About 2 weeks ago, i went away to Malaysia for a couple of days.

I woke up to a skyscraper view & a gorgeous breakfast of very many things.

After the first 2 days of trying to try everything, i returned to eating Toast & cereal.

I did manage to eat assorted dim sums, supremely yummy waffles with blueberry compote & whipped cream, some Malaysian savouy snacks etc over the days i spent at the hotel.

Malaysia is a really pleasing place.Everybody in KL seemed to speak English. The landscape though filled with giant glass structures still keeps its green intact.slick retail spaces with great discounts, great for fashion, food & interior inspiration! whats not to like?

The country side is charming. houses on stilts & ladies in conversation.Chinese temples every couple of kms. Beautiful roads & hill sides of green.

I did reject a lot of foods based on the smells & quite a few things were stinky but i did try some new things like, cats eye juice (the fruit looks like a cats eye & hence the name).It's light & tastes like a cross between a mild fruit & tea. There was the hot pink dragon fruit juice which had a peppered look because of its crushed seeds.I tried some local Malaysian fast foods joints & food at a charming riverside restaurant at Selangor. Oyster with eggs, lamb meatballs, prawns in hot oil, fish stew, the real Nasi Goreng with satay chicken & tons of chocolates :)

Pondicherry

2009 was a good year, a full year.

There were many trips to places. Pondicherry.mysore.hampi.gokarna.goa.mangalore.ahmedabad.surendranagar....and pondicherry again!! there was the start and end of my first job.

there was lots of food and dramarama in aiyyorama land!

i only realised all this when i seated myself on the warm toasty rocks at the pondicherry promenade while eating very very bland chana chat on the last day of 2009.

Pondicherry , second time over was very very different from my first trip there.The first trip was when the accordian in my head was playing the beautiful background score while i cycled past quaint looking houses, policemen dressed in white and old building washed in white........

The second trip was a lot of walking(in squares) arounds blocks in the french quarter of pondicherry, looking for internet cafes, asking for directions, waiting for long lengths of time for a weak ice tea to show up etc.......

well..there was all that, deep introspection and then dinner!

And the more important one of them all was dinner.

Pondicherry is like any medium sized tamil town with a lot of political posters and burly black men in lungis.Its crwoded and shows signs of their trip towards development...but then theres also the much talked about french quarter of pondicherry with its heritage buildings and streets with one too many hoardings.

there was a lot of food and inevitable chilling out as a by product of the extremly "laid back bordering on lazy" service.

we did many rounds of the ice tea/lemon soda/coffee routine but none turned out to be too good to be true. charmingly lit up little houses with nice music tempted us in.promises of wood fired pizzas with genrous meat toppings lured us in.the craving of good sea food and fancy sounding french names made us want to try these places out but we were served weak ice teas, bland pasta and sandwiches with missing fillings.

an overpriced menu with very average food and dissapointing service.

there was a time during the trip when 3 out of 5 of us in the group had to make trips to the kitchen since our requests were going compltly unnoticed by the staff.....but all said and done...i wouldnt want to take away from the slightly watery but quite delicious caramel custard and very robust looking prawns with mashed potatoes meal that my friend ordered....also the sea breeze did more than just make me super happy.

the little quite beach away from paradise beach was pure joy and reminded me why i keep going back to little beach towns for vacations.

And yes of course, there was some spirit and some more spirit to keep us hiccuping into the wee hours of the freshly arrived 2010.There were friends, there was humour (in the form of a half gujju /half english entertainment unit), there was music and there were also the pondicherry-ites who sped and skid on their bikes yelling like crazy maniacs into the beautiful blue mooned night of 2010. (well, everyone has their way of saying hello to the new year i suppose!)

Next on the list should definatly be something a little more adventureous.....(i dont mean bungee jumping of rafting.....i still have a weak heart!) but yes...2010 is about change.....:) so cheers to that!