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My goodness, once again it has been a while. What excuse have I got for you this time then eh? Weeeeell I have been holidaying in Singapore and Borneo (insert monkey covering eyes emoji here). I can’t even bring myself to apologise. Not sure who I’d be apologising to anyways. At the rate I’ve been going, I’ve probably lost any regular readership I did have (insert pained expression emoji here). I hope that my mother at least is still reading this. I know I’ve got some work to do to win you back, and win you back I shall! Yesterday I tried out two recipes, one of which I am sharing with you now, and today I have two more lined up. I can only hope my efforts are sufficient, and your affection is once again mine. Enough grovelling. Let me tell you a bit more about my holidays 🙂

So, I may have mentioned in previous posts that my big brother lives in Singapore. If I didn’t, he does. He moved away last summer and it was about time we went to visit him. Whilst we were over that end of the world we decided to tie in a trip to Borneo. Definitely not your usual family holiday! Now for those of you who aren’t aware, Borneo is actually an island. It is the third biggest island in the world and is made up of Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei. We went to the Sabah which is one of two Malaysian states on the island of Borneo. I could easily write pages and pages about this holiday but thats certainly not going to woo you, so I shall try and keep it as brief as possible. I actually wrote a travel journal which was probably more a documentation of my mindless ramblings, then a dairy of what I actually did whilst travelling. I digress.

We began our travels in Singapore, spending a few nights right in the city centre. I am going to get real with y’all now, I wasn’t a massive fan of Singapore. There is a fair amount to do and see there but it’s just all so modern and lacking character, in my humble opinion of course. Those who know me are aware I am not big on shopping and my oh my there are an awful lot of shopping malls there. By an awful lot I mean there are 22 shopping centres on the road our hotel was on alone. Like I said though, there are a lot of other things to do and see, like Singapore Zoo for example. I will tell you more about that later though.

Our first port of call in Borneo was Kota Kinabalu, the capital of Sabah. I’m not very good at interpreting how much is too much detail and how much is not enough so I shall simply list the places we went. So from Kota Kinabalu we drove to Kinabalu National Park where we spent the night in a lodge right in the park, opposite Mount Kinabalu! A 5 hour drive then took us to Kinabatangang River, the second longest river in Malaysia. We spent 2 nights in Bilit Rainforest lodge, which was on the river bank in the rainforest. Whilst staying there we went on a number of river cruises which gave us the opportunity to see so many amazing animals. It was pretty darn incredible to see animals out in the wild like that. I felt like quite the adventurer cruising down the river trying to spot as many exotic creatures as possible. We were lucky enough to see two orang-utans, which we were told is a rareity for two reasons. Firstly, orang-utans are usually solitary creatures so to see two was very special indeed. Secondly, there are only about two to three thousand wild orang-utans so most people who come to Borneo only see get a chance to see them in the sanctuary’s.

After our stay in Bilit we went to Gomatong Cave and Sepilok Orang-utan Sanctuary. You’re going to have google these things as I fear I may have lost your attention about 300 words ago. All in all I had an absolutely amazing time in Borneo. It’s such a beautiful place, I will definitely be returning to do some more exploring. If anyone would like to know more then feel free to drop me a line and I’d be more than happy to continue my rambles with you. We went back to Singapore for a few days after Borneo so I’ll quickly tell you about Singapore Zoo. It’s really great.

BIRCHER MUESLI. That’s what you’re really here for right? Bircher Muesli, also known as overnight oats, is a traditional Swiss breakfast consisting of oats that are soaked overnight in juice, dried fruit, grated apple and yoghurt. Now I am no expert so I may be wrong about how “traditional” adding yoghurt is. Not adding yoghurt makes this a great dairy free breakfast treat that isn’t boring or unsatisfying. I chose to use orange and mango juice to soak my oats in as it is probably my favourite type of juice, however, if you want to make a low sugar version, you could use freshly squeezed orange juice instead. I added cinnamon and ground cardamom as they both compliment apple and mango well, and us Indian’s like to add a bit of spice to everything. I will certainly be making this muesli more often. It’s so darn easy.

Recipe

Equipment
mixing bowl
grater 

Ingredients
200g rolled oats
½tsp cinnamon 
⅛tsp ground cardamom 
100g dried cranberries 
500ml orange and mango juice 
2 apples (grated)
8 tbsp plain natural yoghurt 
Optional:
sprinkling of flaked almonds 

Method