A Roll by Any Other Name Would Taste as Good

The French called it "La Roulade", the Americans "Jelly Roll" and the English "Swiss Roll". Locally, it is often referred to as the "sugar roll"; a snack made popular by Polar Puffs. It is essentially a sponge cake baked in a square or rectangular tin, then rolled around its filling of whipped cream or ganache.

Tiger Roll

For our third baking lesson at Creative Culinare, we learned to bake a basic roll and the "famous" tiger roll. As with sponge cakes, oil is used in place of butter, thus making the sponge cake light as air.

Baking the basic roll was quite straight forward. In fact, it is one of easiest cakes to bake. To decorate the roll, we can either make a rainbow roll (roll with 3 colours) or a feather roll. As we do not like to add colouring to our food, we opted for the feather roll instead. We were taught how to make the feather pattern on the roll using a satay stick. Our feather roll turned out very well and earned a lot of compliments from Chef Judy. Most of our classmates prefer to go for the rainbow roll instead.

The tiger roll actually consists of 2 parts - the "tiger skin" and the roll, each baked separately, then rolled together. We were told that this was an "accidental" creation by a Malaysian pastry chef. In this recipe, it takes 10 eggs to make the "tiger skin" and 5 for the basic roll. Hence, while it is a beautiful combination, being cholestrol-conscious, we resolved to do without the "tiger skin" in future.

The gods must be smiling on us today. Our rolls didn't crack -- this seems to be a common problem among comments posted on various blogs. To avoid the cracking, the common advice posted is to roll it immediately when it is out of the oven over a slightly wet towel. We did none of this and yet our rolls are soft and easy to roll. Kudos to Chef Judy's recipes!

Feather Roll

Hmm...now, we won't need to fret what to give friends for Christmas :) We will bake them swiss rolls with different types of fillings. Choc chips for the choc lover, maybe one with fresh strawberries or mangos for the fruit lover. The list goes on ...

More Pictures

Creative Culinaire Swiss Roll Lesson

As Light As Air

In our second lesson at Creative Culinaire, we learned how to bake chiffon cake — a cake that was described as “as light as air” by its creator, Henry Baker. Henry had created this recipe in the 1920s and then sold it to General Mills. The lightness of the cake comes from using beaten egg whites and oil instead of butter.

We were determined not to repeat the same disaster as our first lesson (read our blog “The Art of Mixing & Folding”). For our first cake, the Orange Chiffon Cake, we cleaned all the equipment and make sure that there is no hint of egg yolk in our egg whites mixture. All went well and our instructor, Chef Judy Koh, was quite impressed with the result. We even earned her compliment “This cake is good”.

However, our second cake, Walnut Chiffon Cake, did not go so well. Perhaps we had not cleaned the egg separator and our egg whites did not stiffen at all. It was a terrible feeling. My heart sank just looking at the mixture and willing it to rise, but fully knowing that it wouldn’t. At that point, we had to make a decision whether to go ahead or start all over. We decided to re-do our egg whites even though it may mean we do not have enough time to bake our third cake. It was well worth it. Although we over-beat the egg whites in our anxiety and the cake did not turn as as fluffy as some of our classmates’, it tasted delicious and we were happy with the way it turned out. It wasn’t FLAT :)

Somehow, we managed to find time to bake our third cake, the Pandan Chiffon Cake. It was the best of all the 3 chiffon cakes we baked that day. It was very fluffy and light. Everyone loved it and a friend even complimented that “it’s as good as that sold at Bengawan Solo”

As Judy mentioned at the start of the class, ” the difficulty in creating the perfect meringue will come back to haunt you”. It certainly did. However, knowing that it is not an unachievable task, as exemplified by our Pandan Chiffon Cake, serves to only spur us to perfect this elusive and exacting task.


The pandan in foreground, Orange Chiffon Cake on the right and Walnut Chiffon on the left

Les Artistes Bistrot – A Review

A few months ago, we came across a newspaper review about Chef Nicolas Joanny and his restaurants Nicolas Le Restaurant and Les Artistes Bistrot. The review mentioned the chef’s career in Michelin star-studded restaurants and compared the cuisine at his restaurants to the other French restaurant in town. Piqued, we jotted it down in our memory and waited for an occasion to try Chef Nicolas’ cuisine.


Les Artistes Bistrot

On May 11, with much anticipation and excitement, we went to the Les Artistes Bistrot for lunch. The restaurant serves only a-la-carte set menu priced from $34++ for 3 courses. The previous day, we had looked through the menu posted on their website (http://www.restaurantnicolas.com/thebistrot.html) and were impressed by the range of items available. With some difficulty (as all the items seemed so delicious), we selected the items that we would be having so that we could try as many different items as possible.

As it turned out, the menu was quite different from the online one. The starters on this menu did not appeal as much to me. As for the main course, the pork belly & cod fillet as posted on the main menu were missing. Most of the items cost an additional S$8 to S$10. Even the dessert list was disappointing. It was very frustrating. For me, if any business has a website, then the information should be up-to-date. This is simply basic internet etiquette. If this cannot be achieved, then it is better not to post it all at.


Complimentary Starter
Salami, duck and garlic toast


Porcini Mushroom Soup

For starters, I selected the Porcini mushroom soup while W tried the Millefeuille (photos shown above). The soup was neither too creamy nor heavy. However, on the taste department, I would rate it as average. The Millefeuille was delicious – delivering harmonious flavours wrapped in the thin and crisp “wanton-like”. The complimentary starter (the middle picture) comprising salami, duck and garlic toast were pretty good too, with the slightly salty salami balancing the more delicate taste of the shredded duck.


Millefeuille


Leg of Lamb


Zingari IGT


Beef cheek

For the main course, I ordered the braised beef cheek while W (my companion) ordered the leg of lamb (photos shown above). The portions were generous. The beef cheek is very flavourful and tender. I love the presentation of this dish too. The mashed potato was served in the cup. The leg of lamb, on the other hand, tasted rather bland. We will definitely not recommend this dish at all. The toscana wine that we ordered matched well with the beef cheek but overpowered the lamb rack. The wine is made in the new world style with plummy and jammy flavours – a rather ordinary wine at S$65 for a half-bottle.

The bistrot has a good selection of wines, although in my opinion, they are somewhat over-priced. The wines are priced close to 3 times retail price. One interesting find is the Didier Dagueneau Silex 2005 at S$390. What was commendable though was that no questions were asked when a customer returned a bottle of seemingly corked / oxidized wine. The waiter simply opened another bottle of the same wine for the customer to sample.


Sugar bowl


Choc Island


Crepe Suzette

Finally, for dessert, I have the Chocolate Island while W ordered the Crepe Suzette. The other desserts are meringue-based and I am not a fan of meringues. My Chocolate Island is a single piece of warm milk chocolate in a bowl of cold white chocolate. A simple but delicious combination. The crepe suzette however is really ordinary. Poor W.

We certainly have expected a lot more from the food by a chef with such an illustrous career as Chef Nicolas. While we applaud the idea of changing the menu to keep regulars happy, we feel that it is important to load the lastest menu online. We are not sure if we will return to the restaurant. Perhaps it is time to try the other French restaurant in town that also serves a-la-carte set lunch and dinner.

The Art of Mixing and Folding

Inspired by the delicious banana cake baked by a friend, we asked for the recipe and tried our hands at baking it too. Our first attempt was acceptable – the cake tastes good though it has a burnt bottom and sank slightly in the middle. Our second attempt a week later fared better – the cake was more delicious (we used riper bananas this time), no burnt bottom nor sagging middle but it was a little dense at the bottom.We thought some professional advice would be timely, so we signed up for the Cake Baking Foundation Course at Creative Culinaire. The first class was on baking butter cakes. Judy Koh, chef cum teacher, taught the class different creaming methods and showed the right way of mixing and folding ingredients.

We couldn’t wait to start baking our first cake – a Walnut Butter Cake. The creaming went well, but our egg white just wouldn’t stiffen no matter how long we whisk it. As a result, our walnut cake did not rise much. Well, it did become a star though — it was used in the post-mortem to show the rest of the students what watery egg whites do to cakes.

We are quite proud of our second cake – a Marble Butter Cake. It was moist and delicious — attested by friends whom we shared the cake with. Our partners (4 of us shared a working table) baked the Sunflower Cupcakes while we were still labouring over our walnut cake. When the cupcakes have cooled, we have fun dipping them in molten chocolate and dressing them up as beautiful sunflowers.

While we were busy baking, Judy cut her walnut cake into pieces for us to try. It was the lightest and fluffiest walnut cake that we have ever tasted. We are now more inspired than ever to perfect the art of mixing, whisking and folding. While we are still some light years away from that, we are keeping our fingers crossed that our cake will not again be the “star” in the next class.




- M <
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Unusual Chinese Character - 傩

Well I have not been reading chinese materials much these days - it is unfortunate that despite having learning the language for 13 years and at some stage was pretty proficient - read+write+speak. Apart from Hong Kong/China/Taiwan/Singapore TV shows/movies in Chinese, there is really very superficial contact with this language - which is an amazing language. There is little opportunity to really use it since everyday life is mostly carried out in English. I find that I can hardly write any chacracters these days - after almost 13 years since I write any decent length material in Chinese!! Real Pity!

Recent years I still read a little news and articles on the web, like on tom.com, sina.com - mainly for sports related stuff.

I have some "fanciful" chinese book - some are novels and some compilations of short novels which I bought over the years, read a few pages and put aside. I like books but not neccessary going to read them.

Anyway I picked up one of them and started reading a little lately. Compilations of short essays and travel related on places in China - 余秋雨 (yu-qiu-yu) -简要读本。It was an interesting book and introduced me to places I have not really come across. e.g. 月牙泉 - a spring surrounded by sand dunes!! How did it ever not get buried????? (from article 沙原隐泉)





In another article （贵池傩）there was a character which seems so easy but then I never come across 傩. I cannot even pronounce it. Looks like 难 (nan) or is it closer to 滩 (tan) . I cannot find it in the "limited" dictionary I have. Took some effort to google phrases and finally I found it！！

傩 (nuo2)

I found the term 傩戏 (nuo2 xi4 or Nuo Opera) - and jog my memory to the movie 夜宴 where Daniel Wu was putting a mask and in some form of perfomance. A very old form of folk opera it seemed - wiki says "nuo ceremony was first recorded on bones and tortoise shells during the Shang Dynasty (16th-17th century BC), and flourished in the Zhou Dynasty (11th century-256BC)."

An interesting character and I am going to read the rest of the article. I got stuck at the title of the article .. 贵池傩 (the 3rd character) ....

You can find similarities with the Japanese Noh art form - the type of masks, theme of the performance etc. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noh

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What LaLaWines?

They are wines from E. Gugal in Côte-Rôtie which produces wines that are mind blowing - the famous growths of the Côte-Rôtie ‘La Mouline’, ‘La Turque’ and ‘La Landonne’

It should be LaLaLa wines :)

We had a chance to participate in a tasting event that brought vinatges of these wines all the way to the 1960s - it was an amazing & unforgettable experience.

We have yet to purchase any bottle yet. Maybe with the recession and less demand, prices will be more realistic. Let's see!

Bordeaux En Primeur 2008 - Recession??

Is there really a recession?

No doubt en primeur prices are down, I think still a little higher than 2001 prices, Chateau Latour was sold out in hours (for 2 tranches)!! I just was thinking I finally can afford a few bottles for drinking in maybe 20 YEARS - SOLD OUT!! And between 1st tranche and 2nd tranche, the price went from S$285 (US$1 ~ S$1.5 Singapore dollar) to S$338 (almost 20%) - Are these people seriously going to drink them or just another speculative move! I am no longer much interested in anything higher priced than this. People have to be reminded wines are perishables and will not last forever (though 20-30 years is a LONG time)

Read some news here

Leoville Barton is priced at about S$60 a bottle, I think very good price (+S$20 shipping & tax = $80) I would say and hope I will manage to get some - I will drink them

There are quite a few interesting wines this year - I will to keep an active lookout for them.

Seems like the good stuff goes very fast! Is there really a recession I really wonder!!

Tone Curve in Photoshop/Lightroom

Managed to buy a legal copy of Adobe Photoshop Lightroom recently after a free trial download from the internet. It was a very neat piece of software to organize a big collection of pictures and able to do some touch up on the pictures. It is pricey (USD$250) though and if you don't take tons of pictures, I honestly think it is an overkill

Why lightroom for me?
- Non-destructive, the original image is always untouched even with all sorts of adjustments applied
- workflow, import - touchup - upload to flickr + watermark + bordering - different export presets
- backup catalog, and easy to move directory and update the catalog accordingly
- integration with CS/Photoshop Element

One thing I find most lacking is ability to export a video slideshow to a DVD. It export to a pdf slideshow OMG!! I don't understand

Anyway some interesting youtube tutorial
- tone curve adjustment
- adjustment brush

Jaisalmer 27 Jan 2009

27 Jan (2nd day of Lunar New Year)

Jaisalmer - Hotel Royale

As usual breakfast was not served any earlier than 8am despite we still waking at 6am when the rythmic horns from trucks broke the peace of the night. Previous night, we slept at 10+pm right after dinner at the hotel. The dinner is quite unsatisfactory despite being vegetarian, apart from very oily, small portions, prices are on par with the reputable Trio restaurant. Would not recommend eating anything other than breakfast at this hotel.

The morning view of the fort from the rooftop dining area is superb with the morning sunlight reflected off the stones with a warm orange glow. Perfect for pictures.

The entrance of the fort is 5 minutes away. Again warm glowing sunshine bouncing off the walls and bastions.
The golden fort indeed. Jaisalmer is almost entirely dependent on tourism and they are good with tourists so beware of almost anyone chatting you up. "where are you from?" korea..japan..china.. It's difficult to tell where we are from exactly, ignoring these people totally usually works. If you are unaware, it's a question to gauge your "economic power", the type of cameras you carry, and we have a camera each .. Probably look "delicious". We saw a chinese girl surrounded by 6-7 people on the way out of the fort, the male companion was 20 steps ahead so just a harrasment on a young lady I supposed.



Just wandered off in the small narrow alleys within the fort (free entrance). Don't worry about getting lost as they all lead back to the central square where the entrance to the museum was.

The alleys are intermingled with street vendors, free roaming cows and their dung. ...namaste..anyohaseyo...hello...have a look.. Hundreds of stalls selling more or less the same things. The amazing carvings out of sandstones which you discovered as you start wandering among the alleys, and there are several Jain temples within. After Ranakapur, we did not bother with the hassle of removing shoes to enter, you can heard the chanting from outisde. There are "priests" of questionable motive of offering blessings for a donation as we seen in Ranakapur. The main temple requires entry and camera fee. I suppose if you are not visiting Ranakapur, it's a good experience. It seems a very crowded place with tourists probably the feeling created by the narrow alleys.

Only lunch choice is vegetarian within the fort. They all serve pretty much the same, trying to cater to the various tourists groups .. Pasta, korean, chinese, continental ..etc. I had safe choice of masala omelette and basmati fried rice and M had tomato pasta with cheese which looked really yucking to me as it looked very orangy. M wanted something non Indian with less oil, and quite appreciated the change. I enjoyed my self mixed egg fried rice which omelette was shared with M. They are more generous portion than Hotel Royal. The lunch place was the rooftop of some "Sunset View" Restaurant overlooking the town, the desert to the west filled with hundreds of wind turbines. Jaisalmer is 160km from Pakistan border separated by Thar desert, you can see the military presence around getting in and out of Jaisalmer. From the restaurant, you can see fighter jets landing in the west every few minutes.



After lunch, we visited the fort museum 250rs includes camera fee and audio guide. The state of the guide is not as well maintained as Megrangarh and an indication of the quality of the sights in this museum vs Mehrangarh for the same $. It's still worth the visit, 30 stops with 3 on the rooftop which gives a very good view around from the fort built on the triangular Trikuta hilltop. You can see Gadisar lake from here too. We took 3 hours to finish at a very leisurely pace and walked back to hotel to rest before dinner, telling the driver we'll skip Gadisar.

Apparently internet was not working the whole day in jaisalmer. There is a common PC across the reception but as of any such PC, you never know of virus and dangers lurking on it. I accidentally found that for the suite (room 107) we paid the price for travel agents which includes breakfast and our price don't. The price quoted to us originally was double, whew! Anyway breakfast for 2 of us is less than 100rs. The room was indeed very nice - spacious with good fort view. Hot water is a little inconsistent as most places.

We asked for non-veg recommendations. Trio was suggested. It's at Mandir palace about 10min walk through the local markets. We were tore between tandoori chicken or bryiani. We ordered one portion of bryani lamb and chicken (115rs each) and another mixed vegatables. All very tasty! Probably the difference between a proper restaurant and a hotel "kitchen". 2 hours after a very satisfying non-veg dinner at Trio Restaurant (it lives up to its reputation) for 360rs (includes a 7-up which I added some of my rum) it takes credit card even, we went to bed at 10pm+ ... Only disturbed slightly with a fierce dog fight in the middle of the night. We did not feel unsafe walking back to hotel, just beware of cow dung in the not too bright spots. The only thing I don't like is the live village music which started after I took my seat right behind me. It's too close and the noise gave me a headache and I moved right to the end of the restaurant to have a more peaceful dinner after realizing after the first piece of music it was going on for the whole night! I read that the musicians expect a tip as do most in the industry dealing with foreign tourists, I was not appreciative of the noise and damage to my peace. Sorry no tips ... The musicians were all smiles and namaste when we walked by behind them.

Dera Eco - Kichan - Jaisalmer [26 Jan 2009]

6+am I went outisde the tent with my camera and tripod to catch the dawn light. I heard what the french lady (the only other tourist at the camp) described - radio blasting away and waking her the previous morning, some distance away in the west some villagers with newly discovered application of Electricity!

Breakfast at 8am - very "toasted" toast, probably over a clay oven and masala omelette with orange juice, chai and bananas. The camp puppy kept wanting to play with us. M was irritated by the doggy biting her shoes :) I had to distract the puppy and bring it outside to play, but I guess it has more energy than me.

We were packed to go by 8.45am and with Mr Singh's jeep we met our driver back at Harlai at 9am to Kichan for Demoselle cranes watching.



About 45min drive, though the driver seemed unsure about the exact watching place, we spent 5-10min going around Kichan. Finally a turn into a small alley, we saw birds flying above us, and then more cranes! There was a dog blocking the driver's path and he sounded the horn and that scared the birds as we saw many took to the sky.

There was a watching platform above Bird View Guesthouse and our driver communicated with a teenager boy and he invited up to watch. There were some seats and a European lady was watching. Below about 10 meters away, within a fenced compound, there were hundreds of cranes feeding on grains. On and off one or a couple or a small group would take flight and some others would join the others extending their necks picking up the grains. It's pure joy watching them. M went down stairs along the perimeter to an inner area where another big group was feeding. A dog seemed to be guarding the access to the birds, first chasing off a cow and then his wary eyes on M. Our driver "talked" to the dog and asked M to go ahead, "no problem" he said. The european lady then commented "if the distance get too close, it's a problem". Well, M is aiming for a great shot :) The lady begun her wary eyes on M, while I was busy catching the cranes taking off and landing. M is out of my sight and probably 300m away. Next thing I knew the lady was running to M, I guess M had gone too close. The lady must be an experienced biologist or something, looking at her gears and she stayed at the guesthouse, I realized later. M told me the lady said the cranes will get stressed and disturbed if M get too close. M was truly apologetic, she never thought of it that way. At the moment I saw the lady "lecturing" M, I thought about the comment the french lady at Dera Eco made about environment protection needs a lot of money to put in place, especially when people are struggling for basic survival, villagers collecting firewood everyday for warmth at night, without burning or electricity, will someone give them solar panels to generate power from the plentiful sunshine.

Back to the birds, I took some shots, nice but limited by the zoom. With the motor drive, I'm happy with what I captured. As we learned from the teenager boy through our driver, there is a trust that provide the financial resources to feed the birds which visiting population has grown tremendously. I also thought about where these birds fit in the food chain, do they not fit a purpose than migration and feeding.

We donated 200rs to the trust, the driver insisted the teenager boy went to the office for the receipt. From the driver, it was said it takes 1000rs to feed the cranes daily. The teenager even made us some chai which I forgot about paying for or maybe the driver did.

After we have our receipt, about 11am we set off for Jaisalmer. We reached at close to 2pm and went to checked out Shahi Palace and it's related Oasis Haveli, only small rooms are available which is rather really small which we did not take. The fort view fork the terrace is very nice thought. The driver took us around to Green Hotel which rooms do not look very clean and there were flies around. We then looked at Hotel Royal which is about one year old, 5 min walk from the fort entrance. They are supposely working mainly with larger tour groups. We were shown 2500rs heritage room and 3000rs suite. After some bargaining we took the heritage room without breakfast. While we were checking in, the lady manager or boss told us they would give us the suite room at no additonal cost as they have a cancellation. We were more than delighted.


The room was very nice and spacious. There were 3 sort of sitting balconies with one of them in the very big bathroom.

Dera Eco - Osian -- 25 Jan 2009

25 Jan (Lunar New Year eve)
Sunday

- Shahi Guesthouse Jodpur Old City
We made some instant porridge with some baked caschew nuts to eat early at 7am as we want to set off at 8am. (we carry a multi boiler like a big opening hot water boiler which we had carry with us for many trips. It was a little cubersome but we can make hot water whenever there is electricity and some instant noodles or porridge for a quick meal or when we are sick from local food or really sick and need some plain stuff). Packed our stuff to check out of the suite room. It's a very nice room and we got it with no discount (prebooked). I'm sure the price can be lower if it was empty when you arrive in the city. I was rather disappointed Mr Bantu did not offer to pay the tutu that take us out from the alleys to meet with our driver at the clock tower. It was not a big amount 30-40rs but considering we paid the full price for 2 nights, it would be a very nice gesture. Not to mention the previous night dinner rather sucks! Felt like the same food from the day before (it was mentioned the cook was absent) It was not cheap 350rs for 2 vegetarian set. Anyway would not recommend meals here. I would only stay here for the excellent view of the fort, clean rooms and consistent hot showers. (though the shower hose was leaking very badly and spraying water all over, we forgot to mention to the owners)

In the early hours (Indians don't start their day early), there was no traffic around the clock tower, the transfer back to the Innova was non-event.



- Osian
I think about an hour we reached Osian. It does not look very exciting from the street outside. We changed into our flip flops and they went left on the shelves after the entrance. No touts at all, real surprise. M met a family later and we took some pictures together and started to use our Fuji Instax - polaroid-like instant camera. Not sure it was the airport x-ray, the colors all look washed out. They were a big extended family from various parts of India that have come together here at this Osian temple to pray. It was pretty crowded and some vigirous singing and crowd around the inner altar. There was a young girl Isah? That was pushed out of the instant picture her uncle wanted with his 2 sons. Part of the family are jewellers in Jaipur and invited us to call them when we were in Jaipur. We were the only tourists the whole morning and certainly standing out from the crowd. Even as we left, we kept seeing streams of people flowing in, guess it was a popular temple. (We did visit the family when we were in Jaipur later)




Harlai Village, near Phalodi

Our driver met Mr Singh of Dera Eco off the road at a railway crossing to bring us into the camp. We took our car to Harlai Village and Mr Singh took us in his jeep to the camp. It was really windy and quite a bit of sand get onto my face as I was sitting at the back of the vehicle. M was fortunate to be in the passenger seat. 10-15min of bumpy ride into the desert, we saw the tents of the camp. It looked lovely, like a dream - camps in desert like out of nowhere. Mr Singh is a fashionale man, sunglasses with cowboy hat - pretty cool and of course a moustache.




We were served chai. Mr Singh explained to us the workings of the camp, no electricity and they employed people from the nearby villages, workers, camels, building the camp, etc. There was only 1 other guest - a french lady, who decided to stay another night. Earlier in the day a party of 7 europeans had left. They played volley ball in the sand previous day. We were brought to our tent to wash up a little while the staff prepared lunch.

The tent entrance was with a canvas cover and 2 wooden chairs with a table places outside. The space inside was comfortable, 2 small beds with a small table in between and places for luggage and 2 chairs. Pretty much what I had in mind. A separate flap opens to the toilet. A sit down flush system in the desert, a shower area with 2 taps but no hot water? I did not shower for the day, M did after our camel ride at 6+pm and was shivering badly after. I guess only possible to shower when the sun is high up.

Together with the french lady, 3 of us took a short camel ride of about 45min to the sand dunes on individual camel with the camel driver in the back seat. It was not as difficullt as I imagine, you are fine if you just with the motion of the camel. The difficulty is getting on an off the camel. We came across some gazalle deers. The camel stopped at the base of the sand dunes, I was a little disappointed they did not ride on top. Anyway it was a steep climb so probably not that safe. We took some effort to walk up and wow!!The sand extended over the horizon in front of us and the wind was blowing slightly bringing sand onto our face. 3 young girls ran all over from the other side of the dune to M but did not ask for money or anything. Interesting .. Pretty rare, guess tourism has not hit this corner. M used the Fuji Instax and took some pictures and gave them which made them very happy. After which they asked the french lady to do the same on her digital camera :) They must be confused why it cannot. I wanted to take a look at the printed picture and they were so frightened when I tried to get closer. This was where tourism had not arrived and the cast system and male-female difference is very much kept alive. It took another 45min to go back. The camel drivers did not ask anything from us - guess we were too wary of all in the tourism trade. Mr Singh paid one of them and they hanged around chatting among themselves.




We went back to tent to clean up and have a rest. The staff brought tea and we had it outside the tent. Soon it was sunset, the sun dropped at the back of our tent giving the horizon a beautiful purplish pink glow. Gradually it turned very dark, we were given kerosene lamp which can be hung on a stand on front of tent and also a torchlight. It was pitched dark very soon.

There were plenty of stars by dinner time and we walked to the dinner hut with the torchlight. It's a candlelight dinner of course and the food was very good including chicken. We drank the brunello 2003 we brought, though the beverages were all included in the price including kingfisher beer.

After dinner there was music and dance around the campfire which was very useful to keep warm. The villagers who we were told are of snake charmer cast :) Everyone has a cast it seems. The entertainment was pretty good and we were invited to dance a little too. We rest for the night with the millions of stars overhanging above us.



It's very cold night in the desert at the camp off Harlai Village. The sky was like a desert of its own filled with blinking stars ... Thousands and millions of them, no matter which direction you look. I wanted to capture it on the camera with a 2 hour exposure and had set an alarm to wake me to click off the shutter, unfortunately I didn't expect the battery to run flat .. Arghh electronics.

Thers is no electricity at the camp, no hot water, no lights ... We go to bed when the camp fire died out (burning sticks and branches and damaged furniture blown out into the desert previous year) after the villagers finish their performance, they too gathered around a fire of their own for warmth. We finished our bottle of Brunello di Montalcino 2003 around the fire before it died out. -it not the best vintage btw, the weather was too hot in 2003. 2004 is a fantastic vintage on the other hand :)

Jodpur 24 Jan 2009

24 Jan - Saturday

Jodpur - our driver got off today as we decided it's easier to take tuktuk or walk to the fort



- Shahi Guesthouse Jodpur Old City
The view of the fort is great from the guesthouse with the morning sunshine bouncing off the walls of the impressive fort standing across the ridge on top of the blue city. It was still a little chilly this early. I found the helper - Shanker was still asleep. No eggs and vegetarian breakfast - toast & banana chocolate pancakes with our instant no sugar coffee.

Mr Bantu advised to conserve our energy for the fort and take tuktuk instad of walking up the fort - very good advice! It's not a short walk, if we had stayed outside the old city, we would have our driver take us. We only managed to bargain to 50rs which seemed to be the price for foreigners. I think it was still over charged ... Sigh. Same amount to return.

Mehrangarh ticket includes the audio guide which we find to be the best audio guide among the sights. We took our time (3hr) to finish the fort and had lunch at the café at the exit - just ok for a quick lunch. Jodpur was in the former region of the Marwar (I was confused with Udaipur Mewar) and the seat of power for the Rajput Rathore clan. And Mehrangarh was probably the only reason to go to Jodpur, the market in the old city around the clock tower is pretty dull and very dusty, you can finish in 30min. M bargained for a set of bangle for 30rs which is probably the normal price - down from 100rs. Our driver told us foreigner has to bargain down to 30% and for local 30% down.

There is an area known for block printing - Balotra which I only learned later when we visited Anokhi Museum of Hand Printing. I think it is pretty rural and sothwest of Jodpur, if you have a driver and very keen in textile, it looks very interesting. (I bought a book that described the process of one family in the area)Otherwise do visit the museum while in Jaipur, just at the base of Amer fort - hidden in the Amer village within a restored haveli.

We had a little difficulty finding the way back to guesthouse as we thought it was nearer. Anyway if you turn left after the exit to the markets and keep walking straight till you see a green mosque, you will find signs to get to it. Might be even more difficult in the night.

Also dinner sucks! Cook was absent due to some personal emergency and we were served sort of what we suspected leftover from previous night, it looked & tasted so similar. We did not see others having dinner.

India Delhi - Rajasthan Jan-Feb 2009

21 Jan 2009 - Wednesday

Delhi
The flight arrived early 5.50am and we thought the driver had not arrived to pick us as we did not spot the signage among those of the 5 star hotels. It happened that non-passgeners have to wait after the exit. No touts or whatever at that hour, too early I learned later, Indian start their day mostly towards 10am.

We were shown to our car - Toyota Innova, by Mr Rampal Rao (from Rajasthan Four Wheel Drive), our driver for the first day in Delhi. We were given a folder with corporate profile and the cards with drivers detail including phone numbers. Ram advised we go back into the terminal to get phone SIM card as nowhere is open yet and the activation should be quicker. We got 2 cards for about 400rs each with like 30min local talktime. They need the local address - hotel address will do, a passport photo and they took a copy of the passport detail. Can only pay in cash and work perfectly with our older Nokia phones.

We decided against going to saubhag bed&breakfast directly since it was really early and went to Humayun's Tomb. Supposed to open from sunrise, when we reached there it was already bright and 7.05am but they refused to let us in and said open from 7.30am, then at 7.30am they said the ticket man is not here yet, Rampal threatened to bring us to tourism office to file a complaint - well Indian way of working. Anyway the ticket man appeared and we got our "foreigner" tickets which is priced very highly different from Indian tickets. We spent about 2.5hours and went to saubhag bed&breakfast.



Meera Dass - the owner was very nice, it was her home on the lower floor, and she looked after us really well. She made us breakfast at no charge and told us what we could do for the day and gave us some bananas to pack for the sightseeing.

We went to Jama Masjid which was quite a letdown and they collected 200rs for camera fee - there was not much things to shoot. No doubt it is a holy place but the desire to collect exorbitant prices left such a bad taste. We respect people's religion but I find it unjustifiable to collect such a huge fee when there is nothing much to offer, even Turkey blue mosque is free and visibly a lot more exciting. Skip this place if you do not have enough time.

After that we went to Karim for late lunch, we figured it was easier to cross the Masjid square after we came out and they refused to let us in again without paying a camera fee even though I have kept it. Entry is free so they insisted we have a camera in the bag and must pay the fee!! Ridiculous!! Anyway after some haggling, and mentioning Karim, they let us cross. Just took the shoes and hold in our hands. India - never take NO as the answer.



Not too hard to find Karim, directly opposite Gate 3 and on the left side, in one small lane. It was packed despite being 3pm, we had some small portions since dinner is coming up. But it was good! After that we walked along the outside perimeter of the mosque to meet our driver.

We wanted to go the spice market to have a look and was told only accessible by rickshaw as the lanes are too small. We then tried to get hold of one, Rampal after a while came down from the car and tried to help us. One "manager" asked for 200rs!! That is not the price, we were told it was about 50rs. Rampal told us these days nobody do 50rs, do not know how much truth. One thing I observed, they were not keen to obstruct each other business, e.g. driver should not help to get a better deal for us directly, we have to do it ourselves sort of thing. Meera helped when she brings her guests shopping and thus sometimes got into arguments with sellers. We got the rickshaw at 80rs. It was a teenager boy and his skill was good, navigating the small lanes and alleys with hundreds of other rickshaws and cows, humans, dogs, etc. It was quite an amazing experience. By the time we got the spice market we did not really want to get down, the sight and smell along the way was enough to fill our senses. We headed back and gave the boy 100rs as he asked - it spoilt them I know but it was really hard work.

We headed back to B&B to wash up and prepare for dinner. Meera <saubhagbedandbreakfast@ yahoo.com> had her staff prepared a fabulous spread - non vegetarian and the ice-cream with roasted almond is heavenly!! I still missed it. Her son also had dinner with us and we had good conversation. As we were the only guest, we sort of had the second floor all to ourselves including the common area. We used the internet PC for a while and turned in early as our flight next day to Udaipur is at 7am, the driver is coming at 5am! Meera was going to pack us some sandwiches as she was not sure the Kingfisher airline served breakfast and in case of flight delays etc, we will have something to munch. So thoughtful!!