New Found Food Gems

We suspect we might stick with these two new finds for a while.

Zsofi. A rustic tapas bar at Dunlop street in Little India is just perfect for a casual night out. You get free tapas with every drink order. We of course made the mistake of over-ordering. Three of us had a mega tapas plate (yummy) and a pizza (not yummy) to share. My favourite tapas of the night was mushroom with garlic butter on toast. Sangria was good too. We'll definitely be back :)

Brunch the this morning was at Artichoke at Sculpture Square. It's got a somewhat similar rustic vibe to Zsofi, but set in the day. The food was simple and delicious, service was great. We even got a candy treat when we left. What a nice start to a lazy Sunday. Reservations recommended and more pictures here.

Grilled haloumi & buttered mushrooms on toast

Lamb + eggs + toast

Below the hot pan is a write-up on the place. I think it's really cool that it's stained with burnt marks.

And the boy attempting to look cool in the crazy heat.

Layang Layang

It's been way too long since we last posted. After many months of just work, we finally had our well-deserved break at Layang Layang, an atoll off Kota Kinabalu in East Malaysia.

The entire place is just that small. From runway straight to resort.

Diving is the main activity, and our star is the Hammerhead Sharks. We all stayed at Avillion, which is the only resort. The rest of the area is part of the naval base which obviously is out of bounds to nosy tourists. The only way to get there is by a propeller plane (40-seater/12-seater).

We had a total of 13 dives, it was not only till the last 2 dives that we saw the hammerheads. They like the cold water, so they are usually found deep in the water (below 30m), and usually in the morning. The first spotting came as a complete surprise. It was a 3pm wall dive at the Crack Reef, meant for the pygmy seahorse, but out came 2 hammerheads at around -17m. I unfortunately sat out on that dive because of a massive headache. I wanted to kill myself when I found out what I had missed. Luckily for me, we saw nothing but hammerhead sharks (some saw 5, some 7) at about -30m on the last dive, the next morning. Now, everyone's happy.

Our very bad proof of sighting. (Look at it from a distance and squint very hard)

This trip is also our first attempt at underwater photography. Despite the fact the we are using a simple point and shoot (Canon Ixus 75). We had a lot of blues and greens, did not know what to do and simply blamed it on the camera. Then, we met Ben. A fellow diver, at the little age of 13 had to teach us how to use the camera. He taught us how to change our settings and set the white balance. It was only after, that we had a little more colour in our pictures. For now, enjoy our pictures of blues and divers :)



Overall, the diving was not fantastic, other than the hammerheads. I guess there will be less of the blue if we had spotted them in the earlier dives. Some of of the sites like Shark Cave 1 was quite interesting with schools of Trevally and Surgeon fish. The Mantas and turtles were also pretty cool. We were lucky to end the trip on a high.

And don't forget to stop by a really good massage place if you have some time to kill at the airport in Kota Kinabalu. Jari Jari spa, it's about 5 minutes by car from the airport. A real treat for all of us, as the resort had no massage services during our stay. We had the Padi Field Massage for 2 hours at RM 330. Fantabulous!