Nepal Calling

After fulfilling my father's wish to visit Inner Mongolia, I asked him where else would he liked to go next. He thought for a while. I already had an answer - Tibet. The answer came : Nepal would be nice. Huh? I didn't expect that. Well, I didn't mind, since I had only been to Lumbini which is near the border of India. It would be interesting to visit the bigger cities for a change.

Initially, it was planned for March 2013. But with the public holidays in November, I was able to plan my leaves around them. Besides, better get it out of the way too! Who knows what will happened on 21 December 2012. *wink* So, Ed and I got down to work... Since we have senior citizens in our group, so this was more of a sight seeing trip.

I have my college friend, Surej to thank. He cut short a lot of my researching. He introduced me to a travel agent in Nepal - Nature Trail Travels & Tours. There started our correspondence with Bishnu. We did check out the itineraries from our local travel agents. I didn't quite like the standard itineraries. Worse still, they took almost 3 weeks to come back with a revised itinerary. During the wait, we had almost finalized the itinerary with Bishnu, including proposed hotels and negotiated the cost of the tour! In fact, I am really amazed with Bishnu's efficiency in answering emails. Not to mention his patience in meeting our tiny requests here and there. Highly recommended! Email address: info@allnepal.com

With our kiasu-ism, we bought out flight tickets early via Thai Airways. It was 2 hours from Kuala Lumpur to Bangkok and then another 3 hours or so from Bangkok to Kathmandu. But few months down the road, Air Asia and Malaysia Airlines offered a direct flight from Kuala Lumpur to Kathmandu. Too bad... we have arranged everything and didn't want to go through the hassle of cancelling and re-booking the tickets, and re-arranging the hotels, etc...Here's the list of airlines to Kathmandu.

Temperature in Kathmandu for the year. Source: Nepal Vista

Went in November and weather was great! Blue skies every day!

Month	Minimum Temperature	Maximum Temperature	Rainfall in Millimeter
01 Jan	03C / 37F	17C / 62F	47mm
02 Feb	02C / 35F	21C / 70F	11mm
03 Mar	07C / 44F	25C / 77F	05mm
04 Apr	09C / 48F	30C / 86F	05mm
05 May	15C / 59F	29C / 84F	146mm
06 Jun	19C / 66F	29C / 84F	135mm
07 Jul	19C / 66F	28C / 82F	327mm
08 Aug	19C / 66F	29C / 84F	206mm
09 Sep	18C / 64F	28C / 82F	199mm
10 Oct	13C / 55F	29C / 82F	42mm
11 Nov	06C / 42F	24C / 75F	00mm
12 Dec	02C / 35F	21C / 70F	01mm

My initial plan was to have a group of 8. Then, there were some requests that I didnt have the heart to say no to, ie my friend wanted to bring her 77 year old father and her sister as well. So, it became 10. And the final request that I absolutely cannot turn down - mum wanted to go too! Ok, all this while, she wasn't in the picture since we all know how terrified she is of flying. Since she braved herself to join us, we warmly welcomed her. And so there were 11 and not a person more please...

Another Wedding Card

My colleague, El rocked the whole office when she handed us a sweet-looking beige envelope. What else but a wedding invitation! And we didn't even know she was seeing someone. He! We were so happy for her!

My next thought was - I would love to make her a card. At that point, I had about 3 months or so. Plenty of time, I thought to myself. But lo behold, time just flew past! And I found myself working on her card that morning of the wedding dinner.

My materials for the card. It's purple and beige theme.

The first bit, cut a long strip and paste. Then placed the ribbons at a corner and write something nice.

The result! Again.. something simple, and hopefully nice too.

I stuck a know on the envelope too. Marriage is also known as tying the knot. So, that's what the "ribbon" was to symbolise.

We attended the wedding dinner at Ciao, very nice ambience and small group.

 

It was a simple ceremony, a toast to the dashing groom and the radiant bride!



 

Photo session with the golf course as the background. Lovely couple! My best wishes to them!



Home Made Pizza

I found this super duper simple recipe for a quick pizza. And since the ingredients are mostly instant (of course, it's up to our creativity), I decided to try it out and successfully got my dinner ready in no time. :) With this success, I proposed to my family as lunch. Everyone loved it, err... except Mum. Pizza is not her favourite, give her a bowl of rice anytime. ;)


Ok, let me present to you the ingredients! Choose something that can give you lots of colours. It will make your pizza very attractive. :)

Pita bread - can get them in the supermarkets. This will be the base.

If you are into cheese, get a packet of it and just sprinkle or top it over your pita like nobody's business! Well, it's your work of art. Do what you like. He! And I used pasta sauce as my layering over the pita bread before the other toppings.

The fun part - decorating your pizza! It's fun! But don't be greedy, you will find your topping spilling out.

Alternatively, you can try with the normal loaf bread. And it tasted yummy too!

Errmm... I was too excited about eating the pizzas that I forgotten to snap some pix of the end result. Ooppss.... Well, you will have to find out for yourself. Give it a try! Have fun! :)

Escaped to Langkawi

It has always been a yearly affair to have a family trip, mostly within Malaysia since Mum has something against flying. From last year onwards, the group got bigger with the participation of our extended family. While last year's location was a mere 1.5 hours away from KL, this time it was a much longer journey and we wondered whether the two kiddos (2 years old and 3 years old) will survive. We decided to break the journey - KL to Ipoh, overnight in Ipoh, then Ipoh to Kuala Kedah (by car). From Kuala Kedah, we took a ferry across to Langkawi after we parked our cars at a multi purpose hall turned covered car park.

There are lots of car parks near the jetty. Of course it is better to go for the covered ones. The outdoor ones, well maybe cheaper? Not too sure.

The ferry ride took about 1.45 hours. Upon arriving, had a quick lunch and checked in to Holiday Villa. Basically, it was a pretty relaxing trip. Lazed around the hotel, took the children for a cable car ride and the Underwater World, chocolate shopping at Kuah town (This is a must! Really cheap chocs!) and watched the Olympic badminton finals between Lee Chong Wei and Lin Dan (Woot! Woot! And lost a bowl of Svenson's ice cream to Mum for losing the bet. He!).

I didn't take photos of Langkawi. These are random shots of the beach and antics of family members plus other misc pix. :)  Enjoy!

Sandy beach and my thongs

Setting sun

A bunch of lovely Pink Frangipanis

 The girls in blue

 Ohh.... the glorious flamingo! I couldn't help staring at its feathers... the colour combination is superb!

 Colourful and talkative too!

 Mummy and the little one relaxing by the beach..

 That's a "I am scared" look.. Poor boy...

 Strolling, relaxing...

 Cute elephant moulds...

 I purposely stepped on the sand elephants and boy, was he furious!

 Leave nothing but footprints...

 Jump! Jump!

 Quiet at the beach..

 Another good jump!

It was a good trip. Next one, next year...

Wedding Cards

Making wedding cards is different from birthday cards. To me, the card must be elegant or sweet. Somehow, the bright, colourful and fun concept doesn't seemed to knock into me. Yet, at least. I may try it one day. But at the moment, am still sticking to the conventional designs.

This was my first attempt. Perhaps a bit too overwhelming with patterns but for me, acceptable. :)

I decorated the envelope as well, just a little.

My second attempt, I thought I will do away with the clutter of patterns. Maybe something simple and sweet. The theme : pink.

The base card is pinkish and had texture on it. Keeping to my theme. :)

The final product. Oh... and I used a pencil and wrote on the card. Again "Your Wedding", to indicate that the card was meant for a wedding. He! Can you spot the similarity on the envelope? Guess it's time for me to get more patterned punchers. Where can I get nice and cheap ones?

There will be one more wedding coming up in August. The blushing bride-to-be didn't say what will be the theme. But the brides' maids will be in purple. Still another 2 months for me to plan....

Walkabout Hong Kong

I have been to Hong Kong a couple of times for work but never really a holiday. This time, bought the tickets scheduled for end April. Weather was pretty erratic, the rain clouds were here and gone the next instant. By the time you got your umbrella out of the bag, the rain has stopped. So, I didn't bother about the umbrella. But of course, I didn't have one in the first place. Apart  from the rain, it was mostly cloudy.a

Hong Kong has very good public transport. For this trip, I basically rode on everything ie the MTR, the bus and the tram (minus the cab). Apart from that, there were lots of walking too. That would be the best way to see Hong Kong. I tried to capture the beautiful colours of Hong Kong. And I couldn't resist the yummy food as well.

Sapporo Ramen at North Point. Simple and comfortable restaurant. Food was not too bad. Pricing was reasonable.

Breakfast at Empire Ocean. I absolutely love it and went there for two days! They have outlets at other areas such as Mongkok, Causeway Bay, etc...
The egg tarts were from Honolulu Coffee Shop. The best I have ever tasted! The sweetness was just perfect for me, not too milky as well and the pastry was soft... We managed to buy them right out from the oven. Ummm.... the warm tarts... so fine....

We travelled all the way to Sheung Wan for this dim sum at Lin Heung Kui. The review was good and Hong Kong is famous for its dim sum after all. It must be good as the place was packed and we had to share a table with other patrons. Overall, ok...

Hong Kong is also famous for its Japanese food, apparently very authentic. Gave it a try at Chikayaki. Thumbs and thumbs up! Just be prepared for the bill. Oh, do remember to make reservation too.

That's the food story. Coming up the walking experience. I spotted some interesting art work and things, at least I thought they were.

Trying to make things more fun, I guess... This was at Stanley.

This was at the MTR station again. I was impressed that there were quite a number of children art work that has been featured in public places.

This were the recycle bins that I saw at a shopping mall. Something interesting from our usual bin.

The ad was at the MTR station. If you know how to read, it sounded really cute. Otherwise, it's to ask people to hold tight to the hand rail. Look at the little extra hands!

A peep into the restaurant. I really love the blue!

You could be in Mexico! Again, the colours were vibrant, I can't help but to take a pix of it!

I REALLY love this piece of art! Found this at Central. It just gave me the cheerful, happy feeling...
I find that you really see different things when you walk around instead of being on a tour bus. :)

Mother's Day

I have to remember this - Mother's Day falls on the 2nd week of May. And I would like to pay tribute to Mummy. When we were growing up, she was the disciplinarian at home. As we grew older, she became our friend and confidant. No doubt, there is still an air of "I am the boss" at times, but we learnt how to work around it. Training from the corporate world. He! I always think how best to repay her sacrifices and love. It's not the money, the holidays, the gifts but spending quality time with her and be there for her. One day, she may have walking difficulties, hearing deteriorates, fear of death, or any of the old age problems (both physically or mentally). I promised myself that I will be kind and gentle and give her all the love that I can. Mummy, Happy Mother's Day! May you have good health and be happy always.

Card for Mummy. Suppose to have the vintage feel. But maybe not...

Craft work for the children. Oh.. and would like to applause Mothers out there with special needs children. I personally knew two mothers who have worked hard to give their children education and medical care. Hats off!