After returning from Japan and taking a few days to rest, we went to Malacca with some friends for two rounds of golf. I wondered if I would play well after laying off for over two weeks. Well, I found out.
My tee-off was terrible—I kept pulling to the left most of the time for both games. And putting – oh gosh, it was exasperating. I didn’t play my best with such errand abilities. The only plus point for the short getaway was the group. We laughed so much, and it looked like this was what we did more than playing golf. Hahaha.
Unfortunately, my tennis elbow still hurts. Maybe that’s why I was conscious of the pain and was careful when golfing to avoid aggravating it further. But it was futile. Sigh. I should take a proper break to reset the body. And it’s a long road to recovery as far as the elbow is concerned. Boo hoo hoo.
Food in Hanoi was glorious! Bursting with flavors and almost similar to the tastes in Thailand, one can easily forget the waistline! Food aside, coffee is a big thing too. Our hotel was very central in its location for food and shopping.
During the day, nothing was out, but by nightfall, tiny chairs and small tables lined up along the sidewalks in front of all the buildings, ready for customers to dine in these pop-up street restaurants. It must be the French influence that has all the chairs facing the street for people-watching. Correct me if I am wrong on this.
So vibrant!
The narrow streets became more narrow when the dining furniture was all placed outside. Yet, vehicles of all sizes still come into the streets from both directions! Yikes. Even the big canopies were insufficient to deter the traffic from the area. It was quite a sight to behold.
The ushers of the pop-up eateries were rather aggressive, fighting for customers to patronize their places. The trick not to succumb to their pushiness is to avoid eye contact and walk as fast as possible on the crowded street. Don’t even peek at the menu shoved in front of your face.
The few streets near our hotel had all sorts of offerings. Besides food at a proper restaurant, by the sidewalk, or from the street stall vendors, drinks or dessert in a café, tourists were spoilt for choice for shopping, massages, pubs, and even pharmacies. The only thing stopping one is the lack of money from going all out at everything!
Food, salt coffee and coconut ice cream that I triedFried chicken wing and chicken feet(!) with beer
For us, we tried some here and there. We ate, drank beer, and sat on short chairs. We also shopped, had ice cream, and drank coffee but skipped the pubs and foot massages. All these were achieved in just the two streets near the hotel after golf, unlike in Bangkok recently, where we walked so much and everywhere to do the same things.
Street performance on the first night, plus the places of interest we visited
Hanoi was fun. We also managed to take in some sights, visiting the One Pillar Pagoda, Tran Quoc Pagoda, the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, and the Vietnam Military History Museum.
Would I return? Most definitely, but plans have to factor in which time of the year for the nice cooling weather. Then, only the experience of Hanoi for its flavors, sights, sounds, and golf would be the best!
The Chinese Winter Solstice Festival, or Dongzhi Festival, is today, and the family will celebrate the occasion with a meal together. Typically, the highlight of the occasion is the Tang Yuan, the glutinous rice balls dessert, and not the dinner, which is usually nothing too extravagant.
Over the years, our family’s version of Tang Yuan has evolved in taste and color. It used to be just the traditional white and pink balls, but more colorful ones have appeared over the last few years. In terms of taste, besides serving the balls with piping hot sweet ginger syrup, we have crushed peanuts with sugar sprinkled over the colorful balls. However, we hardly make them with sweet fillings, such as black sesame or red bean, because it’s too much work.
Another thing about this festival is the occasion being everybody’s birthday. When one eats a glutinous ball, you are officially a year older. When I was a kid dinosaur years ago, eating one was never enough. And I worried about eating a dozen glutinous balls because I would have to add a dozen years to my age. Hahahaha.
Here’s wishing everyone good health and happiness during this Dongzhi Festival!
My golf game has been up and down. It’s on a downtrend lately, and not because of putting. And sadly, my weight has been on an uptrend! What is going on?
I need to fix this alarming pattern. The weight must go down, and the game must improve. Play more, eat and drink less!
Over the weekend, we visited hubby’s parents for a quick escape. The trip also became a discovery for new food along the way. Typically, we would stop over in Ipoh for lunch, but this time, we opted to stop in Taiping instead.
We went to a new restaurant as the one we had in mind was closed. It was a pleasant discovery – the lunch was very yummy even though they were simple choices!
Fried mullet and seafood porridge. Yummy
As for the drive, it was tedious because there were a lot of cars on the road. It’s strange, considering the weekend was just a normal one, not a long public holiday stretch.
Heavy traffic on the way up North!
And it was the same tedious drive on the return journey the next day, albeit a little longer. It was akin to driving during the festive holiday, clocking in six hours towards North and eight hours on the return. Nonetheless, the visit was good.
Return journey was worse! Flavorful dinner at Tapah.
We stopped at Tapah for dinner and discovered new dishes at our regular stop. The choices were very satisfying for the palate and easy on the wallet too! Before we knew it, the weekend was over, and here we are, back to another busy work week ahead.
We have dived straight into our 16/8 diet this week and pleased to say we are holding up okay. There’s no withdrawal symptoms from the change in pattern nor from the diet that now consists of minimal meat/protein, some carbo and lots of fiber.
I have gone back to my usual tea only in the morning before the salad lunches and healthy home-cooked dinners at home, all within the eight hours window to eat and no further intake during the 16 hours except for one night where we had fruit cake and tea at a friend’s.
I am also mindful to move to burn some calories but exercising has been a challenge when every evening I’d sit at my little corner to work on my carvings. I’m not too worried though because this would be resolved once we go back to playing golf.
But of late, the endometriosis attacks have been rather frequent and the pain level ranges, it’s unbearable and hard to do much. The night when we were at the airport, I had to take my painkillers twice in a span of three hours apart because the pain was simply horrible. There’s no words to describe this. Sigh…
Other than this problem of mine, I’m glad to say the both of us have adjusted after the food trail, with our weight almost back to pre-M1’s arrival.
We thought it was rather cute to stand in front of KFC’s Fun Land signage at KLIA.
Last night, we sent M1 off. The two and a half weeks of wonderful quality time together has come to an end, so has the gastronomic food trail too. She had a long ‘To Eat’ list and we got most on it covered. But towards the last few days, hubby and I surrendered and was glad her friends took her out for a couple of dinners giving us a breather.
Now we wait, having heard from her this morning when she arrived in Incheon Airport on time and departed for Narita two hours later. Soon we will hear from her when she arrives in Narita to complete her second leg. After that we will have to wait until the wee hours of Tuesday morning (or Monday past midnight) when she lands in Portland to hear from her again. Long wait. Long trip.
No tears this time and like I said, acceptance. And quietness all over again at home. Sigh… best if I channel my focus now towards preparing for Chinese New Year.
I had a good night’s rest on Saturday night after we returned from our trip because it’s back to the familiar – my bed and pillows. And Sunday was a day to play tourist besides just eating to check off M1’s ‘to eat’ list.
Glass noodles, crunchy honey bacon and crispy fried kailan. So good!
We started the day with a late lunch then we visited Batu Caves! The last time we were at this tourist spot was when M1 was just slightly a year old (but we didn’t bring her along). Now 21 years later, we revisited and with her this time.
Crowded but not overly so at Batu Caves
It’s so bright and we were all squinting!
Initially we all felt climbing the 272 steps wouldn’t be daunting even though it was hot and humid. But at mid-point I was sweating buckets and decided to check my heart rate; it spiked up to 144 bpm! Wow… a little more taxing than I thought. Even M1 and hubby had to stop every now and then for a breather. But we persevered and finally made our way up to see the shrines inside.
Almost there!
The main temple area
The second temple, up the stairs from the main section
Looking up at the limestones from the second temple
View from the second temple down to the main temple
I think we stayed on a while longer to recover from the climb more than to take photos before making our way down the rainbow steps again. I must say, the going up and coming down stressed different parts of the body – up affecting the heart and thighs, and down, the knees.
When I reached the bottom, the legs were not so much jellied but instead the knees felt painful from the weighted grind of the bones as a result from the descend. We thought it was a good overall workout burning some calories especially when we have been eating so much.
A well-deserved banana leaf rice, butter naan, paper thosai and condiments, complete with resam and lassi to drink
Frozen mugs of beer and a mouth-watering molten lava cake
We ran some errands after the unplanned tourist stop and time passed by quickly. All in all, it was a good day and ended with a hearty banana leaf dinner, followed by a cold beer each and dessert at our favorite watering hole again! That night, my legs were so sore to the core, sleep evaded me. Sigh… I hope I can sleep better tonight.
Since we came to Matang for lunch, we thought visiting some of the local attractions would be a good experience for M1. The last time we were here, M2 and my mom was with us while M1 was still in the US.
We covered the Charcoal Factory first as it was the closest. The place despite being hot and humid, was a nice revisit for me at least. To see the giant kiln again and although understanding only 70% of the process because the guide spoke in Mandarin and I’m not so well versed in that language, it was sufficient.
One kiln can fit 1,500 pieces of mangrove logs and they would stay in there for 24 days to be smoked and dried. After 24 days, they’d remain inside for another eight days for the heat to dissipate and the logs to cool down before being removed. There’s actually more to the process but as the guide went on and on in Mandarin, I lost him towards the end. Oh well.
We left the place to head for Taiping next and it rained. Heavily too! Haish. How to see the giant rain trees surrounding Taiping Lake?
The giant being propped & the road perpetually closed
We almost gave up but luckily the rain dwindled and we managed to come down to take some nice photos. Once the photo ops were done, we decided not to stay the night in Taiping but drive home instead. It will be late by the time we get arrive but it’s okay, we’re in no hurry and it’s been a good getaway.
The goodbyes were swift and short. We left at ten to fill up the petrol tank before hitting the highway. Traffic was not that heavy and you could say it was a leisurely drive.
It’s always nice to drive past the paddy fields
I took another painkiller, this time more for the headache developing from the lack of sleep and not for the endometriosis pain which subsided. It’s going to be a long day and I didn’t want to be in any discomfort throughout the journey.
We decided to go to Matang for seafood porridge instead of crab porridge at Nibong Tebal. And it was worth the detour, Matang being further from the highway compared to Nibong Tebal.
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