Remembering Bangladesh

It’s the school’s Spring Break for Jayden. He has a whopping 3 weeks of holidays this year! 2 weeks of Spring Break, followed by the Eid Al Fitr holidays. We’re not going anywhere this year, unfortunately, ahem… Gotta save some money for the summer holidays. What to do?


Jatiyo Sriti Soudho (National Martyr’s Memorial), Bangladesh

This time of the year, last year, we were in our India home. At the same time a tragic incident happened in neighbouring Bangladesh. One of Anu’s nephews in Bangladesh whom we just got to know the year before, met with an accident and sadly passed away. We hope his family has healed. God, continue to make the family strong, to strive on as before, to continue to have hope in your kindness and your strength.

To all the Christians out there, have a blessed Good Friday and Easter!


Anu’s rediscovered family in Bangladesh, Hob Nob Café, Banani, Dhaka, Jul 2022 - Hriday, may God bless his soul, is the tall chap in blue on the left. His mother and sister are standing in front of him. Swapan, one of Anu’s long-lost cousins is on the extreme right. Beside him, is his daughter. Swapan’s wife is in the middle standing behind Anu’s aunt. Swapan’s young son is the boy on the extreme left of the photo




More photos of the girls!


And here’re the boys! (No, the aunt doesn’t count)


Jackfruit, the national fruit of Bangladesh! The family brought a whole jackfruit, plus more, for us, to bring away. We politely declined, but we had a jackfruit feast in Dhaka!


Now, how else can you end a meal, if not with paan?! Thank God the Bangladeshis are just as hooked on paan as the people from North-East India (Anu included)

Ending the post with a few random pictures of our short 1 day stay in Bangladesh (thanks to the likes of Al Jazeera Airways and SalamAir – see my post, The Long Way Home Part 1).


The swimming pool of our Dhaka hotel, the Raintree Dhaka






And finally, more of Bangladesh’s National Martyr’s Memorial

Gateway to Central Asia

Ramadan Kareem! It’s Ramadan, the fasting month!

The good thing about Ramadan is that we have shorter working hours (yippee), less traffic jams and less work pressure generally, as the clients would be typically more relaxed and accommodating. (If things could stay like that for the whole year, everyone would live a longer life…)

The bad thing is that due to the reduced working hours, I find it really hard to come up with enough time to do the personal stuff. Writing this blog, for example.

So, it’ll have to be holiday photos for the time being! I have something up my sleeve this year, just for the Islamic Holy month… From the land of the madrassas! Here goes!


The Registan, Samarkand, Uzbekistan

The Registan is the heart the city of Samarkand (or Samarqand), one of the oldest cities in Central Asia and was the heart of the Timurid Empire. Samarkand, was an important city on the ancient Silk Road.


Samarkand - World Cultural Tourism Capital. Sez who? Well, that’s what the large, fat sign beside the Registan says! (above)


The Registan is flanked by 3 madrasahs (schools in the Islamic world – the plural for madrasa in Arabic should actually be madaris, but that would only confuse the heck out of all the English readers out there) – the one in the middle, facing the square’s entrance is the Tilya-Kori Madrasah. It is the one with the blue domed mosque. The madrasah to the right (when entering the square) is the Sherdoh Madrasah. It is the one with two tigers above the entrance arch. The madrasah on the left, is the Ulugbek Madrasah, which the oldest of the three.


Us and the Tilya-Kori Madrasah


Justin and mommy at the Tilya-Kori Madrasah’s entrance arch. Yes, Justin was with us on this trip. His first foreign trip with family, after he started schooling in Singapore




The interiors of the beautiful Tilya-Kori Mosque


The Sherdoh Madrasah. Notice the tiger and sun emblems on the top?


The lattice-screened central opening to the Ulugbek Madrasah. All the 3 madrasahs here have this feature


In the courtyard of the Ulugbek Madrasah. It was winter (Dec 2023), that’s why all the trees were barren


Uzbek craftsman trading their wares, Ulugbek Madrasah, Registan, Samarkand


Coffee break in freezing Samarkand – Ulugbek Madrasah


The gardens surrounding the Registan


The Tilya-Kori Mosque from behind

That’s all folks. Express photo blog done!

The Rose Gardens of Green Mountain

Happy Women’s Day! Another day dedicated to women. (OK, Valentine’s is for both sexes, but …from observation, I think it mostly works one way, ahem. When will men ever get a day of their own?)

Here’s a flower farm trip that was really nice, and one which we loved! So much so, that we went back for a second round, within 4 months! Welcome to Jebel Akhdar (or literally Green Mountain in Arabic) of Oman! Here goes, a picture post.


Jebel Akhdar is a mountainous plateau in northern Oman, about umm… 6 hours drive from our home in Dubai. One thing to note is that you have to have a 4WD car to drive up to Jebel Akhdar. (Why? Just because they say so. Nah, I think it’s for safety when descending the steep roads). There’s a police checkpoint at the foot of Jebel Akhdar where they check your car for 4-wheel-drive capabilities. If your car doesn’t have 4WD, hard luck! You’d have to park at the foot of the hill, and take a cab up, or hire a 4WD car. Our trusty ol’ Hyundai Tucson has All-Wheel-Drive (AWD) and we’re through! Here we come, mountains! We love mountains, by the way!


This my friend, is Jebel Akhdar in Dec 2022. The farms, which are on terraces cut into the steep hillside, go all the way down almost to the wadi below.


There’re 3 hillside villages which people trek through, although you could trek all the way down and even further. The villages are Al Aqur (left, nearest), Al Ain (right) and Al Shuraijah (middle, furthest)


The valley showing a village further below, Al Qusha. The building on the top right, near the ledge is said to belong to a prince of Qatar


Al Sharaf Old House, Al Aqur village. This is an old house which is opened for tourists. There’s a small fee if I remember correctly, but you’ll learn about how people make rose water, the main industry in this area, visit all the rooms in the house and try some local coffee. But December isn’t the rose season… So there’re no roses to see, or process. And that last comment, my wife remembered quite clearly, which is why we visited Jebel Akhdar a second time, hehe


We started our trek from Al Aqur village which is the nearest village to the main town in Jebel Akhdar where the hotels are. Fancy some qahwah? A coffee break at Al Sharaf Old House, Al Aqur Village, Jebel Akhdar


The trails are prominently marked with a paint work of red, white and yellow. If you see that marking, you’re on the right track. Approaching Al Ain village, where the bigger farms are! Yippee!


Somewhere after Al Ain village. There’s a trail that goes from Al Ain to Al Shuraijah, but I think this one goes down to Al Qusha below. I’m not sure, as this was the extent that we went before turning back to our car in Al Aqur. (Our phones ran out of batteries incidentally. What’s the use of having all the fun and not taking photos?) The farms are a little yellow as you can see as it wasn’t flower season (and because the photos were taken on my old Samsung 7 phone which still contained …a teeny little bit of battery. Anu’s was completely drained…)


Know why we went back in April now? …Flower season! Jebel Akhdar in April 2023, much greener as you can see!




Us in Jebel Akhdar, April 2023


It’s a long way to fall…


Honey, be careful, will ya?


Enjoying the sunset in Jebel Akhdar. See ya!