Baking-my first try-Anzac Biscuits...

Having being inspired by many of my friends and reading lot of blogs about baking, I wanted to try to bake something myself at my home. I was a little sceptic to use my owner's oven at our condo in Singapore. I got to see the receipe of "Oaty Anzac Day biscuits" in Donna Hay book. These biscuits are quite simple and felt its good to try for a beginner like me to start baking.. As the name indicates, its made of oats, which is good at fiber. So, I finally managed to convince myself that I am baking something healthy(though it has got lots of sugar/cocunut/butter!! ;))

Some history behind this receipe. Australian & New Zealand Army Corps(ANZAC), which were among the first soldiers ashore in the battle at Gallipoli in 1915 during World War I. Scottish oatmeal biscuits were cooked at home during WW-I and sent to the soldiers fighting overseas. After the war, these oat-based biscuits were named Anzac Biscuits when they were made and sold as fund-raisers for returned soldiers.

My office friends and husband appreciated the outcome of the biscuits! I am happy I finally got started in baking!

Tioman Travel

This is yet another travelogue from my end.. We had a good relaxing time in Tioman Islands,Malaysia.

This island can be reached by Coach and Ferry from Singapore. The other mode of transport available is a "Dash7" aircraft operated by a private plier from Selatar Airport,Singapore. We managed to get last minute aircraft and resort booking with Berjaya Resorts! There are quite a bit activities to do in this island. The activities available here are snorkelling ,island hopping, banana boat ride, kayak, jungle trekking ,mukut waterfall etc.

Apart from that,Berjaya resort offers Golf, Tennis, Indoor games, Pool and Spa.

We enjoyed the pool , and played tennis (hope our coach doesnt see this ;)). We pampered ourselves with a rejunevating body massage from the Spa. The ambience of the Spa and treatment makes its the most relaxing experience.

We were a little disappointed with our snorkelling adventure. Though both myself and my husband knew swimming, we somehow got a little scared(Our coach wud be very disappointed!!) when we were left all alone in a platform in the middle of the sea, which is 4m deep ! The snorkelling gear was also little complicated as i didnt like the breathing kit and felt quite uncomfortable using that! I was drinking seawater while trying to breathe via mouth!! I got to understand from my colleagues that we should have gone with a group and should have hired a guide. We didnt have any of that as we went in a weekday. We kind of holded the platform and got to see the underwater world! I have to accept it was quite amazing and its a world by itself! But, defintely little scaring for me!!!! So, we could not fully enjoy the snorkelling trip. Our boatman said we could have spotted some turtles, nemo and other variety of sea animals had we dared to try! Better luck next time to us!! At the end of the trip, we got completely tanned being in that hot sun!

We really enjoyed the varied shades of water during our boat ride to Renggis Island..! We spent quite a bit of time, being in the sea , which was quite calm and towards our end of our trip, we could see more waves as FullMoon was approaching...

Overall was a quite relaxing trip and I felt it was better to use the Aircraft option as we didnt feel the journey tiredness at all..

The berjaya resorts had good dining options as well. We even got to taste good Vegetarian Indian food and Veg-Mexican and Veg-Italian receipes. So, I would definitely recommend this place,to people who are little choosy about Vegetarian food options. The chalets were not as impressive as we excepted. But, I would give an overall 3.5/5 for Tioman Beach Resort and their services.

Trip to Mainland China

I would like to share my travel experience in Mainland China.

This is my first trip to china ....

For some of my friends and family members might be a little surprised to read this blog post ,as I had not only been to Shanghai , but also to Turpan, in Xinjiang -Northwest province of China.

Some info. behind Turpan or Tulufan town to give a background on the purpose of an official trip to such a remote town in China. Turpan means 'the lowest place' in the Uygur language and 'the fertile land' in Turki. Lying in the Turpan Basin, the elevation of most of the places in the area is below 500 meters (1,640 feet). Turpan is the city with the lowest elevation in China and the second in the world after DeadSea. The city, which is also known as Huo Zhou (a place as hot as fire), is the hottest place in China.There are flights running between Shanghai and Urumuqi, capital of Xinjiang province. From Urumuqi, its about 3 hours by road to Turpan.Urumuqi is 5 hours by flight from ShangHai.

I was also little sceptic about the place, about its temperture, food etc., but it turned about to a very different experience. Here are some attractions and things to know about Turpan or Tulufan. I got to know a lot about chinese food habits , culture etc..

The abundant sunshine of turpan, gives the melons and grapes ideal conditions to grow. We had been in the peak summer season and were able to enjoy very sweet grapes and melons varieties.

Some of the places I visited in the test car with team- Flaming Moutain, Jiaoho Ancienty city,Bizalkik Thousand Buddha Caves, Grape Valley. Also, the Karez system is one of the four great irrigation system of China and its crystallization of ancient chinese people wisdom to divert the melted snow water and supply as water source to the people of Turpan.

As there is no direct flights from Singapore to turpan. We travelled with small stop over in ShangHai. The two Chinese characters in the name "Shanghai", (Shang and Hai) literally mean "up, on, or above" and "sea", respectively, evident of Shanghai's location next to the East China Sea. ShangHai is emerging as a important center of commerce and finance . According to me, it has good infrastructure to become as an Asian Hub and can overtake Singapore ,which I feel currently holds that status.

The flight journey between Singapore and ShangHai was 5 hrs. I feel its difficult to survive in ShangHai without knowing Mandarin. Even in Airport,we had to tell the hotel address, directions in Mandarin to the taxi Driver.Landed in Shanghai on a mid-afternoon,we had a 1-night stopover, before continuing our trip to Turpan.

As we had a evening at our disposal , myself and my other Singaporean Colleague tried to explore ShangHai. We used their Metro rail system . It was very crowded and we had to really push to get in or out of the metro trains. We hopped into a open-top Tourist bus, in the Lujiazui Finance and Trade Districts, their financial business district to have a look at many skyscraper buildings like Oriental Pearl Tower, Jinmao Tower etc.

We went to Oriental Pearl Tower- 468 meters high (1,536 feet) tower,which is the world's third tallest TV and radio tower surpassed in height only by towers in Toronto, Canada and Moscow, Russia.

Our next visit was to "The Bund" -on the east bank of the Huangpu River, here, we could enjoy the bracing air and the bright lights .

Some more attractions which we covered on our return from Urumuqi to ShangHai are Nanjing Rd- its considered to be the "No. 1 commercial street in China", Yuyuan garden is the largest of Shanghai's ancient gardens with architectural styles of the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Though did not have much time to shop, got a chance to pick some of their dry fruit/seed based sweets,Chinese tea,which has got good detoxifying effect. after obtaining our boarding card on our return Singapore airlines flight, we tried to explore the bullet train "maglev" from Shanghai Pudong Airport and Longyang station , at a speed of 430Km/hr , thereby covering the distance of 30km in 7 min! The thing which we felt a little annoying in this Maglev train system is athough the passengers opt for a two-way travel ticket between pudong airport and Longyang station , the passengers had to get down in Longyang station . Go through the same security check again. There is no information that the train woud not wait for long . Hence,we ended up waiting in the Longyang station for 15 min to get the next train! There is scope of improvement in this process! ShangHai is very hot and humid in July. But, I understand winters here are very cold!

In terms of their food habits, I find they eat little quantity of rice. More of vegetables, meat, hot soup or porridge along with Chinese tea. I think this is the secret behind their fit and slim figure. I dont find too much of western influence like having ice-creams or coke, pepsi to quench their thirst or heat. Instead they were having chill herbal tea, which is 100yrs old receipe it seems and has cooling effects to the body. One of their deserts which i liked very much was yellow pumpkin, sago based porridge with mild sweet.I tried using chopstick to pick food from the bowls like them, but not successful in my attempt!

I shall upload more photos in my picasa.

Travelogue –Kualalumpur, Malaysia

 I am trying to recap all my past travels before it fads away from my memory….

As we couldn’t get any last minute flight reservations, we had booked for a night train from Singapore to KL. We boarded the train in Tiong Bahru railway station(the railway station is still under the control of Malaysia). The train station reminded me of old town side Indian railway station(unlike of Singapore). We had to get down in the immigration checkpoint at Woodlands MRT, Singapore for a stamping in our passports. That was the exit point from Singapore. The funny part is we had got a stamping in our passports for entry into Malaysia in Tiong Bahru station at the time of boarding itself! This is some lousy system that can be changed. At late in the night, we got out of the trains, leaving the luggages in the compartments and stood in a long queue to get our visa stamping for exit from Woodlands MRT, Singapore. But, the whole process was so organized that the entire train passenger’s stamping was completed very fast and people were allowed to board the train again soon. We crossed Singapore border and reached KL next day early morning. It was nice to travel cross-country in a over-night train . It reminded me of my frequent Bangalore-Chennai overnight trips I used to do way back in 2006.

I was advised by my Malaysian colleagues that KL is not friendly to tourists and we need to be very watchful of our bags and the local taxi’s might cheat us. We were advised to take the pre-paid taxi service in KL station and used that to reach the 2bedroom serviced apartment in “Holiday villa apartment suites” in which we had got an internet reservation done. As we were 4 adults traveling (first time with elderly inlaws), we wanted them to get a feel of a homely atomosphere and it also worked cost effective instead of taking 2 separate rooms. This service apartment was based on my own google search( without any prior friends referring this place). It was not that bad(or my expectations were little too high??). But, we got to know later that there is another service apartment called “Crown regency” in KL, which is supposed to be very good in terms of the service(though slightly on the higher side in cost compared to the one we stayed). The good thing about this service apartment is it was surrounded by lots of embassies and was quite safe to walk even in the night, considering KL is not friendly to tourists! This apartment is also quite close to the Petronas towers. Immediately checking-in to the apartment, myself and S walked to get to the petronas towers to get a booking slot for viewing the sky-way bridge of the petronas towers (limited tickets available for each day and cant be booked in a day advance). There was a long queue by the time we reached there. We managed to get tickets for evening 4pm. We found out that the local MRT connectivity is good and it’s the best/faster mode to travel in KL considering the traffic is quite bad (I felt it’s just like Bangalore.). We used the MRT from Ampang station to Masjid Jamek station to reach “Merdeka Square”, which is the place the Malaysians first hoisted their flag after getting independence from British in a 100m flagpole. We then walked to Jalan Masjid(little India) of KL. We could see road side shops in that area just like how we see in Pondy bazaar of Chennai or Serangoon road of Singapore. I had googled and found out that hotel saravana bhavan had lot of branches in KL and they do have free home delivery of food packets as well. We visited their Jalan masjid branch and found it to be mediocre standards as it was a franchisee! I was a little disappointed with the lunch arrangement considering the amount of effort we had put to locate this hotel in Jalan masjid area. We spent some time in the park in the petronas campus and then headed for the skyway bridge not to miss our designated timeslot.

It’s the world highest 2 storey skyway bridge and was amazing to walk in the skyway bridge (need to appreciate the architect for designing this) connecting the petronas twin towers and click a few snaps there for our memory. Spanning 17 acres (69,000 m2) below the petronas building is the KLCC park with jogging and walking paths, a fountain with incorporated light show, wading pools, and a children's playground. Suria KLCC is one of the largest shopping malls in Malaysia. We then headed back to our service apartment in the evening. We found out a supermarket near to the hotel and bought some curd and other food stuff for the next day breakfast. We made plain rice for dinner with the limited vessels in the service apt kitchen and used the home made powders and pickle along with the curd to have a feeling of home food away from home!

The day-2 of our trip started with 4 of us sharing a single toilet and in a hurry to get ready to start our trip to Genting and Batu caves. It was a little annoying for a two bedroom service apartment to have only one toilet! We took a cab to Genting enroute Batu caves. Batu caves is a limestone hill which has a series of caves and cave temples.It has the world tallest murugan statue in the foothills. We headed next to Genting highlands. It’s a hill station and it took almost 45 min to reach there from Batu caves. Genting highlands has different attractions for all age groups. There are the famous casinos for adults to the theme parks for the kids. We headed to the casino and were properly dressed with formal pants/shoes for gents and presentable attire for ladies for the security guard to let us in. All my excitement to be in a casino and to gamble was lost the moment I entered there. There was a cloud of smoke because of cigarettes(thanks to the chain smokers, who love this place as there is no restriction for them to smoke in the casinos). We did try to gamble in a few card games and did make a few Malaysian ringgets money. As myself and MIL were feeling very stuffy, the gents also decided to push out of the casino in search of some fresh air! We tried to explore if there is anything else to do in the highland and got to know there is a tour to a Chin Swee Caves Temple(mid way to the foothills of genting from the highlands).It was a nice Buddhist temple with a huge Buddha statue and few depictions of Chinese belief of after life punishment for different sins caused by humans. It reminded me of garuda puranam(courtesy: “Anniyan” film). We then headed back to the highland in search of a good veg. lunch. We found an Indian and middle-eastern cusine restaurant(I think the name of this restaurant is Spice Garden). The food was awesome and we got good roti/veg. sabji there. After a sumptuous lunch and roaming around a little in the highlands and getting a good scenic view, we decided to head back to our service apartment. We explored the skylink(cable car) from genting highland to the foothills. It was an unmanned cable car with no vicinity of other cable cars seen because of the mist everywhere. It was very scenic at the same time very scary as well! We headed back to our hotel in a cab and was terribly stuck in the KL traffic. Reached the apartment and we were completely drained out of energy.

The final day of our trip was just relaxing and to catch our return day train from KL to Singapore. We had been on the week of F1 grand prix (end of march) in KL. As we had planned only last minute, could not get affordable F1 tickets. We ordered lunch from Hotel saravana bhavan over phone and they promptly delivered the food to our hotel. The food was good and upto the mark of Hotel Saravana bhavan. We headed to the KL station in a cab and reached the station on time. The KL station was quite huge and well maintained. We enjoyed our day train(A/C comfy chair car in Indian terminology)passing through all the local towns of Malaysia and reaching Singapore late evening.