King Join 京兆尹, Taipei, Taiwan

In stepping into a new decade, things have already repeated themselves. Gone back to places I haven't been to for years, in Bangkok, in HK and in Taipei too. This place offered some very classic Peking dim sum and cuisine as a legacy from the late Ching Dynasty. It has been 100 years since Ching Dynasty got overthrown, and I was told the shop was run by the royal chef who served the dim sum section for Empress Dowager. This royal chef family fled to Taiwan during the split up of the communist and republican parties in the late 1940's. There the royal chef family introduced their house recipe of some very classic Peking dim sum.

1-5. The shop was once closed down due to some financial problem, but was re-opened 2-3 years ago. Everything is still the same, except the menu offered even a wider choices and some lunch set menu starting from TWD365 (appro. US$13).

6. the entrance.

7. This is a cute sign for implying to visitors from not pushing the door too hard, as in the meaning "palm air punching to open".

8. appetizer.

9. pumpkin soup. Pretty nice as it's with some crunchy nuts.

10. Veggie noodle soup. The chef did a good job from not putting too much salt and sugar to cover the nice flavour of all these rich vegetarian ingredients.

11. Meat sauce noodle, another nice noodle and it has a colorful mix of veggie and beans. It told the old time Chinese cooking using more variety of veggie and beans to get a balanced diet.

12. Braised mixed veggie. A bit surprising for me to taste 菱角 (don't know the exact English term), and it is pretty nice.

13. Stir fried baby spinach. Quite surprised with the way they use ginger slices to stir fry this veggie.

14/15. 洛神花涷 (guess it is quite close to Roselle), very nice jello.

16. Osmanthus roll 桂花涼糕, all the sweet dim sum are not sweet at all, nice smooth texture.

17. Chinese hamburger 燒餅, as you can see, the bun is with many layers. Very nice too.

18. Siu Lon Bao, actually I was told Siu Lon Bao should be a mini bun like this, in the Northern part of China.

19. 碗豆黃 & 驢打滾, the 2 typical Peking dim sums. Very smooth texture and again not sweet at all. Next to it is the black plum drink. Very nice too.

20. Milk pudding - this is a must for a dessert. Don't know how they could make this pudding so silky smooth and again very little sweet of it so that the original milk flavour can be tasted. Of course, some very nice milk is used. Otherwise, it would just expose the poor ingredients used. So the bill for 2 persons is about NTD800 (appro. 28).

The Entertainer, the mean Master

Now that a pet can be raised as a tool for making money...

Bath room, Plantation Pool Villa, Pavilions Phuket

Finally I had time to use Lightroom3 to fix the photos taken in the bath room of Plantation Villa. FYI, I would have only 3-5 minutes to take photos of the hotel room and so I can't go for too much details, nor I would have use an external flash to have a better lighting. As you can see, the bath room is all black and with some red. Besides, the light bulbs are not enough, nor the sunlight is good enough. So I had to reduce the contrast and have the recovery by 60% and fill more light and also use the lens correction to correct the distortion.

Four Points by Sheraton, soi 15 Sukhumvit, BKK

This hotel has just been opened in December, 2010 and right now offering an introductory rate at THB1,999++ (room only - an extra THB500 incl. ABF). After trying several new hotels, my advice is "don't try new hotels when they are just opened since some construction work may still be yet to be completed and it's still a bit dusty. In general, the room is pretty good and the furniture and material used are of some good quality. However, the shower needs to be improved on the ground leveling as the water runs to the other side towards the door that floods the bath room.

1-4: the room. It's pretty spacious and the sound proof is good that those noise from busy motorbikes wouldn't be noticed.

5: the hotel entrance and it's just in between S15 and Dream Hotel on soi 15. Remarks, this hotel is humble to rate itself as 4 star, unlike the 2 hotels on its both sides who claim to be 5 stars. Finally I found out I really don't feel all right when walking in soi 15 Sukhumvit, not because of my last "bright light" experience in S15. It's simply my instinct uneasy feeling in walking on that soi. However, the hotel room I stayed even is just next to S15. It's very ok. Just that soi seems to be with some pressure from above and around.

6. the cafe.

7-9 the lobby area.

10. the swimming pool on the roof top.

3 bedroom pool villa, Pavilions Phuket

Getting to the front desk for browsing the other room types is always like a must for me. This one is another I hope I can bring my family members for a try. I didn't take photos of the inside but the design is quite similar to Ocean View Pool Villa. However, they have a requirement for kids above 16 years old. You would see why on the below.

1. Look on the outside.

2. On the 2nd floor are the 2 bed rooms. Ground floor is a big living room and dining room.

3/4. The pool is very big.

5. View to East of Phuket and all the 3 bedroom villas are built surrounding the hill top, about 9-10 villas of this type.

6. Master bed room on the right. Should have taken a photo on how the pavilion standing on the cliff edge. Very stunning view!

Night view, Ocean View Pool Villa, Pavilions Phukets

1-3. Night view around the pool.

4. The villa has quite many small friends. Small earthworm. This tiny friend would only come out at night time. It's about 1cm in length. See how sleepy this one is. It just came out from the pond and climbed over to the edge.

5/6. the bed room. The color of the room is quite MO's color - quite light grey pastel. It doesn't relate to my changing to this room because of this MO color. :)

7. the bath room.

8-10. the living room.

11. bed room again but to the other side.

12. view to the living room from the cabana.