Labels: android, food, Manchester

(Copied over from Facebook notes)
Postcard from Pattaya - No 1

Arrived safely in Pattaya yesterday and checked into our hotel - The Siam Bayview on Pattaya Beach. It's a bit old and dated, but it's really handy because it has 2 pools, is across the road from the beach and most importantly, it is right next door to Pattaya's brand spanking new shopping complex Central Festival. Important for 2 reasons: aircon and places to eat.

I think we got a bit spoiled in Bangkok because we got a deluxe suite (with kitchen and huuuuge bathroom) to ourselves when we were there, so the typical sized hotel room here with diddy bathroom isn't so great in comparison. On the bright side though, we don't need to get skytrains or taxis to go anywhere and we got a fab nights sleep because the aircon temperature in the room is just right.

Started the Pattaya leg of our food journey with Burger King ('cos Tony wanted to know if it was any different from UK - the answer, UK BK is much better). Then in the evening, we went to Sukishi - a kind of fusion Korean BBQ / Japanese Sushi place. Tad pricey for Thai standards, but still bargain at UK standards and we don't get KBBQ in the UK, so didn't need any more justification than that really. Also, BBQ king gets to show off his cooking skills...


BBQ King shows off his skills at Sukishi...

(Yeah can put pics up on this computer!!)
The set included chicken, beef, pork, scallops, octopus and tiger prawns. We also got some teriyaki pork chops just in case it wasn't enough for us.

Then we picked up some fruit, water and other provisions at the food hall - I got some fresh pomelo.


Lovely fresh pomelo!!

Said last time I'd talk about the food a bit, so here goes - with pics as well....
The guidebooks say that the best food in Thailand is served on the streets on plastic tables and chairs, but with all the traffic fumes in Bangkok, we didn't opt for this for fear that our stomachs wouldn't last til the end of the trip. Instead, the closest we got to street food was the MBK foodcourt, where you'd buy coupons to exchange for food at their indoor street market (and of course we had aircon seating too). Here's what I got for 45 baht (90p) - crispy roast pork rice and soup:


My 90p lunch at MBK.

Then there's the fair share of chain restaurants such as Mos Burger... this was my chicken teriyaki burger meal.


Mos Burger (this one's for you Kin...)

We also got our fair share of high end stuff (well, we justify this by not spending money on alcohol), but unfortunately in these places, there is a strict 'no photo' policy, so you'll just have to take my word for it. On our last night in Bangkok, we decided to splash out at the 18 pound a head 'Oishi Grand Buffet'. Even though this is the equivalent of about 75 pounds to a normal Thai worker, it still gets really busy, so we went early at about 5pm and were surprised to be told that we could stay until 10pm if we wanted. We didn't, but did get our fair share of food in, starting with a tray each of teppanyaki, then bbq tiger prawns, sashimi, sushi, tempura and then desserts. Lovely...

Right... off to do some sunbathing now that my breakfast has gone down!

Labels: food, holidays

Why it's worth reading your emails sometimes...

A colleague of mine sent me an email for a special offer at a local restaurant this week and normally I just gloss over these circulars, but when I noticed that it was for Japanese food, my attention got grabbed and I consulted with Tony if he wanted to check it out. The Yo!Sushi outlet at Spinningfields in Manchester (that closed down mysteriously not long after it opened) has now been taken over by one of the top Japanese restaurant chains in the North West - Samsi. The offer was for 2 days only, you could get 50% off the food - either sushi off the conveyor or Samsi food from the menu.

Needless to say, we decided to go and make the most of it, so my booking was whizzed off sharply.




The decor of the place was still very reminiscent of a Yo!, so it was quite weird when we were ordering, because there was a strong urge to go a bit crazy like we normally do in a Yo! because their portions are so diddy. Fortunately, I remembered that Samsi's portions are a bit heftier and held Tony back from ordering everything on the menu. We opted for the Seafood tempura, Chicken gyoza, Steak Teriyaki & rice and a Seafood Ramen. As we were sitting opposite the sushi chef, we also plucked a couple of things off the conveyor belt and Tony watched in awe as the guy churned out his plates of sushi, rolls and sashimi. None of this machined rice malarky that we have to settle for at Yo! - proper hand pressed sushi with velvety fish being sliced with skill and precision.

Here's the guy at work...



The bill? Came in at £18.98 - fantastic!!

While I'm on the subject of food, here's a few more food pics I downloaded from my phone:



Some of Tony's BBQ food from our Easter Sunday barbecue.
Great weather, fab food, superb company and lots of wii and karaoke fun.
We couldn't have asked for more.



This is the famous jumbo cod from our local fish and chip shop - Armstrongs. It's about 2 foot long and made fresh when you order it. They even had to warn us how big it was when we asked for one each! We picked it up on the way home as a reward after finally chucking out some of my hoarded rubbish at the local tip.

Labels: food

Birthday & Culinary Highlights In Hong Kong

A combination of the global financial crisis and the pound at a record low meant that the timing of my trip to Hong Kong this month couldn't have been worse, so with the prices of stuff in the shops almost double what we would expect, we decided to spend our money on getting some good food in instead.

We flew by Finnair for the first time because they were the cheapest option and my great-uncle won't fly by anyone else after he enjoyed his last flight with them so much. The flight into Helsinki was ok, but I was too mesmerised by the snowy fields on the approach to worry too much about the short plane journey. Unusually for a European flight, we were also fed with some hot food on the way - a portion of meatballs, gravy and mash - akin to the stuff you get in Ikea restaurant, but a bit sloppier. It tasted ok, but I didn't take to the rye bread very well.

Connection at Helsinki was smooth, but it's no Changi when it comes to shopping. The plane to Hong Kong was a brand spanking new Airbus A340, probably less than a year old and with the best entertainment system I've seen on a plane so far (dare I say, even better than Singapore Airlines!). The selection of films was pretty good and I finally got to watch Wall-E. Two more bog standard airline meals later (the Finns seem to like putting pumpkin in their food) and we finally arrived in HK.

After sorting out our hotel room (we stayed at the Royal Plaza in Mongkok) and grabbing a bit of rest, we wasted no time in heading over to Langham Place, where Tony completed our first mission and acquired a special birthday present for his sis (can't tell you what it is yet, as it's a secret until March). The first evening meal was in the Langham food court and although we took a look at Pepper Lunch (as strongly recommended by my sis and her bf) the smell of black pepper was a bit overwhelming, so I opted for the Hainan chicken rice instead and Tony went for a curry.

The next day was my birthday and we had originally planned for me to go present hunting in TST, but after a lot of wandering around, I didn't actually find anything, so we headed back to Mongkok and had an early evening meal at a place called Simply Thai in Grand Century Place, downstairs from the hotel. We'd noticed that the place seemed quite busy at night, so we dropped by before the evening rush and enjoyed a special lamb cutlet green curry, salt and pepper soft-shelled crab and made-to-order Thai roast chicken, all washed down with a cooling lychee, orange and cranberry fruitshake. For HK standards, it was a tad pricey, coming in at around $450, but for food of that standard, we were prepared to pay UK food prices.




The reason we ate early was because we had tickets (thanks to a helping hand from my cuz) to go and see Hacken Lee and Alan Tam in concert at the Coliseum. The venue had been closed for a few months for refurbishment and this was only the second performance since the re-opening. The concert was a bit different from other HK pop concerts that I'd been to because there was much more of a party atmosphere and everyone got up to dance and join in - normal for a Western gig, but highly unusual for the more reserved Chinese. The stars had been sponsored to work up some "muscles" for the show, but I think it was the men in the audience who were more excited when the female dancers came on in skimpy outfits to perform some pole-dancing routines. When it was time for Hacken and Alan to strip off and show us their bits, it just deteriotated into a bit of a comedy. When Chin Ka Lok dropped by to do his stand-up guest routine, then we knew it was time for a laugh. Oh, and the music wasn't bad either - a full 3 hours of old classics and new hits, with Hacken proving that his voice is just as good singing live. Making Alan try and sing all his 100 mph lyrics songs was pretty cruel, but it made me chuckle. Definitely a birthday to remember!



Although we spent the next few days wandering around a load of shopping centres, we still didn't actually buy very much. Instead, we did our usual rounds of all the tasty fast food places - Maxim's MX, Fairwood, Cafe de Coral (not so good) and then we also did our fair share of the good stuff too. One gem we picked out was a "Handmade Udon" restaurant on the top floor of apm (mall) in Kwun Tong, where they served up boneless chicken wings udon for me and crabmeat and scrambled egg udon for Tony - totally delicious and all for about a tenner. Tony then proceeded to go nuts at Muji and spend about $350 on freeze-dried soup, tandoori marinade, mango lassi powder and mango sauce. Looks like fans of our BBQs are in for a treat this year!

A trip to HK is not complete without a trip to Sai Kung for seafood. Okay, so it's a bit pricey, but when it's so fresh it's staring at you as you walk into the restaurant, then you really don't mind paying over the odds for it. Tony was ogling at all the tanks outside the restaurants that make the lobsters at Glamorous look like a fishpond. After checking out all the offers being thrusted in our direction by the promoters on the street, we opted for a 'Special meal for 2' that consisted of lobster e-noodles, salt and pepper squid, fresh steamed fish, flash-boiled prawnies and veg - all for $420. We then added a place of fleshy razor clams for $228 to top it all off.



We saved Disneyland for the second week, after all the kids had gone back to school and the workers had gone back to work. It was also $50 cheaper after the Chinese New Year holiday period. There were still plenty of mainlanders around, who annoyed Tony greatly by their sheer lack of manners and respect and inability to stand in a queue without shoving, but the waits weren't too bad and the weather was lovely. We got in photos with Goofy, Pluto, Stitch and Chip 'n' Dale and front row 'seats' for the parade. Most of the rides were really sedate, but Tony was pleasantly surprised by Space Mountain and came out really giddy. I thoroughly enjoyed my first Disneyland experience, but I'm not sure if I want to bother with the other parks - wonder what would be worse: queuing with mainlanders or queuing with Americans.



The last few days were spent visiting friends and family and that always means more great food. My uncles splashed out on a new year banquet that included roast meats, a whole roast goose and big fat fresh steamed prawnies, but Tony was a bit disappointed that they didn't opt for more lobster! My friend took us for some Taiwanese beef noodles, which were tasty and she also co-erced her Indonesian maid to make us some traditional fragrant soup-rice-noodles. Dim sum and sushi were disappointing - we can actually get better in the UK, now that is something I never imagined I'd say.

We don't usually eat at hotels that we stay at in Hong Kong, but when we passed by the hotel restaurant on the way out every day, we couldn't help but notice the posters (and the food out) for the daily evening 'Lobster & Prawns' seafood buffet. After checking on the budget, we worked out we had enough to splash out on the $368 per head charge and the hotel was kind enough to offer a 10% discount for guests. With about 120 different things on offer to eat, we were like kids in a candy store when we arrived at 6:30pm and were shown to our seats. Among the selection was cold Boston lobster, barbecued lobster, lobster in sauce, baked tiger prawns, seared Kobe beef, lobster and shark fin bisque, sharks fin and mushroom soup, emperor prawns, sashimi and sushi made to order, crabs legs, tempura lobster balls (our favourite - we had about 6 sticks each!!), roast lamb shank, chilli garlic lobster claws, lamb chops in black pepper sauce, German sausages, cold meats, DIY hotpot and roast beef. Then there were the desserts - birds nest Portuguese tarts (YUMMY!!), creme brulee, blueberry cheesecake, mango sorbet, bread and butter pudding with vanilla sauce, birds nest coconut pudding, home-made cookies and chocolate, profiteroles and all the watermelon and pineapple you could ever wish for!
(Unfortunately, we were FAR too busy eating to take any pictures, so you'll just have to take my word for it how good it really was!!)

After an hour and a half, we had to be rolled out of the restaurant. Fortunately, it wasn't too far back to the hotel room!!

Also worth a mention was the Little Fat Sheep hotpot restaurant - we went to the branch in Mongkok. Unsure as to how big the portions were, we went for some squidballs, beefballs, lamb, prawnies and veg. The broth was a wholesome Chinese medicinal soup, which nicely brought out the subtle flavours of the food. You don't need to go for spicy when it comes to hotpot.

We checked the list of places we still had to eat at on the last day and the only one outstanding was Korean BBQ, so we decided to splash out on a lunch BBQ platter - beef, chicken and mini octopus, rice, soup and side dishes for $148, plus an extra dish of lamb for $98 to round off our 12 days of Hong Kong's culinary highlights.
Can't wait to go back again!!

Labels: birthday, food, hk celebs, holidays, hong kong

Em & Tony's Excellent Adventure

It's been barely 8 hours since I touched down again on British soil, but I'm really eager to get all my thoughts and memories down in writing about what has been an incredible and sometimes surreal trip to Phuket. So after a couple of short naps and my head still wondering exactly what time it is, I'll recall and re-live the experiences from the last 12 days in what promises to be a pretty long entry!

Our journey began with a trip on what is currently our favourite airline - Singapore Airlines (SIA). They are currently heavily promoting the fact that they are the first airline to be flying with the mega-plane Airbus A380 and it does look pretty awesome. When we finally get to heading over to Australia, we will definitely have to take a trip.

The great thing is with SIA is that they feed and water you very well and their seats are about 20% more spacious than your average economy seat, with plenty of space under the seat in front for you to stash all your bits and pieces (or in the case of my hubby, stash his legs). Of course, you can't forget their excellent entertainment system, which meant that I didn't actually get round to even reading their in-flight magazine as I tuned into "Pirates III", some Ronald Cheng movie and the Japanese epic "Oh-Oku" to pass my time on the flight.

Talking of food (regular readers of this blog will know you can't get away from it!) - on the first morning of the flight, due to the eating arrangements on the flight into Singapore, the transfer time at Changi Airport and then the flight out of Singapore into Phuket, we actually had THREE breakfasts! So when we finally arrived at the hotel on Sunday morning, our bodies were wondering what was going on!



Seventeen hours (including the 1 hour transfer from Phuket airport) after leaving home, we finally arrived at our hotel - the Pacific Club and Spa in Karon.

After booking this hotel, I had spent hours and hours reading up the rave reviews about this hotel and it almost seemed I already knew what it was like and it did live up to our expectations, except for one or two rough edges. As it was the end of the low season, there were renovation works going on, which we had already been warned about, but they upgraded us to a bigger room for free and they held regular pool parties with free food and drink when they had noisy work going on. Hey, anything with a free lunch is always good!

They had laid out the towels on the bed in the shape of a pair of swans and decorated them with the soaps and body lotions and stuff. This caused a funny moment when my husband went to freshen up and called out to me from the bathroom, "There's no soap!" It turned out that the soap was carefully balanced on the swan's back, so we quickly dismantled the structure, but not before taking a pic of it.

The weather was beautiful, but we were absolutely shattered and the full sized fridge provided for us to "stock up for ourselves" was empty, so we gave in to our post-flight nap attacks before taking our first excursion out to the exotic 7-11 at the bottom of the hill. Then we retired to the hotel roof to make the most of the sunshine before the precipitation stakes rose.

The first few days were spent just finding our feet and acclimatising. We figured that we had a fair amount of time, so we'd arrange all the activities to the second week. We ventured down to Karon beach on one occasion and it was nice there, but they charged to rent the sun-loungers there and sand got everywhere (well, it is a beach afterall), so we figured it was much nicer to spend the rest of our sunbathing sessions on the hotel roof instead, where they have a waterfall swimming pool, free sun loungers and a drinks service!



In the evenings, we took a rather extortionate taxi ride down to Patong in search of food and some shopping. The thing about Phuket is that there is no public transport infrastructure. If you know how and are patient enough, then a songtheaw (public truck bus) is only 20 baht (30p) but they are few and far between. All other times, especially if you are a tourist, then you are at the mercy of the taxis and tuk-tuk drivers who will charge you 250-300 baht (£4.20-£5) for the 10 minute trip from Karon to Patong. I kinda resented this for the first few days because it was something we hadn't budgeted for, but in the end, I just resigned to the fact that we were on holiday and the money had to be spent.

The other huge variable is in the price and quality of the food that you get. On our first venture to Patong beach in search of fresh seafood, we were fortunate to stumble upon a great deal by "Patong Bakery & Restaurant", where they did a seafood basket - containing 1 spiny lobster, 2 rock lobsters, 4 tiger prawns, 2 squid, 1 crab, 1 chilli fish and some shellfish - all for just 1500 baht (£22.50) including cooking and you get free salad and fried rice. That was beautiful, especially the garlic sauce that they braised the squid and prawns in. Tony really enjoyed the chilli fish, but that was a bit too hot for me.

When you find something as great as that, you fall into the illusion that everywhere is the same standard. Boy were we mistaken. The following day, we decided to try somewhere else and as the guidebook had mentioned about "Patong Seafood Village", we thought we'd give it a go. Unfortunately, this place charged by the gram and wasn't as nice as the first place, so coupled with a little over-zealous selection of tiger prawns, we ended up spending three times what we'd spent at the Bakery and getting less and worse quality food. We walked away from that one feeling a bit sore and vowed we would stick to the Bakery for any more fresh seafood.

We weren't really there for pubbing and clubbing, so we didn't stick around too long in the infamous Bangla Road, next to the Thai Boxing arena and the trucks that drive around promoting the fights blaring out "TOMORROW NIGHT TOMORROW NIGHT - MUAY THAI - THAI BOXING!" on a megaphone. It was really just a thoroughfare for us to get to one of our favourite air-conditioned haunts - Jungceylon. It's a shopping centre that only opened at the end of last year and comprises of a lot of western eateries, such as KFC and Haagen-Dasz, a huge Carrefour supermarket, a Robinson department store and a basement area the specialises in "traditional crafts" and includes a couple of massage places. We liked it because it had air-con, it was clean, there were security guards saluting you as you walked in and there was loads and loads of ice cream everywhere! There is also a small games arcade on the first floor, where you can shoot some zombies or drive a fast car for 10 baht (15p) a go!



The only bit of real sightseeing we did in the first week was going to Wat Chalong, which is billed as the most important Buddhist temple in Phuket. Maybe it is built to be functional, but when you compare it to the hugely impressive Kek Lok Si in Penang, it seemed like it wasn't very well run. I guess the customs must be a little different in Thailand, but there was something about allowing reckless tourists to set off firecrackers in what is supposed to be a quiet place of worship that just seemed wrong. Also, they were eager to dump your incense offerings pretty much as soon as you had put them in the ash pots - at least in Malaysia and Hong Kong they let them burn for a bit before they clear them out.

After that disappointment, we decided to make up for it by visiting the Tesco-Lotus hypermarket and go nuts on cheap Hershey's and fruit gummys. Well, we had to justify our 1100 baht (£15) taxi fare somehow!!

After four days of sunshine and just a few spots of rain in the evenings despite the weather forecasts being stuck on "scattered thunderstorms" throughout the trip, they finally rang true on Thursday afternoon, when it started to rain and the storm lasted for the rest of the weekend. So we headed to Central Festival shopping centre to avoid the rain - this is where we discovered two of our favourite places in Phuket - Oishi-Ramen and Fuji Japanese Restaurant. The disappointments of the first few days were washed away with the rain when we finally found somewhere that did tempura ramen for 70 baht (£1.10), sashimi set - that's 4 types of sashimi, miso soup, sticky rice and tofu - for 140 baht (£2.20) and mixed steak (fish and meat) set for 240 baht (£4.00). Well, we had to make up the losses from the £75 meal somehow and these were tasty. Fuji also did the best tasting watermelon juice (according to Tony).

As a shopping centre, Central was a bit more established and more upmarket than Jungceylon, so there was more to see and the prices were more reasonable. There was also some kind of mini-concert going on there, but we didn't have a clue about who they were. The band seemed quite popular though because all the usually highly attentive sales assistants were too busy standing outside to catch a glimpse to hound you into buying something.



Thanks to the friendly folk on Tripadvisor, we followed a recommendation to contact a chap called Richard to join in with his Friday night social for forum members. These take place every Friday night and to join in, you just have to contact Richard to book your space. We were a little apprehensive about spending the evening in the company of people we didn't really know, but as it was a barbecue (and Tony never says no to a barbecue) and it was something to do on the Friday evening, we threw caution to the wind and just had a good time. We met a few friendly Aussies and one fellow Brit who had been in Oz for a year, who was a great laugh.

The barbecue is at a restaurant called Mammas and Pappas and for just 150 baht, you can eat as much as you like from the freshly cooked selection of chicken, sausages, burgers, pork and the infamous "asparagus wrapped in bacon" that Richard kept raving on about. The taxis that picked us up from the hotel then came back and took us onto the Sunshine Bar on Rawai beach, where you sit around a bar, order in a few drinks, watch the staff dance around a pole, which after a few drinks our fellow revellers went on to try and climb. The mamasan there is crazy (I think her name was Kimmy) and seemed to take a liking to Tony who made her laugh hysterically whenever he caught her eye. There is also a katoy (ladyboy) called Nancy who works there with a waist to die for! The place isn't sleazy and it's just good fun if you let your hair down and join in with the dancing. It may have been pouring with rain outside, but we were having far too much fun to notice and when 10pm came round and the taxis came back to pick us up, many people were reluctant to leave.

What do you do in Phuket when it's blowing a storm outside? Well, we went for a massage! We also decided to book in at the services floor at Central for the little pampering things we'd promised ourselves. I went back for a haircut, with a stylist that looked like a shorter Thai version of Eric Kot with Craig Charles dreads, and my husband had his teeth done by a dentist who was constantly on MSN.

It was at this time when we were safely inside, we didn't realise that the storm was so bad outside that it had caused a plane to crash at Phuket airport. As we were leaving Central that day, I received a text message from my bro asking if we were okay and it was only when we arrived back at the hotel that we realised what had happened and I got a little freaked out. The thought of those 88 people that had died, who should have been enjoying their holiday like we were - it really brought home how fragile life is and how we should enjoy each precious moment we have. It was very sad and I think it touched the hearts of everyone on the island.

We had arranged to go elephant trekking on the Monday morning following the crash, but out of respect for the incident and also the lingering damp weather, it was postponed. However, the skies cleared up by lunchtime, so we decided to make the most of our holiday and booked a taxi to the zoo.



The zoo in Phuket is not government-owned, so many of the controls that you would expect from a licenced zoo were non-existent. This made the whole experience a lot more exciting and also a lot more scary! As soon as we walked in, we were met with a big sign that said "Take picture with Tiger - 200 baht". Tony's a bit of a tiger nut, so he was straight in there, but when he came face to face with a fully grown tiger that looked decidedly peeved with the hot weather and the guys poking around at him with sticks, then even he became very nervous. I was totally chicken and wouldn't go near. It was even more unnerving that one of the tiger handlers only had one arm! They kept telling Tony to put his hand on the tiger's back, but the tiger showed that this was not a good idea by growling and thwacking him on the arm with its tail. Tony didn't need telling again to keep his distance.



The zoo also had quite a large crocodile population and after we visited their enclosure, we sat down to watch the scheduled "Crocodile Show", which sounded innocent enough, but turned out to be another incredible scene, when two guys wearing just a vest and shorts performed stunts like croc-wrestling and sticking their heads into the animals' mouths! Afterwards, for a small tip (I think we gave them 160 baht) they let you lean over and hold the croc's tail whilst they took your photo. We stayed for the elephant show, which was nothing spectacular, but Tony felt it was quite cruel. We didn't stick around for the monkey show after seeing the gibbons looking miserable in their cages. Also, our driver was eager to take us down to Promthrep Cape to take a look at the views of the bays - and what amazing views they turned out to be!!

Sunshine greeted us on Tuesday morning for our earlyish start to go elephant trekking. We'd arranged this through Richard and I'm really glad we did. He picked us up from the hotel and took us to a bar near the reserve, where he gave us a short briefing about the background of Kok Chang Safari and more importantly some tips on how to get the attention of the park's resident wild gibbons Charley and Lum Yai. It was a very informative talk and I felt that it gave you a much bigger picture of the backgrounds of the elephants and how they had been rescued from the cruelty of hard labour and mahouts with sharp hooks. He also told us the story of how Charley and Lum Yai were rescued from the streets of Bangkok where they were made to pose for photos with tourists, drink beer and smoke cigarettes. This is the reason why they were not afraid of human interaction, but also the reason why there are strict rules not to feed them.



We weren't sure whether our backsides would survive a one-hour trek, so we just took a short 20 minute ride. Unfortunately, our elephant met with a wild pig on the track and became very obsessive about hunting it down. As our mahout said: "It wants to have a boxing match with the pig!" This was not good when we were on its back and it decided it wanted to try and charge down the hill after the pig, which had already run away. Luckily for us, the mahout managed to keep it on track and we got to the end without too many bumps!

Our fellow tripmates had decided to go for the hour-long trek, so we had to hang around at the drinks shack (couldn't really call it a bar) for a while. Charley was hanging around and he soon came over and plonked himself on our table. The driver started playing with him and we followed Richard's advice to try and gain his trust by grooming him. It was like a monkey massage parlour, but they were extremely clean (Richard said they get shampooed once a week by the staff) and after about half an hour, we had Charley sprawled out on the table napping away contentedly. It was a truly amazing experience, especially for a city-girl like me who is not used to getting so close to nature. Lum Yai made an appearance just as we were leaving and when she saw Tony grooming Charley, she quickly pushed Charley out of the way and grabbed Tony's arm as if to say "Groom me!".

I had read numerous reports about the excellent sailing tours with Captain Mark on Tripadvisor and also on his website, so I made a last minute booking with him after we arrived. Originally we had tried to book for the first week, but it was a relief that we had booked for the second week, when we saw the weather.

The Wednesday morning was absolutely glorious and by the time we reached the pier, the sun was firmly wedged over the occasional white fluffy cloud in the sky. There was an Australian family with us on the trip, who were a little reserved at first, but when we got to know them a bit, their two little girls became very talkative. One of them wasn't very well, but still came along even though she was sick for most of the journey. Captain Mark lived up to his reputation as being a very friendly, very passionate and very caring guy.



Tony and I travelled on the top deck, soaking up the rays, salt water and sea air. The morning was kicked off with a snack of fried chicken, coconut sweets in banana leaves and fresh pomelo, bananas and a fruit that resembled an overgrown Longan.

The trip to Koh Phanak took about two hours and about half way there, Captain Noi stopped the engine, raised the sails and we just sailed by wind power. It was so relaxing! When we reached the island, Captain Mark took us over to the caves in his little dinghy and we went caving. Unlike some of the other tours, where Mark says they just dump you and leave you to wander, Mark provided us with torches and led us through the caves, which have not been "commercialised", up and down, in and out of the streams and into the Mangrove Hong. (A hong is an enclosed lagoon which is flooded in high tide and are often inaccessible.) It was quite breathtaking to suddenly see light at the end of the tunnel passage and find yourself in the midst of lush greenery and surrounded on all sides by a cliff face and forests. Looking up at the sky above you and the hundred foot high cliffs was incredibly humbling. Mark then showed us some of the wildlife around the little pools such as the miniature crabs and mudskippers and pointed out the dolphin rock.

The second spot we visited was the Fairy Cave, which had many stalactite and stalagmite formations that resembled everything from an ice cream sundae to a cascading waterfall, shimmering as the torchlight hit the mineral deposits within. This cave ended with two "windows" from which you peered out into a permanently flooded Ancient Hong. It was like something out of an old Chinese fairy story and definitely looked like an ideal spot for immortals to hang out.

As lunchtime approached, we jumped back into the dinghy and sped over to a secluded beach, which we had all to ourselves. Captain Mark's cook Yah had bought some fresh prawns, caught that morning, from a passing fisherman and we had a picnic lunch, consisting of barbecued prawns, chicken curry, tom yum goong, vegetables and rice. Delicious and beautiful!

A short rest after lunch, making the most of our private beach and Mark was back to take us onto the next place. This was the Pirate Cave and this was the only time in the entire trip that we met other tourists. Mark had done an exceeding good job of avoiding the crowds. There was a bit of chaos as we docked at the Pirate Cave because a group of mad canoe guides and their naive charges had just arrived and some ended up capsizing as they tried to bump us or push us out of the way. Erm... hello - canoe vs dinghy?? Anyway, we headed towards the haunted inside of the cave with Mark's torches and saw the grand platform, where the pirates of old used to gather and meet (and hand out their punishments - hence the ghost!). Mark showed what a kind bloke he is by making sure that some of the other tourists were ok when they were trying to negotiate the darkness of the caves with the light from a mobile phone and camera flash.

Our final trip was around to the other side of the island to the Bat Cave. Mark and the Aussie dad paddled the dinghy into the cave and the rest of us shone the torches upwards to look for the bats. You could certainly smell them! Sure enough, we found some colonies and again, being able to see something like this first hand is such a fantastic experience. There was another hong at the end of the batcave, but unfortunately the tide was too high for us to get through in the dinghy.



The day out sailing was definitely the highlight of our holiday! We were muddy, soaked through and definitely salty by the end of the day, but we were still totally up for it and it was such a great feeling. Being in a small group made it all the more personal and there is no better guide that you can have than Mark! He served us up with watermelon on the way back and there it felt strangely liberating to eat your watermelon, spit the seeds over the side of the boat into the sea and then chuck the skins overboard! I didn't care that my shirt and face got covered in juice, I was having a great time and loving every minute!

As the holiday drew to a close, we decided to go for a long massage on the last day and then head back to Patong Bakery once again to make the most of what we couldn't get for those prices back home. A 2-hour massage at Jungceylon cost 650 baht (£10), which isn't the cheapest, but we liked the environment and the service. We thought it would be quite relaxing, but after a long hard day at sea the day before, the massage actually drew out all the aches and pains we had picked up like a proper Thai massage is designed to do. It was good, so good that when we walked out of the spa afterwards, we were like robots and had to take things really easily for a while for fear of just collapsing into a little heap on the floor.




The folks at Patong Bakery recognised us and welcomed us back in the ever-friendly Thai way, anticipating we had come back for the seafood basket. As before, it was beautiful - my favourite was the squid - I have never eaten a squid with a steak knife before and give me this rather than a steak any day!

If you had asked me in the first few days of the holiday whether or not I'd miss Phuket, I would've definitely said no. However, when the time came to leave, we both really wanted the holiday to last longer. The second half of the trip had really stepped up and we ended up having a really fantastic time. Everyone in Thailand, from the hotel staff to the people in the restaurants and shops had been ultra-friendly and helpful (with the exception of one stroppy taxi driver who drove a beamer and didn't like hills). Everyone and everything were just so chilled out!

Still we had to go and after dropping off my 22,000 baht for the hotel bill (bargain!) we headed back to the airport to begin the final adventure - the flight home with a 5-hour stopover in Singapore, where we had a brief meeting with a friend and picked up some mooncakes disguised as spacetoys!

As this is likely to be my last long trip for a while, I'm glad that it turned out so well in the end. I think if I was to visit Phuket again in the future, I wouldn't spend so long there, but I'd definitely go back to see Charley and Lum Yai and take another sailing trip with Mark. Of course, there's the seafood and massage now that we know where to get it!

Some classic highlights to remember:

- the 15 year old tuk-tuk driver who didn't know where he was going and then when he finally reached the hill that the hotel was on insisted on getting his tuk-tuk up and ended up scraping the bottom of it along the ground with a horrible grinding noise

- the taxi driver who we nicknamed "Jimmy" every time he asked us "where you go tomorrow"

- Tony identifying candidates for Wife Nos 2, 3 and 4

- Tony telling me to be careful when I slipped at the zoo and then nearly falling flat on his backside himself

- the tailors trying to guess Tony's nationality and failing miserably... Japan? Malaysia? China? Indonesia?

- going into the herbal sauna at the hotel and rushing straight out because I couldn't breathe!

- the driver nearly knocking over a 70-year old bloke on Bangla Road because he was too busy pointing out the sights to us

Resources:
Singapore Airlines: http://www.singaporeair.com/saa/index.jsp
Pacific Club Resort & Spa: http://www.pacific-club-phuket.com/
Tripadvisor Phuket Forum: http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowForum-g293920-i5037-Phuket.html
Cathy & Gary's Travel Pages: http://www.cathyandgarystravelpages.com/friday_night_bbq.htm
Phuket Zoo: http://www.phuketzoo.com/
Sailing with Captain Mark: http://www.phuketsailtours.com/

Labels: food, holidays

One for the girls...

Bernie showed me this today, so I thought I'd share it with my female readers... thanks Bernie!! Roll on Mr Hong Kong 2007!!



New job means I have to get up early to get a seat on the bus, so I've been adjusting my body clock to try and go to sleep earlier. Well, that's my excuse for not blogging. The early rise and early nights seem to be doing wonders with my health though, that and the daily dash to the bus stop and playing Frogger with the traffic... and I am getting much more fresh (well, as fresh as it gets in the city) air on my lunchtime strolls.

Have been pretty good at resisting the urge to go shopping in my lunch hour, so far only buying a brown jumper from New Look, which was a bargain at a fiver. I think the fact that I am still getting used to wearing heels every day again deters me from venturing too far on the hard floors of the shopping mall that is 5 mins from my office.



It was my Grandma's 80th birthday yesterday, so the family went out for a meal on Saturday. As well as the usual lobster, scallops, duck, chicken, fish etc, we were also served these really cute (and tasty) Coconut Jelly Koi Carp. Pretty cool eh? Had to post the pic up as my blog is rapidly turning into a food blog! Hahaha!!

Labels: buses, family, food, hk celebs, shopping

What I love about Portugal....



Sizzling steak at the "Sizzling Stone" restaurant - cook your own steak on a hot granite stone just the way you want it. Perfect opportunity for Tony to show off his steak grilling skills!



18 oz Portuguese T-bone and mixed Espetada (that's a giant skewer kebab to you and me) at an Australian-themed restaurant "Koala Garden" tucked away off the beaten track among the luxury villas of Albufeira.



Okay, not very Portuguese, but a great way to taste the best of the fresh local seafood as sashimi and sushi. Also got another beef fix with the sirloin steak teriyaki and satisfied Tony's yearning for tempura.

We didn't get round to trying the local speciality Cataplana - fish and shellfish steamed with herbs in a tall pan, but there's only so many meals that you can have in a long weekend.

Labels: food, holidays

Birthday Weekend in Prague



I usually spend my birthday with my friend Su because her birthday is a couple of days after mine and this year was no exception. We decided to do something a little different this year and rather than visiting each other either in Manchester or London, we thought it would be fun to go and do a girly weekend in Prague instead. A couple of other friends tagged along and on my birthday (Friday), we headed out.

My journey started earlier than the others as I had to fly down to Gatwick to meet the others, so I had to trouble my hubby to take me to the airport at 5am to get the first plane down. One good thing about getting a flight so early in the morning - you get a decent hot breakfast instead of a sweaty sandwich on the plane!

Met up with the girls in London and took the swift flight over to Prague. My first impressions of the city as our shuttle left the airport was that it was still very rural and kind of stuck in a 1970's timewarp with the grey houses and grafitti everywhere, but as soon as we crossed the little tunnel into Prague city, then everything was very different and so much more modern than I had expected. We'd booked a pretty posh hotel, so our room was very nice and a cheeky email got us a birthday cake and a bottle of champagne upon arrival, which was a lovely way to start the holiday! After our afternoon snack of champers and chocolate mousse cake, we went out for a wander and just 2 minutes away was Prague's main shopping area in Wenceslas Square with all the shops having their winter sales. As this was a girly trip, we dived into shopping heaven and must have checked out about 20 different stores in the space of two hours. Dinner was at a restaurant called 'Coloseum' which came recommended by the taxi driver, but took about an hour to serve our food. Their home made ice cream was delicious though.



We decided to do the sights on Saturday, so we had an early start and wandered around looking for some breakfast. We ended up in the wrong direction, but ended up in a small local bakery, where we managed to get a hot drink and dry baked bread/cake for around 50p each. It wasn't the best breakfast ever, but it was certainly the cheapest we have ever had. My friend enjoyed her espresso. Then we followed our plan to get a tram up the hill to see the castle, which was very pretty and a snap decision from Su meant that we hiked up the 287 steps of the South Tower of St Vitus Cathedral to get some superb views of the city. We then rushed back down again making ourselves very dizzy as we counted the steps down the spiral stone staircase again in time to watch the changing of the guard in the courtyard, which I am glad we managed to see. Our descent down to the bridge took us down the castle steps and at the bottom, we decided to grab a quick coffee from the row of quaint coffee shops.

More shopping was in order as we strolled gently past St Nicholas Cathedral and found a row of craft and souvenir shops along the road towards Charles Bridge. The views from the bridge were very pretty and the sun actually came out for us as we crossed another of Prague's main sights. Feeling rather peckish, we went off in search of the traditional Czech meal of Roast Pork and dumplings and we found this in the Old Town Square, where we each had a main course, dessert and drinks for £5 a head. Then we wandered back towards Wenceslas Square again, stopping off at the hotel to drop off our things before heading to our cultural encounter at a concert held on the staircase of the National Museum. They put down a load of cushions on the stairs and the musicians stook on the middle section between the staircases. It was certainly an unusual set up, but the venue was stunning. Music was pretty good too as they played some Vivaldi, some Dvorak, some Mozart and some Brahms. After the concert, we decided to do a bit more shopping (all the shops open til 8pm) and then try the street sausages that had caught our noses on the first night. For about a pound, you get a foot-long meaty sausage in a soft bun and all the sauce you can eat. The sausage is super-stodgy though, so needless to say none of us managed to finish it, but it was an experience! We rounded off the evening ordering some honey and lemon and fruit teas from room service and playing cards until 4am.



Sunday morning was spend sleeping in and recovering from the night before, then we decided to go off in search of a decent brunch and we decided to check out the recommendations for Bohemian Bagel. It was a good 20 minute trek over to the old town and it was well tucked away, but it was all worth it as we tucked into our big breakfasts of eggs, bacon, sausages, pancakes, tomatoes, beans.... mmmmm!!! Then after another stroll (and yup, you guessed it ... more shopping) we headed over to the Mystic Buddha spa, where we had booked in for some indulgence in the form of Thai massage! It was so nice and we were totally zonked. It also brought out my cold though, so I had to get a quick nap before dinner - another traditional Czech meal. I had the roast duck, which was quite nice, but the super stodgy dumplings were starting to become too much. The evening was spent chilling as we were all pretty spaced after the massage and a long day on Saturday.

We finally found a decent breakfast place on Monday morning in the form of a French bageterie. Okay, so it was about five times the price of the one we had on Saturday, but the cheese and ham croissant was delicious and so light. All washed down by the richest hot chocolate ever. Some last minute shopping and sightseeing later, it was time to go home.



My trip was especially enjoyable for a number of reasons. Firstly, I have never been on holiday with Su before despite knowing her for so many years and it was great for us to do this and spend our birthdays together. Secondly, it surprised me as to how modern the city actually is. I was imagining it to be quite retro and in some respects it is with the old-fashioned tram system and some of the remnants from the old days, but in the same way that the big cities in China have opened up, Prague has really taken a big leap into the 21st century. Then there was the shopping, I never would have imagined Prague to be somewhere that I would go for shopping, but I was pleasantly surprised at what was available there and despite the 19% VAT, which is higher than the UK, when you hit the sales, there are some great bargains to be had! Finally, the people there are very welcoming and friendly. They love the fact that you are visiting their country and even if they do not speak English at all, they do not shun you like they do in some other countries like Spain. Instead, you manage to communicate by body language and persistance, which is great! I'll definitely be back to check out the sights that I didn't have time for this time, but will make sure I time my trip to coincide with the sales again!!

Labels: birthday, food, holidays

Great food, Lots of fun, Fine company and the Love of my Family


This is for my dearest hubby to thank him for such a wonderful evening.

As I'll be in Prague for my birthday next week and it's been a while since we entertained my family at home, I decided to invite my folks, my sibs and their respective other halves to dinner tonight for an early celebration. My hubby offered to cook and he made some of my favourite dishes and excelled himself. I think even my mum was suitably impressed. Although my folks had to leave quite early, it was nice to have them round for a change and it was so much more enjoyable and homely than going out to a restaurant and spending lots of money.

My sibs stayed around for some Wii-ing and after a few games of tennis, we ripped into my birthday pressie from my bro and future-sis-in-law:



Three hours later, we were still enjoying it. Despite it's simplicity, it is such a great game and just the dancing microgame was enough to have us rolling around laughing, especially when you put it into fast mode. There is no better feeling than to just have lots of fun, forgetting everything for the moment and just enjoying each others company. Frothy hot chocolate rounded off a lovely evening surrounded by the people I love.

It's times like this that remind us of the more important things in life....

Labels: birthday, family, food

Plungers, Rabbids, Sword-slinging, Appraisals and Christmas...



The past few days have been a bit of a blur really and has left me in a state of confusion about whether I should spend today fighting the crowds in the high street to get myself a new diary for 2007 or whether I should just stay in the warmth and comfort of home and just get some rest for another day...hmm... in the meantime, I'll write up what I remember of the last few days.

Christmas Day was pretty quiet. My hubby cooked the roast and his family came round. There were no battles and I actually got to spend some quality time playing with our nephew. He can walk now, so he was busy doing circuits of our living room and thoroughly enjoying himself.

We headed back to Liverpool to see my folks on Boxing Day and we joined in the Christmas Party at the local Chinese Community Centre, where I have been meeting up with a friend for the last couple of years because she goes with her folks too - so we swap presents and have a good old catch up. (Contrary to popular belief, I don't go there for the Old Fogey's Karaoke Competition and we never win anything in the lucky raffle.) Volunteered to be the sound engineer again because my dad was having a time trying to juggle being photographer, sound engineer and president at the same time.

Dinner was at my parent's house in the evening and we had roast duck and pancakes, steamed fish and char siu. I do miss my mum's cooking so much nowadays, the only thing missing was her soup, but she didn't have time to make it after the party. My bro and sis bought me "Rayman Raving Rabbids" and an extra Wii-mote for Christmas, so I took my Wii over and we had a Wii-fest in the evening. Such great fun and that Rayman game is soo funny. I especially like the music game and the crazed nunchuk shaking games, reminiscent of the days of DDR and Bishi Bashi. The animation is soo funny as well, especially the end of level shoot-outs with the plungers!

Shame the evening had to come to an end as we were having so much fun, but a re-match is planned for New Year's Eve at my sister's house party.

It was back to work on Wednesday and my mission for the rest of the week was to get as many appraisals written up for my team. That's 10 x 6 page reports on how well my staff have been doing this year. Yawn.... I was sooo losing the will to live. You have to be positive or constructive with all your comments - that's not easy for some people who you don't rate at all. Well, after a long hard slog, I have just one left to do and that can wait until Tuesday because my brain is already mashed enough.

Have also been playing Zelda on the Wii and it is such a beautiful game. It's pretty addictive once you get into it and before you know it you have clocked up three or four hours gameplay on it. I'm not one of these who just whizzes through these games (some people claim to have completed it in 19 hours... madness and what a waste of money!) so I am taking my time.

I smell food...

Labels: family, food, life, wii

Five Fab Things about Madeira



Sunny blue skies and even bluer sea.
We didn't have a drop of rain all week, temperatures were a warm, but comfortable 25 to 18 degrees C and it is nicely cool at night to make for a good sleeping temperature. This is a view of the cliffs on the far side of the island from our trip on the Catamaran.



Stunning sunsets and total tranquility.
No rowdy Brits or noisy nightclubs here, just sitting on the balcony in the evenings or taking a walk around the hotel gardens and watching the amazing sunset scenes.



Fantastically fresh and reasonably priced food.
49p for a third of the sweetest, tastiest, most refreshing watermelon I have ever had and the spread you see in the picture came to just £20! Tuna tastes like tuna and not some bland reconstituted dolphin meat you get in tins in the UK. The tomatoes are large, juicy and beefy and the cucumbers contain about half the water of the British ones, so they are packed with taste. Oh and their steaks are always cooked to perfection!



Dolphin watching.
For around £18 for three hours, you can take a trip out to the Atlantic and go dolphin and whale watching. Okay, the pic isn't that great, but we did get to see plenty of dolphins and whales on our trip. Not for those who get seasick though as the waves can get a bit choppy.



Beautiful flowers and parks and NO BUGS!
For a warm place, there are relatively few bugs and insects in Madeira, so for an anti-bug activist like me, this was ideal! The ones you will see are some butterflies and moths and some wasps that are more interested in the lovely blooms than your arm. So I rested easily without worrying about being eaten alive by stupid mozzies. There were some little lizards running around in the rocks, but they seemed relatively harmless and couldn't make the climb up to the hotel balcony, so that was okay.

The holiday was fab and so relaxing - plus our hotel had FIVE pools, so there was never any crowds. Everywhere was so quiet and we never had to queue for much. Would definitely recommend the island if you fancy somewhere to totally chill out!

Labels: food, holidays