Red bean black rice paste

Last weekend, we used the e-processor that we bought from Mega Home to make red bean black rice paste for our family(baby, hubby and I).

Ingredients:
1. Red bean
2. Black rice
3. Water
4. Icing sugar
All ingredients are used without accurate measurement, just follow personal need and requirement, our red bean is more than black rice.

Instruction:
1. Boil red bean and black rice together until cooked, i didn’t use too much water to boil them. Amount of water just for red bean and black rice get cooked, they doesn’t need to be mashed.
2. After cook, then blend ingredient from number 1 with food processor, icing sugar can be added together if there for adult consumption, else only adding icing sugar at last if mummy minds to get their baby taking sweetened food.
3. If there is less water, the paste will be quite sticky. So more water (either boiled water or room temperature water) can add here until the paste is smooth.
4. The paste can be reboil when want to consume.

Overall, I quite satisfied with the end product, my baby didn’t show unlike face, but my hubby suggested it can get improved next time.

Red bean black paste for Samuel

Our red bean black paste

second round peanut cookies

After shared my peanut cookies with some friends and collected some comments from them, so I decided to have my peanut cookies a second try for improvement version.

 

Here are comments that I collected:

1. cookies are too big.

2. peanut taste too less.

3. peanut wasn't blended small enough.

 

Besides, I felt troublesome on removing peanut skin, so I decided to buy peeled peanut this time and this saved me a lot of energy and time.

 

Actually, making process was almost same with my first making, but I made some small adjustment on ingredients and make the cookie pieces smaller.

 

Here is my formula:

400g peanut

250g all purpose flour (I increase peanut quantity and reduce flour)

unmeasured peanut oil, I put it according to my hand feeling, it only needs to bind flour mixture together, I think I used less oil than last time.

about 50g corn stratch

around 200g sugar

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 egg

 

However, there is still some defect on my cookies after compare with my friend's. Frist, I thought my cookies are small enough until I saw my friend's because hers are smaller and cute, but I am satisfied with my size this time because it can be done within 1 bite. Second, my peanut flour is still not powdery and they still consider a bit rough, I think this is my food processor limitation, I might need to borrow my friend's blender for a try next time :)

 

My cookies before bake

Hot from oven

Comparison between my first and second batches

Cookies in bottles

 

Pineapple Tart Making

In my memory, peanut cookies and pineapple tart are two main chinese new year cookies, therefore I decided to make them this year. Between these two cookies, I think pineapple tart is more time consuming because I need to prepare for pineapple filling first, then only make the dough.

 

Here's my recipe.

 

Filling preparation:

Ingredients:

250g blended pineapple

150g sugar

1 table spoon lemon juice

 

Direction: put blended pineapple, sugar and lemon juice into a pot, cook the mixture until densed and in golden colour, leave them cool for use later.

 

Dough preparation:

Ingredients:

250g butter

375g all purpose flour

5 tablespoons corn stratch

3/4 teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons icing sugar

3 egg yolks

a little ice water

 

Direction:

1. Sifted all purpose flour, corn stratch and icing sugar twice, then add salt and put the flour mixture in fridge for at least 30 minutes.

 

2. Cut butter into small pieces and mix into flour mixture, mix them well with hand until like cookies crunch.

 

3. Mix in egg yolks slowly until mixtures are well mix. Add some ice water into mixture, and form a dough.

 

4. Put the dough into fridge for about an hour.

 

5.  Squeze a long surface out of a pineapple tart mould, put the prepared piniapple filling on the surface and roll it.

 

6. Brush egg mixture onto pineapple tart, bake them in preheat 170C oven for 15-20 minutes until them yellowish.

 



my pine apple tart 

Pineapple tarts in bottles

Peanut Cookies Making

Last week was long weekend holiday, we had five days off after taking off on Friday, I really enjoyed the holidays and have my Chinese New Year Cookie making over the weekend, peanut cookies was one of them.

 

I baked two batchs of peanut cookie, the first batch wasn't look nice because the cookies flatten and cannot have the normal peanut cookie's shape that we have during Chinese New Year, but which doesn't make me feel satisfation. So, I continue with second batch at night to adjust recipes according to my feeling and I finally have my peanut cookies in good shape though I think it was a little bigger than the cookies that I wanted, anyways it was correct recipes. However, I will try to improve my recipes next time by reducing some sugar and make the shape smaller.

 

Here is recipes that I got from internet.

 

Ingredients

140g peanut

140g cake flour (all purpose flour is good for this as well)

30g corn stratch

100g sugar (can adjust this according to personal favourite)

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

120g peanut oil (I adjust the quantity myself on my second try)

1 egg

 

Direction

1. Bake peanuts in oven until peanut's smell spread out, remove peanut's skin and blend them with food processor until it is powdery.

 

2. Put peanut powder, cake/all purpose flour, corn stratch, sugar, salt, baking power and baking soda into the mixing bowl to mix them evenly. Mix peanut oil together with flour mixture and mix them with hand evenly. (I tried to pour peanut oil slowly myself and feel firmness of mixture until I satisfied)

 

3. Make the flour mixture into small piece (follow the size you wish, I would prefer smaller) and put them on parchment paper to avoid cookies stick on pan.

 

4. Stir egg evenly and brush them onto cookies pieces. You may put on a peanut for decoration.

 

5. Bake them in 170C preheat oven for 15 minutes.

 

Tips:

Leave cookies cold on pan before remove them as they are too soft to avoid crack.



 

My failure product, taste is fine but shape doesn't meet my requirement

My well shaped product, but size is a little bigger

Toh Soon Cafe

Lately, we's like to search for Penang eateries and I found a famous cafe online, it was introduced by my friends few months ago but I forgot, this cafe visited by our Penang CM Lim Guan Eng, I think this is the reason makes it famous.

 

The shop should hard to find, it is located at a small lane along of Campell Street, when you are walking/driving along Campbell Street from the entrance gate, you just need to keep on looking to your left hand side. It should be on the first small lane on left, and there you can find a lot of people waiting to serve or standing by the table for their turn.

 

We arrived to the cafe at around 9:15am and there were a lot of people standing in queue to wait for their seat. Seeing so many people, SL asked me to decide whether wait or leave (I know he doesn't want to wait), and I choose to wait, it took about 30 minutes to wait for a table available for us, and there were people to come, their customers seem never stop.

 

Due to too many customers, waitress didn't really notice us and we waved to her for about 10 minutes until our order get placed, then there was another waiting period for our order served. While waiting for our order, we decided to have a pack of Nasi Lemak on table because YY recommended it, but I asked SL to choose the spoon carefully because I witnessed those spoons dropped by waitress accidentally to dirty land and she picked them up again to place on the table for customers collection. Anyways, I don't like their Nasi Lemak because it is too spicy to me.

 

After about 15 minutes wait, our order served but they forgot my drink, I saw tables around us all were having steamed bread but I remembered YY told me they famous with toasted bread, I don't know what's happened with their toasted bread, but I had no complain since everyone takes steamed bread as well. We ordered a peanut butter and a kaya bread with two eggs, I think their peanut butter is quite special which is different with normal peanut butter. Their bread reminded me my young time because it is old time bread, it is not replacible by Gardiner or Hi-5. However, I don't really enjoy steamed bread because it tasted weird to me, I still prefer toasted bread.

 

In conclusion, we think their bread is just normal and we can't find any reason that makes them famous except it visited by CM Lim before.

Cafe detail:

Cafe name: Toh Soon Cafe (多春茶室)

Address: near to 184 Campbell Street, 10100 Georgetown, Penang.

Opening hour: 8am - 6:30pm (closed on Sunday)

 

Toh Soon Cafe

  

Nasi Lemak

Our peanut butter steamed bread

 

Our kaya steamed bread

 

Our eggs

creepe making

During New Year holiday, I don't want my Year 2012 ended with demotivated emotion and wished to spend my holiday more meaningful, therefore I decided to make creepe because I remembered creepe that we took at Humble Beginnings.

 

I learnt the way to make the dough for creepe from a friend's blog because she looked made a successful creepe. However, I didn't follow her way to make creepe's cream because I got some stock left in my freeze last time when I tried to make macarron.

 

Over all, my creepe tasted fine and SL like it, but I need to have some improvement next time to have it thinner, this actually is challenge because that need to make sure the creepe won't break during turn over the creepe.

 

Here is my recipe for creepe.

 

Ingredients

120g cake flour

10g corn stratch

2 eggs

30g fine sugar

450g milk

 

Directions

1. Sift cake flour and cornstratch together in to a large mixing bowl, then mix milk, eggs and fine sugar in to the mixing bowl and whisk them to be well mix.

2. Sift the flour mixture twice to separate unmixable part.

3. Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium high heat. Pour or scoop the batter onto the griddle, using approximately 1/4 cup for each crepe. Tilt the pan with a circular motion so that the batter coats the surface evenly.

4. Cook the crepe for about 2 minutes, until the bottom is light brown. Loosen with a spatula, turn and cook the other side. Leave it cold.

5. Repeat to cook until finish use of flour mixture.

6. Overlap creepe with prepared cream (jam can also be used here) every layer.

7. Put the prepared creepe into freezer to let creepe in position.

 

The cream that I prepared long ago

Flour mixture

 

Cook creepe with pan

 

Wrap the prepared creepe and rest in freezer

 

Oh, my creepe

Humble Beginnings

Few months ago, we went to Strait Quay for Popular Book Fair and I found a new cafe there for tea time, which called Humble Beginnings, they specialised in selling creepe, this is my first time to know this cafe. However, I found out recently in a friend's blog this brand actually existed for several years, but it started with online order and now they only newly operate a cafe in Strait Quay.

 

The cafe was quite full with people, I think a lot of people like creepe, and we only ordered a slide of mango creepe for tasting. Due to too many customers, waiter forgot our order and we waited for quite some time, this made SL unhappy.

 

After a while, waiter sensed SL's emotion and replace our order and offered to treat the creepe on cafe's bill, this made us felt less upset but we insisted to pay the bill ourselves as we understood they were busy.

 

For the mango creepe, I like its taste and it is soft, every layer is thin and meltable. If there is opportunity to return to Strait Quay, I would revisit the cafe for other favours.

 

Humble Beginnings Detail

Website: http://www.humblebeginnings.com.my/

Opening Hour: 12pm-10pm (cafe), 10am-7pm (phone order)

 

In front of Humble Beginnings



 

Humble Beginnings' Menu

Our mango creepe

Thong Lek's Fried Fish Bee Hon

That day, we bought a book talked about Penang food and it recommended fried fish bee hon from Thong Lek Hawker Stall. However, we couldn't find Thong Lek Hawker Stall when we drive along Macalister Road. Therefore, our first search was ended up with dissapointment.

 

After we searched through online, then we found that Thong Lek Hawker Stall was actually redecorated and renamed to Yummy Cottage, I knew Yummy Cottage when we were doing food hunt last time, but didn't know it consists a famous Fried Fish Bee Hon.

 

Then, we visited Yummy Cottage to try its fried fish bee hon and we found the stall remains its name as Thong Lek. Besides fried fish bee hon, they also sell fried fish stomach and they also claim their koay teow soup is instant make, I ordered fried fish (RM4.50 a plate) and fish stomach (RM7 a plate) for ourselves.

 

Truely, their fried fish is really crispy, fried fish stomach is especially crispier but it was with some fish bone attached, we found their meats are crispier because they fried their meat at least twice, they refried it on their business day. Overall, I like crispy taste of fried fish stomach but SL prefer fried fish as it's convenience.

 

Yummy Cottage detail

Address: 97, Jalan Macalister, Penang.

Opening Houe: 7:00am - 1:30pm (closed on Tuesday)

 

Stall of Thong Lek Fried Fish Bee Hon

 

Fried Fish Stomach 

Fried Fish Meat

 

 Bee Hon Soup

Tong Pak Fu

There are a lot of dessert shops launched in Penang in recent time, it first from Taiwan like Black Ball and Meet Fresh, then Hongkies comes such as Xu Liu Shan and Tong Pak Fu. Comparing between Taiwanese and Hongkies style, I prefer HongKong dessert more because their products look like less processed and fresher than Taiwanese.

Between Xu Liu Shan and Tong Pak Fu, then I like Tong Pak Fu more because they got more options on hot dessert, well I don't really like to have cold drink or dessert. So far, I found there are three Tong Pak Fu outlets in Penang Island, one on Burma Road, one in Gurney Plaza and another one in Queesbay Mall, I still haven't visited to the Burma Road outlet, but I have been to Gurney Plaza and Queensbay Mall once each.

My first visit to Tong Pak Fu was the Gurney Plaza outlet and we ordered Black Seasame Cream and Glutinous Cream, I am fan of black seasame so that black seasame is my first order from Tong Pak Fu and SL took the Glutinous Cream, and we exchanged our portion with each other. After having Glutinous, I think I prefer taste of Glutinous and SL also the same, black seasame cream is tasted a bit sweeter and we found hard to finish the whole bowl by one person, while glutinous cream's taste is just right. After all, our visit in Gurney Plaza was pleasure.

Then we visited to Queensbay Mall Tong Pak Fu outlet about a week later, and we expected they will have same standard of taste, we ordered Walnut Cream and Peanut Cream this time, but their portion seems like less than bowl that we had in Gurney Plaza outlet, the bad part is their cream wasn't warm enough for taste, the even worst part is creams wasn't as thick as the Gurney Plaza and we every can feel corn stratch was inside their cream, this made us felt they didn't use fully ingredient in their creams. Honestly, we found dissapointed with the shop and we were doubt whether Gurney Plaza outlet is actually used corn stratch in their creams as well but they are more professional to hide them in the cream.

After walking out from the Queensbay Mall Tong Pak Fu outlet, we discussed this is a way to save more money to boost their profit, but the thing is whether corn stratch is the ingredient from Tong Pak Fu factory but the outlet failed to hide it properly, or this is added by outlet itself to gain more profit margin by themselves. Anyways, we are no keen to visit the outlet in Queensbay Mall anymore and hesitated to visit the other Tong Pak Fu outlets as well.

My Black Seasame Cream


SL's Glutinous Cream

Pant pattern





Last week was long weekend and I took a week plus leaves going back to my hometown, for spending some time with my mother and attending my brother-in-law's wedding.

 

Finally, I could meet with my mother after seperated for so long, my mother is a tailor and of course I learn some pattern drafting skill from her as I always felt that I couldn't draft a perfect pant pattern.

 

After taking course with my mum, I think next time I should be able to sew a perfect fitted pant :)

 

Here is my drafted pant.

 

tissue box cover



That day, I saw my tissue box was quite ugly, therefore I decided to make a cover for it, here is it.

 

My own made curtain

That day, we washed our curtain with too high temperature and the whole set of curtain was damaged, therefore I decided to make my own curtain. So, we bought our curtain fabric from shop last weekend and I spent the whole of my weekend sewing this pair of curtain.

At very first, I thought sewing curtain was simple job as all are straight line but it actually not, especially if sewing for a sliding door curtain. Because we need to have the perfect measurement and well handling for such a huge piece of fabric, it actually is risk if you cut it too long or too short.

Anyways, I finally completed my curtain project, well this is not a perfect piece but at least is usable piece :)

However, I am not too satisfied with the fabric quality, therefore we need to do more fabric survey if we really plan to sew the curtain for our house next time.

The raw material


The finished product

my smocked top

Finally, I had successfully made my smocked top before my Maldives trip and I took it to the Maldives, it really is a suitable beach wear.

Though it is a top, it still quite long for legging purpose, but I didn't wear short or pant, I was wearing swimming suit instead.

Actually, I like how it look because it just properly covered the part that I needed to cover and still look casual.

I think this photo with a little boat behind on the clear sea, it is just so beautiful like a painting.

I miss the Maldives so much, it was the best vacation ever I had.

Maldives heat

After coming back from vacation, SL said that I have became happier than before, and I also feel the same, I am more enegerstic on doing thing and use my time more productively. Unlike before, I was always complaining and thinking negatively, but I got less of this type of feeling now. Even though SL would temporary blacken his face, I also can pretend that I didn't see it and just let it go.

After the vacation, we both feel more love with each other because there is another memory storage in our brain, which recorded another experience that we went through together. Actually, SL also become happier but he denied it and said he happy because of seeing me happy :) Anyways, he is still happier, right? No matter what makes him happier.

We are back from Maldives for about a week plus, and I have done organising my Maldives Trip blogs by yesterday, their actually were written during we were on vacation and I only spent sometime on reread and edited them after back to put in more my personal view. This type of vacations is really nice because I can update my blog anytime during my vacation, it will be more detail because my memory was still fresh. Actually, I wished to complete a lot of blogs on my other trips, like Europe, New York, Olympic National Park, but they were long gone from my memory and everything weren't as fresh as our recent trip anymore, so I think I might finally give up to put them in my blog and only will recall those old memory when we viewing our photoes.

Recently, "Maldives" always be the keyword between SL and I when we were talking about things, and I always teased him that I wish to revisit Vilamendhoo Island in Maldives again next few years. Then he asked me if I am sure for that because we might not have pictures to take because it is still the same place and we have taken every good photoes that we can take. And he suggested why not we just go to somewhere else, he doesn't mind if trip is not as relaxing as Maldives.

After taking second thought, I really need to reconsider if I want to revisit the same island next time. Yes, then I am still kicking the sea, jumping on beach, kissing at sunrise and sunset, repeating the same pose at the same location, then why don't I just review my photoes for another time? Then, I suddenly change my mind, perhaps we might need to try out something new, right?

Yes, I think I might revisit to Maldives but it maybe not Vilamendhoo Island next time, but I still wish the island have their own house reef, so that we can easy access for snorkeling, still Maldives might not be our next vacation destination, it might be few years later, but it might not be within five years.

For Vilamendhoo Island, it might be the only visit in our lifetime, unless we really affordable enough in further that we can plan a real honeymoon (a month one) that time, then it might not bad to transfer between different islands that we like and Vilamendhoo sure will be one of them :) Haha... daydreaming doesn't cost anything, right?

Ending of Maldives trip

3rd of October, we were waiting for our transit flight to Penang in KL airport, this also marked the end of our vacation, we need to back to reality now and start working hard for our next Maldives trip :)

Overall, I love my trip, it was relaxing and enjoyable. Originally, I thought we would be bored as I read quite some travel journal on Maldives trip, therefore I brought three books with me for killing some spare time, however I didn't even finish reading a book after back because I spent lot of my time to writing my blog and sea viewing, it was great for just seeing this beautiful sea by doing nothing.

Four nights stay in island is a bit too short for me, I would plan a longer stay if I really travel next time. Also, I would do more evaluation on different price of half board, full board and all inclusive package because we are not alcohol drinker, as I think more portion of price comes from alcohol, cruise and lessons, which I might not need them for next trip. But, I probably would allocte some budget for snorkeling excursion as Maldives underwater world is really beautiful, especially I like their clean sea and sea will even be crystal clear when strong sunshine.

Another thing to take in mind, sun is really burning there, so we might need to bring more high index sunblocks next time, in case it was not enough. When trip almost ended, we worried if our sunblock was enough for the rest of trip that we saved some when we applying it, so our skin was brunt a bit at last two days.

Besides, I recommend Maldives Traveller website (https://www.maldivestraveller.mv) because their play an important role on promoting Maldives tourism, they even gave out goodies bag to traveller who register and provide travel detail to their website. They change policy lately, that traveller needed to leave comment on their forum before departure from Maldives, I thought I won't get the goodies as I didn't want to online during stay but I still received a goodies package from them, it was a surprise and now I know that is because I registered to the website before 17 September 2012.

No matter what, people should travel to Maldives once in their life, especially for those who love sea a lot, it is really a paradise. I even made joke with SL, said that we want to search if any resort in Maldives hire old people, then we can apply to work in the resort after we retire, haha... I have planned ahead for our retirement :P

Our souvenir from Maldives Traveller

Seaplane transfer in Maldives

For getting to nearby resort from Male International Airport, resort will arrange speedboat transfer for visitor, speedboat transfer can be arrange anytime in a day, therefore you still can check in to your hotel even if you arrive at night.

However, for getting those further resorts, tourists will need to take seaplane to transfer to their resort, resort will help you to arrange this and seaplane transfer cost will be charged to your payment once you made reservation. However, seaplane transfer can only be arranged during daytime, so you might need to book a hotel in Male if your flight arrive late or depart early.

Our resort is Vilamendhoo, it is located at South Ari Atoll in Maldives, it is about 25 minutes travel time by seaplane. Actually, it was a good experience to travel with seaplane as we can view the atoll of Maldives from bird view through seaplane's glass.

Seaplane in Maldives is operated by Trans Maldivian (tma - www.tam.com.mv) and Maldivian Air Taxi (http://www.maldivianairtaxi.com) while we were arranged with Trans Maldivian, which is another domestic flight terminal from Maldives International Airport, they also provide transport between these two terminals by bus. Currently, I think domestic flight area is more attractive than international flight area, it might be different after 2014.

At seaplane transfer area, some resorts will provide lounge area for their customers, like our resort, else tourists will need to wait at waiting area but there is well equipped if compared with waiting area of international terminal. I pretty like the lounge from Vilamendhoo Island Resort it is comfortable and we can have a good view of seaplane parking area.

If you come to Maldives, you might consider to find a resort which need to access by seaplane so that you can view the atoll from plane, this is really a good experience though seaplane transfer cost is high, the ticket is more than our international flight from Penang to Maldives.

On the day when we go to our resort, seaplane people will distribute a pair of earplug for every passenger to isolate noise going into ear. And, we need to retain those earplug on your returning trip, so that it can be reused on the returning trip, else you won't get another pairs.
Before I came to Maldives, I kept asking my resort about my seaplane schedule but they told me it's only will be available on the day before departure, I didn't know why they only provided it at the last minute, isn't seaplane schedule are constant everyday? And after I was in Maldives, I realized that seaplane schedule is really not constant everyday, it keeps changing according to tourist's need, if there is no tourist check in or check out from certain resort, then there will no seaplane arrange to that area. Therefore, TMA will only arrange their schedule according to resort's booking a day before, in case if there is any last minute cancellation from resort's customer.

This really needs a good planner to fully utilize every seat in seaplane, therefore sometime a seaplane will stop at different stops to pick up or drop off passenger to/from different resorts. However, from what I observe during research for a resort, seaplane fare is not too much different for different traveling time. For example, a resort needs a 45 minutes to reach and a resort needs a 25 minutes to reach actually asking a similar seaplane fare.

View from seaplane - a resort near to our island

Our seaplane

View from seaplane 

Our seaplane for back to Male :(

View from seaplane - Atoll in Maldives

View from seaplane - Atoll in Maldives

View from seaplane - beautiful Male

Sixth day in Maldives

2nd of October, this day is our last day in Maldives, I felt a bit upset, why happy moment always ended that fast? I really don't wish to leave this beautiful place, sitting in front of my room, watching the calm sea and listening to melody of sea wave, it was just an enjoyable life. Maldives, I would need to say goodbye to you soon, I hope that I will be back again.

Well, we when to Bali last time for honeymoon and brought back a lot of good memories, we also wished to be back to Bali sometime, but we found Maldives finally and now Maldives has replaced Bali as my wish list, who knows there will be another place replace Maldives later? But not for now.

We didn't plan for any activities on the last day, but only resting at our room and seeing the beautiful sea view, because we are too tired with lot of activities in past few days.

We would need to check out our room at 12pm, then checked in to our seaplane at 2:15pm and seaplane departure time would be 3pm.

Our flight back to Malaysia would only depart at 11pm, but the last seaplane from island was 3pm, that means we needed to spend about seven hours at Male International Airport, this doesn't sound good, I think Malaysia Airline might need to improve their flight schedule between Kuala Lumpur and Male, to make it more travel friendly.

While we were waiting for seaplane check in time, I walked around Reception area and saw a school of small fish chasing by baby shark, and there are another school of bigger fish under the right side of jetty with another school of much bigger fish at left side of jetty, these three schools of fish look like same species, but different in size. This seems that the smallest size fish is growing up by chasing with baby shark, until when they are grow bigger and bigger to stop this game, or turn to be chased by real shark, this is what ecosystem formed.

After few days stayed in Vilamendhoo, I think it is quite normal to find baby shark around this island, especially at south side, the more in Sunset bar and water villas area, but I still could see some at reception area. However, manta ray is a bit rare to see unless we need to go to deep sea, I was only abled to see them twice when we were kayaking and they are not in big size.

On the seaplane back to Male International Airport, I felt upset as I really was leaving Maldives soon, I don't wish to left this beautiful place but the happiest moment always gone fastest. Goodbye, Maldives.

The whole trip was perfect, good weather with all sunny days though it assumed to be raining season, I think I was lucky for having this good weather accompanied me. However, my skin goes dark now after baptized by sun for five days, perhaps with a bit of skin got sunburnt.

The imperfect part of the trip is waiting time for our returning flight to Malaysia, it was miserable long as we need to spend about six to seven hours at waiting area of Male International Airport, where doesn't have air-conditioner embedded in waiting area and noisy due to renovation. For current situation, there is nowhere to see or shop outside of airport so that we only could sit idle and counting for time past, I think this might be improved after 2014 when Maldives have their new terminal build that time.

Anyways, airport condition considered good after checked in and went through custom, there also have some shops and even had TV program, we watched T20 Cricket game that time, we really enjoyed the program though we didn't understand what commandator spoke (maybe it was in Maldivian language), I didn't have chance to watch cricket game after back from the UK, I miss the game so much, SL also likes the game.

Goodby, Maldives, I will miss you.

Our last sunrise at Vilamendhoo Island Resort

Dawn Rising Sun

Our sandwork on the beach

bird seeing sea

Waiting seaplane at jetty

Goodbye, Vilamendhoo... Goodbye, Maldives....



Restaurant in Vilamendhoo Island Resort

There are four restaurants in Vilamendhoo Island Resort, Funama and Ahima are served buffet dinner while Hot Rock and Asian Wok serve ala carte meal. We were taking All Inclusive Package, so we only had meal with Funama Restaurant and Ahima is for those stay at Water villas and Jacuzzi beach villas.

On the first visit to restaurant, waiter would lead us to our dedicated dining table and the table will be our table for the rest of stay. However, our waiter, Kazir seems like knew I like a sea view table, so he helped us to change table on our third day, thanks to him.

After the first visit, we were served by the same waiter as well for the rest of our stay, I like our waiter as he can remember our dining style and he would collect plate and cutlery on the right time, he even remembered SL ordered for Coca Cola on the night before and asked if he'd like to have it on the next day. However, SL prefers to have distance, anyways he is particular person that makes me feel strange why we can be together :)

Among three meals provided in Funama Restaurant, I like breakfast the most, breakfast there is variety and delicious, I like their pan cake and mixing yogurt is enjoyable to me, their pan cake comes with different favor different days, we had tried vanilla, strawberry, orange and plain pancake. Also, their breads are nice as well, but too bad I found out too late that I only could enjoyed it for two morning. Though their breakfast's dishes are similar everyday, but favors are different.

For lunch and dinner, they are still fine but I still like breakfast the most, because I don't have special favorite dish for lunch and dinner, they had different types of curry everyday but unfortunately I don't eat too spicy, but their desserts are very nice.

With signed up the All Inclusive Package, we actually enjoy with it because we didn't need to worry how much we need to spend on foods and drinks as they come with package.

the seaview that from our dining table, I even asked SL to paint it at our dining room :P

Having meal at restaurant

our table

Restaurant Environment