Photo Essay : Incredible India Travel

India is an incredibly diverse country. You need to travel to India with no expectation but one thing for sure you can always expect a day to day incredible adventure. Travelling to India is also like meddling in a love-hate relationship. You can love and hate it all at same time. It is tough trying to define what India is all about but this catchy T-shirt phrase simply nails it.

[caption id="attachment_2087" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Incredible India - Weird, Whacky,Wild & Wonderful"][/caption]

*T-Shirt by Tantra Tees.

So what is India all about? India is about an incredible country that is weird, whacky, wild and last but not least, absolutely wonderful that will beg for you to come back for more. Yes, you will want more of India after your first visit there.

When it comes to the weird stuffs, they have loads of them. For example these bananas :

[caption id="attachment_2080" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Long, big Bananas"][/caption]

They have extraordinarily big, extra long, yummy Bananas. Okay now, what are you thinking? Haha.

 

[caption id="attachment_2081" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Dark brown, chubby Bananas"][/caption]

.. and also a version which is brownish and chubby looking! * What are you thinking again? :)

 

[caption id="attachment_2082" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="'Kothe' Dumplings in a Chinese Restaurant Menu in India"][/caption]

They have Kothe Dumplings served in the menu at a Chinese Restaurant. If you must know, Kothe is literally translated in Malay as Penis. Haha. Imagine a Malaysian ordering, " One Kothe(Penis) Dumplings please" to the waiter. That sounds so wrong! Haha!

When it boils down to the incredibly wonderful, nothing beats the delicious Indian culinary cuisines. My ultimate favourite food has to be the delicious, authentic cuisines from Kerala. Their curry is definitely something to die for.



There you go, a little bit and pieces of the incredible India. There are obviously more to India than what I've pictured here. However, by far, these are the best simplest things that you can expect from Incredible India. :)

Photo Essay: Seafood Heaven at Kota Kinabalu, Sabah

Are you looking for some yummy delicious seafood heaven? If your up for some awesome gastronomic seafood experience, you have to fly down to Kota Kinabalu, Sabah  a.k.a Borneo to enjoy absolutely the best in variety, the freshest and probably the cheapest if not, really reasonable seafood galore of your life. Your trip down to Sabah isn't complete, if you don't go ahead and enjoy those delicious seafood.

Enjoy the pictures below to catch a glimpse of the seafood frenzy that I went gorging down during two of my past trips to Kota Kinabalu, Sabah.

Eating a good variety of seafood at Gayang Seafood Restaurant, Tuaran which is about 30 minutes drive outside of Kota Kinabalu.

[caption id="attachment_2040" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Baby Lobster - Gayang Seafood Restaurant at Tuaran, Sabah"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2041" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Scallop - Gayang Seafood Restaurant at Tuaran,Sabah"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2042" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Fresh oysters top with wasabi - Gayang Seafood Restaurant"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2043" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Mangrove Crab - Gayang Seafood Restaurant"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2044" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Seafood madness for two person! Haha. The two of us ate all those yummy seafood with some rice and a plate of veg. Obviously, we don't bother much with the veg when you can have awesome seafood! Yum!"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2045" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Fresh lokan ready to grill at roadside stall somewhere along Tuaran, Sabah"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2046" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Lokan Panggang - top with some sweet seasonings of garlic, chillie,ginger ( I think). Lokan tastes really rubbery if you overcook them like this one. Ouch!"][/caption]

Seafood dining at Filipino Market or Pasar Filipin right smack at the city center of Kota Kinabalu. This place is hot, jam packed with people, super cheap seafood and you will leave with a full stomach and charcoal smelled clothes. Haha.

[caption id="attachment_2048" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="The Filipino Market , Kota Kinabalu is an outdoor night market and yes, there sell super huge fish and seafood fresh from sea."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2049" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Rows of long table to dine at the Filipino Market Seafood Stalls"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2050" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="BBQ Seafood at the Filipino Market. Ranging from huge prawns, fish to squids"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2051" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="The bbq fish varieties"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2052" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Last but not least, the fresh seaweed ... what? The style of eating here : eat BBQ seafood with rice, sambal belacan and uber salty seaweed. You might want to bite one small tiny 'ball' first. You may not like it as much. Haha."][/caption]

So there you go. More than enough reason for you to visit Sabah or narrowed down to Kota Kinabalu, Sabah not just for the beautiful beaches and islands at the Tunku Abdul Rahman Marine Park, the majestic Mount Kinabalu at Kundasang but also for the delicious arrays of fresh, cheap seafood heaven at Kota Kinabalu itself. On that note, probably I should just go to KK one of these days just to eat and by that I mean to eat really good seafood! :)

Photo Essay :The Best Food In The World - BBQ!

The best food in the world for me has to be a BBQ! Of course, you should never indulge in too much of the good, yummy food everyday because as we know it, too much of the good things are bad for you.

Anyways, this particular BBQ is yet another best BBQ that we have from time to time. BBQs for us are usually reserved during days of cravings or festive seasons. :)

 

[caption id="attachment_1963" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="The BBQ pit"][/caption]

The BBQ pit is actually a cut off, used oil drum. You can look for used oil drum from the junk shop near your place and request to have it cut into half. BBQ is way better with these drums because the pit is kind of deep, so your food won't be charred but instead it will be cooked almost like they are smoked.

 

[caption id="attachment_1964" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Let is smoke or rather BBQ-ed!"][/caption]

This meal is for 3 person.

 

[caption id="attachment_1965" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Yum! This is a sirloin cut I think. Medium rare."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1966" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="The fish looking good to eat by now."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1967" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="And other stuffs on the menu - Freshly caught Tilapias! They taste super sweet!"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1968" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="We are Asians so we have to eat those stuffs with a sambal - bird chillies,soy sauce,shrimp paste mashed with mortar and pastel"][/caption]

There you go, The Best Food In The World which is a BBQ! Well, at least for me any type of BBQ with fresh ingredients got to be the best meal ever. Are you drooling just yet by looking at the pictures? If you are not, you are so not fit for a BBQ with me. Haha.

Photo Essay : Let's Check Out The Sky and Look Up Now!

Let's check out the sky and look up now!

Here are some  pictures of the beautiful blue sky taken on different timing in this sequence : afternoon, sunset and sunrise . Always take the time to look around you. For starters, you can start by looking at the sky. You won't know what you will miss out if you don't take the time to LOOK!

Let's check out the sky and look now!

[caption id="attachment_1921" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Overcast and spotlight emerging from the sky"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1922" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Clouds and the Sun!"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1923" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Sunset and dark clouds. It's going to rain anytime now!"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1047" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Sunrise in blue"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1924" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="It is early morning and you can still see the moon and a shooting star? Nah, it's a plane!"][/caption]

Photo Essay: Introducing Meine Kleine Plant!

I just thought and feel that having a little bit of green around as a house plant won't hurt anyone. It is going to be a win-win situation for the both of us, I do hope so, yes! So yeah, I would like to introduce to you  'Meine Kleine' Plant. Enjoy the pictures!

[caption id="attachment_1798" align="aligncenter" width="302" caption="Meine Kleine Silhouette"][/caption]

I am not particular sure of the family name of this plant. I doubt that it is  from the same family as Pothos because Pothos can grow and 'crawl' all over the place. I don't think this one can. Which ever family it comes from, I sure love the dark green colour of its leaf. A true rich green. That's what they are.

[caption id="attachment_1801" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Meine kleine pictured with two little turtles - courtesy of the WWF 2010 Annual Review Highlights booklet"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1802" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="'Lil gnomey' und meine kleine 'plant'!"][/caption]

Oh yeah, I shall be on a lookout for some nice colourful pot for this plant. Something bright should be fun!

[caption id="attachment_1803" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="'Meine kleine plant' on Sepia mode and with shadows"][/caption]

Oh just in case you don't know Deutsch, Meine Kleine is translated as My Little!

Photo Essay : The Dutch and their bikes!

[caption id="attachment_1759" align="alignnone" width="408" caption="The different range of Dutch bikes in The Netherlands"][/caption]

"Bicycle is popular in the Netherlands (everyone knows this) and they are expensive (everyone knows this too). But did know you that you need to have the correct Rule of the Road knowledge to ride one? I bet not many know this. Just like driving any motor-driven vehicle that is. The little scooter (<50cc) type is gaining popular here and they are using the bicycle lane.

Some may carry this motto "Have bicycle will travel".  There is a bicycle in the garage for anyone here. Go and help yourself." - Ride A Bike Traveler.

To find out more on Riding a bike for your travel or RTWs(Round The World trip), do check out Ride A Bike Traveler's blog link here.

Photo Essay : You don't get to see this sign that often

[caption id="attachment_1567" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Do you want to go 'Rabbit' or 'Tortoise'?"][/caption]

You see...how often do you see signs like this?

Let's choose if you want to go as fast as a Rabbit or as slow as a Tortoise that eventually goes to a Stop. I would prefer to be a Rabbit at most time please. :)

If only all automobiles transmission comes with a super easy to understand and obviously easy to operate transmission(gearbox) like the picture above. It is pretty straight forward and probably a little bit  'comical'  too, no? :)

By any chance at all, if you are given a choice to have a manual or automatic or Rabbit & Tortoise transmission for your gearbox, which one will be your pick?

Photo Essay : Muddy Adventure

With an overnight heavy downpour, some parts of the area was 'flooded' rather slightly with water. Contemplating to go from right to left, the person behind the steering wheel took left instead. Much thanks to the overgrown grass, no one anticipated a wet area about a couple of inch of water and boom, all four wheels got stuck. It was too late to reverse and it only made the car sink in deeper. Moving forward resulted into the same situation - getting stuck even more.

We managed to gather two long wooden planks and a couple of big stones to put under the car. We even tried jacking one side of the car up to slide in the plank underneath. The plank went under for one side but we couldn't slide the other plank on the left tire because things got way too slippery. With one plank under, we tried to reverse putting the 4wd gear on, but to no avail. Pushing the car from the front while another person behind the wheel on a reverse gear proved to be a waste of time and energy draining.

[caption id="attachment_1437" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="One plank under the tire"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1438" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Front wheel down"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1439" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Went in pretty deep right, eh?"][/caption]

Finally, we resorted to call the tow truck guy, waited on a rock all hungry, luckily we got 2 mangoes and half drenched in mud. After what felt like a long wait later, the pulling began. The car got pulled out of the mud leaving a couple of inches deep tire track on the runny, muddy soil but we didn't get to go home just yet. The tow truck got itself stuck in the mud too for two times! Haha. Thankfully, our car is already out of the mud, so we began pulling the tow truck instead.

[caption id="attachment_1440" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Yay! The car's out after 3 hours stuck in the mud!"][/caption]

All went well, nobody got hurt except that I got bitten by a flying insect on my hand and everyone left with mud stains on our faces, hands, sunglasses, pants and all over the car of course. :).

[caption id="attachment_1441" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="All 'mud' up! A mud fight would have been nice."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1442" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="That's not just mud. It's a mud-buffalo poop combo!"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1443" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="The mud stains caking on my pants. It doesn't show so much coz I got a grey color pants."][/caption]

All in all, it was a great day indeed! Oh, I did went home with a good scrubbing all over the body. Haha.

Photo Essay : The trees, the green and the course

It's simply amazing on how much joy you can have when you immersed yourself amongst decades old trees and the greenery. The best part of all, you don't have to go far to enjoy this. Go out to your nearest parks, jungle tracks as well as that huge, green golf course you see all the time by the roadside - of course with this one, you got to somehow sneak yourself through the course. Haha.

A twin tower trees!

Somewhere near the bunker ( the pit of sand), that one tree is sticking out from its peers. It got struck by lightning, perhaps?

A perspective shot

Beautiful flowers littering the ground

Nature's humongous canopy

Myself, attempting to capture the panorama view of this super tall tree. It looks slightly crooked in this picture. In reality, the tree is very straight indeed. My best shot so far after three attempts to capture the panoramic view of this very tree.

Light green on dark brown. The red color thingy at the back is our turfmate. Hehe.

Leaves silhouette.