Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona

The Grand Canyon is a steep-sided gorge carved by the Colorado River in the United States in the state of Arizona. It is largely contained within the Grand Canyon National Park, one of the first national parks in the United States. President Theodore Roosevelt was a major proponent of preservation of the Grand Canyon area, and visited it on numerous occasions to hunt and enjoy the scenery.

The canyon was created by the Colorado River over a 5.4 million year period. The canyon is 277 miles (446 km) long, ranges in width from 4 to 18 miles (6.4 to 29 km) and attains a depth of over a mile (1.83 km) (6000 feet). Nearly two billion years of the Earth's geological history have been exposed as the Colorado River and its tributaries cut their channels through layer after layer of rock while the Colorado Plateau was uplifted. The "canyon began in the west, followed by another that formed in the east. Eventually, the two broke through and met as a single majestic rent in the earth, more commonly referred to as the "Grand Canyon Event" approximately 5.4 million years ago.
Source: Wikipedia.

The canyon itself is an amazing sight to me. Although not 100% percent amazed. The timing to go to Grand Canyon is very important. The best time would be sunrise and sunset where you can view the multiple layers of earth formation millions of years ago. I reached Grand Canyon around 2pm at noon so it is just too bright to watch the canyon. I take the day trip to the Grand Canyon from Las Vegas. The trip itself takes me 5 hours perway. Depart from my hotel at 6am, make a few stops for break and lunch before reaching Grand Canyon at 2pm. It is not near (700-800km) per way, but the trip is worth time spent. We stop by to few places during this trip and see the amazing sight of the US desert. The US interstate is really good in providing the connection between Las Vegas and Grand Canyon. The road is smooth and it lines along the extreme temparatures of the deserts.


Hoover Dam

On the way to Grand Canyon.

On the way to Grand Canyon.

Reaching Grand Canyon.

Grand Canyon view from south rim.

From another angle.

Grand Canyon.

From Bright Angel point.

Malaysia Airlines 18 Hours Flight

I believe the Malaysia Airlines from Kuala Lumpur International Airport to Los Angeles is the longest flight operated by them. I have the opportunity to board the flight and find that the service is good and the food served is not bad and they also serve wine. Although I am entitle for business class but the plane is quite full on that day. So I take the economy class instead. The economy class is actually quite ok. The cabin crews deserved to win their yearly best cabin crew category. They are helpful, smile without fail & able to take care disabled passenger well. I still enjoy the small tv with multiple music channels. The flight lasted 18 hours with one transit point in Taipei.

Food:7/10(Moderate. The food quality is ok and the food is sufficient. However, there should have another snack session as the dinner after departs from Taiwan to the lunch when reaching Los Angeles is too long. Passengers who does not sleep will feel hungry during that time.)


Inflight entertainment.

Fish with baked potato and carrot. It is a three course meal.

Chicken mushroom rice with carrot & vegetables.

Garlic ginger chicken with pasta.

Same chicken garlic & ginger with different fruits and dessert.

Waiting for the super far destination to arrive.

Travelled more than 9000km.

Looks like going to Vancouver is nearer.

Airport internal bus. Ferrying from Tom Bradley terminal to US immigration building.

AA aircraft.

LAX International Airport. Will post more photos after this... Amazingly, one airplane departs every minutes!

USAF Thunderbirds @ Subang Air Base

I am not going to blog about food in this entry. Just want to share with you all about the air show that was held in Subang recently. US Air Force Thunderbirds are having performance in Subang Air base today. This air show attracted a lot of visitors to the Subang Airport area and caused massive jam. There were many inconsiderate drivers who just park their car at the road side and roundabout just to watch the show. The traffic is simply havoc on that day.

The Thunderbirds are the air demonstration squadron of the U.S. Air Force (USAF), based at Nellis AFB in Las Vegas, Nevada. The squadron tours the United States and much of the world, performing aerobatic formation and solo flying in specially-marked USAF jet aircraft. They seldom come to Malaysia, and this visit has attracted many fighter jets enthuasist to come from far to watch the air show. The weather on that day is cloudy and it was bad for photography. I manage to capture some of the moments on that day...







Dropping down fast!


Flying upside down.

Formation.

Flying upward.

Dashing up fast in group.

Nice formation!

The Thunderbirds from near.

Restaurant Imperial @ Bukit Tinggi, Klang

I was invited to a wedding dinner of my ex-colleague. The restaurant is quite near to my house and quite easy to go there. Other than a wedding dinner, it is a reunion dinner for me. We laugh & update each other about our whereabout after we seperated. Anyway, it was a fun affair and we do enjoy the bunch of company there. I knew this restaurant from another food blogger who blog about the nice dim sum here. I always wanted to try their dim sum here but until now I have yet to try their dim sum.

Taste:7/10(Moderate. Taste wise the food is moderate and the presentation of the dish is just ok).

Non-Halal.


We start of with tidbits. You know the tradition. The dinner won't start at least one hour later from the stated time.

First dish.

Second dish. Chicken soup.

Third dish. Steamed white promfet with soy sauce.

Forth dish. Fried sour & spicy prawn.

Fifth dish. Roasted duck & piglet.

Sixth dish. Mushroom & dried bean curd.

Seventh dish. Lotus leaf rice.

Eighth dish. Sweet dessert.

Ninth dish. Winter melon dessert with red dates.

Restaurant Imperial.

If you wish to come, here is the address... It is just at opposite road along the AEON Bukit Tinggi shopping complex, Klang.

Colleague house warming steamboat

Recently, I attended a colleague house warming party in Selayang, Selangor. It is a well done steamboat party with lots of food to eat and drink. Meat, chicken, vegetables, noodles, eggs, prawn, soft drinks, wine, banana cake, home made tiramisu cake and home made peach cheese cake. Not only have food to eat, but we were entertained with the wedding video shown to us.


A pot of soup for steamboat.

There were sausages, fish ball and meat ball.

Fish noodles.

Just throw all the ingredients in there.

Look at all the RAW material here.

There are prawns, squid and noodles.

Smooth and slimy squids.

What a miss if steamboat without these prawns.

The flour items to make tummy full.

Home made tiramisu toffee.

Home made peach cheese cake and banana cake + tiramisu toffee as the background.

How often you eat at home?

I am a few of the lucky ones who can enjoy mom home cooked meal on weekdays. For me, no matter how good hawker food or outside food, mom cooking is still the best. Although it is just a normal stir-fry vegetables, steamed chicken or soup, I still can't get such dishes from outside. Besides being nutritious and full of wholesomeness, it helps me to save too. A whole chicken from the market only cost RM8 and it can be eaten for two days. While whole chicken from chicken rice shop already cost you RM16-20 per chicken.
Then looking at people who no longer stay with their family or had moms who have gone to the other side of the world, I realized that many people would still love for their moms cooking. For those who like to complain about their mom's cooking, be grateful and try to cook yourself. Now I share with you all the cooking for the past 2 months.


Fried rice.

Bean sprouts.

Steamed ladies finger. Nutritious and simple.

Steamed fish with garlic & mushroom. My mom will try to have meat & vegetables on one dishes.

Steamed chicken. Fresh and appetizing.

Stir fry green vegetables.

Lotus root soup boiled with red dates & pork rib.

White pomfret with green capsicum & salted black beans.

Sea weed soup with eggs.

Squid curry. This is what I suggested. Just dump everything into curry.

Stir fry green capsicum with pork.

Red bean soup with noodles. I not quite sure what does this bean called.

Large green pea, mushroom, eggs and chicken soup with noodles. Another example of mixing meat & vegetables to make it nutritious enough.

Another version of steamed fish promfet.

Canned baked beans.

Herbal soup.

Braised pork with roasted garlic.

Steamed promfet with spring onions.

Stir fry french bean with anchovies & chili.

Black bean soup.

Occasional brown rice for a good fiber meal.

Stir fry cabbage.

Stir fry cauliflower with anchovies, mushroom & onions.

Salted black bean fish.

Noodles with dried oyster, green vegetables and chicken.

This is the first time I tried this raw dates. It is sour and disgusting when you first bite it but as you chew, it is taste quite sweet.

Scenery Around Jugra, Selangor

After having tummy full with seafood and steamed buns, we take a walk and enjoy the scenery on top of Bukit Jugra. The first time I came to Banting, I missed out this place as during that time, there was a paragliding event held there.


This photo was taken from the Viking Seafood Restaurant using my 250mm lens.

Some sort of camp. Nice view with river bank.

Zoom in view.

The ships on the Straits of Malacca.

A house in the middle of jungle.

Green...

Bukit Jugra light house.

Maybe this is river Klang?

View to the horizon...

A lot of these building in Banting for bird nest farming.

Capture using 18mm lens.

Bukit Jugra light house.