my first snow experience - Buxton, UK

I was brought down in Chennai, Tamil Nadu where the only season is Summer. There is a bit of dew in Dec/Jan ... but it is mainly hot, hotter and hottest days over there !!!

I was looking forward for the heavy winter when I worked at Manchester in 2011/2012.  But I had to take a train to Buxton to feel and enjoy the snow in Feb 2012. 

Snow level was decent and I fell in love with the white cover as soon as I stepped out of rail station. I bought a hot coffee and started exploring by foot.

Best part of the experience for me was the slippery feeling I had when I was walking over the snow & I definitely slipped down once ! But I ended up enjoying the little pain although. 

I also found it difficult to adjust the sun against the white sand / snow... I got some help from my cool shades (sun glass) although. 

Why I remembered to write about this is I live in Singapore now and I don't even need to pack my clothes when I go Bali or Bangkok. I can buy a pair of shorts and T Shirt when I land and manage m travel.  I felt very nostalgic when I saw the winter visuals on TV.

Happy Winter my friends... Have fun. 

Dine at Capella, Sentosa, Singapore

For almost a year now, I wanted to visit Capella. My curiosity factor increased after the visit of American President Trump to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during June 2018.
I ended dining this weekend at Capella and I loved every bit of the ambience, fabulous architecture and the wonderful crew who was taking care.

Self and my friend made a reservation at Bob's bar, parked the car and took the elevator at 2nd floor. As we spent some time at Silosa beach before going Capella, we refreshed at the restroom before taking our seats. We were hosted by a smiling, service minded crew with a nice view overlooking the pool and sea...

We ordered the cocktails first with a newspaper like Menu Card with wide variety to choose from. I was pleasantly surprised by their own Rum coming from West Indies too.

Fabulous live music was also being performed with 2 guitarists and one Cello player. Music was soothing and made our mood pleasant while the rain cloud was gathering behind the fabulous colonial property. 

Around 7pm, Mr Yan came with a nice looking cart and explained the sailor story of how the captain motivates the sailors and serves them the daily load of Rum. He explained the story with such a passion and we felt as if we experienced a bit of it when he blew the whistle and served us the taste of fruity rum. It was called Bosun's call and it was given free. I loved the smell of the drink and the entire experience will never my mind. 

Then, we ordered dinner from Knoll menu card .. Soto Ayam and Penne Arabiatta. Food was very good and the rice was had a good frangrance too. 

We took a stroll around the property after dinner as the rain gave the breather. Property had one colonial block and the new block set in 30 acre of land, quiet and tranquil atmosphere with birds chirping around and an elegantly designed landscape. 

Finally, we ended up looking at the historical spot where the handshake took place between President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and wondered whether times will change for North Koreans in the next decade or not ! 

We loved the entire exepriece and we will go back again sometime next year. Do plan your visit and enjoy the tranquility and peace while dining with your near and dear ones. 

Thank you for reading...

Why Singapore is the top tourist destination of Asia ?

Singapore's tourism has been steadily growing and the tourists spend lot of money in Singapore when compared to Bangkok or Kuala Lumpur or Bali. Visotors from China are the big contributors too.

Let me list of some highlights !

• Fabulous waterfront Merlion Park, Marina Bay Sands View, Gardens by the Bay (Indoor Park)
• Loads of sports bar, riverside restaurants at Boat Quay and Clarke Quay
• Fabulous nature parks, cycle routes such as Macritchie, East coast Park, Jurong / Selatar reservoir or Punggol waterways
• Wonderful Orchard Road and the big brand shopping and live music & night life
• Regular musical shows, concerts and other performances
• Wonderful blend of culture - Chinese, Indians, Christians, Muslim and Buddhism; so many wonderful shrines to visit and offer prayers
• Dining options - budget price and hawker centres {$3 to $12 range), fine dining at big hotels, water front restaurants with avg $23 price 
• Budget shopping at Mustafa, Bugis Or Jurong IMM
• 365 day warm weather on which you can dress lightly with shorts and tshirt ! 
• Friendly and cost efficient local transport system to commute
• Art and Museum houses
• My favourite Night Safari
• and the inimitable Changi Airport and supreme facilities
• & cruise your way from Singapore to Malaysia and Thailand

Do keep an eye on www.visitsingapore.com on the events and plan your visit before !!!

National Orchid Garden, Singapore

Singapore Botanical Garden is quite unique place. It is in the middle of city but still cant hear much of noise, buzz inside the compound.

& National orchid garden is located inside the Botanical garden. You need to pay 5$ ticket for entry and it is normally open between 830am to 7pm.

Once you buy the ticket and enter, you can either go by left or right. Normally, people go on the left hand side. If you take right hand on side, you will end up going against traffic.

I am very impressed with year round care and cultivation of the 200 different plants inside the garden. Great work team and you make us to keep coming back again and again !!!

While you walk along, there is a kind of circular place and it has lot of Orchid flowers... if my memory is right, it is called "Cool Place". Here, you will see a vast display of Orchids and carnivorous plants.

Personally, I love staring at flowers... it gives me immense peace of mind and freshness ... after all, our desks are so cluttered with plastic and metal... and one should divert the sore eyes during weekend., especially if you have desk job !

My favourite place inside is the floral arch.... i can keep seeing this for hours together... it has a unique color and texture when you walk along it.

The garden is distinctive in design that arranges Orchids on the basis of a color system to suit the four different seasons. For instance, cream and yellow orchids stand for the spring with pink and red orchids for summer. White orchids form part of winter display and purple and red orchids grace the autumn section.

I also like the Gardens shop @ Nasseem Gate ... one of the nice place to buy gifts for your near and dear ones.

Enjoy !

Meatless, fusion food at Millenia Walk

I landed up at Elemen at Millenia Walk. My friend invited me for dinner.. glanced the portal before and saw some pics.. Liked it., so I said, lets go.

But I didnt see the 8 course option till I opened the menu card !!!

My friend said, you should go for the full dinner and can help with sharing some of my food - which is a no brainer for me. I ordered it.

Appetiser and the bread was very good. My guess the middle portion item had sesame and it was bit sour - but not too bad. Tomato was so tasty and soft. Bread was little herbal too. 

I opted for Rojak fruit salad - which was too good - pineapple and dragon fruit was mouth watering and the fried or crispy item was so tempting... 

Soup - was not very hot... in fact little less than room temperature.... but had little bit of rice and pepper and very tasty.

They also served Apple Cider before serving mains - like a shot drink. Hope the readers know how to drink apple cider carefully as they are not very good for gums !!! 

I opted for Sizzing Quinaa Brown rice for main and my friend opted for Tempura tofu with Avocado Roll - both were excellent in taste.

Dessert was Chocolate Lava cake - It was so perfect in taste to eat. 

Iced coconut Mint with Butterfly pea flower had little more than ice for the size of the glass and had excellent decoration of Coconut and mint leaves. 

Overall, Elemen indeed surprised me with perfect food and the value of the money it offered for SGD 32.80$. Thanks to my friend for introducing me to such a fabulous food. 

It is a crowded place, request you to reserve {Chope app} and go. They are located in 3 places and I went and experienced it at Millenia Walk near Sun Tec CIty. 

http://www.elemen.com.sg  is a good website and pictures and real the food served are very similar. 

Not sure how many of you are addicted to meat... but I feel, it is good to try other options once in a while ... detox routine, may be !!!

Bon Appetit, folks !

Magnificient Moscow

The Russian capital of Moscow can be described in one word... Magnificient.
Why ? It is the sheer size ... be it Red Square, metro stations, victory park or the Moskva river etc etc.

I stayed at Weekend Inn Apartments at Ulitsa Pyatnitskaya ... it had a weird elevator.. but room was good and had a decent common kitchen. What i loved was the proximity to Red Square..... kind of 1 km walk and a starbucks shop on its way !

Out of the all the cathedrals you visit, Saint Basil is very unique... it is some kind of fusion architecture, colorful. It has a character and the best part... it looks same on what you saw on wall posts or videos on new channels...

Red Square has lot of attractions like Lenin's Mausoleum, Kazan cathedral and Kremlin and they are all unique in its own way.

Moscow's metro stations are so huge. It is like some 5 storey escalators... and superb, lavish mosaics, sculputres and stained glass art work. Do not miss visiting these fabulous metro statiosn like Kurskaya, Mayakovskaya, Novoslobodskaya, Komsomolskaya and Revolution square to enjoy the architecture and the attractions.

Victory Park - my first impression was like " oh man.. how I am going to walk and cover this in full on a hot day like this" ???  but then, a bubbling tourist person somehow gets energy after sipping some coke or juice !!! hahaha.. I did that too.

Ran around like a kid and I was lucky to get this picture.... do you love this too ?

There was a Museum too in the Victory Park... we didnt have time to enter and see... it is called Museum of the Great Patriotic war and it has some of the greatest collection from Word War II.

Moscow's food was awesome... be it Old Arbat Street or other fabulous restaurents of town.. food was elaborate and being a vegetarian., I had some choices... I bought lot of soups and mashed potato.. which I missed out after my UK days... I also get a bread variety called Khachapuri and it had lot of cheese !!! My friends enjoyed the meat and chicken... and you end up eating a 3 course mean for 700 Rubles.. or 11 USD...

For me the best part was the Tea pot... very nice quantity and flavoured tea.... can retain heat for some time... I shifted from coffee to Tea just for the sake of flavours and the look and feel of it...

Moscow looks fabulous by night also... we watched the England semi final matches in pub.

We had a good time in Moscow and we never felt threatened... Drivers didnt know English but they were just checking twice while dropping us ... on the place, whether we have taken our belongings etc...

I should thank my friend who took me around on Day 1 of Moscow visit and it gave us great comforting feeling....

Happy travel and Bon Appetite.