Bishop's Park, Fulham

Bishop's Park is located at Fulham, near Putney Bridge train station of District Line.

It has a great location due to Thames riverside or waterfront. Lovely tall trees decorate the banks of the river. Such a delight to see this from the opposite side. 

On one side of the river, there are plenty of garages for Boats., mostly from colleges. Putney Pier is also located here and can commute all the way to London. 

On the other side of the river, you get to see Bishop's Park and Fulham Football Club. 

Bishiop's park is long and rectangular and got plenty of places to picnic or sit and relax by the riverside. Ice cream shops, Fish and Chips, Donna's coffee shop, couple of pubs are all situated around.

Do take a stroll in the weekend ! Stay safe. 

Selfie walking route called Southern Ridges

Hello Friends, Southern ridges is an excellent walking route for lot of reasons... one of them is, mainly for taking selfies with nice back drops.

Route:

1. Kent Ridge Park [via Pond or direct canopy walk) : There are some 3 parking lots around the park. I prefer to start the walk from road side of NACLI office as it allows us to do steep climb walk of around 650 meters.  Once you reach the hill, you can either take right side direction to enter the park via road and to the main entrance of the park or take left [Car Park B] and carry out roundabout walk to see the Pond and enter the park after climbing some more stairs.

Canopy walk is simple and not long,  you can read through some war time memory posters while walking. If lucky, you can spot some small green snake sometimes. This is also a good picnic spot.

2. Hort Park: You can enter the Hort Park (Back side) and see the glass houses. Enjoy the all around greenery, flowers, colorful plants and decors of Hort Park.

I personally enjoy the view from event hall top.

There is a restaurent here with lunch and dinner timing.

3. Connect out from Hort Park to forest walk through this majestic walking bridge called Alexandra Arch.

4. Forest Walk

This is one fabulous walk on metal bridge cutting right across the forest. There are so many variety of trees including Bamboo and you can enjoy lovely chirping sound of birds.

5. Telok Blangha Hill Park

This is off Henderson Road. Filled with bougainvillea flowers and it looks mesmerizing during early morning or at twilight. Nice place to sit a bit and enjoy tea.

There is also one mansion and premium food option near by and it is called "Alkaaf Mansion"

6. Henderson Waves

This wave shaped pedestrian bridge constructed at 36m height / above ground. This bridge gives two different feeling when you jog in the morning

or when you visit with girl friend by evening.

You can enjoy the view of powerful Reflections tower apartment from the Bridge.

7. Mount Faber

When you walk out to Mount Faber, you can enjoy the skyscraper view of Telok Blangha

There are couple of food option place above the Skyway park.

8. Harbour Front

You end the walk by climbing down to Harbour front from Mount Faber hill.
You can also try the opposite direction and end up at Kent Ridge also.

Don't miss the lovely places and the selfie spots throughout the walk.

The distance might come around 6.8 to 7.8 km and might take 85 min to 110 min to complete based on your phase and the diversion you take ! Do take some water to hydrate yourself.

ECP Parkland Green to Stadium - Nature walk trail

One of my favourite track for nature walk is taking a walk between Parkland Green [ECP] and Stadium.. it is around 6km and one can finish the walk between 65 min to 80min.

Good thing about the starting point is one can have morning coffee at Cheers or Starbucks... the serene view at 7am is so mesmerising and sound of waves encourages your spirits..

on the left hand side, you can see the ocean while walking... it goes on till you reach the Tunnel near Tanjong Rhu. then the walk becomes little view less with some narrow terrain. then, it joins the backside of the Marina Bay golf place and you can listen the chirping sound of birds...

You can now see Bay East Gardens visitor center.... you can refresh with water and use the rest rooms and connect again to a T Point... now, you will have to decide to either go rite or left.... right will take you to Stadium area and the left will take you to Marina Barrage through Gardens by the Bay, East.

I like Stadium side... simply bcoz, you can add another 2 KM walk if you have energy around the stadium side. sometimes, you get lovely view of sun rise above the Stadium...  

and then finally you get to see the dragon boats and hear the rhythemic counting noises... or the lovely view of the surroundings and an excellent wind.

If you end up taking left, then these are the view of Marina Bay Sands... from the east side.

There are some good eateries at Kallang wave mall.. but nothing at Marina Barrage. you might have to go near Raffles to get some food. 

One can add another 1.5 KM by climbing Marina Barrage up and down. It has a good view too. 

Enjoy walking !!!

Rooftop pool at Hotel Jen, Orchard Gateway

None of my friends or colleagues mentioned anything about the Rooftop pool of Hotel Jen. I was pleasantly surprised when my Aussie friend showed me the pic during her stay.

Then, i asked for help to see it once before she returns as it is meant only for hotel guests.. but we couldn't do it due to the busy site seeing schedule... I finally managed to spend 10 min before the check out....

To my surprise it was big.. 47 meter long...  and seats along other side... with a bar counter...

The location / view is outstanding.. right above the Somerset 313 ... one can see Orchard, Raffles and Marina Bay Sands...

It turned out to be a good experience. Soon, I will do a staycation to explore more about Hotel Jen.
If someone is spending 200$ rent per day, I think, it is better to choose such a happening location.

Dong Pho, Saigon, District 3

When the local friends recommended Dong Pho of District 3., I didn't presume much. Let us hit the place tonite was my only reaction. Little did I expect the heavenly taste of food. 

My friend ordered some prawn and noodles. I opted for 5 course vegetarian dinner set with a simple belief that I can taste authentic Vietnamese food in one shot.  http://www.dongphorestaurant.com/

Fresh banana bud salad was the first item. It had crisp banana and tasty noodles mixed with some vegetables. Surprise for me was more from fragrance and the ideal quantity of food. 

Second item was assorted steamed dumplings ... they were wrapped under leaves and had different sauce. I have to take advice to find out which dumplings will go better with which sauce !!! 

Third item was Hue Style Pancake... stuffed with lot of vegetables and accompanied by some cucumber... this felt heavy finally. By this time, my friend was convinced that vegetarian spread was much tastier than non veg food. means, my portion was getting stolen !!!! 

Fourth item was vermicelli in sweet sour soup - this tasted like rasam for me or was that due to the coriander leaves floating at top ? 

and finally some dessert... out of the 4 varieties they served, best item was the one which was made from pandan and corn.... tasted out of world.... 

This was the best ever vegetarian food I have tasted outside of my comfort or Indian food options... and I would highly recommend the tourists of Saigon to go and try Dong Pho. It is not very far from the city centre or the opera house. The price of vegetarian dinner was around 400,000 VND or 23.50 SGD

South Indian breakfast

If you have not tried any Indian food other than Parotta or Prata, you basically doesnt know much about south indian food !!!

South Indian breakfast is very different...  damn tasty ... It is predominantly consists of 5 items...
Idly - Steamed rice cake; Dosa or Thosai - pancake from fermented rice batter; Puri - deep fried wheat / maida bread; medhu vada - deep fried doughnut shaped, made out of urad dal; Pongal - made out of rice, turmeric and some pepper and another variety with rice and moong dal; Upma - thick porridge from semi fried semolina.

It comes with lot of side dish... Sambar - vegetable based lentil stew, cooked with tamarind broth; also called as Dal by Malaysians.

Chutneys - white coloured coconut chutney, coriander, tomato and mint combination;
Also there is one melaga podi or gun power which can be given separately or served as separate item called Podi Idly. This one is damn tasty but little more spicy.

Beware while you eat Pongal - it can make you sleepy or sit inside stomach like some concrete for 2-3 hours.. but it is damn soft and tasty and hard to ignore !! There is also a sweet version called Sakkarai Pongal ... made with jaggery .. wish to try ?

You are supposed to dip the dosa or idly with chutney and sambar and pamper your taste buds. You  can either try it with hand or cutlery. Remember, the smell will remain on your hands for some 30 min !!! can you handle that ?? !!!

You are expected to finish the food and sip filter coffee at the end. You can order them without sugar or with sugar. Sip the hot coffee while the carbo food dives deep into the stomach.

You can taste these at Little India - Syed Alwi Road or Serangoon Road. My favourite restaurants are as follows and they are not given in any particular order:

1. Komalas, 332 Serangoon Road
2. MTR, 438 Serangoon Road
3. Murugan Idly Shop, 76 Syed Alwi Road
4. Ananda Bhavan, 95 Syed Alwi Road
5. Anjappar, 78 Race course road or 102 Syed Alwi road

Bon Appetite... just remember one thing... there are no reservations made normally and weekends are very busy for these places. Pls have some patience while being made to sit and served. bcoz, you will be rewarded with great food served.

Price range of one food item is averaged around 4.50 to 5 SGD range

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.