Merapi...

Pakdokter had visited Jogja several times the past 10 to15 years and twice of them were with the STAROBA Golf Club when we played at the Merapi Golf Course and the Borobodur Golf Course.

The eruption of this volcano must have inflicted severe damage to the golf courses and the heritage Hindu and Buddhist temples of Borobodur and Prambanan.

Pakdokter's heart is filled with sadness at the sufferrings of the folks of this region. Hopefully this angry volcano will cool down soon so that the folks of the region will be able to return to their normal lives.

a recent picture of the angry Merapi...

and the eruption that followed....

the lovely Merapi from the golf course in 2007...

at the Borobodur Golf Course in 2007...

the Borobodur Golf Course was not quite near the vicinity of the volcano..

during the 'full-moon' nights of the month

the Ramayana ballet was performed at the Prambanan Temple...

'Michelin' Dining....

The month of October saw KL hosting the KLIGF - Kuala Lumpur International Gourmet Festival. Most restaurants in the city put up special menus or brought in 'guest chefs' to cook their signature dishes for the city's folks to sample. The dinners were generally 'pricey' - averaging RM300 to RM500 per person - and pakdokter managed to try out a few places with 'mixed' experience.

KL Hilton brought in a 2-star Michelin chef from France and it was pakdokter's best 'experience' of the few that pakdokter managed to try. The 4-course dinner had a generous portion of foie gras as the starter, and a great dish of pigeon as the main. And the generous 'free-flow' of champagne went well with the excellent dishes.

The chef came around to meet the guests and pakdokter was invited to visit his restaurant should pakdokter one day end up in the district of Bordeaux in France where his establishment is located. His restaurant can accept a booking one week in advance.

The outing to 'the Lafite' at the Shangrila turned out to be a disappointment. The service was 'inattentive' and 'poor' and the dishes were all of 'minute' proportions that we went home so hungry that we had to help ourselves with whatever we could ransack out of the kitchen. And the 'pouring' of each of the accompanying wines was so little and stingy that we went home vowing that it would be a very long time indeed before we would consider to dine at this eastablishment again!

The 'Favola' at the Le Meridien had a 'lobster pasta' promotion in October which turned out to be quite good.

And another satisfying outing was for the Boston Lobster set dinner at the Gobo on the 6th at the Traders Hotel. The set of lobster salad, the lobster bisque and the grilled lobster was not only good but was also value for money. At RM250 per pax it came with two rounds of Prosecco.

The SGC October Medal at Impian GCC, Kajang..

Since returning from Japan, pakdokter has gone back to regular weekend golfing and played in at least 2 competitions. Pakdokter represented pakdokter's club in the inter-club match against the Royal Perak Golf Club where pakdokter's club easily trounced our Ipoh visitors on both days of the competition. Pakdokter contributed winning points on both days of the game.

The next competition was the Staroba Monthly Medal held at the Impian Golf Course in Kajang. The game received good participation and it was nice to see some of the 'super seniors' making a comeback to this monthly event.

Pakdokter did not play too well in the game despite starting the first few holes on a promising touch. Pakdokter has to build up on physical stamina and to improve on sustaining pakdokter's concentration in order to score a more decent points.

One of the guest players who played in the above flight returned a score of 42 points playing to a handicap of 12 to win the day's event.

Readings on the plane....

The flying time between KL to Tokyo was about 7 hours. Pakdokter managed to finish this book written by an Iranian writer, Marsha Mehran. It is the story of three sisters who emigrated to UK after Khomeini's revolution and set up the popular Iranian restaurant in one little village in Ireland. Although not quite the type of book pakdokter enjoys, pakdokter managed to finish it during the flight as it was quite short and easy to read.

What registered most in pakdokter's mind was the few 'recipes' of Iranian food which made pakdokter long to visit one of the many Iranian restaurants when back in KL. And Ireland was potrayed in the book as being very 'conservative' - but then the setting was in an Irish village and the period was in the early 80's.

Pakdokter is planning a 'golfing' holiday of Ireland in the summer of next year. That was also a reason why this book was picked up at the book-store.

On the return flight home from Tokyo to KL via Kota Kinabalu, pakdokter read the book below which was bought in a second hand book shop in Tokyo. As good as new, this book costs only 500 yen ( RM18). Some books in the second hand book shop cost only 100 yen (RM3.7). And the books are all as good as new!

Re-cycling is big business and is a 'culture' in Japan.

Pakdokter thoroughly enjoyed Kazuo Ishiguro. This is a collection of 5 short stories with the central theme of music and night time. Ishiguro's style is reminiscent of Harukami's combined with the psychology of Woody Allen.

A great read.

The Streets of Matsumoto...

The historical district of Matsumoto could be explored on foot quite easily. The prettiest district would be the Nakamichi district - the merchant district of the olden days - where most of the original houses and shops have been restored and retained in their old forms and are now mostly used as restaurants, pubs, shops and ryokans. Below are some of the pictures pakdokter took while exploring the district....

Pakdokter spent at least one hour huffing and puffing up the narrow and steep stairways of the Matsumoto Castle. Pakdokter only realised how 'tough' that 'experience' was when that night pakdokter's thighs 'ached' like hell.

From the Matsumoto Castle, it was a short walk towards 'the first Primary School' set up in the whole of Japan. We found a little food-stall by the road-side and decided to sample the 'kuihs' on offer there.

the above were 'pows/paus' like our famous Tanjong Malim pau..

their 'fillings' were either potato, yam, fish etc..
as Nagano is 'soba' country..

pakdokter could not resist the 'cold vegetarian soba'...
the next stall offered freshly made rice crispies...

all kinds of flavour - prawn, sesame, kimchi, etc etc..

the stall-owner was so happy we bought so much..

he gave us another packet for free..

the stall owner had on display

his collection of badges from the Winter Olympics in Nagano..

he could spend all evening talking about that 'Games'....

From that stall, we walked on to see one of their 'heritage' site - the first 'Primary School' in Japan. As we arrived rather late in the evening, we could not enter into the school to see what the old classes were like. This school building is now maintained as a museum. A new functioning school was built next door.

the first " Primary School" of Japan...

the current school...

on another lane, we came across a 'Doctor's House'
that dated back to the Shogun period...
currently an ENT specialist operates there...
other doctors' houses on the same lane were newer/not so pretty...

On Sunday morning, we walked again in the Nakamichi district. The lane by a little river cutting across the city had many stalls lining both sides of the lane. Apart from the usual tourist 'stuff' there are also 'cookies' and food stuff.

red bean 'kuih baulu' Japanese style...

others have corn fillings, etc etc..

the street signs is so pretty...

the 'Hikariya' restaurant...

this lane along a little stream has many

souvenier, textile and food shops on either side...

one of the many shrines in the city..

As Nagano is the 'home' of 'soba'

we decided to go for another round for lunch

the restaurant is just round the corner of our 'ryokan'

and Princess Michiko?..the daughter-in-law of the Emperor

was amongst the distinguished patron of this shop....

fresh 'wasabi' root.....

pakdokter's cold soba with tempura...

The Kagetsu Ryokan, Matsumoto....

As pakdokter has reported in an earlier post, the weekend we went to Matsumoto co-incided with a 'coming of autumn' festival and as a result many of the hotels we looked at were fully booked. In the end pakdokter's partner decided on a 'ryokan' - a 'Japanese-home-style' hotel where we would sleep on a 'tatami' ( tilam on the lantai) instead of the usual hotel bed.

We chose the " Kagetsu Ryokan" - an old and heritage establishment located in the Nakamichi district - the historical merchant district which is just about 10 minutes walk away from the Matsumoto Castle. The 2 or 3 vacancies available could accomodate up to 5 persons in a 3- cubicles unit with ensuite bath and rest-room. Traditional Japanese breakfast as well as American breakfast were both offerred for one's choice.

The room we booked cost 26,000 yen per night.

the Kagetsu Ryokan..

the Japanese breakfast served at the Ryokan..

the ensuite bath and restroom on one side

of the corridor and three cubicles

that fit 5 persons for the night..

a typical Japanese bath..

tea facilities..

the 'filial' son...

the 'samurai' father..

the dining table was moved to make way for the tatamis..

the chambermaids doing up our 'katil...

they were so thrilled to learn that

we 'also tidor on the lantai'....

ready for sleeping...