Dessert

Today's Cake.
Was a bit of nice sponge served together with a raspberry ice cream, a crisp spoon of pancake and a blue- & raspberry sauce.

Viande ou Poisson

In fact we both had different dishes, but I am the one blogging, so you get my dishes.

3em Plat

Mugwort Verde Salsa

2em Plat

Okinawan Pumpkin Cream Soup.

1er Plat:

Poche of Angle shrimp.

Todays five courses at Kerama Terrace Hotel, Aharen Beach, Tokashiki island

Lost at Tokashiki port.

Waiting for a bus at the port in Tokashiki. We took a bus there earlier in the hope for some excitement during a grey and rainy day. It was a big disappointment. Went for a walk through town, there was nothing apart from rust, empty streets and gardens. No restaurants or cafe,s, well maybe just we didn't find them. Now on way back to hotel and fab five courses.

Sent from my iPhone

Awesome personalised menu and dinner.

At hotel Kerama Terrace located at Aharen Beach on the island of Tokashiki. Had a 5 course dinner treat with a personalised menu. Look at the right corner of the printed menu. The dishes is from upper left corner with the cake in the lower right corner.

Aharen Beach, Tokashiki island

Beautiful beach with lot of space and tranquility.

At soba oma's Okinawian Soba Shop.

Arrived at Tokashiki island east of Zamami. Same same like Zamami, relaxing and quiet. A better beach close to the city though, but city as Zamami. Few restaurants and many closed today, Thursday. We found one with typical soba noodles. It was busy as it was one of the only ones open, run by an elderly lady - she was probably over 100, but looked 60 something as okinawan are known to be among the longest living humans on earth, caused by healthy nutrition - who seemed stressed and sort of unfriendly as we came in with some other people, and another group had just left, so she was probably stressed out by all the people.

Zamami island 360.

Back at Zamami island. Nice quiet place where you need to book breakfast and dinner if you want to be sure to get any. Stunningly beautiful and calming for the mind.

Okinawa spring.

Have just arrived in Okinawa for a relaxing Easter break. Nice pork hot pot in traditional butcher restaurant in Naha. Tomorrow we will be heading out on the big ocean to some of the remote islands around here, and hopefully see some humpback whales. Keep you guys posted.

Airport collage

What about a breakfast blog post?

From our little local square in Sai Kung. Nice Saturday breakfast outside. And best of it all, it is the beginning of the Easter holidays.

The Jeepney

Saw them the first time in May 2009 and were stunned. There were huge numbers of them on the streets of Manila. 
Some of them were shiny chromed metal, others were painted like colourful celebrations of life in the Christian belief with huge painted homages to God. All of them with a resemblance to big US trucks, only in miniature format.
Their function is to transport people in Manila to what ever destination they need and on routes not covered by an insufficient public transport system.

Their nickname is "Jeepney" and they are in fact related to the "Willy's Jeep", which was left by the Americans in the Philippines after the end WW 2.

From my first visit to Manila I believed that they were all built from the chassis of a Willy"s jeep, nut that isn't the truth, and Here is how I found that out.

February 2013. Makati City, Manila. Visiting friends. Not only us are visiting from Hong Kong. It is like a kind of reunion of former colleagues from Dresden International School. They've come from Hanoi and Ho Chi Min City as well to Manila to catch up and enjoy the Chinese New Year Holiday. Unfortunately our hosts didn't have a holiday, they had to shuffle while we were lazying around.
As I was the only gentleman among the visitors, it obviously had to happen; the ladies wanted to go shopping. What to do? Join them or go out on my own in the Manila jungle? Not the easiest option, and probably not the safest either, as I wanted to get away from the guarded shopping malls.
The solution came from our host Simon. As he was working anyway, the driver could take me to the Jeepney Factory and show me around there. Thank you very much.

The most known and reliable Philippine Jeepney brand or make is called Sarou, and that was where Ramal took me.
It didn't really look like a factory, more like a kind of workshop where a kind of community shared the same project, making costume made cars.

Everything is done by hand. The design hasn't changed much since 1958, only the chassis has gotten longer the recent years, to be able to cope with the growing demand of transportation in the city.

I had a nice day in Ramals company as he showed me not only this Jeepney workshop, but also took me through some of the high lights of old central Manila.

Why not?

Why not get p..... at the P... Bar?
East TST, Hong Kong.

Among deer in Nara

Hi There.

I've sent this to you as a kind of recommendation for a App.
Like the new Pope I am a humble guy and always go for free stuff, if it is good, that is.
This App recommended here is called "fotopedia" and is photo stories shot in different countries.
Right now I've got the Japan, China and North Korea fotopedia App installed, and I really enjoy it. Fantastic photos, and if you have been somewhere yourself, it just make it so much more fun.
Like for example these naughty deers in Naha, Japan. 
The link is going to fotopedia, install if you like stories from interesting places.
The best thing: "IT IS FREE.


Among deer in Nara

Sent from my iPhone

Our city in February.

Today is going to be a picture story, a bus ride from Kowloon peninsular to Hong Kong Island. Or rather the best shots I could manage on the day. It was a nice day and I had to do the journey to get to the mid levels in Central district on Hong Kong island. From where we live there is a couple of different ways to do that trip, on this day I chose the 681 bus from Ma On Shan to Central Bus Terminus.

The first 4 of the photos are from Kowloon side, close to the area of the old and famous airport; Kai Tak, which old runway currently is being transformed into some kind of recreational area, and the former terminal area is being filled with new high rise housing estates. Hong Kong needs living space for a growing population.

 

The Titsy Tiny Tarsier

Maybe it is spelled wrong -the titsy- how should I know. I cannot check the spelling when I cannot spell it, and Cat is not here, so I just put it out there like it is.
"He cannot spell titsy"!
I like the word combination, and I like those titsy tiny Tarsiers!

What they are? Look here:

Yes, that is the tiny Tarsier. They live in the Philippines, on the island of Bohol.

We went there to visit them in February, in the Chinese New Years holiday.

Was nice, and warm. Warmer than here in Hong Kong at that time of year. Normally is that the time when we are freezing in our house. This year it turned out a bit different. It was actually very nice weather. 

Anyway, we went for the first time during Chinese New Year in the time we've been here so far. Wanted to escape the cold. So off to the Philippines, forst to Manila to see friends for some days, and then to the beaches and nature of Bohol. 

And for sure that was nice.

Here some impressions from our own encounter with the Tiny Tarsier.

Okay. These first ones was just to set the scene, like an establishing shot in a movie; Look at, this is where it starts and such.

This is how we -humans- meet these titsy tiny Tarsiers...

And this is how the tiny Tarsier meet humans. No wonder they look so baffled!

 Good to see that they were so well looked after and protected in the government run resort where we met these guys. And well protected they were, there was about 5 humans to every tiny Tarsier working there.