Maiya Restaurant

Bangalore - My flight back to Singapore is at 11:05pm and so there is still a full day of meeting.  My customer pick me up at 9:30am - I have already checked out but left my baggage at the front desk.   He took me to his favourite restaurant - Maiya located @ 459/30, 30th Cross, 4th Block, Jayanagar.

Maiya Restaurant

We had Vada, Masala Dosa and Poori...the Vada is very good and delicious.   The Masala Dosa was also very well done and the skin was nice and crispy.    I was persuaded to try their coffee which comes in a silver cup and an empty silver cup.  I don't drink coffee but only tea but this time I tried and it was so good.   You are to pour the coffee into the empty silver cup till it is cool enough to drink.   The aroma is so delicious that is out of this world - even better than any of the coffee smell in Singapore.

I told VN that the best coffee in the world came from the shit...coffee from the civet cat.  

After meeting, we went to ITC Sheraton  Windsor - which is next to Le Meridien Bangalore.  This hotel is part of the Sheraton Luxury Collection and it is really grand and the room rates is very expensive at USD 300- 400 per night.   

Peanuts Masala

The food is not good as compared to reknown restaurant within Bangalore.  I had Chicken Briyani and it was really not as good as outside.   The yogurt which was supposed to go with the Briyani was sour and I avoided it.   I was told by VN that the yogurt is not sour but have a neutral taste.

On the flight back to Singapore, I watched Iron Man 2 - which is the new cycle of movies for the month of August.

UB City

Bangalore - Had a sumptuous breakfast with Lesley and we went to our separate meetings.

Which waiting for my customer to arrive and pick me up at the Hotel,  I took pictures from the front lawn of the Hotel.

Geese in front of the Hotel

Small garden

Geese on the Hotel garden

Lunch was at UB City - UB is an acronym for United Breweries and the company is the 3rd largest spirits company in the world according to their webpage http://www.theubgroup.com/. The restaurant that we had our lunch at Khansama serving buffet lunch - there is such a wide variety to choose from. You drink water from copper cups.

That's my lunch from the Buffet platter

Dinner we spent it at the Hotel - it was nice having a seafood BBQ in front of the Hotel swimming pool.
I had mutton and 4 nice pieces of giant prawns and it was good..

13th floor

Bangalore -  Breakfast was a good spread of Indian and Western.  I had 'Vada' and it was good, mango and orange juices were served.   I stayed away from sausages, ham, bacon due to the high salt and nitrates content.  Especially in India, I do not eat cut fruits as I had a bad experience of 'dehli belly'...lol .

It is a lovely weather but chilly around 24 degrees and the time was 9:30am.   I should have brought a simple sport jacket.  Many rich and famous people like to come and stay in Bangalore because of the year round good weather which inadvertably raise the cost of living and high property prices in Bangalore.

Lunch was at a restaurant called 'The Unwind Island' and they serve buffet @ R300 per head (about S$10) but they charge a bottle of water at R100 - which is expensive.

Dinner was at a cocktail lounge called 'The 13th Floor' @ Hotel Ivory Tower, 84 MG Road.   The ambiance was lovely and we were sitting outside overlooking the whole of Bangalore.  The weather was cold at around 19-20 C and I was not wearing any jacket just short sleeve.  After a while, it became unbearable and had to move indoors - it was really cold.

We had some finger food and Indian Kingfisher beer...later we move across to a restaurant Ebony for Dinner. 

Newspapers galore

Bangalore - One observation is that there are so many English newspapers around the Hotel Lobby and restaurants - I counted around 10 English newspapers to choose from all from India.

1.   Bangalore Mirror
2.   Financial Express
3.   Business Standard
4.   The Economic Times
5.   Chronicle Bengaluru
6.   Deccan Chronicle
7.   Indian Express
8.   Deccan Herald
9.   The Hindu
10.  The Times of India

Le Meridien Bangalore - very nice hotel

Bangalore - Singapore Airlines departed on time @ 8:05pm.  Along the way - there were many weather turbulence and hot meals had to be discontinued.    When I had my lamb goulsh dinner - meal is cold.  The Magnum ice-cream saved the otherwise horrible meal....

I managed to catch only 1 movie as the flight to Bangalore took only 3 1/2 hrs.   The Korean movie 'Forever the Moment' - this is true story of grit of the Korean handball team.    The Bangalore airport is new, the immigration and custom clearance was fast.

The airport transfer was waiting at the enterance of the arrival gate and was zipped in a 'Skoda' car.  Took about 40 minutes to reach the hotel without traffic and it was pleasant talking to the driver of the Le Meridien Hotel.  Apparently, there are 60+ drivers and cars and 30 will be on duty in the morning and 30 for the night shift.  He said because of the low business - he started work at 8am today to pick up his car keys and when he dropped me off it was around 10pm.

I am staying @ Le Meridien Bangalore located at 28, Shankey Road.   The rooms are tastefully designed wiht 42 inch LCD TV, Apple iHome and comfortable beds. 

The only drawback is:
- The room is too cold and the air-con cannot be adjusted warmer so I switch the air-con off and it is at a nice temperature
- The curtains are kept shut because the outside view are building under constructions, shambles and lots of rubbish.

On the whole - I will come back to this hotel again....

The iHome is a neat device that allows you to dock an Apple Nano and you can play music through the speakers of the iHome.  It is also an alarm clock.   I tied to dock my iPhone but it does not recognise but it does charge the iPhone.   Having an iPod docking station in the room is a first for me...

iHome

Another unique feature of this room is that it is secured with the latest, state of the art Hafele locks from Germany called 'dialock'.

Dialock

This is what the hotel lobby looks like from the glass lift of the Le Meridien Bangalore Hotel.

Taken from the glass lift of the Hotel

The Egg Restaurant

Manila - For lunch we had nearby the office @ Pasto City - 3/F Paseo Center, Salcedo Village, Makati City.   It is an Italian restaurant and I had Pomodoro Basilico - rich tomato spaghetti dish.

After meetings, we had our dinner at the famous Filippino restaurant - Ebun @ Greenbelt 3, ground level.   Ebun in Tagalog means 'Egg' and thus the restaurant was renovated in the colour of Beige and yellow.   The ambiance and service of this restaurant was excellent.  We had:-

Sinigang N Sugpo
Beef Shank Caldere
Adobo Rice
Fried Rice with Garlic
Lechon Sisig
Gulaman at Sago - drink that is similiar to our Ice-blend Milk Tea

Worth going back again to this restaurant....

Firewood Pizzas

Manila - Lunch we had AMICI Firewood pizzas and it was fresh and delicious.   I had spaghetti vogole and we shared a Margherita Pizza - it was yummy!

Portable Firewood Pizza

Another view of the Portable Firewood Pizza

Whilst visiting one of my customers, we had to cross a pedestrian bridge.   Crossing the pedestrian bridge you have to be carefull too...look what I mean.

The high electrical tension cables across the

pedestrian bridge

That's Joe getting electrocuted....

Dinner was at their famous seafood near the waterfront - Robbie's Seafood Restaurant @ Pasay .   My first taste with this Filippino famous dish - Sinigang - this is a soup chracterized by its sour flavor most often associated with tamarind. I like tamarind and therefore this dish was delicious to me.  This Sinigang was cooked with fish and vegetables like tomatoes.

En Route to Manila

Manila - Joe and I had to do a transit in Singapore en-route to Manila - waited 2 hrs before our flight departed on time at 2:10pm and arrived at 3:45pm.   Get the taxi from the taxi counter just outside the airport - because I carried a hard case suitcase, Joe will sit with this 'passenger' at the back seat.

Our Hotel was Mandarin Oriental Manila - a 5-star hotel located in Makati.  There was the usual baggage checks and metal detectors in front of the hotel.   What upset me was that Joe had an upgraded room to the Executive floor whilst I was relegated to the 7th floor.  The executive floors starts from 15th floor and above and the lounge was at 17th floor.   When I reached the 17th floor, I complaint of the mistreatment and was given an executive floor on the 15th floor.   Both of us were reminded that no executive floor privileges will be accorded to us just the special room at the executive floors.   But this was subsequently revised with full privileges accorded to us - which in actual fact - we did not step into the executive floor throughout our stay there.

We went to Green Belt for dinner.   Green Belt is an area in Makati for Shopping and good class dinning.   There were many restaurants to choose from and we finally chose a restaurant on the 3rd Floor @ Greenbelt 3 - W The Big Grill.  As the weather was hot, and sitting outside is also smoking area, we decided to sit inside but Oh! no...the music was so loud.   It is like a disco and you have to shout to each other, so we decided to move outside to dine.

We ordered
- Baby Back Ribs and was expected Tony Romas type of baby back ribs but out came a thick slab of ribs with fats making half of the Baby Back Ribs.   It was tasty but I had to throw away all the fats.  
- Lamb Shoulder Steak - It was just a thin slice of mutton steak - tasty but simple.
- Tokwat Lechon - Toh Fu with fried Pork (Lechon) - a nice dish.

They also had a mechanised rodeo inside the restaurant but you had to sign a letter that relinquish the restaurant of all responsibilities.

Verdict:  No worth a second visit.

We walk to Havana Cafe for some snacks and drinks...

Indian Fare

Petaling Jaya - It was a full day of Seminar at Hotel Boulevard.  For dinner, we hankered for some spicy Indian fare and the most famous was

Hilton KL Sentral

Kuala Lumpur - My wife tried to book the taxi today and to no avail and so she said go down and hail the taxi from the main road of which I manage to get one to reach the airport on time.  The plane arrived on time - via the KLIA and on arrival at Sentral station it was nice to be met by the concierge of the Hotel which had a Hotel shuttle bus and save me time lugging the bags pass escalators, road crossing and lifts.   The shuttle bus took me straight to the Lobby of the Hilton KL.

Hilton KL is not my ususal hotel and I stayed becaue it is nearer to the seminar in Mid-Valley.   The service at Hilton KL is not very good and the personnel are very curt in their response.   I would stay at PJ Hilton Hotel as it is a much friendly hotel and the staff knows me well.

Lunch was at the Hotel restaurant and the buffet spread was wide @ RM99 per head.  For that price it would be worth going out for lunch....

But the view from the executive lounge on the 33th floor is spectacular - similiar so from the window of my room.

Left side view from the 33rd Floor @ Executive Lounge

Centre view from the 33rd Floor

Centre view from the 33rd Floor

Right side view from the 33rd floor

Dinner we have seafood and it was good called 'Panti Seafood'.

After Dinner, we went for some Durian as it is the season.    The Durian stall is called 'Donald' and near SS2 Petaling Jaya - tried the Top Durian "Mow San Huang' and also the new breed 'D4'.

Art of present wrapping...

Tokyo - I needed to buy shopping vouchers and so Terry accompanied me to Takashimaya down in Ginza.  Took the subway and arrived 10 minutes before openning time of 10am.   There were already people waiting outside the departmental store. 

Exactly at 10am, the store was open and we were greeted with a bow of 'welcome' - the purchase of the shopping vouchers was on the 5th floor.   It was such a professional experience and meticulously done the Japanese way. 

You have a choice of either choosing just Takashimaya shoppinng vouchers of a Nationwide shopping voucher.   I chose the Nationwide shopping vouchers because it can be used at all the major departmental stores - Takashimaya, Tokyu, and etc..

For Dinner, we are back at Ginza and it was a very delicious meal.  The menu was very unique - laid out in a long row of paper.

The restaurant menu

A dish of sashimi

Baked seasonal fish

My 26th trip to Tokyo

Tokyo - I managed to catch 2 movies - 'Clash of the Titans' (this is a remake of the older movie) AND 'Green Zone' (one of my favourite actor - Matt Damon).   I also managed to finish watching 'Ghost Writer'.

 
 There was such a long queue at the immigration area - the queue was snaking over 9 rows of 20 people - it took nearly 40 mins to reach the immigration officer whom had to take a photograph and then finger print the 2 index fingers.

The Airport bus came on time at 5.50pm and took about 1hr 10 mins to TCAT, from there I took a taxi to my Hotel - Hotel East 21.

I was tossing between a Sushi restaurant and a Tonkatsu restaurant - The pig won!! It was a nice meal...the website for the Tonkatsu restaurant is www.r-wako.com

Travel with a peace of mind

Singapore - Having adequate tavel insurance is vital when overseas because a host of unforeseen situations can arise, such as flight delays or loss of your luggage.  Also overseas medical expenses can be huge and should a serious injury arise during the trip, you then need not fret about hefty medical bills.

I remember recently on a flight from Sydney to Melbourne on Qantas, and my baggage was delayed for 12 hrs - fortunately I had travel insurance and it was reimbursed.   But the trouble of waiting anxiously for the baggage to arrival after numerous promises by Qantas that it will be 2hrs, 3hrs and it will be arriving soon...


It is affordable to buy travel insurance in Singapore but travellers should shop around to find a policy that meets your need. 

Checklist:
1.   Don't wait until the last minue.   Buy your travel insurance early, preferably right after booking the trip.

2.  Buy what you need.   It is important to ensure that the benefits of the plan are adequate to meet your needs, with better benefits offered at a higher permiums.    If your insurance does not cover taking part in certain hazardous activities such as mountaineering, winter sports and underwater activities - get appropriate coverage.

3.  Single trip or annual trip.  If you travel alot, an annual trip policy may be the best value.   Also, a single trip usually covers about 6 months or less, while any trip taken using an annual plan will not be covered if it exceeds about 3 months.

4.  Note the definition of 'child'.  Family policies cover your children as well, but the definition of children may differ across insurers. 

5.  Automatic extension of coverage.  With the emergence of the H1N1 flu virus and recent spate of natural disasters, policy holders can get stuck overseas for much longer than intended owing to transport delays or from being quarantined.  Therefore, it is desirable that a policyholder 's travel insurer is wlling to extend teh period of coverage automatically, in certain circumstances, without extra premiums.

6.  Check what is not included.  A cheap travel insurance policy may seem like a good bargain, but make sure you go through the policy details carefully to ensure that important coverage is not omitted.

7.  Premium discount.   If you are travelling in a group, you my want to consider consolidating the purchases to be entitled to some cost-savings.

8.   Keep your receipts and paperwork.  If you should have to file a claim, receipts and documentation will make the process much easier and more successful.

9.  Familiarise yourself with the claims process.  if you understand the process, it is very easy to file a travel insurance claim.

10.  Emergency assistance phone number.  It is common for travel insurance policies to include worldwide 24-hr emergency assistance providing various emergency services around the clock.  Save the emergency assistance contact number and your policy number in your mobile phone so you do not have to scramble to look fro that insurance certificate in the event of an emergency.

I also wrote a similiar article - http://countrytravel.blogspot.com/2007/05/travel-health-insurance-dont-leave-home.html

Ref: The Sunday Times Dec, 6 2009