Thursday, June 19, 2008

2nd Day in India

Rise and shine! Breakfast @ the usual place and I took more pics this time

The juices are really fresh- pure juices w/o being diluted by water. This is Rinta's fave corner for she claims that she can stand at the section the whole day just drinking juices.

Walked around and decided to have my 1st round of cereals. Nv been a cereal person until that fateful day Andrew brought cereals to the office .... since then, I think I consumed almost 30% of his cereals, haha

Still hungry, I ordered the plain dona again :)

Rinta - wearing her salwar kameez (literally translated into pants and tops). Love the vibrant colours on her clothes. Maybe I should buy 1 set for myself next time :P

Rinta decided to go for the Mesala Omelette, which is quite delicious, except for the leaves (which I hate absolutely!)

After a heavy breakfast, we headed off to our client's place located near the Bombay Stock Exchange. This is the square in front of the building, whereby the security is quite strict and there's actually a policeman scrutinizing the cars that drive into the square.

Dalal Street is the equivalent of the Wall Street in India

Pic of the 2 pretty babes @ work, haa

We must walk through the barrier only when it signals "WALK", quite old-school

Met up with the CEO of the company, turned out that I already met him last yr when he was the CEO of another company, haha. Only recognise his name when I saw it on his name-card. 45 mins later, time to head out for lunch. While waiting for the driver to come, I was away snapping pics of the surrounding. The sound of horns filled the air - I think it's the way drivers communicate to one another. People can just jay-walk as though it's the most normal thing on earth.

The driver of this cab just parked in the middle of the road and started to clean his car, power sia. The circled part in the pic is the fare meter, interesting rite?

Went back to the hotel to have lunch - look @ the spread! I was busy taking pics for Leecher to drool at, since he will most prob be lunching alone in Hong Lim Food Complex, haha.

Salad bar, lots of variety to choose from. I am not a greens person, so I took the prawns instead, haha.

The smoked salmon is pretty decent - though I prefer the ones yesterday

International - love the beancurd with prawn baked with cheese

These crackers are damn good, esp those shelled-like ones. It's a pity that i didn't manage to buy them for Leecher to try.

Snacks/Side dishes (can't rem the exact name though) - but I like dhokla (yellow "gueh" at the top left) taste like our version of 猪场粉

Ordered the cheese naan (my fave!) & Roti

Our feast - must eat in small portions so I can try different variety, haha.

Can't wait to dig in - yummy!

Next up, desserts time! Do you know that when STRESSED (spelt backwards) = DESSERTS? I must be feeling kinda stressed out (by Leecher, I think :P)

Cakes - bet they must have tasted delicious but I didn't try it :(

The mango & chocolate mousse - instantly melt in my mouth, wow!

The rest of the selection - I think I took everything that was on display :O

Our feast - I took almost everything that has to do with chocolate, yummy!

After the spread, it's back to work again. This time, we need to travel across town to see a client. My first time spotting Mac in India (but didn't have a chance to taste it)

This is their main train station, very Victorian-looking.

The father-and-son that held up the traffic by pushing their cart in 1 lane. Despite all the horning, they just continue to move @ their speed. 真佩服他们的坚持!

We ended all our appointments for the day . So, decided to go to a beauty palour, hee :) to reward ourselves. I opted for face threading instead

Before my virgin face threading session ... oh that's dent dent! he finally got some air time on this blog :)

Applying the cooling mask on my face after threading .... (I must be crazy to post my picture here, deter my potential suitors away leh....LOL)

Yeah, my 红红的 "hair-less" face, 好像monkey的屁股....

Next up, Rinta brought me to Dome @ Inter-Continental hotel (overlooking the Arabian Sea) to view the splendid sunset view.

Nice and cosy place to chill out. The whole place was literally bathed in candle lights when it's nearing dusk.

Meet up with Rinta's fren - Lavi. Had some snacks while we engaged in girl talk.

It's a pity the canopy are up due to the monsoon season, if not, the view will be even more magnificant.

See how strong the wind is with the little "window" left open? The whole place might have been a war zone if not for the canopy.

Didn't manage to catch the sun-set, for it was cloudy :( However, the view quite made up for it. The street will light up at night and the Queen's necklace will be formed.

Back to the hotel for dinner. Rinta & me went to Masala Kraft for authentic Indian food.

The interior of the restaurant - there was even a fireplace, but I was too paiseh to capture it for there were some patrons sitting there. I had my best meal in India here :P

Indian food has 3 very unique ingredients: secrets, tricks and magic. At Masala, they added a fourth: Kraft. It is the delicate art of slow roasting spices (masala), the most important ingredient of the Indian cuisine. Once the spices have been endowed with the magic touch of their chef, customers will have a taste that never fails to linger. They even have unique names for their menu in classifying the appetizers, main courses, international cuisines etc.


The unique candle-light holder, that contained all the spices used in the dishes and the "Masala Kraft" bottle cover.

The lime was wrapped with yellow mesh, so that patrons could squeeze out the juice without having to pick up the seeds. (PS: I showed Leecher this pic and he thought that it was chocolate >_<") I really love the crackers. You can eat it on its own or dip into the chilli sauce for the extra spice. This lamb kebab will be the only reason why I will go back to India again. It literally melts in your mouth. The waiter told us the story behind this dish ....

"There was once a king who loved meat and hunting. Once, he went hunting and unfortunately, he fell off from his horse and broke all his teeth. Being a meat lover, he told his royal chef to think of a dish that will allow him to eat without having to chew - that was how this dish was invented ....."

The chef preparing our naan

Cheese naan .... my fave naan besides the garlic ones.

Butter chicken and Red Kidney Beans curry - both sauces are super rich in flavour, yummy!

We had to use our hands to eat the food, for the real authentic taste. The waiter will drop by with a pot of water and basin for you to wash your hands once you have finished the meal. The amazing thing is that your hands will smell of rose after washing!

This is the Indian version of 槟榔. I tried it and immediately spit out, cuz the taste was too overwhelming.

Both of us were extremely full after the meal and we took a little walk around the hotel. I just had to post this pic to end this entry :)

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

1st Day in India

Woke up to call Leecher (see, 一早起来就打给你) and my mum. My 2nd time staying in this hotel, but my first time taking a picture of the lobby *hearts LV*

Had breakfast @ Shamjana restaurant downstairs, buffet, i like :)

Lots of food (only managed to capture some of it) - more on 2nd day

Ordered the Dona (with potato filling) for breakfast

Comes with all types of gravy that you can dip into

This is Rinta - my colleague who is the 地头蛇 in Mumbai, cuz she was flying to Mumbai almost every week during her Bloomberg days.

Meet up with 2 clients all the way till its 4pm (6.30pm SG time) and we went for our lunch @ Moshe's

Harrisa Chicken Skewers: tastes like satay, with a slight tinge of spiciness.

As it was an awkward timing, there was no main course available. Thus, we had to make do with sandwiches :( Nevertheless, the sandwiches are great! I had smoked salmon with bagels and the bagels are toasted till perfection.


Rinta's cottage cheese sandwich :) We almost thought that the waiter brought the wrong order, cuz the cheese looks very much like chicken

The highlight of the day - chocolate desserts, heavenly. The chocolate just melts in your mouth.

Super full after this meal - didn't eat my dinner at all :) Must make room for more food on the next day ^_^

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Off to India ~

Jetting off to India on a Monday night :( The good thing abt flying off to another country on a weekday is that you get to leave the office early, haha. Arrived @ the airport at 6pm sharp - so proud of myself for being early (cuz I am seldom early, even for work, haha)

Clock my mileage points with my new elite silver card (I wonder when did I get the sticker on my passport?)

Ordered pizza from sakae sushi for dinner - was too hungry to even care if the pizza are nice or not ...

Me with my usual "chui" plane image, wa ha ha

Routine-window seat picture :)

Caught Ah Long Pte Ltd 老师嫁老大; kinda crappy show, but I have to say that Mark Lee is pretty good in this movie... he's like the pillar that makes the show funny. Fann Wong was trying too hard to look man-ish, still prefer her in Just Follow Law

Dinner-time, didn't have much of an appetite cuz of the turbulence. I never encounter turbulence on all my business trips except for India. I still vividly remembered that the turbulence from India back to SG was so bad that I felt like puking on-board.

Finally, after 5 hrs of flight, arrival in Mumbai airport. Passing through the Immigration was a breeze (thank god) Waiting @ the conveyor belt for my luggage - waited close to 15 min for my luggage. Do they practice the first-in-last-out system?

We had a car pick-up from the airport; the airport is full of people & cars. You will know that you have arrived in India when you hear cars horning in the background every second.

Reached the Taj Mahal Palace & Tower @ 2am - check into Rm 911 (wa, me so lucky lah)

My bed - the pillows are better than Westin & Marriott

Working area & couch

Washroom

OK, too tired - just dropped dead on the bed after washing up. Will post up my adventure in India soon ~ *shakes head from side to side :p*

Sunday, June 15, 2008

Keith's Cooking

For the first time ever, Leecher actually cooked for me *so touched, cry*

Super hungry on a wkend afternoon and Leecher volunteered to cook something for me to eat, heehee....

The chef, getting ready to whip up his 爱心 dish

which was actually just instant noodles with eggs and fish cake, hahaaha (but @ least better than nothing)

Waiting for the water to boil, putting the ingredients into the pot ....

Finally serving it on my big noodles bowl ....

Ta-Dah, my 爱心 meal for the day, muacks!

Saturday, June 14, 2008

Upgraded!

Wow, I got upgraded! I saw the letter on my table and thought that it was just another marketing package from Singapore Airlines, until I saw this:

My new elite silver Krisflyer card, hahaha. So chio, love the colour ....

plus my personalised luggage tags - just in time for my coming trip in 2 days time :)

Time to earn more krisflyer mileage, so that I can exchange for a free air-ticket to Japan!
Related Posts with Thumbnails