Ang Mo Kio Town Garden West

Singapore - Today is Father's day and I decided to bring my family to a park nearby that we have not visited before - Ang Mo Kio Town Garden West. It is 21 Ha and located opposite Ang Mo Kio Town library. We brought bicycles, skate scooters and roller blades to enjoy this park.

Our treking through the jungle...

Resting....

Going back to Singapore

Bangkok - After 3 days, we are finally going back to Singapore. It was tiring trip with business appointments everyday. I had breakfast with Joe at 8am @ level 2 cafe and then later at 8.30am - Vic came back to pick us up to his office. The last time I was here - I took the sky train only 2 stations to his office.
Lunch was at the nice Thai restaurant called "i-serve" - the food is good and I believe reasonable priced too.

Off to Bangkok...

Jakarta - Met Joe, Sam and Yudi for breakfast at 9.30am. The breakfast was good but I was surprise to find there were 'Pork' on the breakfast buffet spread unlike in Malaysia1n hotels, there will definitely be no 'Pork' on the breakfast menu. After meeting the customer - we had to rush to the airport within 2 hours. Yudi drove us and we got there with 1hr to spare - that was good. Still enough time to relax in the Premier lounge. Since Joe and I were going to Bangkok, we manage to change our originally SQ Sing/Bangkok flight by 1 and 1/2 hours earlier.

Pondok Laguna Restaurant

Jakarta - Flew SQ 959 with Joe and it was a good flight into Jakarta. Since it was a short flight about 1hr 35 minutes - the head sets were not given out. So, I watched a Korean movie and read off the English sub-titles - "Once upon a time". Whilst watching, I was intermittently interrupted by a loud and rude laughter coming from a passenger sitting across me. He brought his own headsets and was laughing so loudly that other passengers were turning to see who this idiot was....I was not able to finish the movie.

I stayed at Le Meridien Hotel - a very nice hotel in central Jakarta around US$110 (excludes breakfast). Breakfast is about US$10.

The afternoon was spent preparing for the workshop of which only 10 attended. There was a major street protest and it affected the attendance so having 10 was not that bad. It was held at a service office (Marquue) directly opposite Le Meridien Hotel (very convenient).

After the workshop, we went to have dinner at my old time favourite Pondok Laguna restaurant. There was no intention of going there but because Yudi lost his way to the intented restaurant and we passed by Pondok Laguna restaurant - I told them not to waste time and just have our dinner there. Furthermore, the food is so good and is one of my favourite restaurant.

City changes name...

Bangalore - The Indian IT hub of Bangalore is about to be rebranded as Bengaluru in recognition of the original name of Benda Kaal Ooru - that's "boiled beans town" in the local Kannada lingo. This rather unsavoury name came about when a king named Vira Ballala lost his way on a hunting expedition and was eventually offered boiled beans by an old lady. In recognition of this act of kindness, he named the place Benda Kaal Ooru. The Brits couldn't pronounced Benda Kaal Ooru, they simplified the name to Bangalore. There may still be hope for the Bangalore lobby - the name change is not yet official and must be cleared by the state legislature, the federal government and India's president before the Bengalurians can legally refer to themselves as such. That is why the new airport is called 'Bangaluru International Airport'.

Besides Bangalore, 'Bombay' was changed to 'Mumbai' and 'Madras' to 'Chennai'.
I always wonder when a city or country changes her name whether it is for the better? and why do they changed - could it be due to past colonials rulers who do not care about the local culture.

'Saigon' changed to 'Ho Chi Minh City' - many dwellers and tourist still used Saigon in daily conversation.

The British occupied the country of Burma and when the Military Junta tooked over they changed the country's name to 'Myanmar'. Even the capital was changed from 'Rangoon' to 'Yangon'.

The British also gave the name 'Peking' and 'Canton' but China changed it to 'Beijing' and 'Guangzhou'.

It was fortunate that Singaporeans love their Singapore and Singlish otherwise it will be Singapura or Singapureans...

What Traffic Rules?

Bangalore - There is hardly any traffic rules in Bangalore as far as I can see.

• It is not compulsory for drivers to wear seat belts.
• It is not compulsory for front seat passengers to wear seat belts.
• Crossing cows has 1st priority
• Drivers can cut into the on-coming lanes if there is no on-coming cars. The central divider line is just a guide.
• 2-lane traffic and become 5-lane traffic.
• Cars can cut into other driver's lane without indicating their intentions. The changing lane indicators are just a guide.
• Honning is to tell other drivers to "get out of the way
• Pedestrian should never stand in the central divider line to cross half-way because cars can use the central divider line too. Once we were crossing the road and standing on the central divider line until a heavy truck was coming along on the central divider line, we had to cross back to where we were - it was very dangerous.

Trash everywhere...

Bangalore - Along the roads of Bangalore, there are litter and trash just spewed on the roads. On one occasion, I saw a woman came out of her house and walk a distance and throw and bag full of rubbish on the main road. You will find nice modern buildings and next to it sits a land full of trash. It's everywhere. I will point to Kelvin to look at scene where a man will stand back facing the road, and just pee - it was so common. This scenes made this trip interesting!

We are on our way back to Singapore...

Mainland China

Bangalore - The 3rd Chinese restaurant on this trip was the best - "Mainland China" located at 14 Church Street, Bangalore. The ambiance was nice with Chinese music - the waiters were attentive. Most importantly the food is quite close to authentic Chinese food. The worst dish that we chose was the seasonal vegetables which came in a mushy greeny dish - did not look very appetising to us after the first serving. The prawns and seafood fried rice was really good and tasty top up with some local Merlot red wine.

The bill came up to S$55.

Hyderabad Biryani

Bangalore - We had breakfast with VN at the President Hotel and after which we adjourned with his guys to see the customer. The journey will take us about 1 hr amidst the heavy traffic. We arrived on time and had a good meeting. VN driver dropped us off on the way back at our 2nd reseller office.

During lunch, Jobi and Shirpa took us for a Bryani meal at "Hyderabad Biryani" - known as India's best. "Biryani" is Indian Spicy baked rice. It was so crowded at lunch time - we had to take a queue number. After waiting for 20 minutes, we were served to a table. The portions was large so we order only 3 plates of chicken Biryani for the 4 of us. The Biryani was "heavenly" - nothing I have tasted in Singapore. Singapore version of Chicken Biryani is too oily, unlike this restaurant whereby the rice is steam and the aroma is so nice. Furthermore, the chicken is so tender. The meat that goes into the biryani is marinated with "35 kinds of spices and for three hours". Lunch for 4 persons = S$19 very good value for money.

A Thali meal

Bangalore - After hours of discussion and presentation. Jobi brought us to a Thaili restaurant. In Hindi, 'Thali' means 'plate'. A thali is a selection of different dishes, usually served in small bowls on a round tray. The round tray is generally made with steel with multiple indentations on the plate itself or with a number of small metal bowls known as Katoris on it. Mostly the plate is a big Banana leaf.
A thali consists of a variety of vegetable curry dishes, relishes, a couple of papadams, puris or chapattis and a whole lot of rice. A deluxe variety would include a Pata, a rolled betel leaf stuffed with fruit and nuts. It may also include curd and one or two Desserts. The main plus points of thalis are they are cheap and 100% filling.

A Sumptumous Indian Breakfast

Bangalore - Met Kelvin @ 8.30am for breakfast buffett. Everyday the breakfast spread is different. For BREAKFAST we had..

"Vada" or "Vadai" - shaped like a doughnut made from lentil or potato with some spices served with coconut chutney. Vada and Idli was served everyday at The President Hotel. In Singapore, the Vada has a small prawn and you eat together with green chilli.

"Idli - steam rice cakes (usually eaten at breakfast, white and round shape, and made by steaming the batter of fermerted black lentils (de-husked) and rice, served with chutney and sambar.
"Masala Dosa" - Spicy Dosa or South India Crepe. I had Masala Dosa for breakfast on Thursday. Masala Dosa is made by placing potato masala inside the Dosa and folding it in half.

"Poori" - I had Poori on Friday - these are small round pancakes size rounds of dough that are slipped into hot oil or ghee, where they fill with steam and balloon in seconds. Pooris are soft silk like breads with which curries and vegetables are scooped up.

Roti, anyone?

Bangalore - During lunch, Jobi brought us to Desmond's - a restaurant that is popular with the lunch time crowd for their Kabab and Nann. We had chicken Kabab for starters, tomato soup for myself, chicken curry and spinach (green sambal) to go with the Nann.

The Indians called their bread "Roti" which at times we use this word also at home. My kids know what is Roti. Roti is the name for bread used also in Malaysia and Indonesia. The following are some of the breads I ate in Bangalore:

Nann (leavened bread with poppy seeds) - The bread dough is rolled out and then slapped on the inside of the tandoori, near the top where it cooks very quickly in the fierce heat. It is then flavored with onion or garlic.

Paratha or Prata, meanwhile, is rich, flaky, and flavored with ghee. It can be eaten together with curry or by itself. We have prata for lunch at least once a month and is readily available in every hawker center in Singapore.

Chapati is another leavened bread. It resembles flat discs and has a delightful flavor and chewy texture.

"Gufha" - A Theme Restaurant

Bangalore - For dinner we decided to stay in the hotel and experience a theme restaurant which was highly recommended. "Gufha" means cave in Hindi and as the name suggests, is done up like a cave, with stone-like walls and ceiling, dim lighting, flame. It was an experience to feel the 'cavey' feeling and it's like being transported to some faraway exotic cultures. There is even a waterfall that flows over a carved face, and stuffed bird toys hang from the ceiling. The waiters are dressed like jungle guides with khaki uniforms, safari hats and guns and the tableware is brass.

This restaurant provides Indian North West Frontier province cuisine. , coupled with gracious hospitality. The entire interiors go along with the gufa theme with tiger print upholstery, elephant shaped tissue holders. The cutlery and glasses are so unique and made of copper, this added to the rustic environment. The restaurant made it so realistic with the sound of the jungle and loud cicardas. We had a huge menu cards to choose our food from, we had lamb ghost with rotis, and some tandoori chicken as appetizers.We ordered "lamb gosht" but the waiters brought out "Chicken Gosht" -we ate a couple of slices and definitely knew that it was not lamb - called the waiter and he had to move the meat chucks about in the gosht to see whether it was lamb or chicken. I told him to bring it back to the chef to verify - he came back and apologize for the mistake. Very quickly a new bowl of "Lamb Gosht" appeared. The "lamb gosht" was tender slices of lamb in a thick creamy gravy with a hint of saffron, was delicious, but very heavy. This goes very well with Nann. Cost about S$61 for 2 persons.

Chinese food again...

Bangalore - Breakfast was complimentary with wide varieties of Indian food. There is a made-to-order egg counter and I ordered 2 fried eggs. Had many rounds of Vada, nicely squeezed mango juice and Bananas. I try to stay away from cut fruits as I am not sure whether the fruits are washed with tap water.

I came back earlier to the Hotel whilst Kelvin continue with the training at the reseller office. At around 7pm, we booked a hotel taxi (Rp 350) to "Three Quarter Chinese" restaurant located @ 22 Church Street. Before we left, I asked the taxi driver do you know whether "Three Quarter Chinese" restaurant - he said "yes and at Church Street". He drop us off at "In China" restaurant - which incidentally is a sister company of "Three Quarter Chinese" restaurant. We were given directions by the security guards at "In China" restaurant to walk about to about 10 minutes down the road, turn right into Church Street to the "Three Quarter Chinese" restaurant . Upon entering the restaurant, there were 2 chinese looking ladies, in fact they are Indians from the hilly state of Nagaland.

The restaurant served 3/4 Chinese food and 1/4 Indian dishes and that gives the name "Three Quarter Chinese" restaurant. The food is much better than "Aromas of China" restaurant. We had vegetables, lamb in chilly garlic sauce, steam fish in ginger onion and soya sauce (this is good and tasty), tomato fried rice (the rice is sweet because of the tomato), Tandori chicken (half of chicken - it was tender and very delicious) and 2 deserts - Treasure Bag (which contains diced fruits in wanton skin) and Warm December (deep fried ice-cream with crushed peanuts). The bill came up to S$52 for 2 persons. It is much better and cheaper than yesterday's dinner.

New Bangalore International Airport

Bangalore - My alarm clock rang in the dead of the night @ 4am. I then need reach the airport at 5am to meet up with Kelvin, whom is going with me to Bangalore. We spent about 1hr the lounge having breakfast. The flight SQ500 left on time and arrive Bangalore at 8.30am. The meals on board this flight were mostly Indian except for one choice of eggs and sausages. I chose Masala Tosai - something different and it tasted quite good.

We arrived at the new Bangalore Bengaluru International Airport - it is still a work in progress but much better than the older airport. This airport is built on 1,616 hectares and modelled after the airport in Zurich, Switzerland, whose developers are working on this project. This International Airport is much further than the older airport. It seems that whenever a new airport is built it gets further away from the city centre. This new airport is 34km outside of Bangalore town, and will take easily 90 minutes from the city centre. My reseller had paid for the hotel car to pick us up at the airport plus sent his friendly engineer to accompany us to the Hotel. I am surprised and thankful. (later when I check out I found out that this reseller had put the airport transfer cost of Rupee 1,500 (S$53.13) on my hotel room - not really nice is it? I thought that it was so nice of them...well I can get a better car for just Rupee 1,200).


The journey to the Hotel took approximately one and half hrs and it was an eye opener coming from an organized city country. At every major junction stop, there were beggers - they look young and so pityful. Half way along the journey, the driver had to make a pit stop to re-fuel and off the road were 2 gas tanks with a sign "India Oil". The service men were pumping diesel without the engines turn-off and collecting rupees.

Another fact you will observe is the incessant honking of honks - my driver does it and everyone does it throughout the journey. The honking of honks could be a signal to 'get out of my way' or 'to keep me awake whilst driving'.

My reseller booked us into The President Hotel located @ Diagonal Road, 3rd Block Jayanagar. This is a 4-star hotel of just 5 stories - it is a boutique hotel. Though it is a small hotel, staff are very helpful, friendly and the ambiance very hospitable. I was checked into a room on the 2nd storey facing the road - the constant horning was very irritating and will cause me not to have a good sleep. I spoke to the duty manager and he immediately change me to the 3rd story facing away from the road. It was much quieter. The room is quite big and decently renovated with a TV in the living room and another in the bedroom. 

Views from outside my room

Pressing of clothes - I called housekeeping iron and ironing board and they do not have one - so I have to send my shirts for pressing. But it is cheap just $19 rupees about S$0.70 per shirt. This is the 1st time the press shirts were returned to me in under 1 hr.

Lunch was on the ground floor at a restaurant called "Isys" - we had buffet with a wide spread of Indian cuisine. I like the 'Naan' (or Indian bread) the best, which was offered hot to the table and free flow. Naan is a round flat bread made of white flour. The buffet cost $225 rupees per person, that is less than S$10 per person. We met some Singaporeans having the buffet lunch and they have been staying in Bangalore at the same hotel for 6 months to 2 years. After lunch, the reseller driver was waiting to drive us to their office for training - though it was a short distance but not conducive to walking.

For Dinner, Kelvin and I hanker for some chinese food so I asked the front desk manager and he pointed me to Isys (which is the ground floor restaurant), which I told me that I will be staying for 6 stays and ain't going to eat at this restaurant for all my meals. He was persuasive and keep insisting that the nearest was about 7km away - but my insistance wore him out and he got me the hotel driver to take us there for $350 rupees. This is for the driver to bring us to the restaurant, wait for us and then bring us back to hotel.The manager told the driver to bring us to Brigade Road where 'there are many Chinese and Japanese restuarants?' When we reach Brigade Road, there are none in sight only fast foood chains - MacDonald's, KFC, Pizza Hut, etc. So, the driver recommend another location and I agreed. 

This restaurant "Aromas of China" served chinese food - we had Singapore chilli prawns (..what is that?? it taste good and one of the best dishes served), stir fried chinese greens (this was not good as it mixed brocholi, white cabbage, pak choy and asparragus stirred fried together. To my limited chinese cooking knowledge, each should be cooked separately), fried wan tons (basically more flour then prawns and meat), stir fried chicken and mushrooms (nice and delicious), Lo Mein soup, plain white rice and top up with good Tiger Beer. The ambiance is good and clean but the food is average, not worth about S$90 for 2.

SQ and MAS to terminate 26 year shuttle agreement

Singapore - Singapore Airlines is terminating its shuttle service agreement with Malaysia Airlines (MAS) with effect from June 1. The agreement provided for carriers to agree on a common fare to charge customers who turn up at the airport on standby for the next flight. The 2 national carriers started the shuttle in 1982, in response to demand for shuttle-like flights between the 2 cities. However, the progressive deregulation and the ever increasing use of the Internet for a variety of transactions such as booking of tickets and check-in, has changed the travel landscape, removing the need for a shuttle service.

The newly-deregulated market has opened up opportunities for the 2 airlines to offer more frequencies and fare options, which will better serve the needs of the travelling public.

Source: Business Time - May 19,2008