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The remake of Vietnamese spring rolls

Look what me and my mum made

A couples of months ago, I went to Vietnam and felt in love with it's foods! Everywhere I go there, the food is so delicious. The street food, the fast food, and of course the restaurant food. I specially love the food I ate at Ben Thanh Market, Ho Chi Minh (Saigon). I think they have the best food ever! So last week, me and my mum want to remake the famous Vietnamese spring rolls.

Our version of Vietnamese spring rolls

 Well, I didn't get to take a picture of the process because I was to busy to make them. The outer layer was the tricky part. I bought it from the Ben Thanh market. I was dry and we have to dip it in a warm water and it was sticky, so we have to move fast in putting in the raw veggies and the shrimp. I got the recipe from the Internet. I just combine some of the and added to my (poor) memory of how it actually taste! HAHAHA...

Proud mother - daughter

Well, here are the spring rolls! It didn't look really good as the "original" version, but it was a nice try for a first starter HAHAHA... At least I enjoyed our mother-daughter weekend thing =)

Errrrrr.... this is what the spring rolls suppose to look like!

One Man And His Campervan

On lazy Sunday mornings, after making breakfast what I really enjoy is watching this fun adventure journey of a man named Martin Dorey and his campervan driving and camping around England. The series is called "One Man and His Campervan". His journey originality started years before when he decided to put all of his belongings in his 1970's campervan and move to a seaside small town in Devon. Now he lives there with his wife, Jo, and two children. One day, he decided to make that campervan journey through out England
showing his love of VW, food, and surfing. His not a chef, but he loves to cook delicious meals for friends he met along the way. I love to image I was one of those friend. It's really nice to eat a simply but fabulous meal, cooked fresh after fishing and looking at the beautiful sunset near the beach with a friend like Martin Dorey :)

Here is a short preview of the first part of his journey:

One Man and His Campervan

Why I love traveling

If somebody came to me and ask me why do I love traveling, maybe I'll need so much time to explain why because there are so many reasons why I love traveling. This includes:
the markets, the new people I met, the culture, taking photos, beaches, sunsets, sunrise, the bizarre food, famous tourist spot, hidden spots, festivals, hotels, hostels, airports, harbor, other people's life, souvenirs, trains, buses, plane, the air, the water, and sooooooo muuuuuch more! I can't explain why in words, but for me, waking up in the morning to another city is so exciting. I just love being in an unknown place, it makes me feel so alive. So sum that up into a 30 second video, I choose "HAPPINESS" for the reason, because it's the root to all of that loving of traveling. I don't know if I'm to late to ask this or not, but please please please kindly "like" or tweet r even just view my video. Thank you so much! I love you guys :)

I made this 30 seconds video to participate in a traveling contest by CNN and Hilton Hotels. 

Sawadika Phuket! Traveling with Mum!

Sawadika! Hello! It's been a long time since my last post... So so sorry for that! My blog got a bit dusty in August because I've been traveling around. This post is about my trip to Phuket - Thailand which I took with my Mum. The travel was on late May which is supposedly not ideal to go to Thailand because of the weather, but I bought the tickets last year with checking it first. But anyway, we got lucky because the weather was quite fine so we could go islands hoping.

We spend our first day by island hoping with the destination, Phang Nga, the one famous with the James Bond Island. It was such a unique experiences since I never saw small islands like that before.

We even get the chance to go canoeing in and out of caves around the islands. I was so much fun!

On one of the island, there's a gypsy sea village, where the people lives on floating houses. Mostly the villagers are fisherman and they have lived there all their life.

At night time, we hit the road to try some street food! This one is like a pancake with chocolate and banana. We also tried the-everthing-grilled, then some soup that I forgot the name of it.

The second day, it was sunny! So lucky! So we when to the famous Maya Beach. It's the one famous for Leonardo deCaprio's movie, The Beach. Well, if you think that it would be quiet and relaxing like in the movie, it is so wrong! The beach was so crowded with boats and people. I think it was supposed to be beautiful if it wasn't so crowded.

And there's time for some scuba diving! The fishes was so colorful and beautiful, but once more, too crowded!

After that, we when to an island inhabited by monkeys. I think that the monkeys are already accustom with humans, so the are not afraid if we took pictures. Some people even give them food and cola which I think was not supposed to be done!

On our last night in Phuket, we went to a magical place called "Phuket Fantasea"! I was so wonderful! And what I meant by magical is really true! Me and my mum were like two 5 year old girls, excited to explore everything. The show was so spectacular! It was a combination of ancient and modern circus, dance, theater, and lots more! I was something hard to describe, so I suggest you see it for yourself.

And before the show started, there's a buffet that accommodates 4000 people all at once! 

This is my beloved Mum! She was so excited seeing exotic fruits that we don't have in our country. Just to make the story short, why I took my mum on a trip and make it in my 30B30 list, it's because all her life my mum worked so hard to get me in school and she rarely took time off for herself. Just by seeing her so happy, it's the one thing I ever wanted! And I'm so sure there will be more of trips like this =)

This is what my mum made for us! Duo bikinis! My mum actually made those T-Shirts! She knew my obsession to wear a bikini in the beach which I cannot do (YET!) hahaha... It was so nice of her :D 

I LOVE YOU MUM!

Ready for holiday

For my 30B30, finally, I did something I've always wanted to do, take my mum for a holiday! This week, we are going to Jakarta (Indonesia), Phuket (Thailand) dan Singapore! My mum rarely take a holiday from her work in our little dining, so I really really wanted to make a very comfortable journey for her. Happy late mother's day! =)

posted from Bloggeroid

Train Journey

The train journey

On my journey from Bandung, West Java to Yogyakarta, Indonesia, I took a 8 hours train journey. In 8 hours on the train, what do one supposed to do? Well, I could either read a book or just simply sleep, but figured out something more exciting to do. First, I saw the beautiful views like this from my window:

We're on a bridge!

What you get along the way, so stunning!

Than, I thought, I wanna try something more trilling! So I walked to the middle part of the train to find a picture went the train turns.

Walking between compartments

And the best thing about trains transportation in Indonesia, well, you can just open the door and look outside! I know it's dangerous, but the view was so stunning and I can't help myself looking outside and taking picture like this one while we were crossing a bridge. It was so trilling because there's so must risk, but on the other hand, this too pretty to not look at. I literally just hang on to the door and started taking pictures.  

I'm just hanging on the door and peeking out!

And when I looked down, I saw something like this, and my heart was ponding because of the height. And I'm on a moving train with the door width opened, just hanging by the door.

What a view!

The whole trip was exciting. We even stopped in some little cities and saw people running towards opened doors to sell something. What a nice trip I had!

Some people are running towards opened doors

The Beach

There's just something about me and the beach. How I even always misses to go to the beach. I guess maybe it's because I have lived my childhood living near the beach of Maroubra. I love the misty wind, the sand, and the rush of the sea water. And it's just that pretty combination of water, sand, wind, sun, and sky that I love that makes me always want to go the beach.

A beautiful sight of a father playing kite with his daughter

All you need to build a castle!

Some beach creatures

What a perfect thing to have! Coconuts!

The beach...

And this me in 1989, near our flat, can't believe how small I am! hahaha...

I miss that beach =) Want to go back there someday!

Ta Prohm: get lost in ancient time

The gateway of Ta Prohm

The famous 'Tomb Rider' background

I'm not a fan of history, but when I'm in an very ancient site, I sometimes got carried away. Like what I felt when I was in Ta Prohm (Cambodia), I felt that I got lost in ancient time. I wondered what was like way way back then. I've learned that the place was originally called Rajavihara. Ta Promh is located east of Bayon Temple. It was a monastery and university, so I image what is like sitting there and learning about life. I was a very beautiful place to be. I love how the very big trees makes the place cool in a warm sunny day. The trees going out from the ruins really gives a mysterious atmosphere. I stayed there quite long than any other temple in the Angkor Wat area. I was so beautiful that I hope one day I can come back there.

An isle in Ta Prohm, made me imaged what was like to be a student at that time!

A France painter was taking his time to draw the amazing scene

The dancer relief

The most amazing tree that grew in the ruins, so complicated yet beautiful

The tree is humongous! So fascinating =D

First Solo Travel: Cambodia

Royal Palace

Finally! My first solo trip ever. I choose to go to Cambodia because first, I only got 4 days to go, and second because English is not their native language. I'm only in Cambodia for two days because the other two is only being on the road and airports =( So far, solo traveling is incredible! I love how I could interact with local people and also foreign people along the way. Being a woman alone in a non-english speaking country, I found that some people are really nice and helpful. Like the time went I want to take a picture of myself with the timer, some people did offered me help. That was so nice!

The Independence Monument

Well, this is how it goes. The first day, I arrived in Phnom Penh in the morning. A cousin of my friend that works in the embassy picked me up. It was quite a surprise because I didn't thought that the were going to take me around town. I was talking with them via email to ask some things about the country. So we when to Royal Palace. It's a beautiful palace and very clean. After that, we when driving around town and ate a nice lunch at a restaurant called Lemon Grass.

Local Khmer video clips I watched for nearly 6 hours from Pnomh Penh to Siem Reap

At 2.25 PM, I caught a bus to Siem Reap, it cost 11 USD. The ride was about 6 hours with a 15 minutes break. I got to talk to some local family that was going to visit Angkor Wat. We arrived at about 8 PM. The hostel offered a free pick up service with a tuk-tuk, the kid of local transportation there.

The Great Angkor Wat

A monk in Angkor Wat

The next morning, I got up a 4 AM, trying to catch the sunrise in Angkor Wat. I decided to go there by bicycle. Well, I tell you that it was a big failure for me! I'm so bad at reading maps and have to navigate in the dark hours made me missed the sign where I should turn. It took me about 2 hours to get to Angkor Wat. I nearly cried when the sun finally comes up and I was in the middle of nowhere, not seeing the Angkor Wat like I planned. I really don't mind getting lost, but because I only got one day to see the sunrise in Angkor Wat, I felt like I've wasted my opportunity just because I couldn't read a map! That's crazy. So a note for me, I'm going to learn how to read a map properly!

Bayon Temple, I love the smiling faces

Khmer people I met along the way

The bike that I used

Ta Prohm Temple

Angkor Wat was a veri big place with lots of temple. I was really a beautiful kingdom. My favorite waas the Ta Prohm Temple. It was so lovely because of the huge trees that grew amongst the temple rocks. I spent almost all day in the Angkor Wat temple. And for the last night in Cambodia, I went to the Night Market to have some foot massage and buy some souvenirs.

The Night Market

It was a very very short trip, but I loved it. I hope to go other part of the world =D

Where am I?

Just 1 KM to Ta Prohm =)

Hello 2012

Look at my lovely farm! Hahaha...
I've tried to make things fresh in 2012 by changing my display. So what do you think?

It's been a busy first week of 2012, but so far, I love it!
What I'm up to now is (still) trying to get Katy Perry's sold out concert ticket by following some quizzes online. I'm trying my very best because I really want this! I love Katy! It's been three days in a row, I slept at 1 AM because there's so much to be done!
Besides that, I'm planning a travel in hopefully February and another one at March, May, and August. YAY! I love that I could go and have some adventures =)

So I felt this is a very nice beginners luck for this first week in January 2012. Hoping for the best this year!