Foot and Fire

By GERLIE M. UY It's so filling. I can't feel the oatmeal. These are what they say about my last banana-oatmeal muffin. I called this ultimate because I love the rise, i love the banana taste and the bready feel of flour and oatmeal. I have made banana cake and muffins  here  and  here  but this is much more memorable output as it is just perfect for me. I made a big batch as we have bunches of "balangon" (green variety) bananas... 2 cups canola oil 6 cups brown sugar  6 large eggs, beaten 10 cups flour, sifted 5 cups oatmeal quick cooking 3 T baking powder 2 cans (3 cups) evaporated milk 2 t vanilla  10 cups of mashed over ripe banana (balangon or the green variety) Pre-heat oven to 350F. Grease a medium muffin tins. In a mixing bowl, cream the first three ingredients until well-blended. Set aside. Combine the sifted flour and baking powder.  In the mixing bowl of creamed ingredients, alternately add mixed flour and milk, a little at a time. Blending...

We were enchanted by the aptly named stream, The Fairy Stream. Mui Ne, Pan Thiet is a worth visit from Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). As one website describes it,Phan Thiet is the largest town in Binh Thuan province, 200 km east of Saigon. With the clear sky, the blue sea and abundant sand, Phan Thiet is a beautiful landscape. Though today tourism plays a very important role in the local economy, Phan Thiet is traditionally known for its fish sauce. As a fact, most travelers come to Phan Thiet for heading to Mui Ne Beach, 11km away. Mui Ne is along a 22 km stretch of white sands from Phan Thiet to a fishing village at the tip of the Mui Ne peninsula and 220km away from Ho Chi Minh City. It is a popular destination worldwide thanks to lovely scenery of swaying palm trees, clean and blue sea as well as the amazing enormous Sand Hill. .   More Here We headed to a magical place of red and white sand dunes which colors the stream beside it and flanked on the other side by the lu...

This day tour is a refreshing one compared to the cu chi tunnel tour so we chose this one. In this tour, we navigated the Mekong river via a motorized boat and when we reached an island, we used the small boat with many village folks manning the boat. We had lunch in a restaurant where we ordered fish (we splurged 350,000 dong as I can recall because it was our last day) and the lady made a spring roll in our midst using the fish and some greens. In this tour, I sampled the coconut candy and the vietnamese rice wine aside from the tropical fruits like pineapple, watermelon and longgan as well as dragonfruit. We passed by a bridge consisting of coconut trunk and some bamboos tied with nylon strings which they call "monkey bridge" as one looks like a monkey while slowly traversing the bridge. Below the bridge is a pack of hungry crocodiles... And lastly, while I don't like it... I carried a big snake on my shoulder... I recall, it was for 10$ day tour and the v...

Motorcycle-infested city is Ho Chi Minh and the riders respect no footwalk...  Saigon is the old name of Vietnam's capital city now called Ho Chi Minh, a name of the country's national hero who was instrumental to their independence from France. Thus, there is no wonder that most structures in HCMC is European-inspired just like their post office and the  cathedral. Their palace called The Reunification Hall where they once hold governmental functions is so modern that it will not surprise you. There are tourist police who can help one navigate the streets of HCMC which is motorcycle-infested and their parks as well as streets are clean. Here are my random photos of HCMC. The Reunification Hall The children following their teacher dressed  in their national costume called ao dai. Photo souvenir with the tank... Resting in a clean park. The Notre Dame Cathedral "A French-built Catholic cathedral located in the city centre  (Do...

Yes, I was able to climb that tower on top! The see the grandeur of the Great Wall of China up close has always been a dream. But it did not come true of course when I get to get closer to the famed wall. First, anyone cannot just be in all entries of the wall at a time and second, the climb was such a challenge for those who have fear of heights. And oh, the third thing is, it was near the end of winter. This point of entry to the Great Wall is Juyungguan, a less known entry than Badaling and Mutianyu. See other entries here.  It was in February this year when we went there so the weather which approaches the end of winter limited our mobility bun not the fun and the opportunity to meditate as to the beauty of the historic landmark which can be seen from the moon. They are going down already... A portrait on top of The Wall. The winter beauty of The Great Wall. Just can't believe it that I was there! The beauty and the grandeur. Here I am!!!! ...