Kicchan Restaurant

Sakura time is coming....the flowers are beginning to bloom already. I predict that the trees will be in full bloom this weekend....which means hordes of people will come to Kyoto! Arghhhh! So before the sakura posting, I will post about this nice (in terms of decor) Korean restaurant that I had been to recently.

I had been here for about three times already. Once before the renovation and two times after that. I really liked the lighting and the use of the red bamboo curtains. This is a Korean restaurant and the food that they serve here is quite nice and not too expensive.



The place has several sections. In the above picture, the table faces a garden which is really nice.



I think I should get red curtains for my tiny apartment....I think it will make it look more er, classier? hahaha.....I already have the dim yellow light!



The entrance to the restaurant. Liked the glass floor...had a very strange feeling while walking on it.



And now the food : for starters, Korean pickles. I like Kim Chee - the pickled cabbages in the middle - it has a spicy taste (well, not really that spicy for a Malaysian but I have not tried the *real* Korean Kim Chee which some people say is quite spicy).



The appetizers which were quite good. I like the salad because they had fried garlic slices sprinkled on top (I love garlic!) and the veggie was fresh and tasty (but I have no idea what kind of veggie it was ). Then we had a host of other things which I did not take pictures of....too busy eating. Hah!

Next up: Either more about Fiji or the Sakuras.....

Fijian Village, Drinking Kava and Sigatoka Sand Dunes. Fiji

Fijian food spread

We went to a Fijian village for lunch and they generously cooked a full spread of delicious meal for us (as you can see in the photo).


Kava

Before that, we were served Kava, a traditional Fijian drink made from the roots of Kava (Piper methysticum). That is a traditional Kava bowl which they use to make the Kava drink. It is suppose to have a soothing or calming effect. I drank so many cups that I became a frequent toilet visitor! If you had the chance to drink any chinese herbal soups or drinks, you can sort of guess how Kava will taste like. But it also leaves your tongue feeling a bit strange, like there is sort of a coating over it. Can't think how to explain it. Brain not working....hahaha


Sigatoka Sand Dunes

Later, we visited the Sigatoka Sand Dunes which is located near the sea. It is Fiji's first national park. It is also an important archaeological site.



My shadow. I was wearing a short pants, up to my knees. Since it was breezy, being so near to the sea, the sand kept hitting (er....for lack of a better word.....am so sleepy right now, can't think) my legs. Painful! Needless to say, my shoes had so much sand in them after that.



The reflection of the sun rays on my camera lense produced the rainbow effect in the picture. I was quite surprised when I saw it at first, I thought what happened. But then I realised that it was the sun.

Next up: The Mamanuca and Yasawa Islands

Suva and Natadola Beach, Fiji

Holiday Inn Suva

The next day we went to Suva, the capital city of Fiji, by bus. It would have been a scenic journey as we would pass along the famous coral coastline on our way there but as luck would have it, it rained. It poured. Tropical rainfall. It rained throughout our entire journey and stopped just a little when we reached Holiday Inn Suva. So, to my upmost disappointment, I could not see the beautiful coral coastline. There were a lot of hotels along the coast, from the cheap backpackers hostels to the swanky 5 mega star hotels. The picture above was taken after the rain stopped in the evening in Holiday Inn. As you can see, the sea here is not that nice.


Drua, Double Hulled Canoe

We spent the evening, the whole of the next day and the morning of the day after next working in the University of the South Pacific. Then we visited the Fiji Museum which was quite near our hotel. Suva itself is not such a big city, it feels like Taiping to me. The picture above was taken in the Fiji Museum. It is called a Drua (Double Hulled Canoe). This canoe in the Fiji Museum is the only surviving example of a Drua built in the early 1900s. It was donated to the Fiji museum. This canoe sailed around the Fiji islands and even the Pacific islands and was used as a trading vessel or a warship to transport warriors. Source: Fiji Museum



And these are the oars to man the Drua. They were huge.



Holiday Inn's swimming pool. See the overcast sky? It rained throughout the entire time we were in Suva. I kinda miss it, the tropical rain, cause it reminded me of home. Thank god we were there to work, so we spent the whole time inside the lab working. The rain cooled down the temperature a lot, so it made for a pleasant atmosphere to work in.

And here comes the best part:




Natadola Beach

Beautiful isn't it? Natadola Beach, an isolated beach located near one of the excavation sites that we went to visit. The beach was really sandy white and the sea so blue and green....ah....and there was even a white horse running around! Hahaha. This beach is still quite isolated and not that famous yet, so you would be able to enjoy it without the hordes of tourists.



And this is the other side of the beach. As you can see, nobody is about. But there was construction going on for a hotel....so, this peace and quiet will not last forever.



I liked this picture a lot.



And seeing this pic makes me wanna jump right into the sea! Note: I did not swim here! We had no time to swim about since we were there on official business. So I only got to drool at the sea. I was so happy I tell you when we saw the blue sea since I didn't get see them because it was raining all the time.



The shallow coral reefs.



And lastly, this would be a nice wallpaper, don't you think?

Next up: A Fijian village, drinking Kava and the Sigatoka Sand Dunes

Nadi, Fiji

Hotel lobby

My Fiji trip was one week after I came back from Turkey. So it was a bit unreal for me. I hardly adjusted being back in Japan when I had to pack again for the trip to Fiji the next week. But I got to go to Narita Airport and I was technically in Tokyo! (I have not been to Japan's capital.....even after being here for 2 years come this April!) We landed in Nadi and headed straight for the hotel. Nadi itself is not famous for its beaches (nope, no turquoise blue waters and sandy white beaches here...they were like Lumut or Port Dickson) but from here, you can take the cruises to the nearby Mamanuca and Yasawa islands which are gorgeous! But I will only get to that in the later posts.


Yummy! Indian food!!

Fijians and Indians make up the majority of the population with the Chinese and Europeans being the minority. As a result, I got to eat Indian food while I was there....this was way before I went back home in December. Having missed Indian curry so much while I was/am here (damn...now I am missing it! And I have not had dinner yet! SRI PANDI!!!!) I was so happy to finally had my fill of delicious curry and papadum! And oh yeah, mango lassi!



This is Kokoda, a fijian food. It is made out of raw fish meat seasoned with lemon juice and coconut milk. It is really nice. This was not my food however, it was Shiori's.



And this was tuna I think....western style.



Sunset in Nadi. Nadi is Fiji's airport town, all international travellers will land in Nadi first before taking connecting flights to the other islands and have to come back here again to take flights out of Fiji. As I mentioned earlier, you can travel to the smaller islands from Nadi. As a result, you will see a lot of tourists here, staying at the many hotels from low budget ones to the high end hotels. Nadi town itself is small and functions like a tourist town, with a lot of souveniour shops. Being very near to Australia, there were a lot of Australians here on holiday. English is the official language, so communication was not a problem. Currency was in Fijian Dollars.



And this was dinner.....yum yum...curry chicken!

Next up: Suva, the capital city and the coral coast.

Sushi, sushi, sushi......

We went to a fusion sushi restaurant the other day. It was not bad, being very beautifully decorated but I still prefered my faithful 120¥ sushi. This was expensive (at one part, it was eat-all-you-can-sushi) but the service was a bit slow, so that beats the eat-all-you-can-part since we wasted time waiting for the sushis to come. But anyway, I enjoyed myself :)



A mixture of sushis, not your regular joes.



This was nice....it was served hot with those pink crispy thingies.



Chawan mushi....one of my favourite food in Japan. I love tofu too.....both of them share the same texture. They are so delicious when you eat them steaming hot!



Ika (sakura) sushi. I love raw ika (squid) cause it has a sweet taste to it.



Some fried stuff.....what was missing was chilli sauce!!



The eat-all-you-can part. I love unagi (eel), especially when it is grilled unagi!



More sushi: from the front: egg, tuna, salmon and the rest I can't make out.




From the front: octopus, I forgot what the next two were but I remembered the last two. They were uni (sea urchins) sushis.

Dolmabahçe Palace, Istanbul, Turkey

One of the chandeliers

Ah....finally! The Turkey posts had come to an end. I don't know how many posts I did on Turkey! I don't know who is more relief of that fact: my readers or myself? Anyway, this is a nice ending as the last post will be about Dolmabahçe Palace in Istanbul, the last place we visited before flying back to Japan on that day.


The gardens

I had written in one of my earlier posts that we had tried to visit Dolmabahçe Palace while we were in the first leg of our Turkey trip. However, we chose the wrong day. The Palace was closed, so we could only take pictures of the front gate.


The Crystal staircase

There are two sections: The ceremonial suites and the harem. You can go to each section separately or combine them. You have to join a tour group, you cannot wander off alone. However, as all tours are, they were so fast, it was impossible to pay attention to the tour guide and at the same time, fully appreciate the rooms. So I gave up listening to him and since I am always at the back and I cannot hear him properly, so I turned my attention to the rooms and clicked away.


The Crystal Staircase, long view


The crystal staircase, wide view

This is one of the grandest views of the palace, the famous crystal staircase. It was impressive. The Sultan Abdul Mecit decided to move from the understated Topkapi Palace to this far more grand, opulent palace in 1856. It was designed by the architect of the Paris Opera so it was very European in style. It is times like this that I really wished for a wider lense!


One of the rooms in the ceremonial suites

It is certainly very over the top, every part of the room is lavishly decorated. The chandeliers were beautiful, especially in rooms where the curtains were partly drawn, so the chandeliers were the only source of light. Nearly every room had one, the grandest of which I think had to be the one in the crystal staircase.


The decorated ceiling

Yes, remember to look up or you will miss the decorations on the ceilings!



A close up of one of the chandeliers.



Imagine if this staircase was in your house.....



The grand hall....I don't know what it is called but it is grand! You can't fully appreciate the spaciousness of this particular hall because of my lense's limitation but trust me.



Now this really reminds me of some fairytale story.


The harem-cariyeler

Now we move unto the harem-cariyeler rooms....the living quarters.



The rooms are divided into the bedrooms and also rooms to entertained guests. Still very grand, no?


Atatürk's living quarters

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk stayed and passed away in Dolmabahçe Palace on NOv 10 1938. All the clocks in the palace stop at 9.05 am, the time when he passed away.



One of the bedrooms. Imagine washing those silk bedsheets! There was also a clock museum and a crystal pavilion within the palace grounds which you would have to pay extra to go into. We had some trouble going into the pavilion but we sorted it out. Unfortunately, it cost us some valuable time and the pavilion itself was under repair so it wasn't so nice to look at. If I knew....



Finally, before I end the Turkey posts, this is a picture of the interior of the Istanbul train station. We took the night train from Ankara to Istanbul and on the morning when we arrived it was raining, much to our dismay. We had plan to visit the palace right after we arrive and then rush to the airport to board our plane. Thank god, the rain receeded and we had a tiring but enjoyable tour of the palace.

The End

For more pics of Dolmabahçe Palace, please visit my Flickr album....though I had put up most of them on this blog.