Inflight meals onboard Air Asia - MNL-KUL

I reproduce here an article I wrote in my other blog:

Airline food is probably among the most maligned among meals. You’ve probably read or heard about complaints on meals served on board aircraft; especially those on Economy Class or coach. You have to be in Business Class or First Class to be served good meals or sets. If you are not the picky kind, then you will likely find the simply joys with the meals served on low cost carriers. These are usually selected and paid for in advance though you can also order in-flight assuming they carry all those items on their menu. Here are some items with AirAsia’s Santan:

Promotion of in-flight meals on AirAsia

The Chicken Rendang and Vegetable Curry meals look good on paper.

So are the Chicken Biryani and Vegetable Biryani meals

The Chicken Rice and Thai Basil Chicken dishes are also familiar to me.  I wondered if the airline got these right and if they would be satisfying to passengers choosing these on-board or perhaps pre-ordering them.

Nasi Lemak sounded familiar and was perhaps something we tasted when we were still residing in Singapore.

There’s a vegetarian or plant-based version of this dish.

I settled for something familiar and enjoyable to me – Chicken Satay.

The rice was curiously prepared and served similar to the ‘puso’ found in the Visayan and Mindanao provinces of the Philippines.

 

To cut the story short, I enjoyed my simple meal on-board AirAsia. I would dare say that I found my meals on this airline better than what I have eaten on-board Cebu Pacific. The meals also were better than what we recently had on board Philippine Airlines. That says a lot considering PAL is a full service airline. Of course, the meals on board Singapore Airlines and Thai Airways are would be tops on my list even in Economy Class. 

I suddenly recall being on a Northwest (now Delta). An elderly passenger was complaining about the meals on the plane. I assume he had a long flight from the US as Northwest used Narita as a hub in Asia and passengers transferred there from various origins in the US (mainly from Chicago) to get to Manila. There were not so many choices (probably 2 - beef or fish, or beef or chicken, you get the idea) and the meals on US airlines are not so tasty for Asians. So I can understand his frustration when he said: "Wala naman akong makain dito." Looking back, I am sure he eventually was able to eat good Filipino food he probably was craving for.

Something I wanted to write about is my take on airline food over the years. I have a good memory of my first airline meals on board PAL in the 1970s. And I have had my fair share of various airline meals including First and Business Class meals on various airlines. That should be fun to write about!

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Room with a view: from my room at the Mardiyyah Hotel, Shah Alam

My hotel room at the Mardiyyah Hotel had a nice view of the city and the surrounding areas. Shah Alam is practically a suburb of Kuala Lumpur and still developing so there are not so many tall buildings yet (though many are under construction). Our hotel rooms in Shah Alam faced the west so there is a view of the sunset. Here are a few photos I took from my hotel window.

This is the view as I first checked-in to my room. The building with the pointy top is the Shah Alam City Council Building.

The City Council Building's lights display the Malaysian National Flag.

The Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Mosque is splendid whether seen during the day or night.

A view of the streets at 6:00 AM. Yes, This was taken at 6:00 AM in the morning.

More photos from our trip to Malaysia in the next posts!

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Lunch at Petronas - Indian Food

Going to KL and going around KLCC and taking photos of the Petronas Towers got us hungry. We had light breakfast as we didn't want to spend a lot and end up forcing ourselves to eat a lot at the buffet. And so we decided to check out the food court at Petronas.

There were many to choose from but instead of going for typical Malaysian food (we anticipated and ate a lot at the conference venue).

They have a nice menu with a lot of items to choose from.

 I opted for the chicken tikka and basmati rice set.

Malaysia is multi-ethnic and multi-cultural and has a lot of similarities with Singapore. In fact, Singapore seceded from Malaysia many decades ago so its not a wonder they have similar foods from the Malay, Chinese and Indian peoples.

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The Petronas Towers

One of the main attractions and definitely a must-see when one visits Kuala Lumpur are the Petronas Towers. The towers are a landmark in the city center and a testament to the modernization and industrialization of Malaysia. These stood as the tallest buildings in the world for many years (1998-2004) until they were topped by the Taipei 101 (which in turn was topped by the Burj Khalifa in 2010). Here are a few photos at the Petronas Towers.

A shot of the towers from along the driveway. I caught an image of the Malaysian flag at the foreground.

Here is a photo with the towers just behind me.

There's a park behind the Petronas Towers and the city scape reminded me a lot of Singapore and the city scape across from the Marina Bay.

The Petronas Towers with other modern high rises around it

There are many foreign and local tourists going around and taking photos with the towers (of course). Unfortunately, we could only visit during the day. The towers and surrounding areas are more photogenic at nighttime with the lighting giving more life to the scenes. Inside is a posh shopping mall and a performing arts theater. The mall is host to many luxury brands stores though there are many other shops and also a food court where you can get affordable meals.

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Killing trees at our subdivision

Deforestation is a word often used for the mountains or wilderness (referring of course to forests). Unfortunately, there are forms of deforestation even in settled areas. I'm referring here to the cutting of trees in a subdivision. There are many houses under construction where I live and it seems that most contractors and owners prefer the traditional clearing of a lot rather than consider even some of the existing trees to be integrated in the design of the houses. The result is a lot of old trees including Narra, Acacia, Mahogany, Mango and Kaimito trees being cut down. I find it somewhat ironic that these new residents mention one major reason they decided to build a house and reside in our village was the presence of a lot of trees.

What's left of a Narra tree that used to be home to several bird species including kingfishers, swallows and orioles. The neighbor across from the house where the tree was claimed the roots.

What's left of a mahogany tree that we thought would be spared by the contractor of a house under construction.

We also cleared out lot of many trees (mostly ipil-ipil) but integrated the old mango and narra trees in our landscaping. Those have grown and benefited us with fruits, shade and oxygen over the years. I hope others will consider a similar approach rather than just cut down everything and later grow a token garden for their houses.

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Light breakfast at a Shah Alam Starbucks

Our hotel accommodations did not include breakfast. We got a really good deal way before the conference and we thought we can just grab a bite for breakfast nearby. It turned out that there wasn't a lot of breakfast places near the hotel except if you count the usual eateries or restaurants at the ground floor of residential buildings. These are similar to the eateries in Singapore and I am sure the breakfasts there were okay and inexpensive. However, my companions that morning were not as adventurous as I am when it comes to eating at these places so we had to settle for waiting for the nearest Starbucks to open.

Tuna roll and iced apple juice - I already had my hot drink at my room at the hotel so I decided to go for some cold drink instead. The tuna was on the spicy side but I recall it was also like this even in the Philippines so its not a Malaysian thing.

More on meals during our stay in Shah Alam in the next posts.

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Watch strap replacement - Luminox diver 4221

The old silicone strap of my Luminox diver deteriorated and final broke more than a year ago. I replaced it with an ostrich leather strap while keeping the old buckle. I thought I would just get another, generic silicone strap and replace the buckle with the original one. I never got to do that but I'm now glad I didn't as I was able to acquire a suitable replacement strap.

The watch with the replacement strap after I installed the latter.

The replacement strap came with this buckle.

A wrist shot after I replaced the strap.

I can now use this watch for swimming again. It is a nice watch for casual wear. It helps that this is a diver and a hardy model. I acquired this the same time as my Mido Ocean Star. While I thought about unloading this watch a few times, I have always decided to keep it - at least for now.

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First impressions of Kuala Lumpur

I am currently in Malaysia and just making this quick post of first impressions based on one of its gateways - Kuala Lumpur International Airport. Here are photos when we arrived in KLIA last weekend.

A view of KLIA Terminal 2 as our plane approached to land

Two towers - air traffic control towers, that is. The closer one is Terminal 2's while the one at the distance is Terminal 1.

A view of Terminal 2 as our plane taxied to the terminal

Terminal 2 is designated for low cost carriers, and is the hub of AirAsia. This terminal replaced the low cost carrier terminal at KLIA, similar to what also happened in Changi.

Our plane berthed at the satellite building. This meant we had to walk to the bridge to cross to the main Terminal 2 building. The two buildings are not served by a transit system like KLIA Terminal 1 (or HKIA or Changi, for example).

The view of our plane as we crossed on the bridge to the main terminal building.

AirAsia planes lined up along one of wings of the satellite building. Each wing is essentially a long pier.

I was impressed by how large and spacious Terminal 2 is. It is designed, after all, to serve the millions of travelers going through this gateway in what is Southeast Asia's most visited country for tourists. I just thought though that the moving walkways seemed to be an afterthought and that it was a long walk (healthy though) for many people between the main and satellite buildings. Terminal 2 though is located far from Terminal 1 so transport is required in case you need to transfer from one terminal to the other. It is not as seamless as Changi, for example. Still KLIA is much better than many capital city airports that I've been to though there is room for improvements.

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Back to badminton?

I have not played serious badminton in over a decade. My daughter took badminton lessons during the school break and now enthusiastically plays street badminton with her friends. We got her an inexpensive racket from the Yonex store at SM Megamall and another one from Decathlon. Inspired by this development and also playing street badminton with her some afternoons, I decided to bring out the old rackets from storage so I can use them. The grips were already deteriorated and it was a bit difficult to remove them from the rackets.

The deteriorating grip on one of my rackets

I also removed the grip from another racket though it was not as bad the other

My two rackets are in great condition despite being almost 20 years old

One is a Yonex racket I bought in Fukuoka in 2003. The Wilson racket I got in Bangkok before I got the Yonex racket.

Muscle Power is an old series from Yonex. Hyper Carbon is also an old model from Wilson.

Both rackets are in great condition including the strings. After changing the grip on the Wilson racket, I could use it again to play (at least on the street). We're scouting for badminton courts near our place so we can play there and our daughter can probably take more lessons to improve her skills and play.

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Rainy day musings

I sympathize with a lot of people whose activities today were disrupted by the inclement weather. The rains from last night resulted in floods around Metro Manila and Rizal (where I live). The forecast of more rains during the day made government suspend classes at all levels for both public and private schools. However, many and particularly students have already traveled to their schools as some announcements came late or not early enough for those who usually leave home early to avoid the usual traffic congestion around schools.

I myself used to leave our home early to go to school. As I took public transportation to the university, I had to leave before 6:00 AM (even earlier if it was raining) to be able to get a jeepney ride and have a comfortable trip (shorter travel time than when I leave later in the morning). I had one transfer at what used to be the K-Mart terminal. Both legs of the trip were via jeepneys. I recall silently cursing the guards at Ateneo for prioritizing what seemed to be an infinite number of cars entering and exiting that university via their Gates 2 and 3. At the time, Ateneo still operated the blue school buses and you can see few students on those buses. I observed already then that most of their students probably had their own vehicles to take them to school. Once past the gauntlet of Ateneo and Miriam (which was Maryknoll before), traffic was smoother. And to think that there was no C.P. Garcia yet and Katipunan at the UP Diliman and MWSS areas was not as wide as it is now. The old Katipunan section was basically a two lane road with UP on one side and MWSS on the other. What is now a center island with large acacia trees used to be the frontage of MWSS. UP's walls were lined with eateries and small stores catering to students and workers.

My commutes during the wet season can be quite difficult as you can't simply hang on to the jeepney (at the back) when its pouring. And when the weather's particularly bad, there were flooding along my route, not to mention where I resided. I also remember wading in floodwaters along Katipunan (yes, there were floods along Katipunan before) because the road was impassable to vehicles and the only way to get home was to walk from UP to Aurora Boulevard. Our home in Cainta was often flooded during typhoons, and I also waded in floodwaters along portions of Felix/Imelda Avenue an in our village. The flood experiences probably deserve separate articles here and I will share some stories as soon as I can organize my thoughts and memories of these.

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