Travels, experiences and food

Away away from India

2010-08-28T01:54:00.000-07:00

And so our journey in India has come to a fullstop! It definitely has made us grow in many different ways, enabled us to learn so many different things, made us more aware of our surroundings and so much more - cant put those intangible experiences in words :)

Now we are gearing up for our trip to Beijing, China and i am REALLY looking forward to staying in China. Imagine : Tea!

Well i am not sure if i can use blogspot in China due to media restrictions, but i will defintely try to share experiences by any means possible :)

Namaste!

15 June 2010 : Chinatown and a bit of Clark Quay...

2010-06-15T09:43:00.000-07:00

Today i met my friend Abi, whom i have known since collage - maybe 4 to 5 years. Its always a pleasure to meet her and talk to her and share ideas with her. She is specially talented in photography and is an absolutely amazing person. I hope all works out perfectly well for her. We met at chinatown and walked around, went to clark quay (just a few minutes walk from C-town), got some sake (which i just opened to taste, so i guess i need to buy a new bottle to bring back with us..thats totally in order) and japanese wheat tea. It was a fun day out with Abi :D

This is Chinatown Point. One of the many shopping centers.

This shop sold buddhist statues, the laughing buddha and other similar chinese god related statues.

Walaaa! Shopping street!

Poor bird stuck in the cage (actually alot of older chinese men actually have an interest in birds, so they have many types of birds in such cages. Sometimes they come together and you can see so many cages with birds chirping 'lemme out of here'). Thats just a small trivia! :)

And so after taking the train - one stop, we were in Clark Quay! Dont judge us, it was a REALLY hot day to be just walking around.... :D

Thats the route to clubs, restaurants and lotsa alcohol!

This is Central shopping mall, one of the relatively new malls in the area.

You could take a little boat ride...

And this was the end of my day, before i left to go home...and after i saw 3 huskies! OH MY WORD!

14 June 2010 : Arab Street, Singapore

2010-06-14T10:14:00.000-07:00

I am back in Singapore after almost a year. It might not be a long time, yet there are so many new buildings. I always find myself looking out of the bus or sticking my neck out as i walk to see a spankingly new building. Amazing. Moving too fast? I am pretty sure theres always a good and bad side to everything. But in a way, its nice to be home, though its difficult to say convincingly 'home' cause i have also spent 6 years growing up in Brunei, and months in other countries.

Today i decided to try taking pictures of buildings in and around Arab Street. Hope you would enjoy my little tour of one part of little singapore!

This is an old building in Arab Street. The current trend is to have a boutique where art stuff, carpets, fashion related things are sold. I like the nice colors added to the building.

This is one of the famous mosque in Arab Street. I thought that it looked quite nice with the sky. As noticed, the area 'Arab street' is the part of singapore that was initally divided by the British for the muslim or settlers from Malaysia.

This shop sold chinese decorations :)

This is a typical building one can see in singapore.

Parkview Square - Mainly consist of offices.

This is actually 200m from Arab street, and its mainly chinese hawker shops. This building style is seen in Chinatown - which i will go tomorrow:)

This is the National Library, it was renovated about 3 years ago. This is the central or main branch. They have other libaries in other parts of singapore.

Nice sunlight effect.

This is where i spent most of my 4 years at - my university's library building.

Asian Civilisation Museum - its just across my university.

Hope you enjoyed todays tour, ladies!

09 May 2010 : Hyderabad Day 2

2010-05-20T07:53:00.000-07:00

So after getting cheated with the driver, we decided to go around ourselves. Its a lesson we have learnt over time - if we really want to go around we should just take the tuktuk (although they also end up cheating....*ponders*). Since we didnt really get to check out the bazaar yesterday, we headed in that direction, also so that we could take a few pictures of the Chaminder. All in good timing. Sunday was just another way of saying that the place is going to be packed to the brim. Anyways it was still fun to go take pictures...expect when people start coming up to you asking for an exorbitant price - and trust me, they cant take rejections, they follow you till you literally shout at them saying I DONT WANT IT! Haha i had to do that quite few times cause they would follow 'buy sir buy mdm'... Well i shouldnt complain too much now :)

Check out the dangerously hanging wires... :O

After a long walk in the hot sun and tonnes of pictures from the bazaar, we took the tuktuk downtown to have some real Andra food - spicy! But given the lack of aircon i was sweating while having lunch - ulækkert! :S Since we only had about 5 hours more in hyderabad, we decided to go somewhere abit near our hotel - Public Gardens. It was extremely hot given that it was 4pm, but we managed to find a spot under the shade to sit and relax abit.

Public Gardens

08 May 2010 : Hyderabad Day 1

2010-05-19T06:58:00.000-07:00

After being in Bangalore for almost two months we have finally started travelling - f**k the horrid weather. Our first destination on 'exploration India' (haha) was Hyderabad. Our plane ride took us 30 mins while the drive from the airport to the hotel took about 45 mins. We drove on one of the longest highways - 11 km long. We hired a driver & car so that we could go around with ease to many places. Our deal was to pay 1400rupees for 8 hours, and 10rupees per km after 8 hours. We drove past the chaminder, went to the Chowmalia Palace, drove past by Lazar Bazaar and lastly went to the Golconda Fort. All this with high humidity and a temperature of 42 deg.

We had to climb quite a number of steps to reach the top of the Fort in the heat. We were really sweating ourselves away.... But once up there the sight was quite nice.¨ However when we went back to the hotel around 1600hrs he demanded us to pay 1500 rupees instead - all in all highly annoying experience! GAH!

Chowmalia Palace..

Golkonda Fort

I dont understand why people here dont look after their historical sites. Everything has to be written on. It spoils the special value. And why is nothing done to prevent this - fines for example (coming from a 'fine' city myself ;))

View from the top of Golkonda Fort :)

Star for the day!

Day 2 : Nandi Hills

2010-05-19T04:26:00.000-07:00

Today was really nice - woke up to watch the sun rise (whích was really special) and then we climbed all the way up to Nandi hills from Silver Oak Farm. The amount of steps is 1175, and that is just one way up. We went both ways, so by the time we walked down for lunch, my legs were highly tired and i had a sore throat coming on because of the heat. The walk up was quite scenic with the clear blue skies and greenery surrounding us. It was also really nice to have the fresh light scent of eucalyptus trees. On thw whole i would say it was really fun even though it was a loooong - almost neverending, walk up. Well dont just read, go on look at the pictures ;)

We got up early to catch the sun rise. It was really calming and hyggeligt :)

The people here are notoriously 'famous' for following rules. Tell them to do A they do the exact opposite! ;)

May 2010 : Hilly Nandi Hills :) Day 1

2010-05-10T21:26:00.000-07:00

Our start to May 2010 was with a nice needed weekend to Nandi Hills. We stayed at a nice place called Silver Oak Farm which is owned by Praveen & Meera Khanna. They also have a well bred german shepards which are really cute and love getting their heads scratched. They are siblings - Micki & Minni :) There are two other dogs - one is a cute white dog which will actually be your tour guide if you decide to take a walk up the steps to Nandi hills, and the other one is a brown shy dog which can be spotted at the top of the roof. Dejligt! But it was a really nice and cosy place - our room was facing the front of 3 big hills. Opening our door every time was just fantastic. I cant wait to go to the alps now ;) Food is taken care by Meera, and trust me when i say the food is absolutely tasty. Home cooked food. Nothing beats that! After having such delish food by Meera, the bar has been moved up really high that we were terribly upset by our breakfast buffet in hyderabad.... But anyways, i think its time to see pictures instead of my yakking ;)

Janus managed to try his hand at clay pottery. :)

Silver Oak Farm...

An evening stroll - not all the way up to Nandi hills---

More to come..........

05 May 2010 : OWC Pink Elephant sale (Part 2)

2010-05-10T20:51:00.000-07:00

More pictures from the sale! :))

05 May 2010 : OWC Pink Elephant sale (Part 1)

2010-05-10T06:52:00.000-07:00

Every year OWC holds the Pink elephant sale - primary focus is to bring in money for charity. Expats bring their used items ranging from clothings, childrens toys and books and OWC sells them off for 50-100 rupees. Its all very cheap and the customers are mainly drivers, maids, nannies and local indians who work for expats or have friends who work for expats. It was a very good event, though many of the locals were very pushy. However it was still a good experience and i managed to get pictures of people running in (like seriously they RAN in the sale compound the second the doors were opened!). I hope the pictures puts across the intented actions ;)

28 April 2010 : Day trip with OWC to the Horticulture Garden

2010-05-10T05:13:00.000-07:00

So the ladies of OWC took a day trip which was really well organized and well done (all thanks to Kate). The people working there were really friendly and helpful. The guy giving the talk was full of smiles and happiness - like an old man beaming in happiness :)

24 April 2010 : Freedom - far from it....

2010-05-10T04:52:00.000-07:00

We have friends :) Hahah! Today we met one of our new friend that we met at a BEC dinner. We had a really nice day out with Phil - took a nice long warm walk around Lalbagh Lake, a nice lunch at Secret Garden and then a walk around Freedom Park. This park was commemorated for the freedom fighters who were jailed during the British occupation. It is a nice symbol of representation of freedom. But it seems to me that after being here for almost 2 months, this country is far from being free. Free in many sense of the word - personal freedom, freedom of rights and freedom of free being (meaning the presence of caste which has made a small comeback. The consenses has decided to include this in the consense taking... 2 steps backwards). Well there are many things that makes one feel trapped here - or maybe it is just me coming from another country with all this ideals in my head?! Oh weel....

Lalbagh Lake

23 April 2010 : City Market

2010-05-10T01:06:00.000-07:00

City Market is a great place if you want to get fresh flowers, vegetables and anything-&-everything :) However, one must always be accompanied by a man if one is a lady...of course! Its a market buzzing with life. It is a good playground to take colorful pictures and play around with the settings. Be prepared for power shortages, tonnes of pushing - youre never short of this in India, and oggling....

But before that, we had food at a hidden cafe called The secret garden. The place has nice salads and a good variety of food :)

City Market....

To end the day, we stopped at Infinitea for a nice cool mug of iced tea :)

19 April 2010 : The BIG Banyan Tree

2010-05-10T00:33:00.000-07:00

Today i took a road trip with the ladies - was very fun indeed. We drove about 45 minutes from Esther's place to a nice big banyan tree. The tree is really HUGE and my dear friend Naomi, managed to climb it :) However it was abit of a bad day in terms of health - cause i got abit sick and had to stop the driver two times to vo*1T... But here are some pictures of our fun day out :) I love going out with them!

17 April 2010 : We go round Bangalore way too much ;)

2010-05-09T23:49:00.000-07:00

Well when you stay in a place for 6months it is best to know the place as well as possible for many reasons - especially if you are not well versed with the local language! Well that is what we have been doing - taking day trips round bangalore, finding out more of the city and all its hidden little 'treasures'. We visited the following places : Hebbal Lake ( great for bird watching, seeing lots of squirrels, butterflies and well need i say...couples?!), had lunch at the well known MTR (also known as Mavalli Tiffin Room ) and ended off the day at Sankey Tank (this place is where Hare Ram or Hare Krishna devotees immerse their god in the tank every year..)

MTR Food :)

Hebbal Lake :

There was a nursery next to the lake. We took a short walk in the nursery :) Nice & green!

Puppies playing :)

After this we had a long drive to find a plantation which does not exist anymore. But it was a nice ride cause we got to see village life and the contrast to poverty with big condos being built on the opposite side of the road....

Sankey Tank

:))

15 April 2010 : Madiwala Outdoor Market

2010-04-15T07:44:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures from Madiwala Outdoor Market. This market has all sorts of fresh indian veges that are used in curries, fruits and fish as well... though its one thing i would never try buying cause the fish are all laid out and flies, ohhh tonnes of flies were surrounding the fish (as you can see below)

This was actually a very fun day out with my really lovely friends, who waited each time i snapped pictures or saw something interesting that could potentially be a picture :D Hope you will enjoy the pics ;)

11 April 2010 : Lazy Sunday afternoon

2010-04-12T04:05:00.000-07:00

Our sunday afternoon consisted of stationary shopping for Janus' little office, late lunching and then a short little trip to Lalbagh Botanical Gardens. The walk at the garden was like any other walk...but we arrived just a tad bit after the sun had set. We did try taking some pictures even though the sun had set. But while taking pictures there were 2 indian guys, probably in their 40s dressed in jeans and polo shirts. They both started staring at us taking pictures and one of the guy came right behind us and stuck his face inbetween our faces as we looked on our live view mode on our camera. And i tried to give him an evil-youre-in-my-space stare, but that didnt really work. Gah! But its weird how this is something common that happens here, their personal space distance is really tiny or even non-existant. And so when they come into our personal space its just highly uncomfortable. And i really dont like it. It feels intrusive and so wrong. But thats how it is here, so we are the ones that are 'not in line', so to speak.... But we used our stand to get a few really good shots of the evening at Lalbagh lake, where a type of tree is blossoming now. The tree has a fantastic color and it looks abit like its on fire... Pictures will be uploaded soon ;)

After our little walk at the garden, we took a tutuk to Brigade road and found ourselves a pub called Le Rock. We had a cocktail and beer each and also had some nice juicy tandoori chicken. Janus seems to love them - and i am catching up :D The place looked like some hard rock cafe, abit like the late 80s look if i am not wrong. But it was interesting to see and hear what is popular here. Almost all the songs were from the 70s to the 90s, and people were shouting to the lyrics. And its always cool to see the various prototypes there, like the geeky thin guy trying really hard to be cool, the not so thin girl flirting with the geeky guys, the im too cool guy that seems to know everyone working at the club, and so on so forth......

10 April 2010 : Fireflies

2010-04-12T03:53:00.000-07:00

Today we had some really good Indian buffet for lunch at a place called Café Masala. There was obviously a wide spread of indian dishes - yums, and also a section for dessert. It is unfortunate that we didnt take any pictures but the food was really nice. It was however really tough to leave the restaurant because it was just really scorching hot outside. This weekend the temperature actually was the highest in 25 years - so we tried everything to stay indoors or in an a-c coffee café. Which was exactly what we did - we ended up sitting under a fan at Coffee world where Janus had a cuppa Americano while i had a caramel frappe. Long time no caramellin'... Oh! And funny story. At the coffee place we were at, there was a young teenage couple sitting right in front of us, having a nice time cuddling and dosing off together. Then there was a very dark indian man sitting behind us. He was oggling and staring his eyes out at the couple. Weird. I think he was one of those freakishly weird voyer. Yuck! Anyways the coffee café was in a mall located on a street called Brigade Road, and we walked around and found a shop selling some loose beads where i got about 6pairs of neat beads, of which i have already made 4 pairs of simple earrings :) I like!

When the sun started setting we started walking and ended up walking around 5km before ending uo at a rooftop lounge called the Fireflies. There was a big screen television screening the live cricket match - where Bangalore won! Fireflies was quite a nice place - we had about 2 cocktails and 1 beer each, and 2 oven pizzas which no doubt tasted quite yummie.. It was a nice relaxing saturday - almost kind of felt like we worked hard for our food and drinks cause we walked so much before getting to fireflies... Well i will upload pictures as soon as possible - probably tonight when the connection is much better?

04 April 2010 : Water shows and Japanese food ;)

2010-04-09T01:15:00.000-07:00

We started off the long weekend with a blast to the past - Retro! Cafe. We had indian food at a place near our apartment called Retro, it was on the top of the roof and was kind of nice to be there. There was about 2 big screens showing the IPL - cricket matches. And if i am not wrong the Bangalore team won! Woohoo. But i dont think my 'woohoo' shows how happy and noisy the crowd was because there team won - lots of cheering and whistling and clapping....

The next day we went to the musical fountain where everyday from 1900 - 1930hr there is a show with different colors. It is coordinated according to some Indian songs that they play in the background - from their national anthem to bollywood songs :) Interesting to watch the locals get all excited with the water works. Many were awed by the height of the spurting water while others were enjoying the music with the nice display of lights... Either way we had a fun time there...

Efter this colorful show we had really´, like really good Japanese food at a restaurant called 'Shiro'. Lovely ambience.

27 March 2010 : Its all about Bangalore :) continued....

2010-03-29T06:30:00.000-07:00

Continued from previous post....

The Bugle Rock Park was where we went next and it was convienently located next to the Bull Temple. It was a nice park, which was actually really green. So yes, it is quite different from Cubbon park which is not as green (but im still a huge fan of Lalbagh Gardens). Anyways it was nice to take a stroll in the park. We did see many interesting things -- MONKEY --. Well it was sitting on the branch and throwing down little pods with seeds in it. And yes, as usual we saw many couples - one thing you can be absolutely sure to find in any park :)

Bats Bats and 100s of bats all over the trees..Ewwwk!

We drove to another famous temple - The Shiva Temple. Shiva is one of the hindu gods, known as the God of destruction and creation. And if you have seen an elephant god (called Lord Ganesh) - well thats his son. There is a 65feet el. 20meter high statue of Lord Shiva. It actually looked like it was in the middle of a movie shooting with the 'mountains' backdrop. But it was quite impressive. We actually had to pay 200INR to enter which gave us a pot of gold coins to drop into 108 little golden pots. There is a picture with Janus dropping the coins in. We also had a orange band which we had to tie around a tree - apparently it removes our problems in life..... We also got the opportunity to be involved in some hindu ritual - we poured milk on a stone god while the priest chanted some prayers. After which we had to throw a piece of wood into the fire with some oil. The priest brought us to the lucky coin station where we were each given a golden coin to throw into the pond infront of the giant statue, followed by putting a lighted tealight candle into the pond. Lastly we had to walk around a few hindu deities 3 times with a lighted torch (small torch). Overall it was quite interesting i would say :)

Janus throwing the piece of wood and pouring oil into the fire.

Janus with Lazar, his driver :)

Im sure you cant figure out what this is. This is how shops are here, they fully utilize avaliable space and so you can exactly see what is hanging. But there are beeds, chains, keychains and more...

We bought the Kannada, Sanskrit, Hindi and Tamil books.

27 March 2010 : Its all about Bangalore :)

2010-03-28T22:47:00.000-07:00

We took the day to go around Bangalore - not to see the parks but to see the more cultural aspect of it. As you would already know India is predominantly a Hindu country. This explains why alot of the sights worth seeing are mainly temples that are 500 or 700 years old or even more! The first place we went to was Tipus Palace, followed by the Bull Temple, Bugle Rock Park and Shiva temple. It was a good way to try to understand the locals better by getting to know more of their traditions :)

Tipus Palace : Its funny how Janus had to pay 100INR while i paid 5INR just cause i was brown :))

''The construction of the palace was started by Haider Ali-the father of Tipu Sultan- which Tipu Sultan completed in 1791, which earned the palace the name of Tipu's Palace. Tipu used it as his summer retreat. This beautiful palace has five sculpted arches and the walls are adorned with bright paintings and murals. Though the paintings and murals are a bit faded, but still they manage to cast a spell on the viewers. These murals and paintings take you close to those long-lost times. The palace is a two-storied wooden structure with exquisitely carved pillars, arches and balconies, bordered by gardens on both the sides, which lead to the entrance. The projecting balconies on the east and the west are the places from where Tipu Sultan conducted his affairs of state.

The palace is built entirely in teak wood and an inscription on the wooden screen tells us that it was called the 'Abode of Happiness'. British used this palace as their secretariat after the death of Tipu Sultan. ''

And its from here where the king shouts 'Masala Chai'!... Just kidding ;)

A nice garden in the palace to take a soothing stroll in the late afternoons.

For some reason there were many people with freshly shaven heads.. Wonder what the occassion was

As said, Janus paid much more than me cause of our skin color differences......

As we were going to get into the car i managed to get a sneak into the garden and saw a few policemen having some fun of their own. Who says working has to be boring!?

The next place we visited was the famous Bull Temple (also known as the Dodda Basava Bull Temple). This temple is famous for the 4.5meters high monolithic bull inside the temple. It was built by Kempe Gowda in 1537 AD. This temple is dedicated to the hindu lord Shiva. The reason why the bull temple was built is well summarized below

''The legend goes that the Bull Temple was built to appease a bull that used to consume and destroy all the groundnuts and peanuts cultivated in this area. It is also said that after the temple was built, the bull stopped damaging the crop. As a celebration of this incident, the farmers of Basavanagudi organized a Groundnut Fair (Kadalekai Parase), near the temple. This fair continues till date and is attended by the people of Bangalore in large numbers.''

Indsat fra <http://www.bangaloreindia.org.uk/religious-places/bull-temple.html>

Well i think i should stop here and upload more pictures later... Part two comes shortly :)

Oh and something to enjoy..... Pink buses ;))

23 March 2010 : Oye Amritsar

2010-03-28T08:44:00.000-07:00

A Punjabi style restaurant with an authentic kinda feel to it. The place was designed with the intention of replicating a typical eating shop in punjab. I think they did a good job at doing so, especially with spelling errors and funny posters.. And if you liked their food youre supposed to shout 'Oye Amritsar'. It was unfortunate that we didnt exactly take too well to their food :( But it felt almost like punjab, minus the turbans... I have not been to punjab yet but i am saying it from all the pictures i have seen :))

;)

For all the Rammstein Fans :)

2010-03-26T01:56:00.000-07:00

Rammstein
Rammsteins Blog
Till Lindemann

Ich liebe rammstein :)

25 March 2010 : Overseas Womens Club Bangalore :)

2010-03-25T22:45:00.000-07:00

Yesterday morning i went down to a really beautiful indian hotel called Leela Palace to join the Overseas Womens Club, Bangalore. It is a really good place to meet people from all over the world. There were about more than 250 ladies (and probably about 5 men). They meet there every thursday morning for coffee and tea.

I met about 5 ladies and it was quite fun talking to them. Two were indian ladies who have been all around the world - one of them actually was an english teacher in UK for 30 years :) She was really nice to talk to. I was also introduced to a really cool Japanese lady who is way more adventurous than i am :) And i was also introduced to a lady from Switerland. They were really fun to be with and i am looking forward to spending more time with them in the future.. :D

Overseas Womens Club

21 March 2010 : Ulsoor lake - really?

2010-03-21T23:29:00.000-07:00

For lunch we actually went to a really cool spanish restaurant called Zara The Tapas Bar. Their food was especially delicious and it is just like 3 minutes away from the place that we stay at. We had ordered about 6 tapas dishes, with two mocktails and 1 chocolate dessert. The bill came to about 1600 rupees - 160DKK - 50SGD. It actually is quite cheap in comparision to what we would have to pay in Denmark but for local standards it is considered quite expensive... But it was a good experience :)

Strawberry Pinacolada and Pinacolada mocktails

The best dish for me :) It is chicken with olives, white wine, garlic and some fresh herbs.

Chocolade mousse

After having our lunch at Zaras we took a walk to Ulsoor Lake. The walk there was quite unpleasent - especially the smell from all the sewage waste. We had to walk really fast to find the entrance of the lake. The water at the lake is really green, and i assume you would all know why it is so green. The lake is also filled with lots of trash, and there are some pictures on them. Yet, it was quite amazing to see the locals fishing at the lake and also taking a swim..... :O

One of the few locals fishing...

The guy in pink just got a small fish in his hands..

This little girl was looking at her father fishing. I hope that the catches wont be served for dinner..

Locals having a fun time swimming in the lake... umm

This is what you can see at the lake, it is full of trash and it has not been cleared

Some of the cleared trash that has been lying around for a loooong time. Flies were just savoring all the trash there. My hairs practically stood when i walked past this...

20 March 2010 : Commercial Street

2010-03-21T06:56:00.000-07:00

A warm saturday with lots of sunshine, more than enough for the millions of people in Bangalore.. We started out with a nice pasta with meatballs (chicken) at Cafe Pascussi... We then walked down to MG Park, Cubbon Park, past the old and new governmental parliments, high court of Karnataka (Bangalore is in the state of Karnataka), went for virgin pinacoladas at The Capital (most sluggish environment for a so called 'perfect business manners' hotel. We were the only customers but they took 20mins to make 2 drinks, another 10 to bring a small piece of cake and 20 mins to bring our bill...)... Anyways after this exciting trip around the city on foot, we took an autorickshaw to the ever famous commercial street.

Commercial street is well known as the 'Shopping paradise'. It is a place where you can get really cheap tops which i like and i did get a kurti top which cost 150 Rupees-15DKK-5SGD. But, there always is a but. It is absolutely filled to the brim with people and at every single nook and corner there is a shop. Most of the shops sell almost about the same stuff just with different prices. And if you actually venture deeper into this district you would see many different kinds of things. We saw a little young cow - the thinnest cow ever, just wandering the streets mooing for some food or something like that. You can also see tonnes of people at the same shop bargaining like crazy, little food shops (which either of us would recommend to anyone) on the roads with their food out in the 30+degrees with flies constantly hovering over it and some little kid without any proper shoes-bottoms roaming around... Oh and the smog-traffik....

It is in all a very eye opening place. I am not sure if i can exactly describe the place accurately to you, but i hope that the pictures taken would help with that ;)

One of the shops a bit further up from commercial street....

Optimum use of resources or not...?!

Popcorn :)

Very cluttered chop :)

All the bangles in the world a lady could buy....

18 March 2010 :More of Cubbon Park

2010-03-19T06:38:00.000-07:00

Cubbon Park : A little read up on the park
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cubbon_Park

Not everything on the ground is rubbish ;p

Erm good use of public resources, yes?!

After nap is in order...

18 March 2010 : Cubbon Park & MG Park

2010-03-19T02:44:00.000-07:00

Today i took a trip down town after moving into our new service apartment. I walked to Cubbon Park where i managed to get some pictures of the park, the locals and the animals who live there.. And as i was crossing the road i realized that there was another park which i had not seen - Ghandi Park :) It was greener than cubbon park and i had to pay 2 ruppes for entrance. It was much quiter here as most of the traffik was at cubbon park - especially lovers under the trees, moms with their kids, guys hanging out and osv...

Cubbon park is quite different from other parks ive been in, at different parts of the world. It doesnt excatly have alot of grass - which can be explained by the extreme heat in Bengaluru. And there was alot of trash from previous visitors. If the park were to be properly cleaned up, im sure it would be looking much better ;p
More pictures when the innternet connection is better :)

17 March 2010 : Rajastani Affair

2010-03-19T02:04:00.000-07:00

The hotel that we stayed at hosted a Rajasthani food festival with colorful decorations, a cosy ambience and the staff also dressed up in the traditional rajasthani dress :) We were lucky to have such welcoming staff at Savannah and absolutely delicious food to fest on!

Wonderful food and fantastic staff :))

14 March 2010 : Whitefield, Bangalore

2010-03-16T04:32:00.000-07:00

Today we went walking around Whitefield and managed to get a more realistic view of the city on our feet... Im sure the pictures would speak for themselves. You can see how the place is, how people are - their wellbeing and their SOL (standard of living) and just the general condition of the place :)

A few local women sitting and eating their lunch on the street.. They seemed quite happy with each other's company :)

A Catholic church

Say Yes to watermelons!

Efficient use of resources?!

Forum Value Added Mall

Our shopping trolley :D

Im sure your pig wont be alive the next day ;)

Agreed!

13 March 2010 : Touristy in Bangaluru

2010-03-16T03:43:00.000-07:00

Well we arrived early friday morning and used the rest of the day to settle in and check out their famous MG Road. The next day we had the opportunity to go to their well known Lalbagh Gardens where flower shows are hosted twice annually. It was a nice laid back garden with many trees, flowers and secret lovers hiding under trees :) Cute!

A National Geographical momument.

After the gardens our (paid by the mile) hotel chauffer drove us pass the Parlimentary house and then we were driven to two shops where we had no intention of going to. At both shops we were constantly forced to buy something special (almost everything the salesman took was something special... makes you wonder what really is special).. And i was forced to try on so many things and there is a picture of me wearing a sari...

The old Parlimentary House. There are over a 1000 rooms here.

The Palace

That was the salesman who wanted to buy buy buy... While all we wanted to do was go to the park. Apparently drives bring tourists to such shops cause if we buy something he gets commission. So yeaps.....

15 March 2010

2010-03-14T23:56:00.000-07:00

Well it has been more than a week without any updates.. But i have been busy packing up the apartment, packing bags and then flying to Bangaluru. It is 4 days now that we are in bangalore. Today Janus starts his work at NN :) It definitely going to be a very different experience for him.

On our first day we went to Lalbagh Gardens, right in the center of town. Now isnt that cool. There are many different flowers and it was a very very sunny day! But otherwise it was a nice way to see how the locals go about their day.. I took alot of pictures of people so that everyone can see how it is to be here. One thing that is very evident about bangalore, is that it is a city of HUGE contrast. On one side of the road there can be a really cool villa or bungalow, and just next to it you can see beggers and people lying on the street. This perspective of live is nothing either one of us have actually seen before. We actually had a driver from the hotel and we actually let him decide where to take us which was a terrible idea. He took us to two shops where we were constantly forced to buy something cause everything was apparently very special. I was made to try on clothings (more like forced) and we were made to tour the shop for about 1 hour. We didnt get to go to the other park which we wanted to go cause our driver just drove by it saying 'this is cubbon park'. Anyways after we went back we had chinese food :) Yums!

On sunday we decided to have a more realistic view of the surburb we live at - whitefield. So we walked for about a few hours and had the best lunch - chicken briyani, coin pratas with fantastic curries. I am going to make lots of curry here cause the ingredients here are so cheap! Walaaa!

Unfortunately i cant upload any pictures today or the next few days cause the hotels connection is ultra slow : 1 picture takes 1 hour to upload..And i have 100s!

06 March 2010 : Sidste dag på Suhrs....

2010-03-06T02:07:00.000-08:00

6 måneder på Suhrs :) Tid har gået for hurtigt da jeg var der. Men det var faktist en absolut dejligt og hyggeligt tid hvor jeg har lært så meget. Og jeg er meget taknemmlig at jeg har mødt så sød mennesker fra Suhrs : Dorthe, Vibeke, Anna Marie, Kristen, Lars og Helle! Jeg kommer fra Singapore og alting er forskellige der - fejler er næste forbudt fordi man vil altid gerne være først eller den bedste. Men på Suhrs det var helt anderledes. Man lære fra fejl og kan lave mad i hvilken vejen man har lyst til. Og jeg synes at der var det bedste vejen fordi det giver man lyst til at lave eller prøve :)) Jeg håber at når jeg har børne, det vil også gå til Suhrs og har en fantastik tid ligesome mig!

Tak... Tusind tak!

Suhrs Husholdningsskole

03 March 2010 : Kære linedanser...

2010-03-02T07:47:00.001-08:00

28 Feb 2010 : Out comes the sun finally.........

2010-02-28T08:47:00.000-08:00

After one week of greyness out comes the sun and so the walk to Frederiksberg Garden.. Snow is melting and it was filled with puddles :))

27 Feb 2010 : Brunch mania

2010-02-28T08:26:00.000-08:00

Det er faktist ret sjovt at spise brunch... på Lé Lé Nha Hang ved vesterbrogade! Det var absolut bedste brunch i hele verden - menuen til brunch er ned og så er billeder! Og deres cocktails uden alkohol var simpelthen fantastiske :) Én gang i ens liv skal man besøge Lé Lé!

Selvfølgelig alle tallerkener er ikke kun min! Det or Janus´og mig :)) Menuen til brunch : http://lele-nhahang.com/menu/brunch.aspx

Og bagefter brunch tog vi toget til svanemøllen og tog en tur. Det var faktisk blæsende og var lidt kold men alligevel var det dejlig!

Og så gik vi hjem og spiste stegt ris med kylling.....

24 Feb 2010 : Submission of indian visa application

2010-02-24T10:01:00.000-08:00

I have just submitted my application for a tourist visa. However, given that i am applying for a tourist visa that means that i cant excatly leave the country within the 6 months. Their new rule states that if i do leave the country during that 6 months duration, i have to wait 2 months to re-enter india. gah! Well that is a bit constricting but dang - given how big india is i tink it will not be sufficient to scout around india in 6 months. This also means that i cant do any volunteer work :( Haii.....

So what can i do? Well i am thinking of revisiting some of my favorite hobbies...
1. Make earrings since its all so cheap there

http://designflute.files.wordpress.com/2007/10/beads.gif

2. Learn how to cook real authentic indian food - spicy, tasty and sumptous. I must have a take away from any place i visit.

3. Get myself in shape and wear a nice sari. I have never worn a sari before and i think i should, since i am of indian-sri lankan origin after all!

http://www.fashion.sniperslive.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/125lg.jpg

4. Since i will have more time on my hands, i SHOULD brush up on my chinese and defintely continue my danish (or else my danish language teacher wont be too pleased about it)...

5. Another thing i want to do is to start learning how to make webpages, maybe some flash, learn those codes which i forgot and become more tech savy.

Well well, these are what i would like to do. Doing it is another thing. And getting the visa is what will enable me to do all those things.

FINGERS ARE CROSSED...

23 Feb 2010

2010-02-23T12:42:00.000-08:00

I have got about less than 2 weeks before i am all done with Suhrs! Interesting and yet i feel its so weird to think about it. I have learnt so much from Suhrs Hussholdningskole and i am sure i will be using all those tricks for life. Like during the weekend i made croissants from scratch, and somewhere in the directions, i am sure there was some trick i used that i learned from one of the three fantastic teachers :) There are some pictures below of the last step...

And so that croissant making was pretty much my weekend. The weather was not enticing at all to go out.... Though this weekend i am enticed to go use our smart box and have brunch!

Courtesy of Aase Andersen :)

19 Feb 2010

2010-02-19T05:55:00.000-08:00

Its kind of amazing when i think how fast time has passed. I have been in Denmark for almost 7 months and now i am soon going to go to India with Janus! Six months is a long time, but it has also been a fun time here, getting to know new people like Katrine (sød pige!), Marianna (min først ven i DK og hun er også sød) and of course my fantastic teachers like Dorthe, Anna Marie and Vibeka (and also not forgetting Lars, Kristen and the cool Helle!). And then i also got to spend more time getting to know Janus¨s family, and that definitely is something i want to continue doing :)

In one month, i will be in Bangalore and i really excited but then.... I heard that snake charmers are all over the city, they might even walk next to you! For fanden!! Would i get a heart attack and collapse if one of them decided to open his snakey basket while i was next to him? T´hose slimy animals would smell my fear and and and.. Anyways i cant wait to go around snapping pictures and learning how to make fantastic indian food and maybe go for some computer courses there.

Image is from http://www.scanmaps.dk/images/varenr/0331002.jpg

14 Feb 2010 : A pretty cool sunday..

2010-02-16T04:33:00.000-08:00

Well it has actually been some time since we actually spent the entire day out doing many spontaneous things :) We started out with brunch buffet with his colleague and her boyfriend at Cafe Stella. It was a nice and relaxing morning...

And then after brunch, we walked around Rådhusplads and ended up going to the museum where we managed to see greek and roman artifacts! Loved it :)

After the delightful tour at the musuem we took a walk to Amager, where we walked pass Hotel Radissons. We went to their Sky Bar on the 25th floor for a cuppa coffee and a cocktail. Janus had a strong brew of coffee and seeing that we were overlooking Copenhagen, i went for a Copenhagen cocktail.. It was a real nice view of Cph from the 25th floor...

And then we had Tepanyaki at Kyoto Restaurent. Best salmon ever!

And the walk back to Cph...

Tusind tak Janus for en absolut dejlig dag :))

13 Feb 2010 : Homemade yummies!

2010-02-13T06:20:00.000-08:00

Homemade strawberry sorbet - made for Janus when he came back from Russia.

But yesterday i made Daim ice cream cake (we forgot to take a picture before cutting it so all you will see is a half cut cake). And we also had homemade pizza! Two types : Pepperoni pizza and chicken pizza :)) And we also had a 0.5litre worth of Daim ice cream! Yummies :))

Tak for dejlig chokolade, Aase!

From Russia with... not too much love

2010-02-13T03:48:00.000-08:00

Janus had the opportunity to go to Moscow, Russia for a business trip (02 Feb to 04 Feb) and while he was there he managed to sneak in some time over the 3 days to take some pictures. As it always is in Russia, it was cold and snowing quite heavily. Hope you will enjoy them :))

Russia : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russia

10 Feb 2010 : 4 hours...

2010-02-10T12:42:00.000-08:00

Four hours of just writing writing and writing in my danish test! Now that the writing part is over, i have the other part where i have to talk about the projects and books i have read. But it was kinda nostalgic for me for i have not taken an exam since last year. My teacher told us to bring some soda water and snacks to help with the four hours, and it was kind of nice to see how prepared one of my classmate was. He had some nice chocolates and energy drinks while all i had was my boring pens which was of course inedible... :( But i do hope that the test went well for all of us!

Image is taken from : http://www.naundrup.net/upload/img/FlagBigDanish.png

Danmarks national anthem

08 Feb 2010 : Folk songs

2010-02-08T12:57:00.000-08:00

I have always had a thing for folk songs - and i still do. It is quite special to listen to old folk songs and learn abit about the culture or the music tradition. It makes me happy. At my school, we sing folk songs from Denmark, Sweden and some of the other Scandinavian countries. Right now the song playing in my mind is the Swedish (but some sources say that its of Finnish origins) song, "Vem kan segla förutan vind". The video is below :) It is asking who can sail without wind or oars, and that i can sail without wind or oars. And maybe oneday i will be able to converse in swedish :)

06 Feb 2010 : Læsning til Dansk eksamen

2010-02-06T06:45:00.000-08:00

Så er det tid for mig at ta' min module test næste uge. Men jeg er lidt bange fordi det er min først module test i dansk. Jeg skal bestå module 5 før jeg ta til indien. Det er nu 6 måneder da jeg kommede til danmark - puha det var hurtigt, ikke! Jeg har faktist lært rigtigt meget fra min først dag - om mad, folk, kultur, osv.
Men nu skal jeg slutte min pause og læse igen :) Nå har det vært en længe tid da jeg tog en eksamen! Held og lykke til mig :D

31 Jan 2010

2010-02-05T12:25:00.000-08:00

30 Jan 2010 : Day after the snow storm

2010-01-31T02:08:00.000-08:00

A sunny day at a temperature of minus 9 and wind chill effect of minus 15. F-ing cold!

Places visited : Sankt Jørgens lake, The black diamond library and places along the way!

29 Jan 2010 : Snowstorm Kbh

2010-01-31T01:02:00.000-08:00

Snow Storm on the last friday of January.

Benny Andersens : Om lidt er kaffen klar...

2010-01-29T07:53:00.000-08:00

Melodi: Benny Andersen - Tekst: Benny Andersen

Se, hvilken morgenstund!
Solen er rød og rund.
Nina er gået i bad.
Jeg' spiser ostemad.
Livet er ikke det værste man har
og om lidt er kaffen klar.

Blomsterne blomstrer op.
Der går en edderkop.
Fuglene flyver i flok
når de er mange nok.
Lykken er ikke det værste man har
og om lidt er kaffen klar.

Græsset er grønt og vådt,
Bierne har det godt.
Lungerne frådser i luft.
Åh, hvilken snerleduft!
Glæden er ikke det værste man har
og om lidt er kaffen klar.

Sang under brusebad.
Hun må vist være glad.
Himlen er temmelig blå.
Det ka jeg godt forstå.
Lykken er ikke det værste man har
og om lidt er kaffen klar.

Nu kommer Nina ud,
nøgen, med fugtig hud,
kysser mig kærligt og går
ind for at re' sit hår.
Livet er ikke det værste man har
og om lidt er kaffen klar.

Livstræet...

2010-01-29T05:26:00.000-08:00

Aye jeg elsker livstræet sang. Det er en dansk folksang og det er simply fantastik! Teksten er ned...

Jeg har lært sangen fra Suhrs :) Suhrs er en dejlig sted at lære mange forskellige slag ting om liv!

Tekst til "Livstræet"

Livstræet.

Der er så meget, der kan trykke,

gøre dagen trist og grå.

Se de folk, der uden lykke

bare går og går i stå.

Lad dem lege i livstræets krone,

lad dem føle, at livet er stort,

lad dem skue de blå horisonter

og himmelhvælvingens port.

Der er så meget uden varme,

uden ånd og uden liv.

Folk bli`r fattige og arme,

tænker kun på tidsfordriv.

Der er så mange uden venner,

uden kærlighed og kys.

Folk, som ingen andre kender

hvor skal de mon finde lys?

Der er så hård en kamp om magten,

alle kæmper for sig selv.

Er der ingen, der har sagt dem,

at de slår sig selv ihjel?

Der er så mange, der er slaver,

lænket fast til job og tid-

hvorfor bruges vore gaver

uden tanke, uden vid?

28 Jan 2010 : Wintery yet sunny!

2010-01-29T02:40:00.000-08:00

27 Jan 2010 - White Copenhagen

2010-01-29T02:02:00.000-08:00

An expected light snow day but it ended up being real windy and snowy for the whole day. The wind was quite gusty with snow hitting your face (ouch!)...

25 Jan 2010 : Pretty special flowers :)

2010-01-27T09:17:00.000-08:00

:))

23 Jan 2010 : A road trip to Århus!

2010-01-27T09:12:00.000-08:00

A moving of boxes, driving for almost 10 hours, sleepless for the entire day and delish thai food (let me stress the DELISH!)....

Billeder af mad fra Suhrs :)

2010-01-19T05:49:00.000-08:00

These are a little collection of the food themes made at Suhrs :) It was really fun making and eating them!

31 Dec 2009 - Nyt Års Aftensmad

2010-01-19T04:42:00.000-08:00

Nyt Års Aftensmad hos Ea og Kenneth (Men det var meget desvære at Hr. Kenneth var syg). Ea lavede fint aftensmad og dessert til os. Da det var kl.2350, gik vi til Platanvej at se fireworks :) Sådan var vores 2010 nyt års aften!

24 Dec 2009 - Christmas with the Andersens :)

2010-01-19T04:23:00.000-08:00

A traditional Danish Christmas dinner on the 24th of December 2009. Food was just delish :)) Tusind tak til Aase... :D

Lazy Sunday 17 January 2010

2010-01-17T10:41:00.000-08:00

Its not Christmas but we had Risalamande :) Aye det smagt rigtigt godt!

Efter vores eftermiddag te-kaffe, gik vi til Damhussøen at ta billeder. Men det var så kold...For satans frysede vi! Temperature -2deg, Wind Chill factor -9deg.

Suhrs Gala Dinner 15 Jan 2010

2010-01-16T15:25:00.000-08:00

Winter in Denmark

2010-01-16T14:52:00.000-08:00

At Søndermarken have.

Berlin 2009

2010-01-16T13:01:00.001-08:00

Berlin in five days.

One picture a day.

Suhrs Husholdingsskole trip.

26-10-2009 to 30-10-2009.