Inspirations from Chiang Mai - Lanna Decor@Rimping

I love the rustic decor of our hotel, which bore a striking resemblance to Peranakan houses.


Bamboo blinds in the little restaurant in the hotel. The furniture would look pretty juxtaposed against a more chic dining interior - with homogenous ceramic tiles and a crystal chandelier.


I like the aircon covers, the woven roof interior and exposed beams.



Peranakan-like coloured glass inserts ona feature wall in the lobby. Note the teracotta flooring.

View from outside the lobby.

Again, stained glass inserts, used for the washroom doors.

Here's what I did this weekend:

1) Took a long Sunday evening nap. Pure pleasure.

2) Went down to the lawyer's office to apply for the home loan on our latest property purchase

3) Had the maid over, our house is sparkling clean now

4) Made pork chops with homemade garlic and onion gravy. Aah the joys of supermarket
packaging - where they pre-cut and pack everything up so nicely for you, sparing you the agony of cleaning and trimming hunks of flesh on your own! Besides the chops, I also purchased (everything trimmed and ready) - a hunk of baby back ribs which I marinated in a Maggie seasoning, red wine vinegar, brown sugar and cayenne and 4 chicken drumsticks which I also have soaking in a combo of orange juice, sugar, soy and pepper. Food for the rest of the week. I also baked up a batch of brownies to satisfy my sweet cravings, which had me wolfing down 2 bars of chocolate over last week.

5) Had my own little 30 Rock marathon. Tina Fey absolutely rocks.

Now, back to work.

Inspirations from Chiang Mai - Brekkie@Rimping

Now, thanks to the company we work for, AK and I have sampled many a hotel breakfast. And I daresay that we have had some of the best Malaysia has to offer (The Westin KL, namely, with its Japanese, Chinese, Western, Malay, Indian spreads and its antioxidant berry-yogurt parfaits and fresh fruit juice to order). The buffet at our splurge hotel, the Indigo Pearl, was also pretty good.

But our experience in Chiangmai was very personal, and altogether very different from all the other ones.

Beautiful celadon ceramicware.



Instead of the normal buffet breakfast, we were presented with a menu from which we could choose anything we wanted.

While perusing the menu, the wait staff brought us a plate each of these adorable little swiss rolls, pandan and some-red-berry filling.

I chose the soup rice, or rice soup, which is like Cantonese porridge, with pork. A warm, wholesome way of starting the day.

AK chose the pad thai. We both love that it came with raw beansprouts, which went very well with the fried rice noodles.

And then - dessert! We were presented with mango sticky rice and platter of cut fruit, but sent back the fruit as, well, one can only eat so much in the morning.

The sticky rice came in convenient little cups for wolfing down. The mangoes were wonderfully sweet and fragrant.

The sad thing is, although we spent three nights here we only experienced this once, as our tours departed too early. The wonderful hotel staff packed sandwiches, fruit and juice for us, but of course you can't compare that to a multi-course made-to-order breakfast like this.

If only all mornings were like this!

Chiang Mai, we miss you.

Inspirations from Chiang Mai - Gardens of Rimping Village

The majestic banyan tree in the courtyard.

"Pocket" gardens everywhere.

Pots and pots of white orchids. Chiang Mai's cooler, less humid weather is the perfect climate for orchids.

Love the clay jars filled with water and plants.

Wall of bamboo surrounding the property. Keeps the eyes outside the property from peeping inside, and guests from the less-than-picturesque surroundings (the back of shophouses, and alleyways).

Morning sunlight streaming in, and a pretty view of the surrounding greenery as seen through one of the wood-framed, brass-hinged windows.

Inspirations from Chiang Mai - Stop-By's

I am in love with Chiang Mai, and will be posting lots about it.

These shots were taken at a quaint little streetside shop - just zinc roofing and some tree-trunk pillars. Initially we just wanted a takeaway Mango shake - but AK was drawn by the name "Cat Cafe".

And look at the view inside...teracotta fountains, vintage-looking teak furniture, vintage Thai movie posters, and lots and lost of plants - so simple, so rustic, so gorgeous. And even though we just ordered ONE drink for the two of us, they treated us better than many Malaysian outlets - sat us down, gave us two glasses of iced water.

I love how the Thais embrace their heritage - elephant figurines in houses and gardens, teak furniture, tropical plants. And their toiletries - jasmine, white champaka, lemongrass - all plants from the tropics. No need for wishy-washy porcelain ducks or pine trees, tea tree or vanilla. I'd like to emulate the Thais. And support them.

Another place we dropped by for another Mango shake - a stylish little hotel.

Look - a single fresh lotus flower centrepiece. So simple and elegant.

No need for roses or lilies. No garish dried rose-and-lavender flower arrangements.

Ginger flower, another tropical plant. I've since learnt that they are cousins to the heliconia or something, and am keen to have some in my garden.

Check out the cool carpet!

It's all the little details - birdcages, candleholders, the flowers before - that I love.

AK showing us what HE loves - the funky face-seat :)

How to squeeze your housing loans to maximise your returns? - StarProperty.my

How to squeeze your housing loans to maximise your returns? - StarProperty.my

Remembering Bhopal

I've mentioned it before - I work for one of the Big Oil. I don't work for BP.

We mention BP more and more these days. A book titled "Failure to Learn" was distributed amongst some of the staff recently.

We discuss this incident a lot, and it is especially poignant for me because I have experience something highly similar almost 4 years ago. Typing this, I can't believe it's been so long since it happened. I remember it like it was last week. The lucky (or perhaps we were better?) thing was that the last link of the chain of disaster wasn't there. The overspill was, the ignition source wasn't.

And now the Gulf disaster. The worst environmental disaster in US History.

If I were to be mean, or maybe cynical, I'd say it out loud that I'm glad that of all the places for this to happen, it happened in the US. Because of the free media, the people, the ATTENTION that it is getting now. So now BP has to pay $4,300 per barrel it spills. Good. Great.

But today is the anniversary of a much greater disaster. Where the people affected are still waiting (or perhaps already despaired) more than 20 years after it happenned. Where a major corporation got away almost scot-free, helped by the local government. Crime upon crime, injustice upon injustice befell these people.

Are lives cheaper elsewhere outside the Western hemisphere? Can illiterate, uneducated people ever get the justice they deserve more than anyone else? Do people who just had the misfortune of being at the wrong place at the wrong time, who since then have spent their entire lives suffering from the health effects of the disaster, remain voiceless, and continue to suffer in silence?

Is this what globalisation really means? That big corporations can enter a 3rd world country, destroy a generation, a city, then leave without a scratch? Shareholders over victims?

Neither the Indian nor American governments or justice system will pursue this further. Evidence supressed, what little compensation dollars there was given mysteriously missing, sorely needed medical help witheld, ground zero abandoned with all its hazards still intact, leaching into groundwater day by day. What world do we live in that we allow such blatant injustice? And elected governments abandoning their people.

Shame. What can we say of ourselves? What do we tell our children?

It sickens and disgusts me.

Remember Bhopal.

Don't let the world forget.