crunchy and naturel remedies

some tips gleaned from our tasik kenyir guide - 'green' john chan

• kunyit - natural antiseptic to heal cuts (and cancer prevention)
• aloe - to soothe/heal cuts
• bird nest fern - crush with olive oil to make natural hair dye
• garlic - cholesterol buster
• bittergourd - diabetes

christina (john's future mother in law and cook extraordinaire) curry recipe:

dry
indian curry spice mix for meat (from 2 sisters' store @ttdi wet market)
candlenuts

wet
red onions
no garlic
cloves
star anise

inspired to experiment with natural home cooking ala 101cookbooks but using local ingredients.

another inspiring person met this weekend was mabel - a vegan, naturalist. unassuming (never would've guessed she's singaporean). and totally passionate about the environment. wish her all the best :)

happy 2012!

got back from tasik kenyir last night where we spent 3 days in a houseboat with 30 strangers. on the lake. in taman negara. there was no internet or phone connection. no clock. (there was astro however!). it was an awesome holiday and fabulous way to ring in the new year. we only wore 1/2 of the clothes we packed. and we didn't take a shower the entire time. swam in the lake or stream (fed by waterfall) to clean off. spent hours reading (i finally finished eragon) and enjoying the cool breezy air as the boat made it's way around the lake. can't wait to do this again. :)

the house boat: a barge with 2 storey light weight structure built on it. 

10 sleeping quarters, a kitchen, a tv room, 

2 toilets and 1 shower, living area/decks, lofts.

the loft on which we slept on in our sleeping bags 

instead of our assigned room - with zubee, christy and mabel. 

view i woke up to on new year's day! 

 okm getting some reading action. 

 lagoon where we docked on 2nd night. 

 spider having lunch

stopped in kemaman for trengganu eats

on way back to kl. this is pic of ladiesmaking keropok lekor.