Passion Fruits

The leaves of passion fruits are very green and lively. There are two vines here. Two different species. I grew from seeds. They are starting to flower after a year.

A passion fruit flower bud.

The flowers bloom mid-day. After noon.  

The flowers are many, but only two fruits are formed. Probably there were no bees and the days have been quite still. No wind. Once when there were many flowers, it started to rain, didn't give any chance for the pollen to reach pistil, I think.

The flowers are beautiful.

 They drop the next day if no fruit is formed.

Lots of pollen on the stamen.

 I decided to do self pollination. 

Plenty of pollen.

Hello! Baby coming out from womb! :-)

How nice to see shiny skin passion fruit!

Vietnam Trip

I finally went for a holiday with HM. This time HM promised me to leave his laptop behind on this Vietnam trip. Why Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam?  Because we didn't know where to go, and my brother-in-law just went to Ho Chi Minh City for family holiday in September. Elly was very kind to share with me their trip itinerary. We just copycatted their itinerary, with some changes.

We took Air Asia from BKI to Tan Son Nhat International Airport. Stopover in KL. 2 hours from KL to HCM only.  Malaysia time is an hour ahead of Vietnam.

I booked into Duc Vuong Hotel. This hotel is located in Tham Ngu Lao Street, convenient for us to go around. The hotel staff were very friendly and helpful. Every staff speaks English. The room was clean. Breakfast was very good with Vietnamese bread, hot coffee, fried eggs of your choice with other few different dishes and fresh fruits. The 4 nights stays were really value for money.

Taken from hotel rooftop

Day 1

After checking in to Duc Vuong Hotel, the hotel receptionist lady pointed us to a nearby shop to eat Vietnamese noodle. 越南河粉。The beef noodle was served with a plate of herbs 九層塔，bean sprout, lettuce and one other vegetable which I am not sure of name. In fact, the Vietnamese eat a lot of such herb, bean sprout and fresh vegetables.

Elly said we should not miss the AO show perform at Saigon Opera House. In fact there are 3 other shows at the Opera House performing on different days. We watched the AO show. I didn't quite understand the stories but the show was performed professionally with music, dancing, acrobatics and cute and funny moments. It is indeed a show not to be missed in HCM. I purchased the tickets online 3 weeks before the trip via KKDay.com. Check out "Teh Dar Tribal Show at Saigon Opera House". There are 3 different zones. You get better viewing zone for paying more. Anyway, I purchased the cheapest and had no complaint about the view.

兩個女人可以頂天立地？

Outside the Opera House

Inside the Opera House

The Performers

Day 2

Again, I purchased a trip from KKDay Tour to go to My Tho, Ben Tre and the Mekong Delta.  We took Uber to go to the meeting point at the Sinh Tourist Office. The tour guide could speak fairly well English. I learnt about the Mekong Delta in Geography 40+ years ago. It was nice to see the rivers flow and the fertile soil in the Delta. On our way to Mekong Delta in the tour bus, we saw many padi fields.  It was fascinating to see tombs in the padi fields. Are the tombs there to protect their harvest? We got to take a river cruise to a village to see a number of activities by the villagers.

Grinding rice

Making rice paper

Fish from Mekong River

Rice Paper wrap

Cruising through swampy area. Attap.

Attap fruits. 海底椰

Making of coconut candies

In the evening, we enjoyed our dinner in a Vietnam food restaurant right in front of the hotel. Then walked along Tham Ngu Lao Street, a crowded tourist street at night.

Day 3

We started our morning trip to Cu Chi Tunnel, trip purchased from Klook.com.  I should say that this is also a trip not to be missed. The Cu Chi Tunnel was an underground city, built during the Vietnam War. We got to crawl in a 60m tunnel, which has been enlarged for tourists to get some hang of moving in tunnels. By the way, if you are not fit, it is better not to join in the tunnel crawling. I felt so tiring inside the tunnel. THERE IS NO WAY TO TURN BACK. YOU JUST HAVE TO MOVE FORWARD. In fact, I was a bit panic when we came to a junction of which we were not sure of the way. The tour guide wasn't with us. I was afraid that I might faint due to lack of oxygen as both my hand had started to feel a bit numb. Anyway, we came out safely, but inwardly, wasn't too pleased. 

One interesting observation. I noted that we could hear people talking outside the tunnels, but those outside couldn't hear us in the tunnels.

Can you easily notice the entrance to the tunnel? 

Tiger Trap

Superfood - 18grains

I have recently heard a lot of advertisement on Superfood over the radio, tv, direct sales, friends....

1kg of Good Morning 18 grains costs RM70+ in Kota Kinabalu, displayed in the supermarket. Last night while watching Astro 经典名曲歌唱大赛2017， I continuously saw the advertisements over and over again. 

This powdery drink is portrayed as a healthy drink, meant for all ages.  I don't understand why purple sweet potatoes only costs around RM5 to RM8 per kg, depending on where you buy, end up RM70+ in powdery form in a tin.  

I couldn't help but to find out the ingredients in this tin.

When I added up the ingredients of the 18grains, they only consist of 30% of the whole tin. I feel distasteful to find non-dairy milk and fructose to be the ingredients in a tin too. I believe these two would be more than 50% of the whole tin. 

How harmful is non-dairy milk and fructose to the body can be easily found on the website.  This is as bad as Malaysia popular 3-in-1 coffee.

The nutrition facts do not reflect the ingredients listed.

I believe in real food, if we can buy fresh purple sweet potatoes and other ingredients from the stores, why go for the processed food? And pay so much more for what meant to be harmful to your health?