City of the Ayatollahs

Shrine of Fatimah Masumeh, Holy City of Qom, Iran

Eid Al-Adha Mubarak! Selamat Hari Raya Haji! And Happy Holidays to everyone (who’s staying in the Muslim world)!

A little late, but better late than never, right?

Up to my neck with work, so here’s another quick picture post (yes, again). Putting pictures of a mosque / shrine in Iran for the Eid festivities.

The city of Qom is the de facto religious capital of Iran. Its large number of seminaries, religious institutes and universities on Shia Islam makes it the main place where Ayatollahs (clerics of Shi’a Islam) are trained and produced. At the heart of Qom, is the Shrine of Fatimah Masumeh, a revered figure in Shia Islam. I could go on (if I have time), but what the heck, read it yourself in Wikipedia, OK? Besides, it’ll bore the bejesus outta you if you ain’t interested in religion and stuff like that. Moreover, I have tons of work waiting for me to tackle. Here goes!




The Fatimah Masumeh Shrine on a snowy day, Qom, Iran Dec 2016 (Yes! It snowed when we reached Qom, but the snowflakes disappeared as soon as they landed!)








Muqarnas of various finishes and colours on the many arch entrances of the shrine – there’re gold ones, mirrored ones, white ones, multi-coloured ones, you name it, you get it!


Why is Anu wearing a curtain?!? Rules are rules. Women who want to enter the shrine compound have to wear chadors (full body-length cloaks extending from head to toe for women). Chadors are mostly black, and Iranian women all wear black chadors. (In fact, chadors actually look better in black). Foreigners who ‘stray’ into the shrine are made to wear chadors of whatever pattern they can find, and hence, …the curtain


The shrine compound is filled with people and pilgrims. Foreigners like us can enter the shrine compound (for free), but cannot enter the shrine itself


Shia clerics are a dime a dozen here

Journey to the World of the Ice Giants

Just back from a fabulous 2 weeks’ holiday in the Caucasus! (Exciting, huh? But photos will have to wait, hehe). Meanwhile, back in Dubai, work has been piling up like nobody’s business. (What’s new?)

Therefore, it’s yet another picture post.

At work, the Company has found an alternative Project Manager for the new project that I was posted to. In my place! Thanks to the ever-so cautious Consultants of the so-called ‘extremely prestigious project of national importance’ who did not trust the ability of yours truly. They think that I lack RTA (the Road and Transport Authority of Dubai) experience. But our Company still wants to keep me in the Project?? For what? I have absolutely no idea. But what the heck, a job’s a job, and as long as they’re paying me salary, I shouldn’t have any complaints, right? I’ll just have to make sure I get due credit for the work that I do, hmmmm….

Now, back to the post. This was what we did when we found it too wet in the countryside in Königssee, Bavaria. What do you do when it rains dogs and cats in your once in a lifetime (OK, make that a decade) Europe trip? Something indoors, like a museum, or a church, or shopping malls, market places? Why not a cave?!?!

And that’s where we went, Eisriesenwelt, World of the Ice Giants, an ice cave across the border, in Austria!


The path to Eisriesenwelt – We thought it’d be like some cave trip in Malaysia, etc, drive straight up to the mouth of the cave, have a quick tour, click some photos and that’s that. But no, not Eisriesenwelt. To get there, after buying the tickets, we had to walk 20 minutes to get to the cable car station, wait another 15 or so minutes to get a place in the cable car (the cable car trip itself is only about 5 minutes, if you choose to walk, it’ll be 90 minutes!!!), and then walk another 20 more minutes after getting off the cable car! The cave itself, if you follow the whole tour, will be about an hour and 15 minutes!


There, Eisriesenwelt!

Eisriesenwelt so happens to be the largest friggin ice cave in the world! More than 42km long! Yeah, no kidding (Wiki it willya?) Unfortunately, no photos are allowed inside the friggin cave! (What good does that do? You go all the way to visit and can’t take back a photo or two for memory’s sake?!?) (I guess the cave management wanted visitors to feel how it felt like when the first explorers discovered the cave in the 1800’s). And that’s why we only have photos of the journey up to the cave. Besides, we didn’t finish the cave tour. It’s a single row of people walking on wooden staircases that goes up an equivalent of 40 storeys (that’s what the guide sez …to scare us off probably) in pitch black darkness and freezing temperature! It’s like walking into a friggin freezer! With flame lamps, which blow out every once in a while. The guides had magnesium lamps which give off bright intense light for short moments before dying out. This is caving experience in the early 1800’s! We went up a few flights of stairs before calling it a day. Hey, we had a 10-month old baby Jayden with us and a 6 year old Justin! When we u-turned back, so did a couple of other families with young children.

Here’re the photos!


The doorway into the ice cave – on the left are flame lanterns which you can carry into the cave. Above the door, you can see the sign saying No Photos! Right in front, you can see some white bloke blocking my photo of the line of tourists entering the freezer of a cave!


Hohenwerfen Castle, Werfen, Austria – This castle lies just below the ice cave


High in the mountains on the path to the ice cave – Can you spot Mommy and Justin in the photo?


A view of the countryside from the path


The path showing a pedestrian tunnel (no, it’s not the ice cave) that we had to walk thru to get from the cable car station to ice cave proper


Another view of the countryside from up above, with a view of the Hohenwerfen Castle from above


Papa and the kids, on the way to Eisriesenwelt


Calling it a day, back at the pedestrian tunnel


Getting from the tunnel back to the cable car – Hello little Jayden, where did you just go?


Hohenwerfen Castle – Bye-bye Werfen. We’re leaving for Salzburg!