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Time out in the Indian Ocean

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After a busy Q1 2013, and no rest at Christmas, we decided to get away, as far away as possible, for Easter.

Enter the Maldives, a collection of Atolls about an hours’ flight from Sri Lanka’s capital of Colombo, and just south of India.

We stayed at Vivanta by Taj Coral Reef, a small island 32km north west of the capital Male.

If you’re looking to get away, this is the place. If you’re a workaholic and want to get away (but still check in “just in case”), this is the perfect place.

We found at Vivanta you can easily get by without doing anything. Some popular pastimes for us were:

-Snorkelling the coral reef
-Relaxing on the balcony
-Relaxing on the beach
-Relaxing at the Reef Bar
-Relaxing in the room watching TV
-Relaxing with an espresso coffee in the business centre

Hopefully the theme of the island becomes obvious from the above.

Vivanta’s purpose must be to keep guests relaxed, and they act accordingly.

There are no clocks on this island, except on the TV when it’s on and even then it’s wrong. Vivanta staff go out of their way to make it easy by locating you on the island and reminding you where you need to be and when you need to be there.

This is one of the advantages of being on such a small island. This island is tiny, but big enough that everyone gets their own space, and, the only time you really see anyone else is at breakfast.

Drinks and dinner poolside is where we spent most of our last evenings and why not? The poolside doesn’t have a direct view of the sunset, but it’s a nice place to be at dusk.

This probably isn’t a place for children. But I think most people who visited knew this.

If you are looking for some R&R away from it all, but enough access to the real world that you can touch base relaibly if needed, this is the place.

A blunt force Cab Sav

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Looking for a thick dark shiraz after a busy week, and not wanting to venture for miles to find it, I visited Coles King St, Sydney, and into the Liquorland inside.

Heading straight for the reds, I was warmly greeted only after a moment by a very helpful woman, who suggested based on my needs I should consider this 2009 River Park Cabernet Sauvignon instead. She explained confidently it would suit my needs perfectly, 2009 was a great year and at $18 it was a great deal.

What’s even more surprising is that this wine is from Cowra, NSW.

While I didn’t have too much confidence in this, and only agreed as I was given a good sales pitch, I decided to take it for a test run.

I wasn’t disappointed. This wine has blunt-force-trauma strength. It gets straight to the point and does have a very nice dry finish as the bottle says.

The bottle states “an elegant tannin structure” which I would strongly agree with. It doesn’t have the acidity of some other red wines of similar or lower price and it is nice and thick.

I’d consider having this late evening with some creamy full body cheese like goats cheese, a quality creamy blue or a creamy camembert.

Baked Pork Buns at Tim Ho Wan

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Tim Ho Wan baked pork buns

Most definitely a highlight of our Hong Kong trip was the visit to Tim Ho Wan. Located between Yau Ma Tei and Mong Kok stations – and a pain to actually locate if you can’t read Chinese – is the Michelin-star-rated-but-unsure-whether-it-still is Tim Ho Wan.

A friend suggested we visit this place, and, unable to locate the long queues we were expecting, ended up walking around the block a couple of times before asking some locals.

The only thing to suggest this place is really popular outside of peak period is the dias outside with the only English notice stating something along the lines that you shouldn’t block the entrance.

We rocked up to this establishment before 5PM, so there was no queue and we were seated immediately (tip: if you are on holiday go outside of peak meal times and you will be seated immediately). During our half hour stay, a line quickly formed outside and fully congested the footpath.

The interior of Tim Ho Wan looks like a takeaway shop. There is nothing to suggest the quality of the food. Were were seated in the corner by the door next to a lady who was sitting counting cash and collating receipts. We required some interaction with her, and while she was attentive, she didn’t look up from what she was doing at any point, except to bark a few things at the man who was seating patrons.

This place is really small – if you’re looking for somewhere to spread out and dine then this is not the place. Tables were continually turned over – pulled back and forth to let the smaller guests with backs to the wall out of their seats as they came and went.

We chose 4 or 5 dishes, the highlight being the baked pork buns. While you normally expect slightly sticky steamed pork buns, these are baked and beautiful. A light somewhat-crispy exterior (but not uncomfortable crispy like toasted bread) dissolves to reveal the sweet interior that is heaven in a bun.

Our trip to Tim Ho Wan set us back $16AUD in total (two people, 4-5 dishes). We tipped to round it up to $20AUD as we felt a bit embarrassed paying so little for so much goodness.