Some Cool Colours for the Holy Month

Sidi Bou Said, Tunisia

It’s Ramadan, the Islamic holy month of fasting. Happy Ramadan to all the Muslims! Ramadan so happens to be my favourite month working in the UAE, ahem. It’s generally less hectic, the jams are less and the working hours shorter. What’s not to be liked?

This Ramadan though, we’re travelling, as it coincides with the school’s 2-week Spring Break. We’re off to India (yes, again). Gotta get the friggin bank problems in India sorted out, and visit the family. So, I’m gonna leave a quick photo post till I write again after the holidays. Ramadan Kareem!

Here’re more photos of the blue and white suburb of Sidi Bou Said in Tunisia for the occasion (since I’ve scores of photos from this place which I did not post in my earlier Sidi Bou Said post. Besides, blue and white looks so serene).


What better place to start than the house of the person who started this blue and white trend. The Ennejma Ezzahra, the Star of Venus


Ennejma Ezzahra was the house of Baron Rodolphe d’Erlanger, a French aristocrat and artist who first introduced the blue and white theme to this place (but for some reason or other, his front gate’s door isn’t blue. It’s yellow! I think he’s a secret member of the Hufflepuff)




The gardens of the Ennejma Ezzahra


It has great views of the Mediterranean


The interior of the house






A walk around a blue and white town


A mosque at the centre of town


Another photo of the picturesque Café des Délices




Dusk in Sidi Bou Said


Ciao! Till we meet again! Happy Fasting! Selamat Berpuasa!

The Picnic Times

Good morning! The view from our tent in Jebel Jais, Ras Al-Khaimah, during the crazy COVID times – end of Oct 2020

Know how we overcame the boredom and challenges of being stuck in the UAE during the travel-restricted COVID years? We took to the hills with our tent, food and barbecue grill! And it felt like the entire UAE had the same idea as us… So much so that when we went up to Jebel Jais, UAE’s highest mountain, the road was jammed with cars, and tents set up at any empty space you could find! It was a friggin tent city in the mountain. But that is a story I’ll leave for next time. For now, here’re some of the photos of our picnics in the UAE.

We had our first camping night out during the COVID times in mid Oct 2020, on Jayden’s birthday near Nahwa, on a weekday. All alone in the night and quiet as hell (coz it ain’t known for being a camping site, like Jebel Jais). But it turned out nicely, and nothing disturbed us. And from then on, picnics are the things we looked forward to in winter.


This was us barbecuing at home (shh… luckily, no neighbours complained)


A hookah (or better known as shisha here) is a nice complement to a barbecue


There you go! Barbecued chicken Filipino-Chinese-Mediterranean style

We upgraded to a slightly larger tent, and went up to Jebel Jais to a completely opposite atmosphere. Sleepless night, from all the tents around us, some with lights that could light up a friggin stadium, crazy people who could talk from night till dawn (tents aren’t exactly soundproof) and rival camps playing rival music in Arabic, Hindi, etc. What a din! I’ll leave the photos for next time (coz I’ve not sorted them out yet, hehe).




A picnic at the foot of Jebel Jais when coming down…


Hey, a gap in a road, why not eat here… There you go! – On the Khor Fakkan Road, in the stretch between the Al Multaqa Tunnel and the Al Saha Tunnel – Jan 2021. We were returning from an outing to a fort near Khor Fakkan




And while we’re at it, let’s do some exploring…


Looks like it goes nowhere (where cars could go), except to a tunnel that goes thru to the other side of the highway – I have no idea whether this place belongs to Sharjah or Fujairah. The internal boundaries of the UAE are mighty complicated


Another picnic, this time on the Masafi to Tayybah Road, Fujairah – Jan 2021


Oh no… ambushed by goats! Shooo! Go away


Wadis and hills are not the only place we could picnic. How about a desert? Near Umm Al Quwain’s camel race track, north west of Falaj Al Mualla – Jan 2021


Of course, there’re camels. But when there’re livestock, there’re always pesky flies around


That’s all the photos for now! Leaving one photo of our first trip to Wadi Shawka – Feb 2021. The kids having lunch at a visitor’s shelter at the entrance to the road to Wadi Shawka Dam. We would later find out that the road to the dam is not the greatest route to get into Wadi Shawka (cars are blocked by the dam, you could only trek in). There’re routes where you can actually drive into the wadi. Yahoo!

Sigh, there's only about half a month left for picnic season, before 'glorious' summer (or what I call the scorched months) comes...

Fantastic Beasts and Where We Met Some

Fiordland National Park – Milford Sound Road (just west of the tunnel – you’ll know which tunnel I’m talking about if you visit), South Island, New Zealand

Express photo post coming up. Dunno what to post. Wanted to post some photos of the picnics we have in the UAE. This is picnic season after all, and whenever we get a chance, we pack out stuff, food, tent, whatever and head off to the hills or wadis to barbecue food under the stars, camp for the night and explore the wilderness the next day. But there’re too many photos to sort out. So, digging into my huge reserve of old holiday photos to post, ahem. We’re heading back to New Zealand, to our campervan adventure in the South Island in 2018. Dad and sisters’ recent South Island adventure brought up nice memories of our own adventure, and so here it is, a continuation of our very own campervan adventure!

To recap, we stopped at Milford Sound. Here’s what we did on our way from Milford Sound back to civilization.






First stop – Gertrude Valley Lookout (we were looking for a toilet actually, ahem). We found one at the start of the Gertrude Saddle Dirt Route, and it was a fabulous ‘Thunderbox’! Don’t know what a thunderbox is? Go, find out for yourself (Hint: I’d prefer an Indian toilet to a thunderbox. Anytime)


Next stop – Monkey Creek, Fiordland National Park


This is where we met some Kea. It is a huge parrot species endemic to NZ. It isn’t a very shy bird and will eat your car. No kiddin. It friggin took a chunk out of the rubber lining of our campervan’s door. Luckily, Jucy (the campervan’s company) didn’t ask us to pay. I bet they have insurance to cover Kea bites…




Next – Hollyford Valley Lookout – after a while, all the hills look the same…


Finally, a town, Te Anau


On the move again, …the countryside between Te Anau and Mossburn


Hey, look! There’s a campsite here. Shall we? It’s getting late, won’t be able to make it back to Queenstown and find a camp. So, here we are! Mossburn Country Park camping site. That white, green and purple ‘Jucy’ van in the middle, with the pop-up tent on top was ours


Forced labour?!?… No Papa, that’s our friend. He volunteered




Feeding the alpacas! How did alpacas get here by the way?? I thought they’re found only in South America?


There you go. One express photo post done! Gertrude Valley, Fiordland National Park, South Island, NZ