Udawalawe National Park (Sri Lanka)

I associate safaris with South Africa, not Sri Lanka. 

However, since the safari in Sri Lanka is known to be pretty popular, we decided to make a visit to the Udawalwe National Park. Food options and accommodation nearby are few and far between- do yourself a favour by not staying the night or at least pack some food (just in case). 

It was my first ever visit to a safari in a jeep and I must say it was quite an experience, trying to spot the animals. 

Two of us were on the jeep, while the driver would stop to point out certain animals. 

We saw so many elephants in the park. It was quite exciting to observe the elephants up close- the way they use their trunks to pull out the grass, how they feed themselves etc. We also learnt to identify male elephants from female elephants. 

After a while, the novelty of seeing elephant after elephant wore out a little. Till we saw the elephants having a mud bath! It was also rather hilarious how some white bird would always follow the elephants, apparently because they would like to eat the insects circling the elephants.

As we travelled on, we also saw storks. I was struck by how they were more or less facing the same direction.

We were ever ready to press the shutter button to take pictures of the water buffaloes- until we heard some angry stomping and frightened elephants running away. I never knew elephants could run that fast That scene was quite memorable because it was the only drama in the otherwise seemingly peaceful safari.

We got to spot a number of peacocks as well, their calls are unmistakeable.

While there were plenty of birds flying around, the most colourful was none other than the honey bee eater.

After the initial congestion of jeeps near the entrance, it felt as though you were the only people in the safari to enjoy nature for the remaining journey. This was a birds haven where birds would perch on the branches of these weathered trees.

The whole tour took around 2.5- 3 hours.

Overall, going to this safari was definitely an eye opener, seeing animals in their natural habitat and being in awe of nature.

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Lucky Fort Restaurant (Sri Lanka)

We were excited to try the food at Lucky Fort Restaurant- 950 rupees for 10 curries certainly sounded like quite a steal. The set is good for two. Plus there were plenty of good reviews for this restaurant. I also liked the greenery around the restaurant.

Many of the curries were pretty interesting, such as mango curry and pineapple curry- those were firsts for me.

However, while the food was decent, it was not as spectacular as others make it out to be. The curries seem a bit muted in flavours, although you can certainly ask them to make it spicy. They will also give you some sambal upon request.

While we overheard the next table saying that the mango curry was so "awesome", I couldn't really taste the mango as it was overwhelmed by the curry. The eggplant curry was pretty interesting- it was deep fried and sprinkled with sugar, making it an addictive snack.

A cheap meal with different kinds of curries, but not really worth the hype.

Lucky Fort Restaurant
No. 7 Parawa Street
Galle, Sri Lanka

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The Original Rocket Burger (Sri Lanka)

We are usually not burgers people but The Original Rocket Burger looked pretty enticing. 

The shop occupies two stories although the seating area at the second floor was rather small. 

There is a hipster vibe to this place with interesting posters around. I especially liked this: "Annoying the cook will result in smaller portions". 

I ordered the Shipwreck (900 Rs) which consisted of the catch of the day (mahi mahi), tamarind sauce, coleslaw, onions, ketchup and mustard. I have to say that ever since I had eaten Ferberger in New Zealand, all other burgers pale in comparison.

That said, the burger was decent and had a large piece of fish. The mahi mahi was a little dry for me but it might be due to the nature of the fish.

The Fries (Rs 200) were not greasy and had a slightly crispy skin.

If one had had too much curries, this might be a good break! 

The Original Rocket Burger
24 Pedlar Street
Galle Fort
Galle, Sri Lanka 

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The Highlands (Sri Lanka)

1) Location 

While the hotel is located on the slope, it is around a short 10-15 minute drive to the city centre. 

2) Room

The room was tastefully decorated and I was impressed the moment I stepped into it. The bed and pillows were comfortable. 

3) Amenities 

Wifi was strong. 

There was an open area with sofas and a foosball table. 

4) Toilet 

When we wanted to take a shower, all that came out was cold water. We were told by the staff to wait for 5 minutes for the water to heat up. Alas, the water was very mildly warm / never hot. We were essentially bathing in cold water when the temperature outside was 11 degrees. The room was cold and there was one little portable heater on the table. 

5) Service 

Initially, we were quite impressed when the staff served us with cookies and fruits in the afternoon. 

But there were several misses. 

After we made payment in cash, the staff at the reception told us that he will pass us the change later as he didn't have enough change at that time. The change never came and we forgot about it. 

Also, we were impressed when the staff asked us what time we wanted breakfast the next day. We told them that we were leaving the hotel at 5:30 a.m. the next day and that we might not be able to have breakfast. The staff said that it was no problem and they would be able to pack sandwiches for us. We appreciated their gesture. 

However, the next day, when we were about to leave, we asked the staff at the counter whether the sandwiches were ready. Looking extremely puzzled, he said that there were no sandwiches. Had we known, we would have bought our own breakfast the previous day. 

6) Conclusion

While this property looks luxurious, improvements await- in particular, service and fix that heating please!

The Highlands 
41/3A Unique View Road
Nuwara Eliya 22200 
Sri Lanka

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Karmagali Suites (Bali)

Given that we had visited quite a number of attractions in Bali the previous trip, this time we decided to have a short and relaxing trip, so relaxing that we didn't even plan an itinerary beforehand. 

We booked Karmagali Suites in Sanur, and it proved to be a good decision.

(1) Location 

Karmagali Suites is around a half an hour drive from the international airport. By using Grab, we only paid 50,000 Ruppiah (with an additional toll of 11,000 Ruppiah if you wish to take the quicker route). Karmagali Suites is a little deep in from the main street but that shouldn't be an issue because it takes around 5-10 minutes (really dependent on the weather) to walk out to the main street to get your fix of local food / massage etc. 

Given that we are always on the hunt for good food, we appreciated that one of the maps provided in the room was a food map- where they pointed out the recommendations for food. 

(2) Room

We booked the Frangipani Suite. The room was a good size, the pillows were comfortable and the greenery around was simply therapeutic. There were plenty of TV channels to choose from as well.

Although the room was closest to the street, it didn't really bother me since the noise wasn't loud, but if you are bothered, there are earplugs provided in the toilet

(3) Toilet 

The toilet was nothing like I have seen before- it was spacious and boasts of nature elements. The soap and body gel smelt sweet and refreshing.

For those who love rain showers, you have got it here.

(4) Breakfast

Breakfast was personalised. There is a menu in the room, containing breakfast items, lunch / dinner items, drinks and desserts. Breakfast was part of the room price. We were served breakfast at the area outside our room. Minus the pesky houseflies and the occasional mosquito, it was a delight to be sitting below strips of bamboo and enjoying a delicious breakfast.

You could choose from the French, Continental or Indonesian menu. We opted from the French Menu, which came with a platter of fresh fruits, fresh juice, coffee / tea and a selection of French pastries (coupled with jam / butter). The French pastries included croissant, crepe, brioche and lemon cake (choose any 3). We enjoyed the lemon cake and crepe.

(5) Amenities 

There is a swimming pool shared by the five suites. During the time we were around, we didn't see anyone use the pool but it was indeed inviting. Wifi was strong. They also provide laundry services for an extremely reasonable rate. 

(6) Service 

Service was exceptional. From the owners to the staff, each of them were friendly and helpful. The housekeeping also made the room spick and span.

Karnagali Suites 
Jl. Pungutan No. 24B
Sanur, Denpasar 

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Gills N Shells

We dropped by Gills N Shells one Saturday evening. The foot traffic was pretty low and I think this place certainly deserves more customers. 

We ordered the Hae Bee Hiam Pasta with Soft Shell Crab ($18.90). Sometimes, creating fusion dishes may result in disasters but this was not one of those. The pasta, coated with a generous amount of flavourful and spicy hae bee hiam, was a perfect combination with two relatively large pieces of soft shell crabs. If you are one for spicy and deep fried food, this is for you.

We also ordered the Truffle Infused Cod ($24.90). The pan-seared cod was doused liberally with truffle oil, with chye poh on the cod. While the chye poh added some welcome saltiness to this dish, I felt that it was a little over-fried, resulting in the preserved radish losing its distinct crunch. There was a choice between pilaf rice, fries or mashed potatoes. Since fries and mashed potatoes are so common, we decided to go with the fragrant pilaf rice.

To round off the meal, we ordered a Gills N Shells Tiramisu Jar ($10.90). I was initially a little skeptical when I saw the glass jar as it seemed to consist mostly of cream. To my delight, there were abundance of lady fingers soaked in coffee liquor.

While the service was attentive and the food generally good, we found the portions a little small. 

Gills N Shells 
Hotel Boss
500 Jalan Sultan #01-19
Singapore 199020
Tel No: 6493 2238 

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Journey to Infinity: Escher's World of Wonder

When I was in primary school, I used to receive emails from friends on optical illusions and I remember being intrigued by these. So, when I saw a newspaper writeup on the exhibition, Journey to Infinity: Escher's World of Wonder, I decided to visit the exhibition. 

There are several exhibition themes: Early Works: Art Nouveau and Nature, Tessellation, Metamorphosis, Commercial Works, Exploring Infinity and Escher Mania. 

I wasn't too interested in Escher's early works, but things got more interesting as we walked through the exhibition. 

I am not sure whether they still have tessellation in the primary school mathematics syllabus but that used to be one of the rare areas in mathematics that I found fun. This exhibition is of course a lot more high level. 

Credit: Marina Bay Sands

If you thought that Escher stopped at mere tessellations, you couldn't be more wrong because he decided to level up again by morphing his tessellation. In this part of the exhibition, the tessellation morphs from one object to another. I was trying to figure it out at the beginning and it became clearer as I walked on. 

Credit: Marina Bay Sands

Escher also created a number of drawings with impossible objects. In other words, structures which may seem plausible, but upon closer inspection turned out to be impossible to create. I spent some time look at Ascending and Descending. He must have had quite a brilliant brain to figure these. 

Credit: Marina Bay Sands

Of course, there are bound to be people inspired by such art. And one of my favourites was Donald Duck by Hans Kuiper. 

Credit: Marina Bay Sands

Art Science Museum, being Art Science Museum, wouldn't forget about "interaction", the buzzword for museums nowadays. Besides The Relativity Room and Tessellation Puzzle Activity, there are tables and chairs situated at some spots of the exhibition for some DIY activities. For example, you can punch holes into some strips of paper with music notes and slip it through a small device and music will be generated. 

An interesting exhibition if you are into tessellations and impossible objects. 

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Face to Face Noodle House

Face to Face has a history of over 100 years, when the founder's great grandfather learned the art of making Jook Sing noodles. With over 30 outlets in Malaysia, the Singapore branch is its first overseas foray. 

I ordered the value meal because it seemed too good a deal to pass. At $10.90, you get a main, a drink and a side.

I ordered the Traditional Sarawak Noodles. Minced pork, char siew and wanton sat on a bed of incredibly springy handmade noodles. Add a bit of the dried chilli at the side to up the oomph of the dish. As side, I chose the juicy Fried Taucu Wings.

Value for money and delicious!

Face to Face Noodle House
City Square Mall
180 Kitchener Road
#02-23/24
Tel No: 6509 0182 

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Chrisostomos (Chania)

When we asked our Airbnb host for food recommendations, without batting an eyelid, he recommended Chrisotomos. Although he said that it has one of the best food around, he also said that its view is one of the worst. By that, he meant that the restaurant was facing a car park, unlike many of the restaurants which were facing the sea. The crowds filled up pretty quickly. 

We were first served some delicious and piping hot home made bread.

As I had a late and heavy lunch, I decided to order the Green Salad with Mushrooms (9.50 Euros), which consisted of lettuce, spinach, rocket, cherry tomatoes, mushrooms, pine nuts with sweet and sour dressing with honey and vinegar.

The salad was huge, felt light and had a very appetising dressing. I enjoyed this because it had plenty of my favourite ingredient- mushrooms!

The specialties at Chrisotomos are the meat dishes, in particular, lamb.

The waiters served complimentary loukoumades. They are bite sized, very addictive, a cross between a donut and a you tiao (dough fritter) because of its crispiness. Some sweet syrup is then drizzled over these little jewels with sesame seeds sprinkled to give each bite some crunch. What a nice way to round off the meal!

Service was warm and friendly.

Chrisotomos
Deukalionos & Ikarou Str
Anatoliki Tafros
Chania, Crete
Greece 

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Kki Sweets

The first thought that I had when I stepped into Kki Sweets was, this place is so Muji-esque. Light wood with gentle lighting, so welcoming and warm. 

You have to place an order first before they will allocate a seat to you. 

I ordered the Little Red Riding Hood ($9.80), which consists of a dark chocolate mousse with a raspberry centre. No doubt, the dessert looked dainty and exquisite (look at that beautiful shine). There was also nothing to complain about the taste- rich, smooth dark chocolate, with a tinge of raspberry. But I can't help but feel that this is a little overpriced. Perhaps I was looking at a dessert that would surprise me, like the desserts at Mad About Sucre.

Kki Sweets 
#02-01 School of The Arts
1 Zubir Said Drive
Tel No: 6225 6650 

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Tempura Kohaku

I seldom spend more than 15 minutes queueing for food because there are so many food places to go, why waste your time queuing? 

I have been waiting for the queues at Tendon Ginza Itsuki to die down. But nope, it never did. No matter what time of the day it was, there would always be a queue stretching down the little alley.

If I am going to wait, I might as well wait in an air-conditioned place. So, one Sunday night, we decided to go to Tempura Kohaku. 

Despite my husband's plea at the 10-minute mark, "How about if we still don't get in within 15 minutes, we go somewhere else?" "No."

After half an hour or so, we were finally in.

You could choose between the Tendon or the Set Tendon. The Set Tendon is basically Tendon, udon and Tsukemono. The types of Tendon include Kohaku Tendon (vegetables, chicken, prawn and other seafood), Vegetables Tendon, Kohaku Tendon Spicy Flavour and Vegetables Tendon Spicy Flavour.

I got the Kohaku Tendon Spicy Flavour ($15). When we saw the amount of ingredients heaped on the bowl, we knew that this meal was definitely value for money. The rice is imported from Hokkaido- every grain so plump and delicious.

The batter was not oily and coated with a spicy sweet sauce. It got a bit numbing by the end of the meal, such that all I tasted was the spice. The ingredients included prawns, chicken breast, crabstick, calamari, mushroom, french bean, maize and pumpkin. Each item was fresh although I found the chicken breast a tad try.

Although the food is value for money and is pretty good, this meal was definitely artery clogging. I think coming here once is enough (bearing in mind the queue as well).

Tempura Kohaku
Suntec City Mall Tower 1
Eat At Seven
3 Temasek Boulevard
#03-310/311
Tel: 6333 4386 

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Uncle Chua Ice Cream

Recently, there was a mini hoo-ha in the internet sphere when a Buzzfeed editor included the ice cream bread that Singaporeans love as  one of the "21 of the Absolute Worst Sandwiches that have Ever Happened".

His article was blasted and he later edited the article, with an apology, "So it appears that an item originally in this post at #7 (an ice-cream sandwich) is in fact a Singaporean delicacy. In which case, I'm sure it's delicious! A version with English bread and ice cream would not be nice. Sorry for the mistake in including it." Nice try.

I loved the response by Your Singapore- so passive aggressive!

These ice cream bread- $1 but offer so much comfort.

For my wedding, I was deciding between having an ice cream man or yoghurt and decided with the former.

I contacted Uncle Chua Ice Cream and he responded very quickly.

They were prompt in responding, punctual, efficient and friendly. The ice-cream, needless to say, was cheap and delicious! Many guests also remarked about how they enjoyed the ice cream bread. Instead of having a fancy dessert table, how about an ice cream man at your next event?

Uncle Chua Ice Cream
Facebook
Telephone No: 9108 4203 

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Lexis Hibiscus (Port Dickson)

The hibiscus is the national flower of Malaysia. Not only is this hotel called Lexis Hibiscus, it is also arranged in the shape of a hibiscus. 

A coach was arranged for us from Singapore to Lexis Hibiscus. It took around 6 hours, including a 45 minute lunch break. 

1) Room

We got an Executive Pool Villa, located at the hibiscus leaf area. To get from the hotel to the rooms at the hibiscus (i.e. at the sea), you can queue up for a buggy. However, as we stayed rather close to the main block, it was more convenient for us to walk directly to the main block. 

There was free wifi, 2 complimentary bottles of water and some snacks. What made me roll my eyes was when I went to the reception to ask for an extra bottle of water because there were 3 of us in the room, the receptionist responded, "You may buy from the lobby shop." I said, "You mean I can't get free bottles of water?" And he said yes. 

There were plenty of pillows, which was great. However, the pillows all felt a little too soft. Many of the cushions also had pen marks on them. Is it because they are worried the guests would bring these cushions home? 

If you want a bigger room, you may wish to consider getting those in the main block instead. 

2) Toilet 

I loved the toilet. It was spacious, had strong water pressure, and you had the choice of using the shower head or the rain shower. Using the shower was also idiot proof- you have no idea how many complicated shower devices I have seen. Plus the temperature is consistent, unlike some places where the temperature suddenly changes.

There were also free toiletries provided. They smelt really sweet, one of the ingredients referred to something about hibiscus.

There is a partition between the shower area, the toilet area and the basin. There is a glass door which leads to this area. There are no locks to the glass door, the shower and toilet area. So you better be comfortable with who you are staying with.

There is a small part of the floor where you can look through and see the sea below. On their webpage, it says that this glass panel is for you to view the marine life. Marine life? Dirty water more like it.

If you step out, there is a sauna area and a dipping pool. If you are looking for privacy, do not stay at the hibiscus leaf area, choose somewhere further. Anybody from the main block or on the buggies can see you enjoying in the dipping pool.

3) Breakfast

Limited variety of food. For 2 days, I had nasi lemak because that tasted the best. I have my doubts about their food handling methods. One night, we saw a trolley of ham, wrapped in plastic, left outside in the warm weather.

Their mini muffins are Horrible, yes with a capital H. I haven't eaten such bad muffins before that I ate a quarter of it. My friend didn't believe me and took a bite- and the rest is history.

For food options, there is a cafe, a Japanese restaurant and Hibiscus Walk, a stretch of stalls selling hawker food along the beach. While I didn't try the food at Hibiscus Walk, the smell of the char kway teow was really tempting.

4) Overall

The houseflies. So many houseflies. Houseflies were a common sight throughout the resort. I was waiting in the lobby for my bus and the flies just kept coming. That kept me busy for a while until my bus came.

Overall, the room is pretty good but everything else can be improved.

Lexis Hibiscus (Port Dickson)
12th Mile Jalan Pantai
Pasir Panjang 71250
Malaysia 

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Xenonas Iresioni (Arachova)

We wanted to go to Meteora from Athens, but as it was a four hour drive, we thought we would just stay somewhere midway, where we could also visit Delphi. We decided on Xenonas Iresioni. 

1) Location 

Finding the parking lot was not easy, even with the instructions that were given. We lost our way and driving a manual car down and up the slopes was a nightmare (don't trust google maps either). 

It is a 10 minute walk to the food places and a 15 minute drive to Delphi. 

2) Rooms 

We got the Double Room (62 Euros). Not sure if it was the yellow lights or the yellow walls but these made the room feel a little dated even though it was really not.

The bed was comfortable and they even had these little sachets placed below the pillows, apparently to help you relax. The rooms are clean.

3) Breakfast 

The breakfast area was so charming, it could be christmas all year long! I loved the decor of the dining area- so homely and cosy.

Pastries, bread, cereal, and juices- there is certainly enough food to keep you full!

4) Service 

The guy at the reception desk was very chill and friendly.

This hotel is value for money. 

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