A quarter century is such a long time

The photo shows my breakfast which I had at my hotel in Milan, Italy. I might mentioned somewhere in this blog, but I say again, I'm a big fan of Italian cuisine for over a quarter century. I really love pasta and risotto, but not only pasta or risotto, I love many more Italian cuisine. When I was in Italy, I was always thinking about food, and I was like "what will I be eating for lunch today and where?", "what will I be eating for dinner tonight and where?", and it was so much fun to think about it, and actually had them.

Sinhalese letters and flowers

I took this photo on Matara Road in Unawatuna, Sri Lanka. Several years ago I decided to try to learn to write and read Sinhalese letters. Long story short, I gave up, but still want learn it again. Every single Sinhalese letters has special shape just like flowers. If I say so out of the blue, I guess not so many people understand what I'm talking about, but with the picture like this, hopefully some people understand what I'm talking about. The picture of Sinhalese letters and flowers. Since I gave up to learn to write and read Sinhalese letters, I can't read any, though.

Camel in the desert

I took this photo in Jerusalem, Israel when I was in a cab. I found a camel on the left-hand side, and captured a photo of the moment that I got very excited. I live in a suburban and work in a city, so camels are not ubiquitous animals in my everyday life. So when I saw it through the front window of the cab, I was like "Wow! There's a camel! Wow!" or something like that. I definitely felt like a kid in a candy store. By the way, I believe I have another photo of camels somewhere in my hard-disk drive which I have taken through the bus window in Israel. I'll post that later. Stay tuned.

Happy holidays. Prost!

I took this photo at an Irish pub in Frankfurt, Germany. The Irish pub was located across from Frankfurt (Main) Hauptbahnhof (English: Frankfurt (Main) main station), and my hotel was right around the corner from the pub. So I used that Irish pub as my "usual pub" during my vacation in Frankfurt, and went there three nights in a row. Luckily, one of the night, my table was situated in front of a decorated christmas tree, so I really enjoyed to immerse myself in festive mood. A pint of Guinness was served with what I call as the genius head. Truly well-pulled, and very well-done. Prost!

There used to be a palace on the top of the Sigiriya Rock

The photo shows the Sigiriya Rock (a.k.a. Lion's Rock). One of the Unesco World Heritage Sites in Sri Lanka. Long story short, a son of the king took his father's life and became the King Kashapa many many moons ago. The King Kashapa built his own palace on the top of the gigantic rock in the middle of tropical jungle. The Sigiriya Rock is located in the middle of nowhere, so his palace was absolutely isolated. The king lived being surrounded by thousands of beautiful women, but, you know that something happened, the rest is history. If you go there, you'll be allowed to go to the top of the Sigiriya Rock, and if you'll go to the top, you'll be able to experience to view the same views as the ancient King Kashapa did.

แหนมย่าง

The photo shows Naem Yang (Thai: แหนมย่าง) which I bought at a stall near the Chumphon Gate (Thai: ประตูชุมพล) in Nakhon Ratchasima (Thai: นครราชสีมา, a.k.a. Korat, Thai: โคราช), Thailand. Naem (Thai: แหนม) is like a fermented pork sausage can be eaten in the raw, grilled like the photo shows, stir-fried with rice, or any other style as you like. Yang (Thai: ย่าง) means grilled, so Naem Yang (Thai: แหนมย่าง) is like a grilled fermented pork sausage. Very yummy. Very. I'm the one who's addicted to its taste.

DE4082 FRA - LAS; the 1st meal; Dec 2013

The photo shows a premium inflight-meal of Condor Flugdienst GmbH flight DE4082 Frankfurt, Germany to Las Vegas, NV, the United States of America (FRA - LAS). It was a 12-hour nonstop flight and the photo shows the 1st meal on board. When I opened the meal package and unveiled the lid, I felt like I was going to have a delicious four course dinner at a fancy restaurant in the sky. Veal with ratatouille salad as a starter, Braised beef Rouladen stuffed with veggies served with red cabbage sauerkraut and German potato dumplings was the main dish, cherry mouse with fruit jelly and custard for dessert. Also, not to mention Gouda Cheese and Camembert went really well with a glass of red wine. Premium economy. Once in a blue moon experience.

Beat a path to the footpath, a work of genius

I took this photo at the Park Güell in Barcelona, Spain. The Park Güell a large public park in Barcelona, and is a Unesco World Heritage Site as a part of Works of Antoni Gaudí. The photo shows colonnaded footpath in the Park Güell where I really wanted to walk through and it was definitely at the top of my bucket list ver. the Park Güell. The city of Barcelona had a lot of must-see sites, must-do things and must-eat items. With that, I made my very own bucket list ver. blah-blah-blah, ver. blah-blah-blah, ver. blah-blah-blah... and there were so many. Half the fun is making that kind of list, isn't it?

Late autumn view of Amsterdam, Holland

I took this photo in Amsterdam, Holland four autumns ago. It was a pleasant stay in a very beautiful city with the world-famous 17th-century canal ring area, a Unesco World Heritage Site. It was actually my second visit to Amsterdam, but my first visit was like just a visit. I wanted to do a lot of things, but I didn't have enough time to do so or something like that. So for my second visit to Amsterdam, I made my stay for eight days long, and I personally believe that a week or so is the right length of stay in Amsterdam as a tourist.

Šopska Salata

The photo shows Shopska Salad (Croatian: Šopska Salata) and a bottle of Heineken which I had at a restaurant in Zagreb, Croatia. Shopska Salad is also known as Balkan salad. I had it for the first time in the previous evening, and I ordered it again that night. It was a really yummy salad cooked with cheese. Since I was in the capital of Croatia, I ordered Karlovačko as always, but a huge local party was going on in the restaurant that night and Karlovačko ran out of stock. I could imagine why, so I went with plan B and ordered Heineken instead. Heineken is also my favourite beer, so no problem at all.

Beer was on tap and the view was simply superb

The photo shows a glass of Portuguese beer, Super Bock. I ordered the locals favourite beer at a restaurant under the Ponte Luís I in Porto, Portugal at this time in 2013. The Ponte Luís I is a metallic bridge which crosses over the Douro River and connects the city of Porto and Vila Nova de Gaia. The restaurant was in Porto side, so the view that I was viewing while I was drinking the good beer was Vila Nova de Gaia that is the city known as the home of Port wine. Overall, I had a very nice experience at the restaurant under the Ponte Luís I. The good beer, delicious food, and the fantastic view. Everything was to die for.

What would I do without Ps?

I took this photo while I was being a typical tourist who got so excited in a capsule of the London Eye in London, England, the United Kingdom. Since I was on the London Eye, I had better chances to take some Bond-ish photos from there. So I tried, of course. Even though some of the must-sees in London were located with their back to the light unfortunately. In that case, what would I do without Adobe Photoshop afterwards. Today I got some spare time to do so, so I manipulated one of my photos with some functions of Adobe Photoshop and the photo on this photo is the result. It's worth in its normal condition, but I think it's gotten much better with fabulous Photoshop functions.

I was there, right in the middle of happy foodies

I took this photo while I was waiting for my dinner was served at a river view restaurant in Bangkok, Thailand. First of all, I ordered a bottle of Singha and then flipped a menu to see what they have and what looked good. I chose a few of the locals favourites like Pad Pak Boong Fai Daeng (Thai: ผัดผักบุ้ง or ผัดผักบุ้งไฟแดง), Tom Yum Kung Nam Khon (Thai: ต้มยำกุ้งนำ้ข้น) and some Thai rice. Then I started to enjoy viewing the exotic twilight view and the atmosphere. It was a lot of pleasure being there as a part of happy foodies from all over the world.

หมูแดดเดียว & ข้าวเหนียว

The photo shows a can of Thai beer Chang, Moo Dad Deaw (Thai: หมูแดดเดียว), Khao Neaw (Thai: ข้าวเหนียว), and a cup of Nam Chim (Thai: นำ้จิ้ม). Moo Dad Deaw (Thai: หมูแดดเดียว) is like deep-fried sun-dried pork strip, Khao Neaw (Thai: ข้าวเหนียว) is Thai sticky rice. Also, dipping sauces are called Nam Chim (Thai: นำ้จิ้ม) in Thai. I've got Moo Dad Deaw (Thai: หมูแดดเดียว) and Khao Neaw (Thai: ข้าวเหนียว) with some spicy dipping sauce at a food stall on Soi Diana in Pattaya, Thailand and had them with a can of Chang in my hotel room. They are a match made in heaven.

ข้าวคลุกกะปิ

The photo shows Khao Khluk Kapi (Thai: ข้าวคลุกกะปิ). It's a type of Thai fried rice, but its taste is not that simple as you might have imagined from the word "fried rice". The rice of Khao Khluk Kapi (Thai: ข้าวคลุกกะปิ) is stir-fried fried rice with Thai shrimp paste (a.k.a. Kapi, Thai: กะปิ). That shrimp paste makes the fried rice tastes super. Basically, ข้าวคลุกกะปิ is served with a few variety of vegetables, some meat, deep-fried chili peppers, sliced omelette, just like the photo shows. I bought a pack of ข้าวคลุกกะปิ at a food stall on Pattaya Central Road in Pattaya, Thailand. It was delicious, absolutely. So I went back to the same food stall again and again, and I wanna go again.

Hello, Teddy!

I took this photo in front of Teddy Bear Museum in Pattaya, Thailand. I haven't been to the inside of the museum, but I'm always interested in visiting there. Since the museum is located at the corner of Pattaya Beach Road and Pattaya Soi 1, I have walked around in front of the museum many times. The huge Golden Teddy Bear was a very popular icon to take photos with, so this photo is my only photo of the huge Golden Teddy Bear without any other selfie lovers. I took this photo early in the morning, slightly before the place would be packed.

She's he?

I took this photo when I went to visit Tiffany's Show Pattaya, in North Pattaya, Thailand. I scored a third row seat and I really enjoyed watching the cabaret show. Also, I was gobsmacked to see how stunning transsexual dancers were. The show was amazing. It worth a visit (and then some more). During the shows, taking photos were not allowed. However, after the fantastic show was over, the stunning dancers were going to outside. There, taking photos were allowed whether with them or with one of your favourite dancer. Anyways, don't gorget to tip.