Our favourite past time in Langkawi

the BEACH!!!!! wat else!!!!

but then again we didn't get to go as often as we wanted to :P
this pic was taken at Pantai Cenang
one of the famous beach in Langkawi
Cenang stretch is just like Pathong in Phuket...
crowded and full of tourists
everynite without fail...a visit to uncle's duty free shop to load some drinks
I can't remember how many litres was that but it was retailing at RM 88
yeah so cheap we almost soak ourselves innit.
Hoegaarden RM 4
Sapporo Beer RM 8.50
Ritters Sport only RM 4.50 *buy 5 free 1 sumore*
Premium Kit Kat fr Switzerland RM 5.50 *this one I pop like candy everynite*

all other beers like Tiger, Carlsberg, Heineken bla bla bla retailing at RM 1.30 per can
request for an ice bucket...and there goes our la-la time in the room
ohhhh-la-la-la

yeah wines and champagnes goin cheap as well
but storing condition was a nightmare plus limited vintage
and certainly they dun have much variety goin there for wines.

for those who can drink 2 cartons in 4 days..
pls do consider Langkawi as your next destination
:))))))))))))

Hotel Gritti Palace, Venice

Oh my gawd...this place is so beautiful~~~~
overlooking Chiesa di Santa Maria della Salute and the Grand Canal of coz
it's within walking distance to the shopping strip and San Marco.
due to our hectic schedule, we didn't even get a chance to sit by the canal and have a real good cuppa coffee :)))))))))))))))
the hotel was built in 1525
>_< does that scare u?

the beautiful red marble on the reception table was worn off and polished smooth over the years.
I like the fact that it's so classical and elegant and this place just transformed us back into the 16th century.
and decorated the walls were all the Venetian mirrors
OMG...so cantik!!!!
I wanna bring home!!!!

the waiting area with a painting of Napoleon???
yeah all the lights were made from Murano Glasses
our room key....*wakakakakaka*
so nice but then it's very heavy :P
I like the pom pom at the end :))))
the room was huge, we didn't expect it to be...coz land in Venice is like so scarce
and yep...hotels in Venice are the most expensive of the lot.....
so most tourists tend to stay mainland and travel to the island each day for visits.
really special rugs *well we call them carpets here*
and we got our own Venetian mirror in the room!!!!
it was so old that it was stained with its age.....not to be used as a mirror but as a deco on the wall :P
the powder room was decked in all sorts of marbles
everything in marble...were they dated back to 1525 too?
even the taps were so antique!!!!!

Monkey reading the Journey of Marco Polo to Berr
*he's on my left arm*

the only thing I hated bout hotels in Italy are the
1) statues staring at u inside your own room
2) paintings with piercing eyes staying back at u....
quite eerie...but rest assured nothing happened :P
I alwiz look fwd to favors provided by hotels during their turn down service
most of the time, we get chocolates but this round we got chewy yummy jelly :)))))
with weather forecast for the next day
weather can get as warm as 12 degrees and as low as 2 degrees
we were so lucky during our stay in Venice coz it only rained on the day we departed
we'll definitely come back to this half a century old hotel
Hotel Gritti Palace was the private residence of Doge of Venice *duke*
Mr.Andrea Gritti

Hotel Gritti Palace,
Campo Santa Maria
del Giglio
2467 30124 Venezia
Tel: +39 041 296 1111
www.gritti.hotelinvenice.com

Da Fiore *One Michelin Star*

Da Fiore is one of the first restaurant to be rated Michelin Star in Venice
so we went with high expectation...
somehow the evening started with the wrong note coz we went to the wrong place...
and took another 15 minutes to walk to another piazza
*15 mins is very very far in Venice ok????*

worse part was we had to enter another restaurant and asked for direction
well it's never good to ask a restaurant the address of another restaurant :P
beautiful Murano glass vase
Murano is a small lil island near Venice producing the world most expensive and beautiful glassware
erm...I didn't buy any coz it's so difficult to carry em back....just got some nice mouth-blown murano glass necklace

and so they used the exquisite Murano glass vase to store bread -_-

we were first served with a deep fried white fish ball with sabayon
very well balanced flavour...

at least this cured our frustration of:
1) the difficulty locating this restaurant
2) environment was not up to expectation *it was way to rustic*
3) JS's Murano drinking glass has a chip on it
4) they dun have nebbiolo glasses for our wine *double frus*
yes we had Barbaresco 2003
drink until scared...
ate until scared....so it was a light nite for both of us
since it was a lite nite we shared a torre di insalata di mare = tower salad of the sea
and they were kind enough to separate one serving into two making it easier to eat
the octupus was outstanding!!!!!!
prawns were so sweet and it came with pickled onions
*the 2 rings u see on top*
simple and yet amazing taste
we saw every table has this...so we ordered fritters of seasonal vegetables Da Fiore style
dunno which species of aubergine they used...it has such good texture and amazing sweetness innit :))))))))))))
since it has to be a lite nite JS ordered a green pasta with muissels and clams
it's green coz it's a pesto pasta :P
Monkey had deep fried soft shell crab with rucola, orange and pomegranate salad
I like the fact that the small chunks of oranges came with its skin to give it some bitterness and acidity to the dish...well the rucola was bitter too...and pomegranate was sour.
all these melting pot of flavours were combined to kill the richness of the crabs..

mind u....their soft shell crab was full of....errr...well in short..there's no meat.
u bite innit...there's white creamy stuffs oozing out...bite sumore...more creammy stuffs
so guess i was just eating creamy high cholesterol roe with crispy shells :P
no dessert for us tat nite...coz by this time, notti Monkey was so tipsy
she can barely say yummy!!!

guess i drank too fast tat nite.
:P
and poor JS had to navigate us back home to hotel in the narrow alleys of Venice
bcoz throughout this Italy trip, notti Monkey had been the GPS...
and since GPS was drunk and tipsy...JS had to lugged the heavy monkey home without getting us into trouble :P

Osteria Da Fiore
*One Michelin Star*
S.Polo 2002
30125 Venezia
Tel: +39 041 721 308