Johore Bahru, a town to explore

 Johore is developing fast. There are new buildings, yet plenty of old remains. So it is really great to renew old memories and relive the good old days. :) The exchange makes it favourable to enjoy better food at a reasonable price, especially fish dishes.

The pasar malam is a great memory lane.  I enjoyed the crowd and old style traditional food.  I need to visit a few more time to finish trying out all the different type of food available.  

It is quite easy to travel there by bus. Plenty of retirees do take public transport, so it is pretty cool, although a little tiring. But driving was worse before the VEP. Now, it is okay because the confusion is not over yet.  So driving over takes from more than one hour to now about half an hour.  Returning is about the same.

 I really enjoy the charsiew at half the price of Singapore.  Fish is fresh and not fishy at all.  All the spots we go are shopping malls and I enjoy the kopitiam coffee and tea.

Reflections

 My young adult boys and I are not getting along well.  My boys are either critical, B1 or just plainly defiant, B2.  I am opinionated and also hate to be lied to.  Maybe, I was lied to but I suffered no fools and refused to accept excuses.  I may need to be more tolerant and forgiving of myself and my boys.  

Otherwise, I may live a lonely life.  So I have to change my ways.  I have to be grateful for what I have earned so far.  Another thing is I need to enjoy taking cheap vacation in JB.  

I just returned from JB after spending one night there.  I stayed in KSL and visited the pasar malam,  It is lots of memories of the good old days.  I am grateful to be able to spend time there.

Sigh!  I really think I must close both eyes...

We ate We sightsee We pick We shop We home

 In Hokkaido, we ate seafood or rather my family ate seafood as I am not a seafood fan.  They had sashimi, crab and I had grilled dried fish.  We also ate the vegetarian soba.  Lots of resturants are run by one person.  So the wait is long.  We have to queue for long time and wait for our food for long time.  So unlike the omo hawkers here.  Japan is slow food.  

Sightseeing lots of wonderful sights - seaviews, rocks formation, clear water, Yotei mountain, giant plants and insects.

2X Mosquito 

We pick fruits.  It is hard to get sweet fruits.  Most are already been picked.  Still it is fun to take pictures...

Beehive for pollinating the flowers

Peckman Pear

Apple

My harvest

Shopping is done by B3 and Wife.  B3 went to a supermarket and get all the cheese, milk powder and snacks.  We checked in all the groceries.

The way home is tough because we have a 6 hours layover.  We were stuck at Pudong old terminal and forgot to check which gate we are supposed to be in.  Finally, we went to gate 135.  There are only duty free and a few resturants in Pudong.

We landed in Changi Airport at 450am.  Mummy feels nauseous and we had to rest in airport for a bit before taking the cab.

Memories of Hokkaido

 

Hokkaido Experience

 The flights we took transit in Pudong, Shanghai.  The red eye flights took a toll on all of us.  We were tired and nauseous. Pudong to New Chitose is about 3 hours.  We took a train to Otaru.  Otaru is a small town.  We spent 4 nights and rent a car to go to the farm for fruit picking.  After fuit picking we drove along the seaside and imbibed the wonderful ocean view.  Stopped at several old ports to take pictures.

The food is mostly seafood.  So I have beers, coffee, peanuts and potato chips instead. I actually gained 2 kilos.  The best hotel we stayed in was Ki Niseko in Kutchan.  The hotel is right beside the ski lift and has wonderful view of the Yotei mountain.

Our last stop is Sapporo where we did a bit of shopping.  Mostly buying cheese and snacks by B3.

Hokkaido seems a lot more expensive than Nagano and the exchange rate to yen has went up by 9% making everything a lot more expensive.

Hokkaido

 My eldest found a good deal on airtickets.  So we are going to Hokkaido.  The airfare is less than $500!!  But hotels are still expensive.  We will have to pay $2,000 for 8 hotel nights for 3. But I am looking forward to the trip.  Fall time is harvest season.  So we will look for farms to pick fruits and spend the day there.  Lot of nature in Hokkaido, my kind of holiday.  

We are happy to go for short holidays and live life.

Enjoy Cooking

 Cooking is an enjoyable pastime.  Experimenting is fun when the end product is enjoyed by the people who consumed it.  With life normal, it is back to eating out and looking for different food at different places or hawker centers.  

I missed cooking.  I love to barbeque for my boys when they were growing up.  Then, my wife make me go cooking class with her.  I now can do baking and also cooking from internet and recipe book is so easy once I took the cooking lessons.

I missed cooking and thinking of inviting some friends over to taste my cooking.