Out Out and Away!

FRIDAY - 15/09/06

After two days of rain, the sun decided to step away from its hiding place and blessed us with its shine and warmth. It's our day out and would be my first time to Loch Lomond.

We've been planning for this trip for almost a week as Wan received a brochure about Loch Lomond Food and Drink Festival. Apparently it's an annual event and held at Balloch.

Since Wan is working on weekends, we decided to go on Friday after the Jumah prayer. We crammed into Wan's Honda Odyssey - 4 adults, 3 children and 1 baby in car seat - Go figure.

The trip took about 40 minutes from Govanhill. The scenery changed once we left the city. It may not be too far from the city but the scenery changed dramatically. The rolling hills, the open fields with sheeps roaming around and the cute cottages. Memang Jakun wa cakap lu!

Although the scenery was beautiful, the festival itself was a let down. It was supposed to be a food festival but the tents can be counted with fingers (Boleh kira dengan jari gitu!!!). It's not semeriah food festival in KL or not even on the same standard with pasar malam in Sentul. Of course lah, this is Scotland and nothing's compare to KL. Even food festival in Singapore is peanuts compared to pasar malam in KL.

I think there were less than 20 tents lined along the pedestrian walkway. There were tents selling cheese, ale and whisky. Variation of meats and of course the oink oink was included. Then there was the tent which attracted us to this place on the first place (aik?). Its the chocolate tent. The only tent that charge for entry. And it aint cheap I tell you. £5 per entry per adult. Cheh! Since we were charged to enter, our first assumption was that we can eat any chocolate we can inside the tent.

'Oh! No,' says the lady with a smile on her face. 'All these chocolates are for sale. We have some bits for you to taste'.

Laaa ..... kena beli ke? Didn't I just parted with my precious £5 at the entrance? Yet, we have to pay for chocolates stacked precariously on the triple tier plates, sitting onthe tables adorned with sweet red strawberries, soft marshmallow (tak boleh makan laaa ada gelatine) around the chocolate fondue? Alaaaa boleh tengok jer ke? Chis!! Anyway there was a Pakistani stall selling pakora and other Indian delicacies. At least adalah gak satu stall yang sell makanan halal. Tapi tak beli pun .... rasa jer!

Takkanlah we're leaving without buying any chocolates for ourselves, not to mention three kids who have super sweet tooth (teeth?) and love and adore chocolates in every shape, sizes, filling and prices? So, we selected the cheapest chocolate we could afford and forked another £2 for a packet per person.

Took some pictures just to pujuk ourselves and decided to have picnic at Duck Bay about 1km away from Balloch. It was a nice picnic area complete with children playground. The kids after having their dose of loads of sugar shot to the playground and ran around like demented little kids.

Liza packed fried speghetti, cikodok pisang and two thermos of hot tea. We brought with us chicken pops (buat sendiri beb!) and a pack of Milky Way chocolates - in case the kids run out of sugar supply.

All in all, it was a so so outing. Thanks to Duck Bay, otherwise our outing would be less than so so. The festival was a let down not because we can't eat the food (ada gak stall jual cheese), but the atmosphere was not as hype as what they advertised. I think we Malaysian host a better makan-makan festival. Ergh! Anyway, the view was splendid!