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