Our North African New Year

Monastir Beach, Tunisia a year ago on New Year’s Day 2020 (Never guessed that 2020 would turn out like this)

So, 2020 is done! It’s a WHOLE YEAR now (well almost) that we’ve stayed put in the UAE. First year that we’ve not flown anywhere for as long as I can remember!

Thank you COVID for helping us save money by not allowing us to fly anywhere for a holiday.

Thank you COVID for helping us spend quality time at home (due to not being able to go anywhere on a holiday).

Thank you COVID for giving me time to write this post, and so many other posts in December (had it been a normal year, we would be wasting our time and money in some god forsaken exotic paradise which will contribute to nothing more than some interesting photos and memories, and a place crossed off our bucket list…).

Thank you COVID for letting me accumulate my annual leaves to an extent that when things return to normal (if it ever does), that I can make a killing on holidays (that is if the Company allows me to carry forward my leaves to the next year. Hmmm… come to think of it, I better take some leaves before that predicament happens).

Thank you COVID for teaching me how to better budget my finances by making businesses so bad that my Company has to slash some allowances off our salary packages.

Thank you COVID for teaching us the value of my new home (luckily we moved) and my family, by forcing us to hunker down and not go anywhere outside.

I can go on but I don’t think COVID will appreciate any of the things I’ve said. So I should focus on better things like chucking some interesting photos into the blog, and fantasizing about all the friggin exotic places we could go to, especially during these times when there’re less people, if only we could friggin FLYYYY!!!

Anyway, HAPPY NEW YEAR MATES! Let’s look forward to 2021 to kick some coronavirus butts! Here’re some photos of how we spent our New Year celebrations a year ago. How I miss those times, sigh…


Our Tunisian New Years’ Eve dinner, complete with fish and couscous, under the stern stares of a portrait of the founding father of Tunisia, Habib Bourguiba – at Le Roi du Couscous (The King of Couscous) restaurant, Monastir, Tunisia


Despite the freezing cold and the gale-force wind (dunno whether it’s really gale-force, but it sure feels like one), we braved it all, with Anu wearing a skimpy New Year’s celebration outfit (above), and we headed out looking for some clubs, some drinks, some celebration of a countdown, whatever. Found a place, but yours truly left his wallet in the hotel room! Turned back and celebrated ourselves in our hotel room with just some simple red wine. Happy New Year! – At the lobby of our hotel, the Delphin Habib… Ummm… it’s a big hotel, but somewhat run down. Imagine, this was New Year’s Eve and there was hardly anyone in the lobby at midnight, with most of the lights switched off. A worker switched on some lights for us and snapped our photo, bless him


Good morning 2020! A view of the Mediterranean seashore from our hotel room – Delphin Habib, Monastir, Tunisia


Justin in the hotel grounds


New Year couple, Monastir


Family pic – Monastir Beach – "Mommy, I can’t open my eyes!!"


Monastir Beach, with the Ribat (Fort) in the background




Inside the Ribat (Fort) of Monastir




Habib Bourguiba’s Mausoleum (at the far end) – Habib Bourguiba is the founding father of Tunisia. He was born in Monastir. He died here too


Outside the Ribat


Another family photo! – Ribat, Monastir, Tunisia

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE! HAPPY 2021!

Christmas in a Tainted Paradise

Family Pic – Garden Cliff Hotel, Pattaya, Thailand

Merry Christmas everyone! Just in time to squeeze in one Christmas post before the day itself!

All this sad news lately, and work, and clearing some accumulated annual leaves before the end of the year, leaves me pretty little time to write or to sort thru the huge amount of photos we’ve taken thru the years, and boy, we take photos like there’s no tomorrow…

So here’s a picture post from the past, of photos I’ve sorted out before. It’s sort of a continuation from my Bangkok post a couple of posts back. It’s on our family trip to Pattaya. Here goes…




Let’s start with Christmas Trees. How can you have Christmas without Christmas trees? – Central Festival Pattaya


Christmas Tree at the lobby of the Garden Cliff Resort, the hotel we finally ended up with after the room we booked sold us out. We booked an apartment on Booking.com in advance, kept calling before we arrived but no one responded, went to the place but couldn’t get in. Ended up having to book another room… Pah, piece of shit!




More views of the Garden Cliff Hotel – Nice pool but didn’t get a chance to swim




You can see the Sanctuary of Truth from the hotel, but there’s no direct access. You gotta go by car – Views from Garden Cliff Resort, Pattaya




Seafood! Our hotel is in the north part of Pattaya (Na Kluea), a fishing area – here’s the fishing dock where we had seafood in a restaurant just in front of the docks (which Google Maps labelled as Shell Tangkay)




Finally, Pattaya’s famous Walking Street filled with pubs, night clubs, massage parlours, what have you, etc. That’s what attracts party-goers and youngsters here… The last we visited Pattaya were with Alan and friends in ummm… the early 2000’s. I can remember quite clearly because we were stopped and fined by the police for riding our motorbikes without helmets, “but our Thai friends said no need…” We had to visit the police station at midnight, and pay the fine to retrieve our rented bikes. It’s not really hefty, but I was surprised to see a long queue of foreigners, white, yellow, black, whatever, at midnight, all waiting for their turns to pay fines… Nice, compared to Malaysia, where you’d have probably bribed the police to let you go as it’s such a hassle to pay your fine (then, in the early 2000s). I sure hope they’ve changed now. The idea I got from this is that if you wanna stem out bribery, you should make it somewhat affordable, and dead easy for offenders to pay

I also remember the jet skis and banana boats we went on in the early 2000’s in the beach. I think it was Jomtien Beach. It was incredible fun, but that was when yours truly was much younger, ahem. Now, you kinda prefer a li’l peace and quiet, don’t ya, haha? Didn’t visit the beach this time round. Went down only to the hotel beach, to snap some photos, nothing much. But Pattaya feels really congested, filled chock-a-block with high-rises and buildings. Still nice, but I think more suited to the younger hip crowd.

That’s all for now folks. If I don’t see you before the year end, Happy 2021 ! ! !

Rest in Peace Po-Po (1925 – 2020)

Last Friday, my grandmother of 95 years old, my mother’s mother, the last surviving grandparent whom I have, passed away peacefully in her home, in our hometown, Ipoh.

Goodbye Po Po. Wish I had known you better. Wish I knew about your childhood and where you were from originally, who your brothers or sisters were, who your parents were, who your other relatives were. Wish I had learnt to speak your language, my mother tongue, Hakka. Wish I knew your story, what you did during the Japanese occupation of Malaya, how you had met Kung-Kung (grandpa), and other stories. Wish I knew how to make the sauce you make for chicken. Wish so many things which could now only be wishful thinking…

But I’m glad that I made it a point to visit you on every trip I made to Malaysia in the later years, after I married. Glad to see you strong and healthy even on our last visit to Ipoh in 2019. Glad to see you finally recover from the loss of your beloved daughter, my mom who died at such an early age. I remember seeing you suddenly becoming grey and old, almost overnight. And even though my mom passed away in 1985, I remember seeing you with tears welling up in your eyes every time you see us, even after twenty years of her passing. It must have been hard on you to have to experience the loss of so many dear and close to you in your lifetime, first my mom, then Kung-Kung, and then my uncle, your son.

You have earned your rest now Po Po. I will miss you. You are my link to my mom. I am glad that at least God did not allow you to suffer the hardships of not being able to walk, or being in pain or in sickness, or having to go through dementia that affects so many aged people. Rest in peace now Po Po, you can now join the family you’ve lost. Farewell.


Po Po in 2015. She was 90 then (that’s by my own calculation coz she said she was born in the Year of the Ox). During her funeral, they announced her to be 98 years old, and in Chinese traditions, they would add 3 years to that (don’t ask me why), making her 101…


My mom’s last surviving sibling, my uncle – here with Justin in 2015. And of course I still have my cousins…

A Visit to a Feisty Aunt

This is a continuation of my last post, remembering my feisty aunt who passed away about 2 weeks back. She had a sharp tongue that would shoot down nonsense a mile away. This post is of the time we visited our aunt in Bangkok in Dec 2017, after we learnt of her sickness from my dad. She was at that time, staying with my cousin brother Alan (her son) and his wife in Bangkok. We arranged to meet up with Dad and Hazel in Bangkok, and we visited our aunt in Bangkok’s Nakornthorn Hospital just a day before she was transferred back to our hometown of Ipoh, Malaysia. Her children (my cousins Emily and Alan) had arranged this to keep aunt happy, because she felt more at home in Ipoh. We knew of this only after we finalized our Bangkok trip. Had we known before, we might not have taken the Bangkok trip at all, since we would also be back in Ipoh, later on, on the same trip. But it was nice to see my aunt and uncle, my cousins (their children) Emily, and Alan and his wife altogether in one place.

Aunt’s tongue was as sharp as ever, sarcastic at the slightest opportunity, and funny. Although her body was frail, more so in 2019 in Ipoh when we last met her, there was no dent in her mind, or her spirit. Despite being only a housewife, she's knowledgeable beyond what you'd expect. I remember her telling me years ago (yup, I’m quite chatty with my elders, hehe) that she’d read every article in the newspapers when she was younger to pass time while doing part time baby-sitting work at home in Ipoh. God bless her.

Here’re pictures of our time in Bangkok 2017. No, there’re no pictures of aunt or the hospital visit (who friggin snaps photos in a sick ward?).


Bhumibol Bridge across the Menam (River) Chao Phraya, Bangkok – view from our hotel room at Riverfront Residence, SV City, Bangkok




More views of the Menam Chao Phraya from SV City – This is the usual place we stay at, in Bangkok, if we’re on a family trip, as it’s close to cousin Alan’s apartment. Incidentally, this was also the same place we stayed at, on our previous family trip to Bangkok in 2005, with dear ol’ grandma when she was still alive… Alas, it was granny's last overseas trip... I miss her still


The kids with Dad and Hazel in our hired van for our visit. Road trip ahead!




The Three-Headed Elephant (Erawan Museum) was one of the places we visited. We also visited Pattaya, since we had an extra 3 days in Thailand, but that’ll be another story, ahem…


We actually visited Bangkok TWICE in one trip in Dec 2017. That’s because we booked a return flight to Bangkok from Dubai, not to Malaysia. We first visited Bangkok to visit our aunt, then flew back to Malaysia, and when we were due to return to Dubai, flew back to Bangkok from Malaysia to board our return flight! For the flights to and from Malaysia, we used Bangkok's old Don Mueang Airport. For the flights to Dubai, it's the new Suvarnabhumi Airport, quite a lot of hassle actually. Here we're having dinner at a road side restaurant in Lat Krabang near Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport, where we put up a night before our flight back to Dubai on the next day. How’s the Tom Yam Justin? You think he'd try?!? Anyway, it was yummy!


Sawatdeekha! Enjoy your food! At Lat Krabang (on a corner shop at Prachathon Rd, near the Wat Sangkha Ratcha)


Fried Pork Rice


Pork Neck, one of cousin Alan’s favourite food…


Justin and a pet bunny… or is it a squirrel? …or something else? (I’m pretty bad at animals)


Bye-bye Krung Thep (that’s Thai for Bangkok) – Suvarnabhumi International Airport, Bangkok, Thailand (Hint: In Thai, Suvarnabhumi is pronounced ‘Su-vanna-phoom’, no ‘r’, no ‘bh’… Live with it, that's Thai)

Remembering the Recently Departed

The past 2 weeks have been a time of reflection for the people in my lives who have recently left us for the world beyond… No, I’m not talking about the football greats Maradona and Rossi, or the larger than life James Bond actor, Sean Connery. Everyone has their own important people in their lives, the people who matter. Here are a few which struck my heart.

My aunt, my dad’s eldest brother’s wife, passed away in Ipoh on 26-Nov-2020. I’ve known her since I was born, as we lived as an extended family all in one house when I was a kid. My cousins and I were really close. Aunt had been sick for the last 3+ years. Rest in peace, Ah Mm. God bless your soul. God, bless my uncle and give him strength to go on without his wife and partner. Bless my cousins to strive on in life, carrying sweet memories of their mom.

On 6-Dec, Ajit Singh, my friend and ex-colleague in 3 companies, passed away. I’ve known him since umm… 2004 or 2005. We had worked closely together in at least 2 past Projects, in Dubai and in India. We would always visit his family when we make a home trip to Ipoh. Rest in peace, my friend… God bless your soul and your loved ones to carry on without your physical presence.

Two months earlier, James Ng, another friend and ex-colleague (who also worked together with Ajit, and I, and many other Malaysians in a Dubai project in 2008-2010) passed away. So our big group of Malaysian ex-colleagues is sadly reducing in numbers…

The last I met my aunt and Ajit was in last year’s trip back home, in July 2019, in Ipoh. I’ve not met James since we parted ways in 2010.

Times like these make me mull about the impermanence of life. Many of those dear and close to me from my father’s generation are in their seventies and eighties… A number have gone on their ways, including my mom (1985), paternal grand-dad (1987), paternal grandma (2010), step-mom (2016), and so on. Some cousins and friends from my generation have also sadly passed on. One day, it’ll be our turns… Before that comes, I hope I can be a contribution to my fellow brothers and sisters in this world… I hope that when I passed on, I would have helped someone on the way…

Thank you Lord, for giving me life, for maintaining my health and sanity, for giving me a loving family, for your blessings in abundance, for showing me your love and your generosity, for forgiving each and every time that I sin and stray. I hope I can give the same in return to my family, my friends and fellow human beings… Amen