The Accursed Mountains

Church at Theth Village, on the foot of the Accursed Mountains, Albania

Let’s continue with Albania, since I’ve already started it. (Makes it easier, don’t need to think too much). Mountains, here we come! We’re mountain-lovers, what can I say? Of course, we’ll head to the mountains if there’s any, and Albania is full of mountains!

Here’s the Accursed Mountains. Yeah, no kidding, that's its real name. Don’t ask me how it got this cool menacing name. Maybe you can Google it. Is there a curse linked to this place? Let’s hope it’s just a name. Anyway, accursed or not, they’re too good to be missed.


Up, and up we go, on this narrow mountain route. It IS narrow. Can barely squeeze in 2 car widths, but luckily, the road surface is good! Why do trees grow crooked like these??!? Beats me


Whew, smooth sailing all the way to Theth, the main village here. That’s our hotel, the Logu i Harushave


Good morning! Let’s have a nice breakfast before we head out!


Exploring Theth Village – the village church… It’s a catholic church sez Google (Albania is supposed to be a Muslim country, and indeed it is. The population is more than 50% Muslim, but I think the Albanians are mostly irreligious, and we don’t see any mosques or signs of Islam in the Theth area…)


A bee farm in Theth Village – Those mountains are the Accursed Mountains (also known as the Albanian Alps) surrounding Theth Valley


Hiking to Grunas Waterfall, our first stop. Those dirt roads are bumpy, but are drivable from the looks of it (I would’ve driven, if I’d known earlier, ahem. Yup, lazy, non-environmentally-friendly bugger)


A nice halfway stop, …a rest area where you can buy drinks and snacks – on a small farm area up in the hills. Google calls it the ‘Kunora e Grunasit’ (or the Crown of Grunas if you translate it to Albanian). This is the limit where vehicles could come. After this, the path is only wide enough for foot traffic


The rustic grocery store/ farmhouse… at Kunora e Grunasit, Theth, Albania, Aug 2023


Yippee! We’ve reached the Grunas Waterfall! Supercold water! Brrrr….


“Jayden, don’t run!” And there goes Anu, running down the path, trying to catch up with Jayden, and taking a bad tumble! Through some sort of freak accident, a jagged piece of stone made a bad cut on her knee… Looks like it’ll need stitches. (…Hmmm…, maybe that’s why it’s called the Accursed Mountains??!??) Anu, limping down the path till the rest area. We asked a fellow tourist to help talk to some construction people further down the dirt road to drive up to the rest area, to take us back down to the village, and we’d pay them. Thank God, it wasn’t worse, and that someone came to help… Also, thank God that a doctor was present at the one and only ‘seasonal’ clinic in the village, who could stitch up the wound. The clinic was just beside our hotel. She had 4 stitches!


We were supposed to also visit the Blue Eye (a scenic turquoise, blue pond, with a waterfall flowing into it) which is a different 2km hike, but decided to give it a miss and rest instead (of course, with the stitches and all that, what d’ya think? We’re bonkers?!?). This view of the Theth River Gorge, is from the road leading to the Blue Eye Kappre trail


Hello Honey. How’s your knee? Looking good!!


Let’s get back down to the city. A crucifix beside the hill road on the way down to Shkodër, the biggest city in Northern Albania


Bye-bye Accursed Mountains… Till next time

The Poorer Side of Europe

A view from the Skanderbeg Museum, Krujë, Albania, Aug 2023

What the heck. The stupid war is still on. And it fucked up the holiday plan that we made in advance for the recent Eid Al Adha holidays. We were supposed to be in Moldova. We had the flight tickets, the hotel bookings, the plan, and the friggin visa! Yes, this time, I managed to get the visa for Anu (the kids and I don’t need visas because we’re Malaysians!) BUT, one month before we were supposed to fly, the airlines, which was a Moldovan low-cost airline, cancelled our flight! No reasons given, but we know for sure it’s because of that stupid war, as almost all the other airlines have already stopped flying to Dubai! Due to the same, said, stupid war, that some lunatic started. The cost of rebooking an alternative flight on a UAE airline is DOUBLE the friggin costs (and it went up to friggin TRIPLE the price, as the date crept closer!) Damn that FlyDubai and Emirates! I think they’re just taking advantage of the situation, because nobody has an alternative, but to fly with them, if they still wanna go somewhere, and who doesn’t, here? When it’s a 9-day break! And those airlines know full well that ‘Dubaites’ are that desperate, when it comes to flying off somewhere. Not us, we buried that holiday ‘dream’, and decided to go on a road trip, to Oman. Again! (NO, FlyDubai, we’re not flying! You can shove the flight up your arse!)

I’m gonna leave a picture post of the last time we went to Europe for a holiday. Nope, not to an EU or stupid Schengen country, where the wait to get a visa can take months (for Anu), because of the travel-crazy Dubaites… It’s to Albania, the closed-off, Maoist, hermit country of my childhood's memories, with that awesome, red, double-headed eagle flag! The North Korea of Europe, once upon a time. (Yeah, I’m that old, and I can remember the times when Albania was under Enver Hoxha). But Albania has really opened up since then (since when I used to read all the world affairs articles in the newspapers in my teenage days). And here’s it! Albania in 2023! (First time, I've posted about Albania since our visit, except for 1 photo of Jayden).


Our first stop was Krujë, a town, or more like a village, in the hills, topped up by a castle, about 20km north of Tirana, the capital. We went there straight from the airport, and I think it’s the correct decision! It’s way nicer than a large city like Tirana (where we stayed on the last day of our trip)


Kruj̄ë (or I’ll just call it Kruja from now on, as how I see it spelt in the photo above – easier than to type the ‘e’ with the umlaut all the time) also happened to be a historically important town in Albania. It’s the capital of the first Albanian state in the umphhh… 12th century! And the home base of Skanderbeg, Albania’s folk hero of the Middle Ages! And it’s a good introduction to many of the towns we would later visit in Albania, like Gjirokastër and Berat, with narrow, steep roads going up olden forts that contained houses and historical places all in one! That building behind the Albanian flag, is the Skanderbeg Museum, dedicated to the national hero of Albania, who defended Albania from the Ottoman Empire for decades




Good morning Kruja! A view from our hotel (Rooms Merlika), which is inside Kruja Castle! Told you, the castles in Albania typically contained houses, and shops, restaurants, museums and historical places all in one…


The old fort/ watchtower atop the castle at Kruja, all strapped up for some reason…


A view of the Kruja and the mountains from the watchtower site


Inside the Skanderbeg Museum




Kruja at night, Albania, Aug 2023


The Skanderbeg Museum all lighted up (the museum is built on the castle grounds)




The rustic old bazaar of Kruja, nice, eh? Souvenirs, anyone?


OK, let’s get out and explore a little of the countryside… This looks more like Oman, than some place in Europe??… Many of the places outside the main cities in Albania, still have roads like these…


Ah, well, the road went nowhere, let’s get back town. Wait, anyone for some mulberries? Hey, uncle, what d’ya think you’re doing? Ahem…

Jayden on His Own

Jayden, 8 years & 4 months old, at Al Hafiya Picnic Park, Kalba, UAE, Feb 2023

Jayden is 9 years old! (As of last month, actually). This is my yearly post about the kid’s life, but before I go into it, here’s some GOOD NEWS!!!

Amrita, Anu’s sister, who is in Canada, just gave birth to a healthy baby girl!!! This is wonderful news for the family indeed, especially after a heart-breaking earlier pregnancy 2 years ago, that resulted in the birth of an extremely premature baby boy, who sadly did not survive. That pregnancy was complicated because of fibroids in Amrita’s womb, and all were worried about whether the fibroids would pose a problem for future pregnancies. Thank God for answering our prayers. Praise God. Jayden has a new cousin!

As I was saying, Jayden is 9 now, but he’s still behaving like a baby, sigh… Maybe, we give him too much love, or maybe it’s just the nature of him being the youngest in the family. Nope, it’s definitely too much love, so we gotta get tough and start being serious-er…

This past year, he was pretty much on his own, for a change. His elder brother left for further studies in Singapore last Nov, exactly one year before. I think it did Jayden some good. At least, he started having his own friends, instead of hanging out only with his koko and his koko’s friends. (Thanks a lot to his mommy actually, who helped him build up his courage, and arranged play dates). Here’s a recap of his past year. Enjoy!


A temple visit, with his Mommy and Koko for some divine blessings, before his Koko left for Singapore. This was like a week after Jayden’s 8th birthday – Dubai Hindu Temple, Jebel Ali, Dubai – Oct 2022


Jayden on his own, his first time attending a friend’s birthday party! (As far as I can remember). In contrary, Justin had attended countless birthday parties by the time he was this age. The birthday boy was Mosaab (the one in red) from Egypt. He’s the youngest brother of Justin’s 2 school mates, and they lived in a unit on the same floor of our apartment building. At The Zone, Circle Mall, Jumeirah Village Circle, Dubai – Nov 2022


Our first camping trip without Justin. Good morning, Jayden! How do you feel being on your own? (He missed his Koko). At some random suitable camping spot by the road near Ain Lighmour (aka Blossom Valley), Fujairah (Google Maps calls it Jabal Al Haleefah). The missus is pretty good at picking camping spots, when we need one (like when sun is setting, and yours truly hasn’t got a clue yet of what to do…) We were all alone for as far as the eye could see. It isn’t really a popular camping spot I think, but we’re no longer strangers to lonely camping spots, hehe – Nov 2022


This ain’t a pool, believe me!! It’s all natural and it’s in Arabia! Oman, to be exact. We made a 1200+ km road trip to Salalah, Oman (and another 1200 km back) during the UAE’s National Day holidays last year. This is a gem of a place in the Arabian Peninsula. Waterfalls in Arabia?!? Yup, it’s true. No wonder it is so popular with the Arabs – Wadi Darbat, Salalah, Oman – Dec 2022


Jayden and his Year 4 Teacher, Mr David Moore, GEMS Metropole School – Dec 2022. (He prefers lady teachers he says. He thinks they’re kinder… Are they?!?)


Back in Oman! We love Oman, ever since they made it free for UAE residents to enter, we’ve made 3 visits in a span of 5 months! – Jebel Akhdar (literally, Green Mountain), Oman – Dec 2022


New Year treat for the little one to his favourite type of place, an aquarium! This is the Sharjah Aquarium to be exact. We’ve visited it before, but what the heck, it’s the most affordable, nice aquarium around! – Sharjah, Jan 2023


Motor City, the name of our neighbourhood, isn’t just a strange name selected from nowhere. Its main feature is the Dubai Autodrome! Apart from this, it has an outdoor and an indoor Kartdromes for go-karting. When there’s a race, it’s a din!! – Jayden at the Dubai Autodrome, Motor City, Dubai – Jan 2023


It’s spring break, and we headed to India, to do our boring banking work and to visit family. Jayden at the Victoria Monument in Kolkata. We’ve visited this place before, a long time ago, before we had kids. But what to do? We’ve visited Kolkata so many times, that we ran out of new places to visit, ahem… West Bengal, India – Mar 2023


Jayden made lots of friends at his Mommy’s village! From left, Mahi (his cousin), Ankit, and Prince (whom Mahi and Jayden kept calling Princess… Jayden, Mahi, you shouldn’t tease your friends!), Fulertal, Assam – Apr 2023


Not Oman again?!? Yes, Oman again. Jebel Akhdar (Green Mountain), again. It’s an interesting mountain, where access is only allowed for 4WD cars (which our trusty ol’ Hyundai happened to be, hehe). It’s a nice, cool place, with beautiful views and treks for as far as your feet can walk… Plus it’s rose harvesting season. Jayden pointing to some fossils, at the Sunset Viewpoint in Jebel Akhdar, Oman – Apr 2023


Yippee, koko’s back! It’s Koko’s school break, and he came back for a visit! Bloomsbury’s Café, Silicon Central Mall, Silicon Oasis, Dubai – Jun 2023


Jayden in Albania on his summer break. Koko’s school break and Jayden’s do not match. Justin’s mid-year school break is from the last week of May to the last week of June. Jayden’s summer break starts from the second week of July! By then, Justin would have been back in Singapore, and preparing for his Term 3 exams. For the summer break, we made a short trip to Albania. This is the first overseas trip we made without Justin – at our hotel, the Logu i Harushave, Theth, Albania – Aug 2023


Jayden made another friend! Daniel from Ukraine at our house. Daniel was staying with his aunt at the exact unit where Mosaab’s family (see third pic above) used to stay. The Egyptians have relocated to Abu Dhabi in April this year. Unfortunately, Daniel also left the UAE for Germany in early October. That’s how it is with the UAE, it’s a halfway home. People come, people go. Hope to see you again sometime, somewhere, Daniel! – Sep 2023


And finally, it’s Jayden’s 9th Birthday! At home! A small party with a few of his friends. Here’s Hardit (left) and Callum (right). Both of them are Indians – Oct 2023