Baozi Inn in Chinatown

I went to one of my favourite restaurants in Chinatown with a friend last week. I loved their Baozi, a bigger version of a dumpling that is steamed, but they changed their menu and they no longer served any baozi! Why call it Baozi Inn when you don't serve any baozi anymore?! It was a bit disappointing for sure, but the food that we did order was still very tasty.

Black fungus with coriander and chili. It tastes nicer than it sounds I promise! It's got a slight chew and crunch to it. 

Pork spare ribs. So tender and tasty

DUMPLINGS! Pork dumplings with chili oil

More dumplings! In soup this time.

Making our way through the dishes. We were both pretty full afterwards. There is a rice dish in the middle, it's chicken and aubergine in fish sauce. 

Trafalgar square at night, I love that place. 

Ding Dong.

The walk along South bank was needed after so much food... 

Cyprus Holiday Part II

We drove to the mountains one day and saw Toodoro and went along the walking trail that lead to a waterfall. The waterfall wasn't spectacular, but that was probably due to the dry summer. A lot of driving was done on that day. The next time that we used the car, one of the tires started to go flat. All of use was slightly concerned that a tire might have been punctured by the driving from the day before. This caused quite a lot of stress on my parents, and some very expensive phone calls to the rental car company. Fortunately, we found a garage and it was actually a valve problem due to neglected maintenance on the wheels. Phew. Not our fault.

The water was quite cold on my skin!

Early morning, the view from our hotel balcony

Sunset...

UK does not have water parks. So obviously we had to visit one. We went to the biggest one in Cyprus, which was near Lemesol. We went to one in Corfu a couple of years ago when we holidayed there, and thoroughly enjoyed it. This one was better though. There were more rides, and more different levels of thrill. I wish I had some photos to show you, but I just wanted to have fun and not spend time taking photos/asking others to take photos of me (I know my boyfriend gets annoyed at that!). I grew up in China and there were waterparks there too. I went to an outdoor one when I was very young. They weren't great because the water wasn't that clean. There were quite a few indoor water parks though. I frequently visited one of them when I was young, and loved every minute of it. The indoor ones do give constraints on size and height though. There was a new one built in the outskirts of the city where I grew up. I visited there a few years ago. It was fun, but when it's inside, it just feels a bit more artificial somehow. I have also been to a water park at Disney World in Florida. That was great fun too, but nowhere near as big as the one in Cyprus! As I'm writing this, I feel like I'm becoming some kind of water park connoisseur?! Anyway, the day spent at the waterpark in Cyprus was the second best day  of the holiday for sure (best day being swimming with a sea turtle)!

After 8 weeks in the glorious sun, I filled up on watermelon, got a tan and a few new memories I will never forget. All this made leaving and coming back so hard. London is so wet, grey and cold! But I guess we all have to come back to reality sometime. Oh post-holiday blues...

Cyprus Holiday Part I

Sun shine, sandy beaches, and clear ocean waters. These words describe my Cyprus holiday perfectly. After travelling actively in Croatia for a week, a do-nothing-beach-holiday was just what I needed. I went there with my parents and my boyfriend, while there was some friction between me and my parents sometimes, the holiday was still enjoyable.

We didn't get up to much on this holiday, but it was still quite eventful. Most of the time was spent at the beach. The Hotel we stayed at had its own beach, so it was literally only a few steps down to the ocean from our room. The water was so warm, it was like having a bath! We did a lot of snorkelling, which caused me to have a rather stripy, unevenly tanned back...

Into the fish!

On our second day there, I spotted a turtle while snorkelling. My boyfriend and I followed the turtle for a good half hour if not more. He was absolutely adorable. He was feeding on the seaweed at the bottom of the sea, and I could clearly see his head turning and chomping away happily. Also, occasionally he would need to come up for air, and I could see his head pop out the water briefly and see his large dark eyes appearing above the surface of the water. It was such an unique and amazing experience. I never saw a turtle while snorkelling in Oz, so I was so happy when I managed to see one in Cyprus no less! Unfortunately, my parents missed out because they were on the beach that point. We set out to 'hunt the turtle' a couple of days after. I know that turtles have habits, and he should return to the same place around the same time everyday. Unfortunately, we missed the turtle by an hour and apparently he'd already left when we started swimming towards the hot spot. My parents were very disappointed.

 

To be continued...