When You Can’t Have Real Flowers…

When you can’t have real flowers, fake ones will do! Happy Belated Valentine’s Day!

Started writing this on Valentines. Got distracted along the way. Anyway, Valentines has come and gone. But what the heck, some pictures of flowers won’t kill anyone!


Mall of the Emirates, Dubai – Looks like a scene from France, but it ain’t. If only these lavender blooms were real. For a desert country, blooming flowers are a delight! (Much like how the Russians and Chinese are crazy over sunny beaches, and Malaysians and South Indians are crazy over snow!) So, if you can’t have the real thing, some plastic lookalike is still better than nothing, right?


Whoa, who planted that tree in the mall?! Another shop in the Mall of the Emirates


A flower shop in DragonMart, the fake ones I mean – A favourite for plastic flower lovers like Anu


A flowery staircase in the mansion of Splash ‘n’ Party, Dubai, a water themed playground for kids. (This place ain’t cheap, OK?) Here’s a link to a view of Jayden in the pool in Splash ‘n’ Party


The Green Planet, Dubai – No, it’s not enough to just have fake flowers. We’ll have a whole friggin fake rain forest, complete with tree, waterfall, insects and other critters! That’d be cool! (I think they got that idea from the Gardens by the Bay, Singapore). (This place’s also not cheap, OK?)


The tree! Yeah, one friggin ginormous artificial rainforest tree! It’s the centrepiece of the Green Planet. The Green Planet building surrounds this tree like some glass display. The walkways wind around, through and underneath this tree


“Wow! I am holding a a a a a Butterfly!!!! And it’s real!!!” And I still remember the incredible amount of butterflies, moths, bugs and other insects in Mizoram, where I first met Anu. She must have forgotten how it feels like. Mizoram is full of insects! I think it’s because the Mizos eat all the other animals, so there’re no animals left to eat the bloody insects!?!


This is how you get a girl to hug you. Bring her to see a friggin spider! Way to go, son!


And here’s a snake! (That means more hugs?!!!)


And this is our Valentine’s home cooked dinner for two! Quinoa, fried chicken, lentil soup (a.k.a. dal) and sambal! We prepared it together i.e. I bought the 3 roses and the candleholder where the roses are in, and Anu did the rest (i.e. cook, arranged the flowers, set up the table, lighted the candles, ... oh, and I poured the wine, OK?)

Winter in Iran

Alborz Mountains, Iran – near the village of Gajereh, Dec 2016

SNOW!!! Finally. And of all places, in Iran!

Decided to write something on snow. Last weekend (Feb 3 & 4), people in the UAE went bonkers over some snow falling in the mountains in the northern part of the country. I can understand them. Just imagine, snow falling in a dry desert country where it can shoot up to 50 friggin degrees Celsius in summer, and where it rains like once in an entire friggin year! Unfortunately, we didn’t know about it until after it happened. Mind you, we were very close to where it happened, maybe about 30 minutes’ drive away. If it hadn’t been for a humongous jam on the mountain road leading to the place, that is. We were actually looking for a wadi (a dry river bed) to picnic in as it had rained on the Thursday night just before the weekend. So off we went on Saturday afternoon towards the wadi we found on Google, and lo and behold, we were caught up in this almighty jam in the mountains! (The road to the wadi and that particular mountain, Jebel Jais, are the same). It got so bad that we ended up just pitching our tent by the road side, and were wondering where the hell the road leads to that created such a massive jam… As far as I know, it doesn’t really go anywhere except up Jebel Jais, which is the highest peak in the UAE! We left at sunset and there were still cars coming in! (And the next day, was a working day in the UAE!) We only found out the next day that that jam was caused by people driving up the mountain to experience that little bit of snow that fell the day before! I’ll post pictures of our roadside camp in another post (after I download all the pictures, as usual, heheh).

For the time being, here’s some snow from our trip to Iran in December!




Scenes from the countryside, near the village of Gajereh, Alborz Mountains, Iran


Anu and a ha-phoo (kid’s word for dog in Persian), near Gajereh – Jayden now calls dogs babu (his version of ha-phoo)


Head scarves are compulsory for ladies in Iran – “You go out, you tie up your hair,” not that it’s much of a problem in winter. It’s friggin minus 12 degrees when we were there. Brrrrr…


Amir Kabir Dam, Chalus Road, Alborz, Iran – this was the road we used to go up the mountains from Tehran. It took 2.5 to 3 hours. The Chalus Road which connects Tehran to Chalus city on the coast of the Caspian Sea, is the ‘romantic road’ of Iran according to our driver. Iranians love to holiday or picnic on this road! The shorter route up the mountains would be through Shemshak which will get you there in about 1.5 hours, but the road was closed off due to snowfall. Well, there goes an extra 30 USD for the longer journey! (Two-ways of course. It was USD 60 return via Shemshak, or USD 90 return via Karaj / Chalus Road)

We’ve been looking for snow for years. Not that it is my first time. No, but it is Anu’s and the kids’ first time at playing with real snow. I had my first experience of snow in Scotland way back in the winter of 1993. Driven in snow, played in snow, slept in a car to wake up finding everything covered in snow, heck, even peed on snow (while drunk), and more! The second country I encountered snow was in India, in the state of Uttarakhand in 2005.

Technically, this was also not Anu and Justin’s first time. Their first time was that little bit of snow in Grimselpass, Switzerland during our Europe Trip in the summer of 2015. But that was in August, the peak of summer! Whatever snow we found, was a few little patches of white, trapped in the mountains, which was no bigger than the size of a friggin room! So, …not counted (according to me)!

The first time I tried to show Anu snow was in Kashmir, in our kid-free days of 2007. That didn’t work. We went in November, before any snow fell. Two weeks after we left, snow started falling! Shit!

In 2010, we visited Nepal. In December. Went to Pokhara and could see the snow covered peaks in all its majestic glory! Except from tens of kilometres away. Justin was a year old then. Tried climbing some hills, but the snow was still too far away.

So here we are, in the Alborz Mountains of Iran…


A view of the Dizin Ski Resort, from the entrance of Dizin Hotel 1 – We decided against staying in the resort, since it’d be costlier (324,000 tomans, or about 324 dirhams per night, double room with an extra bed, with balcony overlooking the ski slopes), and we’d be confined to hotel food, since there’s nothing around. Besides, we hadn't plan on skiing. (What? With the kids?!?) We chose to stay at a nearby village instead.


The fully equipped apartment we finally rented at 150,000 tomans (AED 150) per night! We took the ground floor unit. Here we are with our driver, Saeed (middle) and the owner of the apartment, Mr Mousavi (left).


Inside our rented apartment. There’s nothing to do except play with snow, drink tea (Iranians are crazy about tea, not much coffee here, unlike Arabia), play with your phone or your tab, like what Anu and Justin is doing (expect that the internet in the mountains are extremely slow or non-existent), watch Iranian TV, and cook (yeah, here in the village, we can buy our own food and cook! You’ll know how nice that is after days of burgers, fries and kebabs!)


A view of the apartment driveway from our window


The village we stayed in, Velayat Rud, Alborz, Iran


And the winner of the Best Snowman Award is …Anu! She’s the only one who succeeded in building a snowman! I’ve made a snowman before in Scotland, but the snow here’s difficult. Too powdery and can’t be compacted. …I found out on the day we left, that it is easier to make snowballs and make snowmen using older snow. The day we reached the mountains, the snow was fresh. It snowed the day before!


Going gaga over snow – Justin’s snow angel!


Yours truly and some icicles


Wefie! Alborz Mountains, Iran

Actually picked these photos for an article I recently wrote for the Company magazine. Yeah, our Company has its own magazine! And it’s not only one. I think there’re about 3 magazines, one for the Company, one for our Civil and Infrastructure Division, and one for the Engineering Department! And this is only the Middle East Branch of our humongous Company I’m talking about! Know why I bother writing an article? …Because they’ll friggin pay me if it’s published!! Haha! Hard times call for drastic measures…

Cross-Border Reunion

Family Reunion Dinner, Middle Eastern style, on Chinese New Year’s Eve, at a Seafood Joint in Sharjah

When the going gets expensive, skip over to the next Emirate. Sharjah, in this case.

That’s what we did for our Chinese New Year Reunion Dinner this year (err, last year if you’re using the Chinese calendar. Reunion’s held on CNY eve). Did it the lazy way. Ditched the cooking and all the preparation. After all, niece Karishma’s just got a nice pay rise and a friggin bonus! So it’s her treat! (I’ve worked for nearly 4 friggin years in the Company and all I got were some nice pats in the back, and some smiles. Now, if only I can pay the friggin school fees with pats and smiles, that’d be wonderful!)

Went over to a seafood joint at Sharjah Beach, one we’ve gone before which wasn’t too expensive and was pretty nice. (That’s what cheapskates in Dubai do. Just hop over to the neighbouring Emirates, like Sharjah, Umm Al Quwain or Fujairah for a cheaper outing. Dubai’s getting too good at sucking up money!)

This time, the food wasn’t that nice. Maybe it’s the crowd, …or maybe it’s just the friggin cook, having a bad time. The last time we were there, for lunch, there were only 3 tables occupied, and we were the first customers. Anyway, here’re the pictures until I find more inspiring stuff to write about.


Our first visit to the Shathi Al Amwaj Restaurant, Sharjah – Jan 2017


That’s what you get for 99 dirhams – a small baby lobster, a couple of prawns, mussels, crabs, squid and a fish, + rice (or chips if you prefer), Arabic bread, pickles and dips…


On our first visit to the restaurant, there was a friggin sand storm under way – that's the beach opposite the restaurant, partly flooded and off-limits to visitors (there’re police patrol cars going up and down the beach that day)


The same Sharjah Beach in calmer times, Feb 2016 - (Sharjah has many beaches, this is the one at Al Muntazah)


Having a blast at the beach – if you like sand and sun, this is the place for you. After all, that’s about the only thing the beaches here have. Don’t expect coconut palm trees and rocks, they don’t exist in this part of the world, save the ones planted by the government or some holiday resorts built along the beach


Jayden and Papa at the breakwater, Al Muntazah Beach, Sharjah


A view of the tiny Emirate of Ajman (those high rises) from the beach in Sharjah


A Good Samaritan Syrian couple at the Shathi Al Amwaj Restaurant, who stopped Jayden from venturing out of the restaurant alone, when his parents were too busy to notice that he had sneaked out! Whew, close call! – CNY Reunion Dinner 2017, Sharjah


Happy Chinese New Year!!! In front of our home in Dubai


The kids on CNY, International City, Dubai – Jayden insisted on having his bhoo-ba (blue bus) with him