The Holy Month of Tragedies

The Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, Abu Dhabi

Ramadan Kareem friends!

Ramadan, the Muslim month of fasting, carries a whole new meaning here in the Middle East, ...unlike Malaysia, where nothing much changes for us Non-Muslims. Yes, the Muslims fast, and the pasar malam (night markets) do bustling business during buka puasa times (breaking of fast), but that’s about it, life goes on as usual in Malaysia. Here, in the UAE, the mood, the crowds, the traffic, shop timings, office timings, everything changes. The malls which are normally packed, are half empty, especially before Iftar (breaking of fast). All the restaurants and cafes are closed, except for some fast-food joints which cater only for takeaways. While Non-Muslims aren’t compelled to fast, eating or drinking in public is banned for all (except kids). Most shops will extend their opening times till 1 or 2am, past midnight (they normally already open till midnight here, great huh?). Office timings end at 2pm for most, although many Non-Muslims I suspect, work normal hours, especially if it’s a Non-Muslim company, like ours. Because of the shift in timings, traffic patterns shift, meaning that it takes us Non-Muslims a fraction of what it normally takes for us to get home after work. The streets and supermarkets are dead quiet at Iftar and the whole place is filled with Iftar offers, and Ramadan Kareem greetings.

This Ramadan is no different. It started well enough with the FIFA World Cup in full swing, and everyone in football fever, Ramadan or not. But it's turning horrifically into a very tragic period, with the incessant bombing of Gaza, the shocking shooting down of MH17 in Ukraine, and the ongoing wars in Syria, Iraq, Ukraine, South Sudan, the Central African Republic, Nigeria and the indiscriminate bombing and targeting of civilians in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya... The problem with these incidents is that there are so many innocent civilians killed, so many children among them, caught in a senseless rivalry between warlords and religious zealots who are bent on getting their agendas fulfilled, irrespective of the number of lives lost.

I pray for peace, God. Do so many innocent people have to die?

For my Muslim friends, I wish them a blessed Eid al Fitr / Id ul Fitr / Aidil Fitri. Eid Mubarak! Selamat Hari Raya! May you and your loved ones have peace and joy in your lives. Leaving some photographs of a beautiful mosque here for peace of mind.


A view of the mosque interior - the largest carpet in the world






More views of the mosque interior - this is one of the nicest mosques I've visited ...ever - so clean, beautiful and serene






Chandeliers in the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque


Dad, at the Sheikh Zayed Mosque, Abu Dhabi


Anu and Justin at the Mosque


Kim and Anu, with abaya – these are obtainable at the entrance for free. Yup, it’s compulsory for ladies to cover up to enter the mosque.


Dark Acolytes of the Ivory Temple – just kidding, Kim & Anu at the Sheikh Zayed Mosque


Ablution centre, one of the many in the mosque


One of the few day time pictures of the mosque in my possession, courtesy of Anu. She’s the only one among us who’s visited the mosque before during the day, way back in 2009


Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, Abu Dhabi at dusk

...Heart Wrenching News

The last thing I’d expect to hear was another air disaster involving MAS.

So many innocent lives lost. Whole families killed for nothing. This is murder, and the people involved, whoever they are, should be brought to justice. I hope Malaysians, of all races, religion, and political inclination put aside their differences for once, and come together for a prayer to the families of the ones affected. May God be with you, MH17. RIP.

The Apostle Who Chose India

Interior of the San Thome Basilica, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India

Here’s a church for a change.

Would you believe it, one of the twelve apostles of Jesus Christ actually chose India of all places to spread the gospel? I dunno whether he really ‘chose’ India or was ‘assigned’ India among his fellow apostles, but that’s where he ended up in. That’s what matters, right?

O yeah, St Thomas sailed to India sometime after Jesus’ crucifixion and ascension to heaven, and landed in the now Indian state of Kerala. He established 7½ churches in India before passing away in what is now an area inside the city of Chennai, Tamil Nadu. There are different accounts of how he died. Some said that he was accidentally shot, with a spear, some said that he was intentionally killed, and some said that he died naturally. This was in the first century, so I doubt there’s much of a CSI: Chennai, or a decent detective then. Heck, maybe there wasn’t even paper to write the report in? When was paper invented by the way?

Now, St Thomas is regularly regarded as the patron saint of India. Part of his body (relics) remains in India (at this church), and is now a pilgrimage site for many. See my earlier post, On a Pilgrimage Spree.






More views of the San Thome Basilica, Chennai

Further South, across the Sea

Punchi Katharagama Temple, near Chilaw, Sri Lanka

More Dravidian Hindu Temples! This one is on the west coast of Sri Lanka, somewhere between Negombo and Puttalam. We saw it by the road on our way to Anuradhapura from Colombo, and just stopped to take photos. Have no idea, what it is nor where it’s located, …until Google Map came along. That’s the beauty of Google Map, just trace your way along the route you travelled and Ta-Da! There it is, with name and all!




More views of the temple

I’m posting things from our past travels as there’s practically nothing to post about now, here in Dubai. Dubai is an open-air sauna at the moment, so going anywhere outdoors is only for people who wanna know how it feels like to be roasted alive. Anu is heavily pregnant and I have more work than I wished for, so it is travel blog mode for the time being, till things get a little relaxed here.

Slightly South

Kapaleeshwarar Temple, Chennai, Tamil Nadu

Here’s another quick picture post. My ideas are really lame nowadays, and I’m not making any excuses for it. Thought that since I’m already on South Indian temples, I’d throw these in as well. Hope at least the pictures will entertain! hee :]

These are pictures of a temple located a little south of the Tirumala temple, across the state border, in Tamil Nadu state, in its capital city, Chennai (aka Madras). This temple is best remembered for the place we almost lost Justin! Dad and mom being avid shutterbugs, immediately set to work with our cameras and phones upon entering the temple compound, while Justin being an avid explorer, had other ideas in mind.

Minutes later, we were frantically calling out for Justin, and started looking for him. There were lots of people around (hey, this is India after all, there’re lots of people everywhere OK?), so it ain’t easy. Luckily, we saw a priest happily letting him out of a temple, not too long after that. He must have snuck in with the crowd while we were busy.

He’s the only one among us, who went into the temple. We left after that as it was sort of a halfway stop for us, en route to Chennai’s Koyambedu Bus Terminal to catch a bus to Tirupati.


Entrance gate (gopuram) of the temple. Gopuram are a standard feature of South Indian Dravidian temple architecture


Close-up view of the gopura


Justin, catching a rest from his adventures in a hall at the temple




More views of the Kapaleeshwarar Temple, Chennai


A street scene in Chennai – Peters Road, Royapettah, where we stayed (Saravana Boutique Inn)

Tamil Nadu is like a separate country to India, language-wise. Here, you’re better off getting things done speaking in English, than Hindi. And Chennai is comparatively much cheaper than Sri Lanka, where we were at, just before Chennai. Dunno why the Indian authorities make it so hard for tourists to get a visa. For Sri Lanka, it’s just a few clicks of the mouse, pay online with the trusty credit card and it’s done, completed in a few minutes, in the comfort of your home. No wonder Sri Lanka is teeming with tourists!

The World’s Most Visited Temple

That’s what some people claim anyway – 50,000 to 100,000 pilgrims DAILY! About 30 to 40 million visitors a year!


Gateway at the Tirupati Balaji Temple, Tirumala, Andhra Pradesh

OK, here’s something I said I’ll post about earlier on (see On a Pilgrimage Spree). Finished writing this ages ago. Just waiting for a busy time like this to use it, hehehe. Plus, this month marks the split of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh (where this temple is located) into 2 states, a new state called Telangana (the areas around the city of Hyderabad, Andhra’s state capital), and Andhra Pradesh (name unchanged, for the remainder parts of Andhra). This temple lies in Andhra Pradesh proper. My previous posts on Hyderabad now should technically be labelled Telangana, but who cares?!


Pilgrims at a shop selling images of Lord Balaji (or Venkateswara, etc, he has many names), Tirumala

In terms of numbers of pilgrims, this place gives Mecca and other religious pilgrimage places a run for the money. The crowds here are incredible. Just imagine, an entire town (Tirumala) set up on the hill where the temple is, just to cater to the pilgrims! There’re pilgrim centres, apartments, lodges, public showers and changing rooms, loads of shops and restaurants (all vegetarian unfortunately), countless storage rooms for shoes, phone and camera (you can’t bring these into the temple), information booths, … heck almost everything, except for anything considered non-veg. And oh yeah, shoe shops (…hey, we walked all over Tirumala barefoot looking for one, OK? We sorta misplaced our shoes, that’s for being smart and choosing not to queue up for storing some old slippers which we thought that nobody would want!)


Balaji Temple at night, the 'cages' there at the bottom, are full of pilgrims, even at night

I doubt any of my non-Hindu friends would wanna visit, but if you do, here’re some tips: -

1) Do some research before you visit, especially on the timing of the visit

It’s a mess there. There’re people all over the place day and night. There’re like a dozen or more types of queues into the temple, with different timings. It’s signposted in a few languages, …but not in simple English. There’re normal queues, VIP queues, special queues for foreigners (which we couldn’t find even after making two trips up the hill and asking I dunno how many people, and judging from the looks of the few foreigners we saw, we weren’t the only ones), queues for the different types of prayers, wedding reception queues, etc. The queue can take as long as 7 hours! Our queue (we finally chose the VIP queue) took us about 3 hours.

2) Be prepared, before you join the queues

If you like tight places, this is your type of place. Come prepared however, have your fill of food and drinks, and empty your bowels and bladder before you jump in, as depending on the date, time and type of queue, it may take up to 7 friggin hours! The nearer you come to the inner sanctum where the idol of Lord Balaji is, the tighter it gets. When you reach, you get a second to have a look at the idol, from about 20m away, and out you go. This is one place that doesn’t discriminate between male and female, old and young, everybody gets squeezed, pushed and shoved. Luckily for the squeeze, or how else could I carry a sleeping 3 year old Justin for 2 long hours?? Crowds have buoyancy you know?

3) Take a bus from Tirupati to Tirumala, not a car

This is the first thing the hotel in Tirupati will try to sell you. Book a car to go up to the temple. (The temple is located in Tirumala, on top of a hill. Accommodation is usually in Tirupati, the main city below the hill). But don’t jump for it. There are buses running 24 hours between Tirupati and Tirumala. A trip up the hill by bus takes about an hour (if I remember correctly), and costs err… if I’m not mistaken something like 30 rupees per person per way (that’s like RM3 per person return). A car will cost you a bloody hundred ringgit! And you’d only take it to the top of the hill, leave it there and go on an extended 3 hour pilgrimage while the driver sleeps away!

4) Always use the Shoe Storage Rooms, and bring some extra slippers

Unless you want to end up like the three of us, Papa, Mommy and Justin. But no big deal, we just had to walk across the entire friggin Tirumala barefoot, and hop onto the Tirupati bus barefoot, and walk from the Tirupati main bus station to our hotel across streets, and muck, barefoot.

5) Pick a hotel near the bus station, if staying in Tirupati

Same explanation above. Note that most hotels here have a 24 hour checkout facility, which is real useful for this place. You check in at 4, you check out at 4!

6) Be prepared to be a vegetarian

For the time that you’re in Tirumala anyway, coz there’re absolutely no non-veg restaurants around – zilch. Nope, not even eggs. Get them in Tirupati if you want some meat.

7) Don’t come here for a haircut

Unless you wanna be bald. Just kidding! I’m sure there’re a lot of decent hairdressers around. It’s just that the temple is so full of bald-headed people, male and female alike (they come here to shave off their heads as a vow, …I think, for a wish fulfilled).

8) Never wear shorts (for the men)

Shorts is a no-no to enter the temple, even if it covers the knees. Sarongs or dhotis (the split variety of sarongs) on the other hand, are acceptable, never mind that it just takes a simple tug from anyone and your entire nether regions are exposed to the world. We had to make two separate trips up and down the hill to Tirumala partly because of this.

9) It helps if you speak Tamil or Telugu

It’s the lingua franca of the place – try English (and to a lesser extent, Hindi) and you’ll get a blank stare? Like what’s this foreigner doing here?!?

10) Take an auto-rickshaw if you can’t find a cab (to the airport I mean)

Auto-rickshaws (India’s version of the tuk-tuk) are a fraction of the cost of a hotel-linked car, and they’re more easily available than a hailed or call taxi, if you’re in a hurry. Ours got the job done for us not to miss our flight back to Pune!


Pilgrim Town Tirumala


Tirupati Balaji Temple (or more officially, the Tirumala Venkateswara Temple), Tirumala, Andhra Pradesh, India

City of Angels, Etc, Etc, Etc

Bangkok City, from Wat Arun, with the Menam (River) Chao Phraya in view. The thimble-shaped structure on the right, is called a ‘prang’, a common architectural feature of Thai temples, adopted from the Cambodians.

Sawadee-khap! Might as well chuck in more photos while I’m at it. Krung Thep Maha Nakhon, or just Krung Thep as Bangkok is commonly called by Thais, means the City of Angels in Thai. That’s not all. ‘Krung Thep’ I learnt, is just a fraction of the full Thai name, which is actually 65 syllables long (or 169 letters long if translated into English, yeah I actually counted it in Wikipedia!) It currently holds the Guinness World Record for the longest place name, never knew that huh?

Come to think of it, it’s not unusual for Thais to pronounce ‘Krung Thep’ as just ‘Kung Thep’, without the R sound. Very peculiar language, Thai. They have R’s but they seldom pronounce it, and most people go by their nicknames instead of their given names. The place name, Phra Rama III, will just be ‘Pha-Lam-Sam’ – i.e. Pha (Phra) Lam (Rama) Sam (three in Thai). Suvarnabhumi Airport is pronounced ‘Su-wana-phum’, my name is pronounced something like ‘Kelly’, Michael becomes ‘Mai-khen’, and the English word ‘breakfast’ commonly comes out as ‘begfet’.

The ‘City of Angels’ describes Bangkok pretty well in my opinion. Especially since there’re so many temples all over the city, and they’re all decorated with weird mythical beings. Here’s a sample: -


A common image of Bangkok - a line of Garudas standing on 2-Tailed Serpents at the Wat Phra Keo (Temple of the Emerald Buddha), Grand Palace, Bangkok


Half-human half-chicken beings at the Grand Palace


Buddha figurines guarding the temple, Grand Palace, Bangkok


One of the many murals lining the corridors around the Grand Palace – we hung around for quite a long time here, taking a rest from our sun tanning session (and charging our camera battery – there’re power sockets all over the compound, ok? And nobody stopped us. Luckily it ain’t Singapore, or I bet you, we’d have been fined!)






More views of the Grand Palace, Bangkok


Wat Arun (Temple of Dawn), beside the Menam Chao Phraya




Close-up views of Wat Arun showing the level of detail on the structure


Papa and son at Wat Pho, Temple of the Reclining Buddha


Another view of Wat Pho – Wat Pho is known to be the birthplace of traditional Thai massage. We (yours truly and Anu) had a beautiful massage session at the massage centre inside the temple compound, while Justin slept nicely. (It was air-conditioned, not expensive, and we wanted to avoid the ‘extra services’ linked with seedier-looking massage centres outside).


Our hotel at the Khao San Road area, Bangkok’s backpacker area – forgot the name, budget hotel with a small but clean room with air-con, hot water and a useful safe. Pretty nice place in a very lively section of the city. Had dinner here with dear ol’ cousin Alan, and his Thai wife, Jib but did not remember to snap any photos! This was Jib’s first time ever to Khao San Road, and she’s from Bangkok! Amazing huh?


Khao San Road (nope, don’t have a better picture) – the famous (or more like infamous) backpacker ghetto of Thailand, where you can get anything – yeah, fried worms and insects, if that’s your choice of food (but no photographs allowed, unless you pay a small fee), and your choice of degrees, certificates, (I swore I even saw ID’s and passports!) for a fee (nope, photos of the advertising billboard are not allowed, not even with a fee).