Bayon

Bayon......the temple ruins with faces staring at you from broken towers .
Faces enigmatically smiling almost like Mona lisas of Cambodia .
In the 12 th and 13 th century these huge sandstone blocks were broken from quarries and dragged by slaves or elephants and built as turrets and towers some say 49 others 54 but today only 37 are left painstakingly restored by the Japanese aided restoration which continues till 2021 from 2018 .
Jayawardane VII the Khmer king Buddhist by his beliefs built Bayon they say for himself while he built Anghor Thom for his mother and Preah Khan for his father .
Buddhist idols were fpund smashed and thrown later by Jayawardane VIII who installed Shivalinga and Vishnu as he believed in Hinduism .
The galleries were etched and modified from Buddhist tales to Hindu ones and later again to Buddhist ones .
The famous one of  Ravana trying to destroy mount Kailas on top of which Shiva resides,
The dancing Apsaras
The telling tale of Bhagvad Gita with Krishna preaching to an anxious Arjuna in battle fatigues strangely a hunter Shiva finds a place in this .
Sleeping Buddha in repose
The gaurding lions
Elephants being taken for a bath
The king himself in his palanwuin with his concubines marching along
The defeated Chamers running away from.the Khmers the victorious Chamers in another battle
Above all the faces the trademark of Bayon more cleaer as one climbs to the higher levels .
A lost temple in the depth of a forest
A time machine to take you back
BAYON

The meats of my life

The Meats of my life

Deer meat can be slotted as an exotic meat i think ,maybe in parts the forest dept would be upon my guts !
Once I  went with some friends to this legendary heritage Chinese restaurant in Brunei known for its dear (deer )delicacies .

It was tender and nice but to my selective Indian taste buds it would have been better as a spicy kerala style fry .

Somehow the original authentic Chinese cuisine doesnt appeal to me with its bland sourness ,mild hint of sickly sweetness, and no spice this side of Timbuctoo
Whats life with no spice .

I prefer our indo chinese any day with its scollops of tomatoes onions and chilly powder or pepper with India in every single morsel of its fried rices .

I need india in some form to make things perfect .

Once i had moose meat (incidentally my grandfather was a moos..thats a clan so named in kerala ..am not mentioning them !!  Dont accuse me of cannibalism thats one border i dont cross .)
This one is like mux oxen , a cross between Bison and Deer
I had this in Norway which incidentally had moose overbridges on highways so that they cross from one forest to other without becoming meat 😁 for me to eat .

My wifes cousins husband an young Norwegian doctor cooked for us an authentic kerala style moose curry  which was awesome with soft succulent bread helping  to beat the freezing cold then .

Once wandering in downtown Sydney I saw a burger shop with pictures of kangaroo Burgers
Had one promptly .
It didnt hop on me but behaved  as good as any self respecting chicken Burger would .

Ages back in a thatched hut of a kumily Dhaba amongst the increasing fog I tucked into an exotic jungle bird with some fiery local manna  along with my college mates .
Those were the brave young days .

The memory is as hazy as the weather of  that day me in those wuthering heights for the liquid concotion surely hit me more than the fowl birds did !
In a dinner in Cochin once in a friends house i  was asked to name a succulent meat offered in menu
it was the poor rabbit of course .

" I love animals, because they are so tasty" is  one famous statement of my son .

But I really dont like those slimy creepy creatures which the far East like to indulge in like those insects worms frogs snakes etc nauseating indeed .
So Iam wary of street food
I did find a lot in the neat sterile nightmarkets of Taipei in Taiwan but settled down for a sedate Beef sizzler with an ice cold Taiwanese Beer .
China was one place I dreaded as i expected Snakes for snacks but proved to be otherwise .
I never saw reptiles there but my first bite of a fresh cabbage momo like dumpling in cold Beijing won me over and i have to mention the famous Peking duck which we had in a bye lane behind the Beijing palace a place where tourists hardly venture guided by our sauve guide .
In the streets of Bangkok and Patayya there were slimier choices so one could ignore the crawling ones .

As far as Japan is concerned Sushi is squishy to me and Sashemee is not for me .
My trials with these have never made me thier fans .
To me after knowing fire why should we hark back to the days of uncooked food our poor naked caved ancestors ate  because they had no   choice .
I agree Sushi is considered  an exotic gourmet dish by those who like it and I write this with due respects for thier liking .

Iam a fan of American food for one the Yankees are cool they have food in large sizes no nibbling like the French and to cut into a medium steak dip into a sauce is inviting not to mention those dripping Burgers and the yellow fries in ketchup
Dont scrunch your eyes my paunch never does .
But European breakfasts are just lovely .

I love  fresh crunchy sausages ,French loaves ,Turkish Balclavas which i bit into in the Swissotel Bhosporous during a chilly morning .
I liked the French pastry i bought off the Champ de Elysee on my walk to the Lido for dinner .
Once in Vienna a hot dog guy in a van gave me one with some fiery sauce as i kept asking for spicier one.He got his revenge as i went hopping like a rabbit all the way to the UNESCO  headqaurters .
In the rainy streets of Frankfurt we once had a selection of  meat and fine wine in a dinner hosted by a good German neuroradiologist friend in a heritage restaurant .
I loved the fresh breakfast we tucked into on our long drive from Vegas to grand canyon .

 Give me meat cooked slowly over time on a wooden fire its juices shining in red oil any time
May not  be good for my middles but excellent for my happiness .

And now to my home

 The variety indian cuisine has
Is just mindblowing
Every state every region every village every house has its story to tell it has its secret recipe of taste unheard of
Its just like indian music with infinite possibilities
The state of someone spoilt with this depth getting exposed to simpler alternatives is depressing !

Syabrubesi in Nepal

During our overland bus travel from Katmandu to Keyrung the border town of Chinese Tibet we stayed over on our onward trip in a beautiful hill village called Syabrubesi 2380 meters above sea level on the way to Langtan valley and in the Langtang national park known for its trekking routes .
Even though the village is just 80 km from Katmandu it takes more than 8 hours to reach there as the single narrow treachorous uphill road is dangerously steep with dizzying sides goes upto 5000 meters up to descend into valley .
Landslides prone area we had to stop for a couple .
The only vehicles possible are mini buses like ours or jeeps .
The river Trisuli known for white water rafting flows through village .
As it was dark we didnt see much of the village on way but on return we reached in time for lunch and we rested for some time before leaving the place ..
Its a lovely hill station with dreamy cottages spewing thread like smoky chimneys ,foggy valleys,gurgleof river,hot springs ,and chilly weather  .
The food was warm served with great hospitality ..

Cochin Metro

The extension of Cochin metro to Thycoodam later to Thripunithura will make a big difference in a city thats burdened with poor roads busy traffic and inadeqaute bus services and sorry driving .

All big crowded busy cities in the world have metros as main transportation like  New york Istanbul,Rome,Japan,Singapore,Hong kong etc .

They are efficient quick sleek and user friendly .

The connecting of south and north Railway stations to the most important transport hub of Vytila with a promise of water metro is the best thing that could have  happened to the city .

Now the planners need some imagination .

The KSRTC stand in Ekm should be  dismantled and Vytilla be the main terminal as it can be connected to all parts by metro  .

Cochin west Vypeen and many other parts can be connected by water metros .

Vytilla terminal needs to be a multistoreyed vast complex with metro.bus.boat .taxis.auto all in three floors
Multiparking in basement nearby
Malls entertainement hubs hotels markets corporate offices should be incorporated in this sprawling say 15 storey multi complex .

The KSRTC stand in city center should be turned into a huge park with refurbished stadium and a green lung for city .

All places with water acess like Ernakulam market ,marine drive  ,Nettoor,Thevara,wellingdon island,fort cochin ,mattancherry ,edacochin ,kumbalangi should be part of fast water metro connectivity .

Last mile connectivity by E Autos ,Bicycles under apps ,and small shuttle vehicles are needed .

The Cochin Airport definitely needs to be connected by water and land  metro  but airport city fare can be bit more costlier as in many cities .

The unified metro cards should be made available everywhere and topping it should be easy by apps .

Senior citizens and handicapped should get concessions .

People using metros need etiquette training to alight by waiting on sides of doors for people getting down instead of pushing in like bulls .
All transport should be kept clean .

With some effort we can create a modern Cochin .