15 Going on 16

Express post coming up. Up to my neck with work, with the upcoming Eid holidays starting tomorrow, and a deadline to meet right after the long holidays. But I want to post this out before the end of the month. It’s a recap of Justin’s 16th year, and it’s way past when I usually post it (around January… His birthday’s in December! 5 months late) So, without further ado, here it is!


Justin, right after turning 15, in Dec 2024, at the Address Beach Residence Hotel, Dubai. We were all there to see his little brother, Jayden performing with the school choir at a pre-Christmas event at the hotel


Can I go cycling before I leave Dubai? OK. Here you go! (That’s Justin, speed junkie…) At Mushrif Park, Dubai, Dec 2024


It’s the schools’ winter break. Let’s head out. First stop, Kazakhstan! And his dream come true! At the Shymbulak Ski Resort, near Almaty, Kazakhstan. First time he skied down a mountain! This was his second skiing trip (after Uzbekistan in Dec 2023, where we took only a half-day pass, bcoz, who knows whether we’d like skiing or not?! He loved it, by the way, but we only had enough time for the beginner’s slope. He nailed it on his first try! Unlike yours truly, who rolled and fell himself down, the friggin beginners’ slope, twice, and then gave up. But at least I tried it twice!) This time, only the kids went skiing (ahem, I hurt my wrist, OK?!? Fell off the friggin snow the day before, OK? And that’s a valid excuse reason…)


Next stop, Meghalaya in North Eastern India, en route to his mother’s home village, in Assam, India. This was the first time he visited India, after starting school in Singapore. With a kacang puteh (that’s the Malay word for this, I don’t know what it’s called in India) street-vendor, at the Elephant Falls near Shillong, Meghalaya


Continuing on our road-trip in Meghalaya (might as well make the best out of our journey home), at the living root bridge of Riwai Village, near Mawlynnong, the so-called “Asia’s Cleanest Village”, with his cousin, Sonia (beside him), and aunt, Rekha (far right)


Finally, in Assam - Silchar city to be precise, where we call home now, with another of his cousin, Sweety, sharing a …ummm snack (I dunno what they’re having, but it looks like they’re enjoying it…)


On another road trip, this time with his granny and another cousin, Mahi, Rekha’s daughter at the Unakoti Rock Carvings, a UNESCO Heritage Site, in the neighbouring state of Tripura, India. We did this all in our little yellow car. Bravo Tata Nano! You still work despite years of lack of maintenance


Back home in Fulertal, Assam… Trying some paan (betel leaf and areca nut) – his first time. When in Assam, do as the Assamese do! Dec 2024


Time to go back to school in Singapore… tough going, but as people say, when the going gets tough, the tough gets going… I hope he takes it in that spirit. Got this from WhatsApp. That Justin fella just isn’t very keen with photos… Those must be his floorball mates, SJI, Singapore


It’s June 2025, his school’s midyear break. We allowed him to visit Malaysia and stay with his aunt, June in Kuala Lumpur so that he could indulge a little bit in his hobby, racing, which is a lot cheaper there, than in Dubai, and also gel with his Malaysian side of the family, his granddad, aunt, etc. Here he is at ummm… I don’t really know which go-kart track this is. Somewhere in Selangor, Malaysia. On hindsight, we shouldn’t have let him do this, he’d be better off with us here in Dubai, studying… so that his results would be better. There’re little photos of him because his phone which was his mommy’s repaired Samsung S20+ phone, self-disassembled during the trip…


Finally, back with us in Dubai, June 2025, at DragonMart 2, Dubai


With his Dubai friends at our home… Moaz (left) and Yiro (right)… Look at how big the Dubai kids became?!? Is it the food?


Back to Singapore! Some sort of graduation party at his hostel (I think), St Andrew’s Hall, Singapore


An international school trip! To Shanghai, China, Nov 2025. That’s one of the only photos I found that had a decent view of him!


Back home with us in Dubai. Let’s all watch a family movie! Mall of the Emirates, Dubai, UAE


What do you want for your 16th birthday? Not racing again… Yes, racing, again… At a pre-race briefing, Dubai Kartdrome, Dubai, UAE.

Justin, I hope you stay focused and be diligent in your studies. Your efforts will pay off, and it’s only a few more months to go, for the O-Levels. All the best my son. Love you.

That’s all folks. To those celebrating, Eid Al-Adha Mubarak! Selamat Hari Raya Haji!

The Raging Wadi

The flooded road to Wadi Hawer, Oman, March 2026


Wadi Hawer, a day before the photo above

Talking about rain (in the last post, I mean, not now. Now, it’s as dry as a parched desert (which is what this place is supposed to be), and getting hotter by the day), here’s an experience we’ve encountered for the first time in our long stay here in the Arabian Peninsula, a flash flood in the wadi!

We’ve visited many a wadi here in the UAE, and in Oman. And have heard about people, and cars, and what have you, getting washed away by flash floods that happened when the sudden rain hits. We’ve heeded the warnings on not to venture into wadis during inclement weather, and such… But in March this year, on the Eid Al Fitr holidays, we headed over to Oman, again (…yes, we’ve done it 4 years in a row now, during Eid), and one of our destinations, was a wadi! Wadi Hawer, this time, which is actually the downstream part of the popular Wadi Bani Khalid. And lo and behold! It rained, thru the night! Our hotel happened to be located across the wadi from the main road, and in the evening, a worried guest decided to move his car, to the other side of the wadi, saying that he drove a sedan car. We and another guest (who happened to drive SUVs) asked the hotel owner for his advice, and he said we could wait and see. Later that night, a person from the hotel came and told us that it’s best to move the car, and that he’d move it for us. We were lucky, he did it then… because not too long after that, we heard the roar of the water in the darkness of the night, from the wadi, below the hotel. I’ll let the pictures speak…


Mountains, here we come! Approaching Wadi Bani Khalid Town, on the way to our hotel in Wadi Hawer… Cloudy, with a high chance of rain in the evening, says the weather forecast (the best that I know of, is still Windy.com, if you know your maps)


That’s our hotel, the Inn at Hawer… in Anu’s favourite colours for a house – white and blue! (That’s her favourite since I knew her, we didn’t know at that time that it’s liked by so many around the world … e.g. Santorini (Greece), Chefchaoeun (Morocco), Sidi Bou Sayed (Tunisia), etc. Nope, we've never been to Greece nor Morocco, but we visited Sidi Bou Sayed in 2019. Anu wanted to paint our Silchar house white and blue when we bought it about 16 years ago, and I thought …hey, wouldn’t that just make it look like a police station?? (Malaysian police stations so happened to be all blue and white …since time immemorial, and it’s etched in my memory for good. Fancy staying in a police station!)


Cheers! Anybody for a cup of qahwah? The view from our hotel… Wadi Hawer!


Let’s go explore. And swim! A pool all to ourselves! That’s partly because the main attraction (a waterfall) is a further km or 2 from this place, and we missed the route that climbed up the hills, and decided to just chill here! Also, you can’t get to this pool without getting wet and swimming! See, no rain, only some clouds in the sky, eh?


Anu at Wadi Hawer! With the village (Wadi Hawer) behind, and our hotel (in blue and white) on the right


Papa and son at Wadi Hawer after a swim! You could see the road that we took to reach the hotel at the back of the photo. There’re 2 roads, the one on the left goes through the wadi (where the off-white SUV is), and the alternative road goes through the date palm farm at the back of the photo (near where the 2 people in black are seen). We took the route through the date palms because that’s the one they directed us to (for non-4WD cars, they said)


A view of Wadi Hawer from our hotel, on the day we arrived… with people walking on the route through the dry wadi, to the town on the other side (if you zoom in, you’d see the cars parked in the distance)


The same view, the next morning… a raging wadi, where the road had been. And that water is not at its maximum height (which happened sometime in the middle of the night). Luckily, the hotel people moved our car into the date farm…


The hotel’s owner helping us to carry one of our bags to get to our car… God bless him


That’s what became of the road that we came through the day before, a flowing stream. Look at all the debris strewn around, brought down by the water. Our blue & white hotel is on the right


Whew, we got thru! The hotel people and the villagers were really helpful, they helped us get our car passed the floods (see the first photo of this post, above)


Let’s go home… the highway near Muscat, Oman. Look at all the mountains behind. That’s why we love Oman!


A roadside stop for dinner, before continuing our journey… Look at the approaching thunderstorm (behind)

That’s all for today, folks. The stupid war is still on, with an indefinite ceasefire in place. All our traveling plans for the coming 9-day Eid Al Adha holidays (which we made in Jan) are in shambles now, thanks to the warmongers. May they all rot in hell!