2nd July 2008

Today is Fareeda's birthday and it is also our 30th wedding anniversary! Yesterday's rain and storm brought out a bright and sunny morning...

We decided to take a drive around the island and enjoy the good weather. About 10 miles out of Broadfort we found the Isles of Skye Golf Club.

It is a links course by the sea and it being a nice and lovely day, many young Montgomery wannabees arrived by the local bus for their round of golf.

We drove on to Sigachan where we could get a panoramic view of the Cuillins mountains.- the highest peaks of the island. The black strong local ale is called the Cuillin and its lighter and sweeter brew is called the Red Cuillin.


From Sigachan we saw groups of people began their tracking up to this mountain range. Not too far here one could also visit the Talisker single-malt distillery.

Shall I track up the Cuillins or visit the Talisker distillery?

10 miles away from here we passed by the town of Portree and a further 25 miles or so we reached the end of A87 where the ferry terminal town of Uig is located.

Portree

Uig

On to the Isles of Skye...

The BBC weather report was accurate in reporting that it was going to rain most of today. As we had already seen the part between Fort William and Mallaig yesterday, and the weather report warned of gale force winds accompanying rain, we decided not to take the ferry from Mallaig to the Isles of Skye.

The main street of Fort William

The A82 took us north of Fort William going past Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in the United Kingdom. Unfortunately the heavy rain and thick layers of rain clouds hid the mountain from our view. We passed a very pretty village, Spean Bridge, but again the rain prevented us from taking any pictures. From Spean Bridge the A82 took us to Invergarry, most of the time the drive was along the picturesque Loch Lochy.

Invergarry is a little village where we turned left to take A87 which led us to the long drive to Isles of Skye.

The restaurant/tavern at Invergarry which reminded me of the Gap resthouse on the way up to Fraser's Hill

The drive from Invergarry along A87 is a continous ascent along several lochs with picturesque spots for photoshoot opportunity. We passed Loch Garry, Loch Loyne and Loch Cluanie. Whenever the rain stopped we took the opportunity to snap some pictures for our record

Loch Loyne

A panoramic view of Loch Garry

It took us nearly 4 hours of a slow drive to finally cross the Skye bridge into Isles of Skye. We checked into the Hebridean Hotel, an 11-room bed and breakfast whch we had booked through the internet.

After lunch and a short nap, we waited for the rain to clear before we ventured out to check out the island.

Mckambing and Mckambing Jr. having a supper of Mcrumput

We found a nice little seafood restaurant at Broadford where we stopped for dinner. The restaurant owner is also an artist and his paintings are put up for sale in his shop.

Daylight hours are very long during this Scottish summer. Sunrise was at 4.00 am and it became dark only after 11.00 pm.

The Harry Potter train....

Corran Inn is located in the small village of Onich about 8 miles south of Fort William. The Inn is located in front of the ferry terminal that carries cars across Loch Levern.

After a breakfast of freshly-squeezed juice, an array of fresh fruits and crispies or cereals followed by a plate of kippers ( salted sardine-likefish fried in melted butter) and fresh toasts, we drove to Fort William for the day's main agenda....the Harry Potter tran ride!

Raena had prebooked our seats on-line a few months earlier as this is a popular ride for tourists to this region. Our VIP coach is immediately after the steam engine and we were served English tea and scones during the journey.




The Jacobite Steam train travels from Fort William to Mallaig. It is a one and a half hour ride leaving Fort William at 10.20 am to reach Mallaig at about noon. For those not in the know..in the Harry Potter movie, this is the train the children took yearly to the school of witchcrafts and wizardry at Hogwarts.

The train chugged its way along several lochs, through tunnels and between valleys in its slow climb up the mountainous terrain of western Scotland. We first skirted Loch Eil, then stopped at the town of Glenfinnan which sits at a corner of Loch Scheil.

From Glenfinnan the train steamed its way past Loch Lochailfort and then up a steep slope before reaching Arisaig and finally Mallaig. At one point, the train did not have enough steam to power its way up the mountain and it slipped backwards another mile or so to give time to the engineers to put in more coal and get enough steam to cover the steep climb!

Mallaig is a small fishing village on the Atlantic coast of Scotland. From here one can take the ferry that will take you across to the Isles of Skye. We had a 2 hour break here before we boarded the train for the return journey to Fort William. It was time for lunch..so you guessed it right, we headed to the sea-food restaurant of course!

Our lunch of steamed mussels, grilled calamari with mango and avocado salad and pan-fried haddock...yummy!

The Lochs and Glens of Scotland...

Raena, my daughter, finished university this month and Fareeda and I decided that we should tour the highlands of Scotland before we attend Raena's graduation. How I wished my son, Rastam ( who is working in Tokyo) could have taken some time off from work to join us in another family reunion for this happy occasion.

Our most recent family reunion in Melbourne in February 08 to attend Natasya and Neil's wedding.

It took me about an hour to reach Glasgow from Edinburgh driving along M8 on a fairly quiet Sunday morning. We decided to take lunch here and found a nice Mediterranean restaurant just outside of Glasgow before we took the A82 which took us to our destination of Fort Williams - our first stop.

Lunch at the El Stazione in Glasgow

The A82 is a winding slow drive that took me another hour to skirt the length of Loch Lomond. We passed by the venue of the Barclay's Scottish Open to be held next week, but due to the inclement rainy weather we decided to push on to our destination

.The cruise terminal at Loch Lomond

Leaving the wooded stretch of A82 along Loch Lomond, we started our ascent into the Scottish Highlands.

The wooded stretch of A82 along the length of Loch Lomond

The terrain now becomes hilly and rugged. This is exactly what I imagined the Scottish highlands to be like. However the weather was not conducive for much photoshoot - it kept raining in sheets - but hey! ...this is Scotland and I was told it rains most of the time here in summer!

We braved the rain at a few spots to capture the feel of the highlands with our cameras.

It took us another 2 hours to reach our first destination - Fort Williams. Along the way we drove past Loch Tulla and Loch Leven before we parked ourselves at Corran Inn - a typical Scottish bed and breakfast - located overlooking Loch Levern.

The Corran Inn - located 8 miles south of Fort Williams

The Corran Inn has 5 rooms for rent and serves breakfast, lunch and dinner in its own restaurant. It also has a comfortable reading room where you can read and sample the various local 'spirits'.

The reading room of the Corran Inn

Sights of Yogya ...

The Borobodur - a monument in testimony of a great civilisation in Java. Rising up 7 storeys from the ground it represents 7 levels of human existence in our pursuit of 'nirvana'

Reliefs on the life of Buddha and stories from the epics of Ramayana and Mahabharata are etched into the walls of the Borobodur

Stupas with statues of Buddha in meditation inside them

A statue of Buddha in meditation

Palace elders at the Yogya kraton (royal palace) reciting its imperial history

A part of the orchestral ensemble accompanying the Ramayana Ballet at the Prambanan Temple

The Ramayana Ballet is performed at the grounds of the Prambanan Temple only on the nights of "full moon" during the spring and summer seasons

A young girl in Solo doing a hand-painted batik with the 'tjanting'

The 'penarik becha' of Yogyakarta

Pakdokter's partner and her 'abang betcha'

Culinaria Yogya......

One of the things I enjoy doing in all of my travels is to sample the local cuisine.

For the Staroba golfers, every trip we made to Indonesia will offer us a full dose of Masakan Padang, the flavour of which is most familiar to our palate. In Jogjakarta, our regular joint is the Rumah Makan Padang Sederhana, with its array of hot and spicy dishes. My only reservation about Padang food is that they are not freshly cooked. Some of the rendang dishes are probably a few days old and the beef rendang can be quite tough to chew. Their "sambel" is without belacan and is not pounded as fine as ours. But you can rest assured that even the green chilli "sambel" will give you a punch and will go down well with the blanched tapioca shoot ( pucuk ubi kayu) or the crispy fried of sliced lung.

Delicious Makanan Padang

After our games at the Merapi Golf Resort, we lunched at a vilage fish restaurant - Rumah Makan Salma. The dining halls are built on stilt structures over fresh water ponds where varieties of fresh water fish are reared. We were served several fish dishes - deep fried crispy gourami, sweet and sour fish, locally grown stir-fried kangkong and of course the local "sambel" and its accompanying ulams. One dish which I liked is the 'soup ikan patin' - a sweet clear soup with chunks of ikan patin cooked with local herbs and pineapple pieces.

Fresh-water ponds rearing various types of fish

Hungry golfers waiting for lunch at Rumah Makan Salma

At the hotel I was able to sample 'nasi gudeq' - this typical breakfast dish consists of rice served with gulai nangka ( jack fruit) and fried chicken and rendang beef. The gulai nangka however is sweet. I prefer the spicy gulai nangka Padang style ( spicy jack fruit gulai cooked in coconut milk and yellow saffron)

Dinner at a local Yogya restaurant

"Nasi timbel" is another local Yogya dish. The rice is served wrapped-up in a roll of banana leaf and accompanied with fried chicken, slices of roast beef, a fried sambal of anchovies with pieces of tempeh ( soya bean cake)and a mixture of ulams ( fresh vegetables) with its sambal. I find in both the 'nasi' , the beef dishes tend to be dry and tough to the chew.

Pak Solehuddin and Pak Noramid trying to charm Sita

I wish I had had the chance to go out and try 2 dishes famously associated with Yogya. One is the 'bebek goreng' - deep fried duck, and the other is the Malioboro Fried Chicken - reputedly better than the Old Colonel's KFC. The Malioboro Fried Chicken is first boiled in the juice of young coconut after which it is deep fried and is tender to the bite. One has to check-out the many food stalls that sprout up along the pedestrian side-walk of Malioboro Street at night in order to savour these dishes.

Maybe next time!