Author - graham

In the Heart of Little India lies a Sacred Treasure.

Komala Vilas is a vegetarian restaurant that opened in Singapore in 1947.

I have been to SG 3 times now

(alas not in 1947, although I would have loved too have been there when it opened)

Each time I visit I have to experience this amazing food.

Whilst, I am not a vegetarian myself I could easily become one.

The flavours of the food here are undoubtedly a good reason why people can never worry that vegetarian food is bland and tasteless because after trying this you won’t ever worry about trying veggie food again.

I had No 1 on the menu ( and I can see why its No 1)

A rice meal that comes with 3 vegetables,

dhal, Sambar, Kulumbu, rasam, thairu, raitia, payasam, appalam and pickles – All for S$8.50 which is about £4.80

Washed down with Masala Tea at S$1.80

for breakfast or lunch its amazing traditional Indian food at its best.

Check out the Komala Villas Menu

It’s in the heart of the backpacker’s hostel situated around Little India so if you are staying there then I highly recommend it.

If however you are only passing through SG and have a day or so to visit, then its about 1-hour ride on the MRT from the airport.

Directions below All Directions from Changi Airport unless stated.

Take the East-West Line GREEN colour line on the MRT one stop and change at EXPO to get the Downtown Line BLUE colour on the MRT approx 13 stops till you reach Jalan Besar MRT station.
From there it is about a 10-minute walk to Serangoon road.

Tickets and information
SMRT – 1800 336 8900

As I travel I will try to explain as best as I can the food on my journey, They say a picture paints a thousand words( so expect lots of those) but if you are like me, you want to know what it is, what is it called? does it have meat or is it vegetarian? or spicy or not?

So wet your lips and enjoy

For once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards, for there you have been and there you will long to return.

I guess we all have to travel, whether its the regular commute to and from work or the planned trips on our days off to visit somewhere different. They say we have, but one life to lead and yet we all seem to wait till its nearly over before realising our dreams.

How many of you have parents or know people who have worked hard all their lives to save for that once in a lifetime holiday, adventure or cruise that they can remember for the rest of their lives?
Yet we literally wait until we near the end of it to enjoy it.

I have had the pleasure to meet many people that do this and others that will sacrifice the house, family and steady career to achieve this earlier and I guess it’s about preferences, choices, and responsibility that makes everyone different.

For me, it’s about a life-changing event or rather events that gave me the courage to take the first step and what I hope is a great adventure
All my mistakes and advice as I travel
Documented in this blog and these posts are my quests, as i try to travel and see as much as I can on a budget.

Before this site, I was a Facilities Manager for a company in England.

Like most people times have been tough and we had to work harder to keep afloat.

Every year I would organise an annual work night out, where I would take all the staff and treat them to a meal and drinks. my way of saying thank you for all the hard work they did throughout the year.

We used to call it the Ozzies as I would give out awards and presents to the staff who did well.  There were also a few fun prizes as well just to make it entertaining.  Like who “Pissed the Boss off the most” and “Best email” it was part of my life. In fact, the staff who worked for me became like family.

However back in 2016, a few major things happened.

(as well a few minor ones)

Which got me to thinking how precious life is and how little time we have on this planet.

I took steps to look for other things that I was interested in and wanted to pursue.

One of these was travelling, throughout my life, I have always wanted to visit faraway places that you read in a book or see on a movie screen.

But like most, I figured one day I would retire and do it all then.

However, as I got older so did my dreams, I watched people older than me, fail to fulfill what they said was their lifelong ambition.

I began to wonder what if this happens to me?

So towards the end of Dec 2016, I booked a 4 week holiday to South East Asia thanks to a friend who has travelled around there and knew the best places to visit.

He spent over a week getting me the best deals, finding the right flights, transfers, discounts, and extras to make it a trip to remember. Thank you, Emmett, for giving me such a baptism in travel 🙂

Looking back at photos, I was going through a lot as I am clearly not looking healthy. Carrying too much weight, red-faced, and grey hair all adding to a look that possibly would have made my life a bit shorter had I carried on down that path.

The following year,  2017 I did it again, this time I booked everything, found some cheaper places, some different accommodations.

I tried a Hostel for the first time at 46 and loved it, it is a cheap but good, clean way of experiencing places if you are on a budget.

However, I still spent the usual amount of money as you would on a holiday, so I started thinking, what if I could still experience this travel adventure but on a smaller budget, which is more cost-effective and planned better?

“Hence this blog, I have read lots of travel tips from the blogging community, the guys and gals who have been doing this for years, and they all say it can be done, give you a few tips here and there, so I decided to try it and blog as I go.
It may work and be a success or an epic failure, but as all things in life, you have to actually do it to find out.”

Graham, August 2018