A Temple in the Arabian Desert

It’s Diwali, and I have just the photos for this!! Happy Diwali, Happy Deepavali, Happy Tihar, everyone!!!

Here’s a temple in the desert of Abu Dhabi, specially for the occasion!


The BAPS Hindu Mandir (i.e. Temple), Abu Dhabi, UAE, Feb 2024


That eye-shaped thing at the bottom of the photo is a digital screen, called the Wall of Harmony. It emphasizes harmony among people of different religions… There're actually temple attendants, when you visit, who explained its significance. For its inauguration, leaders of the different faiths of the Indian diaspora in the UAE, high ranking officers of the UAE and the Indian Prime Minister himself, came together in attendance. If everybody lived like this, there’d be peace on earth… The wall is purportedly the largest 3D-printed concrete structure in the UAE


Didn’t know there was such a big temple in the UAE, huh? There you go!


The Prayer Dune… a replica of the Sharjah desert, where in 1997, the then long-time leader of the BAPS organization, Pramukh Swami Maharaj, prayed for a temple to be built in the UAE…


Look at the amount of visitors!!


You can’t actually take photos of the inside, but… just one, OK?




Just look at the level of details of the sculptures…

BAPS stands for Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (of course, I Googled it, what d’ya think?) and is the same organization which built the Akshardham Temple in New Delhi, which we visited (twice), but have no photos of, due to it not allowing any friggin phones, or cameras, to be brought in… (You have to keep it in a locker outside… what a spoilsport!) Luckily, you could bring in your phone in this temple!


Happy Diwali everybody! May the Festival of Lights bring happiness, peace and prosperity to you and your family!

There, another super-express post done!

Who Dug ‘Em Canals?

What’s this salt canal doing in the middle of the friggin desert? Who knows, man? But, it’s worth an adventure anyhow! Here we go!

We’re back! From our Malaysia home trip. Hectic, as usual, with the number of stopovers, we (or more accurately, yours truly, ahem) slotted into our trip… (Nope, the missus didn’t think it was funny…)

While I sort out the photos of our home trip, here’re more desert oddities to keep the blog alive.


Where the hell are the Wathba Salt Lakes? We’re gonna find out… Here, off we go, into the desert…


Whoa, what’s this? A salted-up canal filled with turquoise water…


Looks like we’re not the only ones interested in looking for strange things in the desert. Mind you, this was in Sep 2021, during the COVID times, when we’re still stuck from going just about anywhere…


That salt will last you a lifetime, …if it was edible. Izit? I dunno, I’m not gonna try


Jayden, has other ideas, though! NOOOO! DON’T PLAY WITH IT! Who knows what's in it!?!


Awww… What the heck, might as well… What’s some salt gonna do to us, anyway?


Where’s Justin?? There, he is!


More canals…


Fancy a swim?? No way man!


A 💓 G! Awww... Love you, Honey!

That’s all for today! From the Wathba Salt Canals, Abu Dhabi, UAE, Sep 2021

Building Railroads in the Sand

Etihad Rail Package 2A, Ruwais, Al Dhafra, UAE

What the heck! Might as well post these railways photos also! It’s a Project I sort of hitchhiked on. Didn’t do a thing, except gave some advice and attended some meetings, and in the process learned from it. So, you could say, I gained more from the Project than it gained from me, ahem.

What happened was that the management put the responsibility for this project’s closeout on the Close-Out Department, of which yours truly was a part of. (This was despite the Railway Project’s Team's insistence that they had the resources to close it out, and that they would close it out themselves). So, my good ‘ol Project Manager (of the Close-Out Dept) decided to assign this to me to follow up. (Well, it was sort of, out of the way, you know?) Umm… actually, it was, WAY OUT of the way, in the desert, at the tail end (or the head end, depends on how you see it) of the UAE, the part that connects to Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Nobody from Dubai or the Northern Emirates, goes there, except if you wanna drive to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and beyond, or if you need to build a friggin railroad. The start of that Project is about 330km from our office in Dubai (3.5 hours drive there, and another 3.5 hours back, good thing that the speed limit in those parts are 160 km/h). And that’s how I end up being connected with this Project.

Anyway, those railway guys successfully closed out the Project at the end of last year, without much help from the Close-Out Department, frankly. Kudos guys! Here’re a few photos of the Etihad Rail Package 2A Project, from Ruwais in the Western Region of Abu Dhabi (aka Al Dhafra) to Ghweifat on the Saudi border, for your pleasure.


The Etihad Railway, Package 2A, from Ruwais to Ghweifat


As you can see, it’s surrounded by desert sand, for as far as you can see… One of the main challenges was ‘sand mitigation’ i.e. how to stop the sand from getting onto the railroad. And as you would’ve guessed, it’s next to impossible. You could only ‘mitigate’ it, by putting some preventive measures, and doing a lot of maintenance (which isn’t our job)… Those bunds and channels are part of the preventive measures


A culvert below the railway


And here’s a railway exhibition in Abu Dhabi’s ADNEC Centre… where our company was one of the presenters. (ADNEC by the way means Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre, duh). That’s Kamran Taraz, on the podium, the Project Controls Manager of the Project. He’s left the Company. I heard he may be in the US. (He’s an Iranian, who isn’t a supporter of mullah-rule)


A train! That’s just a model… ADNEC Centre, Abu Dhabi. Hmmm, when will we be able to travel by train to Saudi or Qatar…?

That’s It for the Desert Road

The Sweihan Military Road Project, Sweihan, Abu Dhabi, UAE

Last week, we received the final payment of the Abu Dhabi Airport Project which yours truly was in charge of. We’re expecting our client to return our Performance Bond of the Project anytime soon. And that’ll be it, for the ADAC Project.

At the end of last year, we received all the payment for the Sweihan Military Road Project, another Project which yours truly was in charge of closing, which closed the project once and for all.

My two other ‘low-profile’ projects (due to them being executed completely by a partner/ specialist subcontractor), the ITS2020/1B and ITS2020/1C Projects are still running, in the background. But management is getting curious as to why we’re still having these 2 projects, which they know have been completed, umm… 3+ years ago, but are still generating income! That’s the beauty of maintenance projects! (The ITS2020 Projects have a separate construction phase (2 years) and maintenance phase (5 years)). They want them closed. OK, am on it, anyway.

This week, yours truly was transferred from my temporary role in the Dubai Island Bridge Project (building a new bridge across Dubai Creek), to another temporary role (or maybe permanent, which the company doesn’t seem to be able to confirm) in The Island Development Project, a mega-building project, aka the ‘biggest project our company currently has in the Middle East’, the construction of 4 ginormous luxury hotels, villas, spas and entertainment parks on a manmade island near the Burj Al Arab.

So, you could say that I’m in transition. Which I hope will be for the better. Fingers crossed. Pray for me willya? To be in a better position…

Meanwhile, here’s what the godforsaken Sweihan Military Road Project looks like. It’s a road in the middle of the Abu Dhabi desert, far off from all else, long neglected (and conveniently forgotten) by all, except yours truly (because I was entrusted to close it), with no one from the original team remaining (I think there may be some, but they’re all lying low, pretending not to know).


The starting point of the Project, (its western point, connecting to the Dubai-Abu Dhabi Truck Road or E75)


The Sweihan Military Road Project, or more accurately, ‘Internal Roads and Infrastructure for Military in Sweihan Area’ is a road project which started construction in 2013. I inherited the close out of this Project in 2019…


The problem with this Project is that although most of the stretch of this Project lies inside the area of Al Ain Municipality, the Contract was signed with Abu Dhabi Municipality. And it lies in a desolate area which serves only the odd camel farmer or two! As a result, none of the 2 municipalities seemed concerned with this forlorn stretch of road… Who’s gonna clear this sand away??


Oh, here comes some inhabitants! Hi, camels. It’s camels, or speeding cars (who come here to try out their drifting skills and stunts like that…) Yup, you guessed it, no police cameras!


And this WAS the ‘borrow area’ we ‘borrowed’ material from, for filling any low-lying areas to bring it up to the level needed for the road construction. I don’t know why we, construction people, call them ‘borrow pits’ as we never, ever return the materials. What? Dig it back out? They basically form the friggin base of the roads, OK?! I had to search for this friggin ‘borrow pit’ in the desert, 8 years after we were supposed to close them, and get our security bond back from the municipality. Yeah, we (my predecessors) forgot all about it, until our Finance Team asked about it! Somewhere in Al Ajban, 2021. I had to take photos for proof that we’ve tidied it all up! That’s why I was there!


Closing out this project sometimes felt like a scavenger hunt, in the vast Abu Dhabi desert. It brought me to places like Abu Dhabi, Al Ain, Ajban (see photo above), Sweihan and Al Hiyar (which I found out, was the municipality in charge of the borrow area). The road between Al Hiyar and Sweihan, 2020


Oh, what’s that? Ziggurats in the desert??? On the E14, between Seih Al Sedeirah and the E75 Truck Road, Abu Dhabi Emirate, 2021

That’s it for now. Till I find time to post again. Super-busy, due to the multiple roles I’m doing!

All About Speed

Justin, on his 15th birthday, at the Dubai Autodrome, Motor City (which is walking distance from our house). See, he’d rather spend his birthday watching a race in the autodrome, than doing other birthday things that normal people do, sigh. We didn’t even know there was a race happening, until he told us about it, a Formula 4 race, if I’m not mistaken

Did a recap of Jayden’s 10th year recently, now it’s Justin’s turn. A recap of his 15th year (he turned 15 in December). He’s in Secondary 3 on a scholarship in Singapore. That means a whole lot of pressure on him to do well, …or he’d lose his scholarship, and more. Does that bother him? Not a bit, from what we see! We’re the ones worrying our heads off, while he dreams of racing, and skiing, and mountain-biking, etc… but mainly, racing. Justin, STUDIES COME FIRST! REMEMBER THAT! Oh God, please help.

Here's the recap.


Starting off with Dec 2023, right after we celebrated his 14th birthday, we were off to Central Asia! It’s the first overseas trip we did with Justin, after he started his schooling in Singapore. At the Bibi Khanym Mosque, Samarkand, Uzbekistan. Why do all the minarets have flat tops? Somebody chopped ‘em off? Or they dropped off, or something, bcoz of earthquakes?? Some little domes, or spires on them would be nicer, wouldn’t it? But what do I know?


Next stop, Bukhara, Uzbekistan. That’s the Ark of Bukhara. Friggin frigid cold when we were there, as you can see… (-13C, real feel -21C). Brrrrrr…


Next, Khiva, Uzbekistan. In our guesthouse inside the walled Inner City of Khiva. Hey kids, mind the place, OK? The owner’s a bit of a stickler for orderliness… Boyjon Ota, Itchan Kala, Khiva, Uzbekistan


Crossing borders now, into the closed-off ‘hermit kingdom’ of Central Asia, Turkmenistan. With our tour guide from Owadan Tourism, Ms Aygul who met us at the border. (Everyone, and I mean everyone (from whatever country you’re from), needs an Invitation Letter and a Visa to enter Turkmenistan. Don’t believe me, try going! It’s fun!) At the Bay Town Restaurant, Dashoguz, Turkmenistan. She doled out a lot of friendly and wise advice to young Justin during our lunch there… Which we hope didn’t fall on deaf ears


Back to Uzbekistan. Skiing in Amirsoy Mountain Resort. His first skiing trip. And he loved it. He nailed it on his first try (alright, he couldn’t stop, but he managed to ski all the way down! By the second round, he could already stop!) (Unlike, yours truly, who rolled himself down, literally. I lost count of the number of times I fell, and got back up. And it ain’t easy to get back up, OK? With the stupid, long skis sticking on your feet! Even on a friggin beginner’s slope!) At the end of the day, he was crying on why we didn’t let him go on a more advanced slope! Duh, how would we know that he’d like skiing?!? So, we took only a half-day package!


Time to go, on a train in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, heading to Samarkand, to catch our flight back to the UAE. This was the first trip which we used trains as our main mode of transportation! We tried all the different trains in Uzbekistan, the Afrosiyob (the fast train, the best), the Sharq (slightly slower, older, which is the one in this photo), and the night-trains (for long distance, buy in advance, or you may have to share cabins, or sleep 3rd class, which we did on one of the legs of our journey!)


Back in the UAE. At a sand pyramid in Abu Dhabi’s Fahid Island’s Kite Beach. It was a temporary art installation by US Artist, Jim Denevan, who created hundreds of sand pyramids and cones arranged in a concentric pattern in the barren beach. It was made with natural, available materials and was meant to disappear over time… This was right before, he flew back to Singapore to start Year 8 (Sec 2), Dec 2023


It’s the mid-year break already?? Back to Dubai for a holiday, Jun 2024. A treat at the Dubai Indoor Kartdrome, Motor City, near our house. His second time go-karting (after the time at the RAK Track, in Dec 2023). (He’s been bugging us ever since to let him go again). How you doing, son? Can you please stop thinking about racing for a while, but study hard, and stay focused?


Back to Singapore. Here’s a photo I nicked from his phone. One of his outings with friends in Singapore. I only recognize the friend on the left of Justin in the photo, Garren Tang, a fellow Malaysian scholarship recipient


Another outing in Singapore, this time with family (a photo I got from WhatsApp, hehe). In the middle, is my uncle (in blue, dad’s youngest brother) and Aunt Betsy, his wife (with walking stick). On the left, is Carol, their daughter, my cousin, whom I’ve not met for more than ermm… 20 years, at least. She and her family (white man in the middle, daughter and son) reside in Adelaide, Australia. (I’ve never met them, by the way). They were in Singapore to visit Carol’s parents. Flanking Justin is my brother Jason, and his wife Fang. Jason and Fang’s daughter, Stacey (with glasses) is on the right side of the photo. On the far right, is my cousin June, who was in Singapore for a short visit. Accompanying June, was her son, Mark (behind Stacey) and daughter, Jamie, who works in Singapore


Receiving a visit from his parents, Aug 2024. Here’s Justin with Mommy in front of his hostel, St Andrew’s Hall (the building on the left), beside the Kallang River, Singapore, Aug 2024. “Your exam’s coming up son (in September & October), study hard, we’ll see you back in Dubai soon, OK? Love you.”


Justin’s finished his year end exams! Back in Dubai, just in time for Diwali! Oct 2024. He nearly missed his flight, because he only remembered about his passport at the last minute! The night before his flight, he was on an overnight school camping trip, and he got back to his hostel after midday on the day of his flight (which was at 9pm that night). When he was about to head to the airport from a restaurant where he was eating with his friends, he suddenly remembered that he had to get his passport from the hostel administrators. It was all a rush from that time on, and we kept praying… and waiting for his updates (what else could we do? Jason was in NZ). But he managed to get back to his hostel, get his passport (after a bit of a wait), and got to the airport’s check-in counter, just before it closed, exactly 1 hour from departure time! Whew, nearly gave us (and himself) a heart attack!


Racing again! First time in the Outdoor Kartdrome, near our home, Nov 2024. He was so much looking forward to this! "It ain’t cheap, OK? Next time, bring back some money!" (he didn’t, because he nearly missed his flight, so he travelled with whatever money he had in his wallet & pockets…)


A bit of tea at home with his little brother, Jayden, Nov 2024. No, it’s not his birthday yet. There’s no big occasion actually. His mom just like to do treats like this, once in a while!


And this was his 15th birthday treat, which he arranged himself! A go-kart race at the Dubai Kartdrome with his Dubai friends, ex-schoolmates Shaun (left) and Matei (middle). He asked us not to get a birthday cake (but we got one, anyhow, hehe. What?? We also wanna have some fun, duh?)

Anyway, we wish you all the best, Justin. Stay focused, study hard, play hard, always be kind, righteous and brave. (And put that racing away for a while!) Love you!