Dubai Update: March Unfortunate

Since the day I came back here from my one measly week of leave in Malaysia, I’ve been writing reports, audit reports for the matter. Audit reports are boring things – we repeat the same bloody topics over and over again for all the audits we’ve done. And you must write it ‘professionally’ meaning ‘they suck’ should be phrased as ‘auditees are unclear about their job responsibilities’, things like these.

Of late, a few unfortunate things have happened at home.

About 2 months back, Anu’s mom badly fractured her leg, literally broke it in a freak accident at home. Had to have metal inserts fixed to the bone. She still can’t walk but thank god, she’s slowly recovering.

My dear old grandma, the mother of my dad, she’s in hospital just as I write, for a blood clot in her leg. According to dad, she’ll have to be there for another 2 to 3 days. She’s the essence of our family (dad’s side), she’s the one that holds the family together. She’s 92 years old, she’s frail and her memory is not as good as how it used to be. Can’t do much but pray that she’ll be OK soon.

Most saddening news of late was the passing away of my uncle, the younger brother of my mom, on March 15. He must be about 60 odd years old, don’t really know. My mom would’ve been 65 now if she’s still around (she passed on in 1985). He had a vomiting bout in the morning after breakfast, was admitted to the hospital at 4pm and by 8pm, he’s gone. Heart attack they say. He’s had a heart bypass surgery many years back. The last I saw of my uncle was about a year back when we had our small wedding dinner in Ipoh. Must be a hard blow for my maternal grandma, having to see 2 of her children go before her. I’m glad I listened to Anu’s suggestion and visited her while I was in Ipoh during that 1 week of holiday. She’s still strong and spritely. God bless her!

Apart from this, nothing much’s really going on here in Dubai. We’ve overspent the past few weeks, so have decided to lie low for the time being. The mood here is still slow, there’s been an unexpected bout of stormy weather, nice for a change. Must be the last big one before the onset of ‘glorious’ summer for the next one year - shit.

Tongue of Duck & Feet of Chicken

At least there’s one clear advantage I can think of in working for a Chinese Company, I get to sample authentic Chinese food everyday, and food you’ll hardly get to try in any other Company …things like
Vinegar soaked Jelly-Fish
Face of Goose
Tongue of Duck
Feet of Chicken
Soy Sauce soaked Peanuts
Stomach of Fish, Prawns & Broccoli Salad
Stomach of Cow
Bean Curd and Century Egg Salad
Shark Fin garnished Pak Choy
Sek Pan Fish
Crab fried in Century Egg Batter
Little Eels
Lamb Chops
Squid Soup
Teppanyaki Lamb
Century Egg Batter Coated Pumpkin Chips
Chicken in Chilli Sauce Salad
Prawn & Brinjal Yong Tow Foo
Seafood Dumpling
Beef Dumpling
Plank Noodles cooked in Seafood Soup

And that’s just in one sitting, a dinner treat for our staff from one of the Chinese Subcontractors, scary, but not bad huh?

Domain of the Rajas

Bundi, Rajasthan, India

OK, for a comparison (with the previous post), here’s a sample of forts from a small portion of Rajasthan, India. The state of Rajasthan is slightly larger than the whole of Malaysia (east & west combined) in land area. Rajasthan is landlocked and a large portion of it is desert (the Thar Desert). Camels are common and can be seen everywhere, mostly as beasts of burden for pulling carts, in market places, in the cities, plying on the National Highways, heck there’re weighing stations equipped with weigh bridges just for the camel carts.




The Palace, Fort and Town of Bundi in Rajasthan


Anu's eldest sister Manju and son, Kunal at Nahargarh Fort (aka the Tiger Fort), Jaipur, Rajasthan


The ramparts of Amber Palace from Jaigarh Fort, Amer


A watch tower on Jaigarh Fort


Some garden near Amer, Rajasthan (think it's called Kanak Vrindavan, not too sure)


Nephew Kunal at a temple pavilion near the garden

Forts of Gulf Arabia

Bukha Fort, Musandam, Oman - the fort is that tiny structure near the bottom of the photo, dwarfed by the immense mountains behind

Forts, castles and the ilk have always been one of my favourite subjects... The Arabian versions are smaller, way smaller than their Indian counterparts. Some of the houses around where we're staying now in Dubai are actually bigger than the old forts around here. Imagine how this area have changed huh?


Sharjah Fort, in the middle of a friggin roundabout surrounded by apartment blocks - beautiful?


The entrance of the Al-Ain Fort (a museum now), most of the old forts & houses are museums of one kind or another now.


The remains of a fort near the Badiyah Mosque, in the Emirate of Fujairah, east coast UAE


The Badiyah Mosque (the small cute looking mud building), reputedly the oldest standing mosque in the region (1300 years old)


Khasab Fort, Musandam, Oman


Khasab Fort up close with Anu


No this is not a fort, it’s our trusty hotel in Khasab, where we had to cough up 800 bloody bucks (dirhams) for a night in two adjoined rooms with a shared bathroom. (We went with our Malaysian friends – Sree Ganesh & family)


Members of the trip, in our dhow (Arabian boat) – from right, Sujatha, Anu, Vishnu (Sujatha’s son with face concealed by bag), Yashwini (Sujatha’s daughter), Sree Ganesh (father of the two kids), some total stranger who happen to protrude into our picture.

Perak #@*$!

Perak – beautiful land of cave temples and corrupt assemblymen (and woman)

Anyway, short update. Work SUCKS!

And throw them corrupted assembly men & woman out of Perak. Fuck them! The country’s corrupted enough as it is already…


Garden of the Sam Pou Cave Temple, Ipoh


Beside the tortoise pool, Sam Pou Toung


Ipoh Garden South, amidst the limestone hillocks


A beach bum at Pangkor Island




The Perak Cave Temple, Ipoh

The Road to Musandam

Musandam, Oman

And here's to keeping my blog updated the easy way, display the beauty of our surroundings and show off our 'incredible' (ahem) photography skills all at the same time.


Somewhere between Tibat and Khasab, Musandam Peninsula, Oman


Al-Darah, UAE’s border checkpoint to the Musandam Peninsula


The road leading to Musandam in UAE’s Ras-Al-Khaimah Emirate - Believe it or not, it friggin SNOWED in the hills up there just 5 days back - second time it happened in history (the 1st time was in 2004)

The Year of the Ox

Well, Happy New Year guys! I am working on New Year’s Day again, 4th year in a row now. Today morning was foggy and freezing cold, I feel dreary and grouchy, possibly from the late night I had last night. Nope, no wine, no gambling, no nothing else, just a late night out for a ‘Reunion Dinner’ with my fellow Malaysian & Indian housemates. I think I scraped the bottom of my friend’s car on a stupid manhole last night, bloody low bodied sedan, bloody manhole in the middle of the friggin path. (I’m used to driving a pick-up – manholes are just an insignificant part of the road if you’re a pick-up, but not for a low-bodied sedan apparently). This morning in the fog, I nearly got into an accident in one of the friggin high-speed 4 (or 5) lane roundabouts of Dubai while coming to work. Can’t the bloody drivers here drive with a little less speed and more courtesy? Or are my senses becoming slow… shit, another year, another year older… Anyway, I have a feeling my spirits will lift soon. For the time being, I’ll go back to sulking until some excitement comes around…

Here’re some pictures of past celebrations to spice up the celebrative mood… if that’s possible…


Our small wedding dinner at the Ipoh Swimming Club last year


Christmas 2007 - at June & Patrick's House, Damansara Perdana

Gateway to the Gulf

Oman’s Musandam Peninsula

Hi! Happy New Year! Nothing much’s happening over here – Chinese New Year is fast approaching, but it looks like another one where we have to spend away from home, thanks to my boss, who said …“the situation (economy) is this bad and you wanna go on leave??”

I dunno what he actually meant (except that leave is out of the question) but it left this in my head …that if I choose to go on leave now, it’d be for permanent, so I left it at that. Anyway, on the positive side, it’d save me a lot of angpow money hahaha.

Construction in Dubai is not faring too well these times. There’s been massive shelving of multi-million projects and mass lay-offs all across Dubai, China State inclusive. Some were luckier; one Malaysian friend of mine was retrenched only one month after starting work here. His Company (not China State) paid him a severance pay of 3 months, not bad huh? Another associate I know, an Indian chap, resigned from his long time employer here of 10 years, to start work for a new Company. He was retrenched the moment he joined. By that time, he’d already rented a new house in Dubai, settled his family in, and bought a new car…

OK, enough of stories of woe, here’re more pictures of the Musandam Peninsula as promised


Khasab Village, Musandam, Oman


Khor-Ash-Sham (or the Elphinstone Inlet in colonial times), Musandam


Telegraph Island, Khor-Ash-Sham, Musandam – talk is that the term ‘going round the bend’ (meaning going completely nuts) originated from this tiny little island isolated by miles and miles of beautiful sea, barren mountains and nothing else much, so much so that the British officers posted on this island went completely bonkers due to having nothing better to do than wanking to the fantasies of mermaids and dolphins.


Looking for dolphins in the Khor – oh yeah, we saw dolphins – they look like grey rubber balls bobbing quickly up and down the surface of the sea.


A haunted-looking village in the creek


The jetty at Khasab


An Omani fishing boat near Khasab jetty

Merry Christmas from Dubai

Atlantis, The Palm Jumeirah, Dubai

Merry Christmas everyone! Today is a working day here in Dubai. Everything is business as usual, construction work is at full swing, the traffic out side is as crazy as ever, we’ve not bought any Christmas gifts for anyone despite the countless Christians here in the office (and we’ve not received any either – must be the economic recession). The only difference today I noticed is that some of the Christians (i.e. the Filipinos) look a little on the drunk side. We’ve decided to keep our Christmas a quiet affair this year. Anu’s still recovering from the unexpected attack of jaundice / hepatitis. Dunno how she got it, she’s something of a cleanliness freak compared to yours truly.

Anyway, here’s to a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone. May you triumph over the darn economic mess that Bush left behind; May you ride over the fears created by terrorists and friggin cheats and thugs; May corrupt and inept governments fall to be replaced by good ones, without creating too much of a difficult time; May we continue to have hope, love and peace if difficult times hit us; May our health always be good; May our surroundings always be filled with joy, laughter and harmony; May our prayers be answered; And may God always bless us, protect us and lead us on the right path.


Door to Atlantis


The alien-like coral tree in the main lobby of Atlantis


Main Lobby of Atlantis

Dubai Update: Eid Mubarak!

Eid Mubarak! Selamat Hari Raya Aidil Adha! The UAE, being a Muslim country, will naturally have a long festive period (and ahem, …holidays) to coincide with this occasion. China State Construction’s holidays for the Middle East head office starts last Friday and ends today (Tuesday) – 5 long wonderful days. China State Emirates Road Project’s holiday is officially 3 days (Sunday to Tuesday). Unofficially, our gracious boss has agreed to give us TWO peaceful days – Monday, yesterday, and Sunday OR Tuesday, depending on our choice (we picked Sunday). That’s the reason why I’m in the office today, and logging in this entry, since nothing much’s happening out at site today. For the past 2 days of holidays, we decided to explore the Musandam Peninsula, the finger of land poking out into the Arabian Gulf towards Iran, like a gateway to the Gulf. Dry and sparsely populated, Musandam, a part of the Sultanate of Oman is all sea creeks flanked by crumbling barren mountains, with a fort here and a fishing village there.

Here’s a sample picture, will post more once we’ve downloaded the lot into the computer.


Khor Ash-Sham, Musandam, Oman