the other hand, wouldn&#8217;t pay USD3 for a thin-looking-woven-slippers.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">So, I told Sat &#8211; <em>It&#8217;s okay</em><em>. Worst come to worst, I&#8217;ll rather walk barefooted if the slippers couldn&#8217;t support anymore</em>. We then joined the rest in scouting place to eat.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Price on this street is slightly expensive than other place, but who cares? It was the last night on Cambodia, and paying more for the last dinner meal after few days of dirt cheap food is acceptable. Afterall, it&#8217;s a holiday trip, not some camp trip.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="alignnone" title="restaurants" src="http://img408.imageshack.us/img408/8931/cambodiadsc0471.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="402" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">A very minor dispute, again if not mistaken. But hunger overcame it all and we ended up sitting in a cosy looking restaurant, Khmer Family Restaurant which serves Cambodian food.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="alignnone" title="deco of the restaurant" src="http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/4662/cambodiadsc0445.jpg" alt="" width="450" height="672" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="alignnone" title="the deco on the table" src="http://img502.imageshack.us/img502/1834/cambodiadsc0444.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="402" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/738/jpeg01.jpg" alt="" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Menu came. Sat and I decided to order their set for 2. For the last time, we ordered Angkor Beer!</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="alignnone" title="cambodia set dinner" src="http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/654/cambodiadsc0464.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="402" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">LeeMay&#8217;s set.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="alignnone" title="may's cambodian dish" src="http://img163.imageshack.us/img163/8073/cambodiadsc0458.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="402" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Aaron&#8217;s &#8211; if not mistaken.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="alignnone" title="Aaron's Cambodian meal" src="http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/7572/cambodiadsc0459.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="402" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Didn&#8217;t take picture of the rest as it was farrrr from my reach. LOL.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">We had a very satisfying meal, far satisfied and delicious than the first meal we had in Phnom Penh.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img title="various shops at pub street" src="http://img191.imageshack.us/img191/461/cambodiadsc0470.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="402" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Since it was still early, we walked around the place, just to see what Pub Street&#8217;s offers to us. The initial plan is to sit in one of the pub, ting tong-ing. But the plan turned out to be  books scouting!</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Ohya, I found a pair of slippers while walking around. It costed me USD2.5 though. (And the slippers is still at home, but the bottom rubber part has got thinner LOL! ).</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img title="Pub lane" src="http://img258.imageshack.us/img258/8822/cambodiadsc0472.jpg" alt="" width="450" height="672" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">There&#8217;s queerness about the bookstore. Something that I can&#8217;t explain why as I can&#8217;t really remember. But the bookstore gave such a strong impact on my mind. Was it because of the abundance of books, or was it because of the angmoh that sat behind a stall in front of the store? Or was it about the Cambodian lady, who is the owner of the bookstore itself? I just can&#8217;t figure out what. Hmm&#8230;</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Nevermind about it. We left the bookstore and walked past by this store selling branded bags. Boldly, May, Emily and I walked in and checked out the goods there. We touched few bags &#8211; but again, I&#8217;ve forgotten about the remarks we made there. (That&#8217;s why I must quickly finish this post and write about Indonesia!) We then went to their mini-market where Ailing and Emily bought some cheap souvenirs for friends.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="alignnone" title="angkor ciggar" src="http://img130.imageshack.us/img130/5535/cambodiadsc0474.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="402" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Tiredness began to set in, resulting in stopping 2 tuk tuks back to <a title="Jasmine Lodge" href="http://jasminelodge.com" target="_blank">Jasmine Lodge</a>. Knowing it was my final time in riding a tuk tuk in Cambodia as I know I won&#8217;t be going there again anytime soon making me cherished the ride even more despite having sand coming into my eyes.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">However when we reached <a title="Jasmine Lodge" href="http://jasminelodge.com/" target="_blank">Jasmine Lodge</a>, the tuk tuk drivers asked for double the amount we agreed earlier. This made us very furious as we felt cheated. Can&#8217;t believe it happened on the last night of our trip as everything went on so smoothly! So the guys quickly argued on them not staying true to their words, and Sat quickly asked us girls to walk in first for safety reason. We walked to considerably safe distance (where we can shout for help should anything happen) and waited there. From far, we seen that the tuk tuk drivers finally agreed on the initial price as the guys handled over the money to them.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Everyone washed up, pre-packed backpacks and dozed off. The next day, we woke up super early as our flight is at 7am and we need to be at the airport 2 hours before departure. We had actually pre-ordered our breakfast the night before, but because of minor dispute again in the kitchen, we had to <em>tapao</em> our breakfast and ate at the airport! Haha! When our van came, Mr Kunn (the owner of <a title="Jasmine Lodge" href="http://jasminelodge.com/" target="_blank">Jasmine Lodge</a>) personally sent us off and we can&#8217;t thank him enough for comfy bed, clean shower water and deliciously, healthy breakfast! All of us got into the van and I turned back to look at <a title="Jasmine Lodge" href="http://jasminelodge.com/" target="_blank">Jasmine Lodge</a> for the last time.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">I was feeling blue on the way to the airport. But the blues were gone by the time we reached the airport! LOL!</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">We thank Mr Van driver for being such a good driver, checked in our backpacks and ate our packed breakfast!</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="alignnone" title="breakfast tapao-ed to airport!" src="http://img411.imageshack.us/img411/2273/dsc0124wg.jpg" alt="" width="581" height="389" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Then we paid the departure tax, and waited at the departure hall for our flight back to Kuala Lumpur with AirAsia.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img title="siem reap international airport" src="http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/6454/cambodiadsc0481.jpg" alt="" width="450" height="672" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">And that wraps up the entire 6D5N trip to Cambodia on 14th-19th January 2009.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img title="goodbye Cambodia!" src=" http://img535.imageshack.us/img535/3972/cambodiadsc0487.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="402" /></p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://phingelicious.com/2010/03/cambodia-ep-21-of-massage-beer-and-slippers/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>4</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Stir fry egg noodles</title>
		<link>http://phingelicious.com/2010/02/stir-fry-egg-noodles/</link>
		<comments>http://phingelicious.com/2010/02/stir-fry-egg-noodles/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 08 Feb 2010 13:05:54 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>angeline</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[cookery]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[family]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[food]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[photos]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[CNY]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[recipe]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://phingelicious.com/?p=1259</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Less than a week to CNY! Whee!
As usual, I&#8217;ll be doing the cooking for the reunion dinner and this year I&#8217;m gonna do something unusual. Instead of eating rice like what we&#8217;ve did for fast erm.. 4-5 years, I&#8217;m gonna swap the rice for noodles!
Mum was abit tension when she heard bout me wanting to [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p style="text-align: center;">Less than a week to CNY! Whee!</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">As usual, I&#8217;ll be doing the cooking for the reunion dinner and this year I&#8217;m gonna do something unusual. Instead of eating rice like what we&#8217;ve did for fast erm.. 4-5 years, I&#8217;m gonna swap the rice for noodles!</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Mum was <em>abit tension </em>when she heard bout me wanting to do noodles cz she knew I never cook that type of noodles before. So, she asked me to do a trial today. I agreed as we&#8217;ve been eating out for weeks and I&#8217;m quite <em>free</em> recently. Kaka! <img src='http://phingelicious.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':)' class='wp-smiley' /> </p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Once I got home, mum already asked me to start cooking which I deemed it was rather early. Nonetheless, I obeyed her &#8211; taking my own time taking out the ingredients, cutting them up, marinade the meat. Reason : I knew I can cook this up in within 15 minutes.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Ingredients for my stir-fry egg noodles &#8211; broccoli, garlic, crabsticks, chicken (which I&#8217;ve marinated) and egg noodles.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="alignnone" title="Ingredients" src="http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/6069/trial2p.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="402" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span id="more-1259"></span>Boiled the noodles, ran over cold water and clotted with extra virgin olive oil since the noodles will become sticky if dry.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Mum walked into the kitchen, wondering why I didn&#8217;t start cooking yet. So, I began throwing in the rest of the ingredients and stir fried them together. The noodles was abit dry after being thrown into the wok, signaling it&#8217;s time to put in a cup of water to &#8216;<em>wet</em>&#8216; them up.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">After few round of tasting, the noodles has done and ready to be served!</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img title="Stir-fry Egg Noodle" src="http://img193.imageshack.us/img193/4496/trial5.jpg" alt="" width="450" height="672" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">It tastes nice when served hot, but not-so-nice-anymore when it is left to cold.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">This dish has passed the family&#8217;s SIRIM test. So, this Saturday gonna make exactly like this but in smaller portion as I fear we couldn&#8217;t finish all 8 dishes. Keke.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://phingelicious.com/2010/02/stir-fry-egg-noodles/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>7</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Cambodia Ep 18: 1000 Lingas for a day!</title>
		<link>http://phingelicious.com/2010/02/cambodia-ep-18-1000-lingas-for-a-day/</link>
		<comments>http://phingelicious.com/2010/02/cambodia-ep-18-1000-lingas-for-a-day/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 05 Feb 2010 15:16:05 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>angeline</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Cambodia]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[backpack]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[food]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[photos]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Kbal Spean]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Linga]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://phingelicious.com/?p=1226</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Another 2 weeks to Chinese New Year! This weekend gonna make my favourite snacks &#8211; don&#8217;t know what&#8217;s it call but it&#8217;s the small roll thingy that contains sambal prawn. Sedapssss! &#60;3
Before I start, I need to warn you &#8211; this post contains lots, lots photos! This place is different from the other temples we&#8217;ve [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p style="text-align: center;"><em>Another 2 weeks to Chinese New Year! This weekend gonna make my favourite snacks &#8211; don&#8217;t know what&#8217;s it call but it&#8217;s the small roll thingy that contains sambal prawn. Sedapssss! &lt;3</em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Before I start, I need to warn you &#8211; this post contains lots, lots photos! This place is different from the other temples we&#8217;ve covered. This needs our physical strength.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Hidden up in the hill of Kulen, tuck away from the city of Siem Reap, there is this popular retreat place for the King in the past, and also the hiding place for Khmer Rouge troup during war.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="alignnone" title="big lalang" src="http://img203.imageshack.us/img203/6686/cambodiadsc0229.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="402" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">The place is known as Kbal Spean.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Kbal Spean is not a temple, nor a building constructed up on the hill of Kulen. It&#8217;s a carved riverbed. You might be thinking, whyon earth we had to climb a hill since it&#8217;s a carved riverbed. Well, that&#8217;s a food for thought then. Kaka!</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span id="more-1226"></span>The journey up there supposedly takes 40 minutes, took us an hour instead. We were <em>slowwwwww.</em>&#8230;</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="alignnone" title="The climb" src="http://img41.imageshack.us/img41/2976/outputq.jpg" alt="" width="580" height="838" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">The route are the combination of proper stair steps, long flat soil and steep, rocky trails. Along the way, we heard birds chipping and felt breeze blowing. We stumbled upon weird, twisting vines and gigantic plants. One of the interesting yet unexplainable thing is the big stone being supported by tree branches and twigs like the photo below.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="alignnone" title="heavy stones, supported by twigs" src="http://img202.imageshack.us/img202/1087/cambodiadsc0240.jpg" alt="" width="450" height="672" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">At certain part of the route, we could hear the sound of waterfall.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Siya then told us, <em>&#8220;</em><em>did you hear that? That&#8217;s the waterfall and we&#8217;ll go there later.&#8221;</em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">With DSLR hang around the neck while walking, we couldn&#8217;t resist the temptation of camshadowhoring.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="alignnone" title="our shadows" src="http://img192.imageshack.us/img192/1655/cambodiadsc0244.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="402" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Btw, do the word even exists?! LOL.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Finally, after sweating like cows, we reached THE PLACE.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">To be frank, I thought that we&#8217;ll be seeing a small temple when we reached. Or a small building for prayers like the small Chinese alters since there&#8217;s no &#8216;wat&#8217; in the name. So, to see carvings on the stones and on the riverbed instead of walls of building is an eye-opener!</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img title="hindu deities on stone" src="http://img31.imageshack.us/img31/2397/cambodiadsc0252.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="402" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="alignnone" title="lingam on riverbed " src="http://img137.imageshack.us/img137/8903/cambodiadsc0247.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="402" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">If you&#8217;re wondering what&#8217;s the bell shaped thing carved on the riverbed, that&#8217;s the lingas. It&#8217;s said that there are a thousand of lingas carved along the stream, thus the name &#8211; &#8220;valley of 1000 lingas&#8221;. The lingas were carved in hope to fertilise the water that flows from the peak to the East Baray and finally to the rice fields nearby.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img title="more lingam" src="http://img718.imageshack.us/img718/8969/cambodiadsc0250.jpg" alt="" width="450" height="672" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">One must becareful while walking around there. If not, you might find yourself suddenly &#8216;<em>shorter</em>&#8216; than your friends because of these holes.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="alignnone" title="big hole!" src="http://img686.imageshack.us/img686/2762/cambodiadsc0248.jpg " alt="" width="402" height="600" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">I don&#8217;t know if because I was feeling tired because of the hike or because of the sun shone through the leaves, but the place looks rather mystical. Hmm.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">We crossed the stream by stepping on the exposed stones to get to the other side of the land to see more carvings. While crossing, the &#8216;pros&#8217; decided to stop in the middle and take pictures of the water. I did too. Some even washed their feet with the &#8216;holy&#8217; water.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">I squatted down to take closer picture of the water. <em>Something</em> made me touched the water. It was cool and refreshing. At that moment, I was thinking &#8211; if the water is purified by the lingas, will the linga-water purify my skin and heal it as well?</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img title="mystic river" src="http://img64.imageshack.us/img64/7249/cambodiadsc0259.jpg " alt="" width="450" height="672" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">No, I didn&#8217;t dip my entire hand into the water to see if that&#8217;s effective. <img src='http://phingelicious.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_razz.gif' alt=':P' class='wp-smiley' /> </p>
<p style="text-align: center;">After everyone satisfied with taking pictures there, Siya led us downstream. There we could see more and more lingas! It was really a spectacular sight to behold!</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="alignnone" title="lingga" src="http://img638.imageshack.us/img638/8992/cambodiadsc0263.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="402" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="alignnone" title="thousand of linggas" src="http://img192.imageshack.us/img192/8910/cambodiadsc0267.jpg " alt="" width="600" height="402" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="alignnone" title="river of thousand linggas" src="http://img684.imageshack.us/img684/4721/cambodiadsc0272.jpg " alt="" width="600" height="402" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">The water looks so inviting that I even thought of taking a dip there. Keke. Too bad or should I say thankfully, I didn&#8217;t bring extra clothes there. Or probably they don&#8217;t allow people to &#8216;wash&#8217; up there. LOL!</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Following the stream, we walked lower and lower, and found ourselves to be closer to the waterfall as the sound of the waterfall getting louder! Animals and deities carvings are spotted along the stream prior to the waterfall.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img title="cravings" src="http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/169/output1z.jpg" alt="" width="420" height="594" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Don&#8217;t mind the blurness of the picture above. I know it isn&#8217;t clear &#8211; but still I want to show out the carvings! <img src='http://phingelicious.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_razz.gif' alt=':P' class='wp-smiley' /> </p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Couple more steps then we realised that we were standing on the top edge of the waterfall. At the side, there are big stones that looks like cave. Offerings were seen on the floor of the inner side of the cave.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Seeing that, I quickly put my palms together, <em>paipai-ed</em> and walked away.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">To get to the bottom, one needs to use the wooden stairways. However, one need to becareful of their steps as some of the wooden planks have been <em>infested</em> with moss.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="alignnone" title="the climbers" src="http://img168.imageshack.us/img168/1197/cambodiadsc0285.jpg" alt="" width="450" height="672" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">We walked down the wooden stairways and tadaaaaa! Waterfall!!!</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="alignnone" title="waterfall" src="http://img163.imageshack.us/img163/1282/cambodiadsc0286.jpg " alt="" width="450" height="672" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Very <em>sui</em> (pretty) leh!</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">It&#8217;s said that the King used to bath there! Probably the King felt that the water &#8216;running&#8217; through the lingas and then to him will make him feel more &#8216;man&#8217; and &#8216;holy&#8217; since you know, the water is for fertilization and purification purposes.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Couple of local and tourists stood at the waterfall and let the water washed over them. The hot sun made me sweat so much that I thought of joining them too! But then, after thinking that the &#8216;water&#8217; coming down from the people who dipped their feet onto the water and then pouring onto my head and body turned me off immediately.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Ohya, Ailing&#8217;s Nike shoes decided to take a dip too, and thus the nick &#8220;<em>the holy shoe</em>&#8221; sprouted from there.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">From the waterfall, we descended to the entrance gate. The journey down surprisingly pleasant too, although sun was blazing its heat above our heads.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Once we reached the entrance gate and walked heading to our van, we were &#8216;ambushed&#8217; by local sellers. Luckily, they&#8217;re not the persistent type like the young kids in Angkor Wat.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Ohya I forgotten to tell about the young kids in Angkor Wat, let me tell a bit here. <img src='http://phingelicious.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':)' class='wp-smiley' /> </p>
<p style="text-align: center;">The kids are cute, cutely annoying. @.@ They would approach you and then ask you to buy something from them, say a bracelet or postcard set of 10 cards. Because you don&#8217;t feel like buying things, you would smile at them and say, <em>&#8220;no thank you&#8221;</em> or <em>&#8220;don&#8217;t want, thank you.&#8221;</em> They would continuously walk alongside with you and keep persuading you to buy it. They would even initiate small talk with you. Like, <em>&#8220;why you don&#8217;t want to buy from me?&#8221;</em> and <em>&#8220;big sister, you don&#8217;t like small sister. You don&#8217;t want to buy from me&#8221;</em> and &#8220;<em>I don&#8217;t believe you. Show me the stuff</em>&#8221; when you tell them that you have already bought the stuff.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Some would even go the length of wearing the bracelet on your wrist and tell you that &#8220;<em>see, it&#8217;s pretty</em>.&#8221;</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Cute right? Cute until you don&#8217;t know how to say no. Therefore you&#8217;ll buy something from them.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">UNLESS, you show grim face and ignore them at all, then probably they would be scared and run away! Aha!</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Okay, back to the story. We got back to our van feeling very hungry and tired. Luckily, we were brought to Borey Sovann Restaurant which was situated along the way back to Angkor City.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="alignnone" title="Borey Sovann" src="http://img192.imageshack.us/img192/2369/cambodiadsc0290.jpg" alt="" width="450" height="672" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">This lunch is included in our package, which is a blessing in disguise because if we were to pay on our own, it would definitely cost a bomb! So, thank you <a title="Mr. Kunn" href="http://www.jasminelodge.com/" target="_self">Mr. Kunn</a>! <img src='http://phingelicious.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':)' class='wp-smiley' /> </p>
<p style="text-align: center;">See how happy and thankful we were?</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img title="lunchmates" src="http://img22.imageshack.us/img22/7049/output2.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="433" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Ailing looked sleepy and tired in the picture, and she needed food to energise her up! Hoho!</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Though the drinks weren&#8217;t included in package, the price of the drinks, ie a coconut won&#8217;t do much damaged as compared to paying the whole meal here.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">The dishes came and we ate like one pack of wolves!</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="alignnone" title="lunch" src="http://img137.imageshack.us/img137/1326/lunchcollege.jpg" alt="" width="480" height="638" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">All finished in within a minute! Okay, that&#8217;s too much. But we ate very fast.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Though someone did<em> bising</em> about the insufficient food, but for the rest, the food was enough to make the tummy stop growling. <img src='http://phingelicious.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':)' class='wp-smiley' /> </p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Next : The red building&#8230;</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="alignnone" title="Banteay Srei" src="http://img192.imageshack.us/img192/703/cambodiadsc0350.jpg" alt="" width="450" height="672" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">
<p style="text-align: center;">
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://phingelicious.com/2010/02/cambodia-ep-18-1000-lingas-for-a-day/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>3</slash:comments>
		</item>
	</channel>
</rss>
