Hope I’m not making you reader dizzy hehehe Will be switching to Vietnam travel for my next post. This time, beautiful town of Tay Ninh, with one of the most unique religon in the world.

ok, need a few days nap again to recuperate & prepare for the post

Many thanks for all your well wishes, it seems like I’m recovering faster then expected. However, I do still need to have some more ample rest The answer to previous post is:
Chiang Mai, North Thailand

The moutain which I’m referring to is … erhmm … the one I’m standing on to take this aerial shot, Doi Suthep (Doi = Mountain in Thai)

A spectacular shrine, Wat Phrathat, was built on top of Doi Suthep. Beautiful Shrine, a MUST VISIT if you are in Chiang Mai. Here are some shots

On the right, is huge bell that was donated by someone living in Singapore, Tampines

And if you drive furthur up, you will find a nice viewpoint facing the other side of Doi Suthep with Beautiful mountains & sunset scenery.

Gotta zzzzzzzzzz more. Take care for now!

The weather is siziling hot outside. The aircon freaking cold in the workplace. Bad combo, I’m feeling the onset of fever. so will be taking MC off Blogosphere until end of this week. Hopefully I should be alright by then. Anyway, nothing too serious, just a couple of good rests, plenty of water, eating less meat & heaty food, more vegetables. No need panadol ok!

In meantime, here is something for you to pass your time if you passby here again. Can anyone guess where was this night scene taken? Just the Country & City will do; Well, if you know the name of mountain, that will be tripling great lah!!!

Have fun & see you next week!

Hint: Somewhere in South East Asia

I happen to passby Marina South while I was heading for IT show @ SUNTEC to buy a new color scanner. They seems to have a string of Fashion events going on for month of March 2006. All shots taken with my puny Lumix FX9, not so fanastic but passable lah, I guess . Since I took it, might as well I shared them.

How many white lens have you counted?








The End

Cheers!

This week were particularily tiring, so I’m looking for quick post. Looking through my old photos, A-ha! No, not the band group, A-ha, merely a exclaimation mark. I found what I need.

One fine day in 2004, while walking along the busy streets in Mongkok@HongKong, I chanced upon this BIG RED characters meaning Beef Ball King!

Now, anyone who claims they are king ought to be interesting. So I promptly sat and order one bowl ball of Beef Ball. They looks like ordinary beef ball except size are larger. You not only able to finish in one bite, unless you got really big mouth!

But HOLD! Before you tackle the beef balls or rather minced beef shaped into balls (afraid some poor fellow might mistaken for the other for real hehehehe …).

Trust me. Bite very very slowly, with the balls facing down. They have highly “pressurized” hot fillings (fish collagen?) that explosive in your mouth once you bite through it.

Been there done that, but with the ball facing up, the liquid collagen almost squirt onto a waitress 1 meter away from me. I have my hands & mouth full of sticky & delicious stuffs as well. So embrassing

Now, after re-reading their menu. finally saw their warning message on the top right corner. Hey, they should have that warning painted in RED man!

The shop is somewhere opposite this Giant Advertistment featuring William Hung ! As this photo was taken 2 years ago, I wouldn’t bank on this as reference. Do check the menu for their address. Sorry, have problem entering chinese text on this PC. (hmm need to sort out the Chinese IME soon)

Cheers!

It was about 1pm when we just finished visiting the magnificant Tay Ninh Temple. The tour bus brought us to a sleepy restaurant near Tay Ninh for quick lunch stop before we proceed to Cu Chi Tunnels.

For some reasons, I usually frowned on restaurant that was brought by tourist agent. I tried to look for alternative roadside stalls, unfortunately, there doesn’t seems to be any around the area. So mindlessly I flip the menu, expecting the usual boring food that’s was catered for tourist.

Ca Kho To or Fish Cooked in bowl as written in the menu. Now, that caught my attention as I have not tried it in HCMC. I’m always game for new dish and this time, it’s no exception.

Small plate of fish (catfish probably), rice with cooked vegetables & sweet pungent dipping sauce arrived.

The highlight of the dish was this plate of fish. Fish were cooked till tender, the enticing aroma fills the air with sweet & pungently fragrance of fish sauce & caramel. Though at 15,000 dong for a small plate isn’t cheap here, this has become one of my favourite Vietnamese food dish. Unfortunately, I can’t seems to find any in HCMC, so if you happens to know any, please do share with me!

Even after coming back to Singapore, I still missed this vey much. Fortunately, at Vietnamese God’s Blog, he has shared the recipe of Ca Kho To (Fish in claypot) HERE. Thanks to Tu (aka Vietnamese God), I now can satisfy my craving even in Singapore.

Also, there are some interesting soft drink that could not find elsewhere other then Vietnam, like this salted lime. so freshing & thirst quenching drink.

Surrounding this restaurant were lots of home with antenna that’s mounted on extremely high pole. Needless to say, the clearer the path the better the TV reception. From the number of antenna installed, it obvious TV media is gaining wide spread & common in many Vietnamese homes. Which probably a good indication that life are improving

So beautiful & relaxing to wonder
So mysterious & fasinating to ponder
So random & unpredictable to figure

I was trying to do a series of Singapore HDB housing & their green surrounding. However, as I always have this strange fasination for clouds, I can’t help but marvel at this cloud traces that appear on this equally amazing blue skies. I found myself gazing at this photo again & again. Even decide to have it as my wallpaper.

So, I guess, this MUST be my favourite photo for Feb 2006. Hmm … I hope you feel the same as well

While on my way to Tay Ninh, I can’t help but think that Tay Ninh Province specialty is in making of rice paper sheets. Because, every house along the way seems to be drying rice paper outside their houses.

Trang Bang (A District within Tay Ninh Province) rice sheet is a Tay Minh specialty. And what I’m holding in my previous post was a piece of Trang Bang special rice sheet called “banh trang phoi suong”. These cooked rice sheet were exposed overnight mist or morning dew to make it softer. There isn’t a need to soak in water as they were already soften & moist. In fact, it’s quite nice chewing these rice sheets, which taste like lightly salted rice paper. The usual way of eating will be to wrap them around boiled pork sliced, fresh vegetables & herbs.

Once again, I got the lead from Noodlepie about a stall in HCMC that serves this specialty. Thanks Pieman!

As you can see, it’s quite a large serving for mere 20,000 dong

Rice paper, Dipping sauce & boiled pork

A large basket of FRESH vegetables & herbs! So fresh that I can see an occassional “garden fresh ant” still lurking around *kidding* But I’m serious about the freshiest, they seems like they are just been harvested from their backyard garden??!!

There were so many variety, the staffs were kind to write about 13 vietnamese names on my notepad. Now, where did I put my notepad??? Sorry, will update the veggies & herbs when I found my notepad and hopefully some kind soul can translate to English equivalents

I have to mention one fine vietnamese gentleman who spoke good english; He has helped me on the ordering of this unique dish. The staffs were also kind & helpful in guiding me how to eat this dish. So here’s how you do it.

Tear whatever veggies & herbs you like on the rice paper. Beware of the purple colored ones, it’s extremely bitter on it’s own but seems to be balanced out when you have it along with other greens

Next, sliced pork, pickled carrots, onions, cucumbers, bean sprouts were added.

Lastly, rolled them up and dipped in sweet & sour dipping sauce. The rice paper were chewy, once you are thru, the crisp of greens & sweetness of pork follows. Even with the layer of fat on the pork slice, I don’t feel the fattiness at all.

One thing I have to say is that the taste of herbs do need some getting used to. So I recommend that you don’t rollup too much herbs like what I did. But once you get over it, it’s a marvellous meal with medical benefits & fibers from assortment of herbs & veggies. I left with my digestive system feelings very good somehow

Quan Co Tam - Banh Canh Trang Bang, 188 Nguyen Van Thu Street, Phuong Da Kao, District 1 … Don’t miss this unique dish when you’re in HCMC!

OK, the above stall is not really near to Saigon river. But I have my morning walk along Saigon river prior to my meal. This ferries were bustling with activities, shuttling many scooters & people across the Saigon River. This river route is certainly more time saving & perhaps cheaper then using the bridge much furthur up the river.

Oh … I’m starting to get hungry. Time for another Vietnamese Food post Just you wait …. meantime, here a hint what’s coming

Strange indeed. I was looking everywhere for my posts using my Administrator account. I could find none. Today, I used my other posting account slurp!, I saw all the posts there! And all I did was republished, everything starts reappearing again.

Sadly, there are none response for my issues I posted on blogsome forum yet. Fortunately, I manage to fix this myself. But I can’t help getting worried if peculiar problem like this happens. So I will evaluate the stability of blogsome by end March before deciding to put up here permanently.

While I know switching from one blogging system to another needs some adjustment period. I certainly hope that it won’t be as long as the Great Wall. So wild, so lonely & so incredibly long.