Christmas Excursion 2009

Christmas Lunch at the Hatta Fort Hotel, UAE

I’m back with pictures. Our mission on Christmas Day last year was to get Auntie Helen’s visa extended. Malaysians are typically given a 30-day stay in the UAE upon arrival. As she had to stay more than 30 days, we had to literally skip to another country and back to get an extra 30 days on her visa. Either that or pay an exorbitant amount to have it extended in the immigration office here.

So off we went to Hatta, the town bordering the Omani border. Anu and baby hung around in the Fort Hotel there while we made a u-turn across Oman. So, for all you guys out there, Auntie Helen has officially been to Oman, even if it’s just going into the Omani Immigration Complex at the border to get her passport stamped.


Swimming Pool, Hatta Fort Hotel


Jiko, having a go at riding a camel


Jiko, somewhere at the UAE-Oman Border near Hatta


Desert scene at Madam, halfway between Dubai and Hatta


Madam, where the Dubai people go for desert safaris (i.e. driving their 4WDs and buggies into the dune sand)

Dubai Update: Goodbye 2009

2009 is fast coming to an end, and there are so many things that I did not do, especially when it comes to family and friends.

I did not manage to spend enough time with Grandma. Grandma is old, and is starting to lose some of her physical and mental capabilities. I want to be able to see her happy and spend some intimate times with her before she loses recognition of her surroundings. It’s been only less than a year since I last saw her and took pictures of her (see previous blog, Grandma's Birthday), but she’s aged considerably since according to my dad. She used to nag me …to take my bath, to eat, to talk nicer and be closer to my dad and mom, to not smoke, to not party so hard. I’ve stopped so many of my bad habits now, but will she know now?

She used to wait up at night for me to get home after a hard night’s drinking. She used to make soup and cook some dishes for me when she knows I’m coming home. Sometimes she botches up, like mistaking the day I’m coming or going, or mistaking which food I like. Thinking back, it doesn’t matter, it’s the thought and act that count and I really appreciate all that she’s done, but how can I show my appreciation?

I want to spend a little more time in Malaysia, to catch up with family and friends whom I’ve sort of lost contact with. All in, I’ve spent only one measly week in Malaysia this year, only enough time to celebrate Grandma’s 92nd birthday and to have some short bonding time with the family who’re around at that time. But that doesn’t mean that friends don’t mean anything to me. They’ve been there when times are bad, and of course when times are good. They’ve made me sane when I feel the world is all bleak and colourless. Some have helped a lot, even going out of their ways to do it. To these I should feel indebted, but how do I repay their kindness when sometimes I don’t remember. I am not the most sensitive of kinds, I am sometimes full of myself, thinking that all, should be done for my sake. I don’t want that to be true. And so, for the friends who happen to read this entry, I want them to know, that whatever is done, is appreciated, and I hope I can repay whatever kindness is shown to me and my loved ones.

To those I or my loved ones have caused hurt, or have ignored, whether intentionally or unintentionally, I ask for forgiveness. And I hope there will be a chance for me to make it up to you.

On a brighter note, 2009 is also an accomplishment of sorts for me. As some would have been aware, I became a father to a baby boy recently. I survived the recession intact (and I hope I continue to survive). And we’ve bought our own little house in India. It’s not much to go by, by modern standards, it’s a slightly weathered village-type house (timber columns, bamboo & mud partitions, zinc sheet roof) with a neat little compound in front, but still it’s our own home, and Anu and her sister’s family have made it quite nice and cosy.

Before I end, I wish all a Happy New Year! May 2010 be a wonderful and successful year for you and your family. May your careers be blessed with spurts of growth! May your families be ever more harmonious! May love, peace and hope pervade your every doing! May you and your loved ones be protected from harm and be in good health!

With love, Gary, Anu and our beloved little terrorist, Justin.

Our little bundle of joy

This is Justin, Day 1, born right after midnight on the 1st of December.

He was expected originally on 10th December. But he started giving us warning signs as early as Nov 22, that’s when Anu started leaking amniotic fluid. Early morning Nov 29, Anu had blood in her urine. We went to the hospital but they told us to wait, until the water breaks or when there was more pain ...like when Anu starts to cry and when the cramp comes every 3 minutes! That night, after picking Auntie Helen up from the airport, we went straight to the hospital. Anu was finally deemed to be in enough distress to be checked into the hospital at 3am on Nov 30. She was moved to the delivery room at 9.30am. The pushing stage started that night, at 10.30pm, after more than 12 hours, but it wasn’t until Dec 1 before the little fellow came out into the world.


Day 3 – Justin Nikhil Ong


Justin (Day 18) having a sunbath (to get rid of the jaundice) and doing what he does best – cry.


Justin, with Ravini, our colleague’s daughter, doing another thing he does best – sleep, we prefer this activity.


Day 11 – Baby with eyes wide open, for a change. He usually likes to wake up only in the wee hours of the morning, when everyone else is sleeping.


Baby with Jiko in front of the Malaysian Consulate General in Dubai

Living in a Houseboat

Houseboats on Dal Lake, Srinagar, Kashmir

This is a continuation of the post on Kashmir. How can I leave out houseboats when doing a post on Srinagar?


Anu on a shikara, wooden boats (Srinagar’s equivalent to Venice’s gondolas) – this is the only way to travel around / across Dal Lake


Our houseboat attendant in typical Kashmir attire

Baby named Ong

Baby's due in less than 1 month's time and the only name we're certain he'll get now is ...Ong. We've talked about it. We've suggested a few names. We've both put in our 'criteria' for the names. Anu's criterion is that the name should be short (...Ong is short) and it should have a nice western sounding name. My criterion is that it has to reflect his heritage i.e. one Western (Christian) name, one Indian (Hindu) name, a Chinese name and Ong.

At the moment we're calling him baby. Baby's kicking his momma all over the place now. ...Men are just luckier huh?

Oh, I found a picture with somewhat of a baby bump, for those who've been asking to see it.


Anu at the Fairlawn Hotel, New Market, Kolkata

Autumn in Kashmir

Below the Chinar trees, Nishat Bagh, Srinagar, Kashmir

I have decided to fill up the blog with pictures of our holidays. I think it will be deadly boring for others to see these pictures, but what the heck, I don’t think many people are onto blogs nowadays. I seem to feel that most of the people have migrated over to …Facebook or Twitter (whatever that is). Call me old school, but blogging is at the moment good enough for me.

Plus, posting pictures takes less effort than thinking up a whole paragraph of words, or more like fun and interesting words. My sense of humour has kinda dried up. I am serious (especially at work) and full of myself (unfortunately). Sometimes I sit around wondering why I’m all grumpy with the less than satisfactory (according to me) output of my staff. Am I turning into a heartless boss (like what all bosses are supposed to be, same shit different buckets as they put it)? Am I becoming OLD? What the heck, we’ll get there sooner or later. Am I crossing over to the …dark side? Hope not, but may the force be with me, and with all of you.

Here’re the pictures as said. These are of Kashmir, the den of terrorism of India (according to many), but it was serene and peaceful both the times I visited. These are taken 2 years back.


Tranquil Dal Lake in front of Nishat Bagh


Shalimar Bagh (Bagh means garden in Hindi / Urdu and related languages)




More scenes from Nishat Bagh


Gulmarg, i.e. Meadow of Flowers, without the flowers (coz it was autumn). In winter it becomes a ski resort. Unfortunately there was only brown grass when we were there.

The Tall and the Mighty

Dubai Mall, purportedly, the biggest mall in the world

Again there’s nothing to write about as nothing of interest happened, except in the work front. Our Project sailed passed the ISO surveillance audit with flying colours (ahem, of course, when yours truly is involved hehehe, just kidding). There was another spate of staff reduction and for some, a salary adjustment (mostly downwards). Just shows that Dubai is still not out of the muck yet. And that about sums up the news from October 2009.

On the home front, our unborn baby’s growing up real fast, giving his momma a real hard time. He’s nearly 8 months, and about to come out real soon but his papa still know next to nuts about what to do, and thinks he still has all the time in the world to get ready, buy all the stuff that’s to be bought and prepare himself. This easy-going attitude isn’t going down too well with his momma (I think), and so his papa has resolved to really set his mind and body for this task at hand now.

For the time being, here’re pictures of the tallest building in the world, the Burj Dubai, yet uncompleted, and the so-named biggest mall in the world, the Dubai Mall, which to me felt no bigger than some of the other malls around here. Dunno what the big deal is about? And by the way, how do they measure the err… bigness of a mall? On the plus side, it has a cool two storey high aquarium (or izzit 3…) filled with exotic fish.


One of the lobbies in Dubai Mall


The under construction residences (I think) beside the Mall


A spaceship-like building in the Dubai Mall area


The bottom half of the Burj Dubai, the tallest building in the world


Burj Dubai, from a descent distance away

Dubai Update: House No. 4

Sunset over Dubai, from the marina at Dubai Festival City

Just a quick update. We moved, again! The 4th place now in Dubai. No more nice huge bungalow. Evicted by Dubai Municipality due to some law about overcrowding, we had about 20 people in one bungalow. But that bungalow was huge, 10 rooms all in. Anyway, according to our Admin Dept, we’re only allowed 2 families per humongous bungalow, and the Company cannot justify paying 40 odd thousand bucks per month for two couples to stay in a gigantic 10-room bungalow. So there you have it! Now we’re holed up in a cosy studio apartment. Not bad for a change, no more cat fights over who cleans the bloody kitchen, who takes out the bloody trash, which had on occasions, been left to rot for a week until some kind Samaritan who couldn’t stand the smell anymore, steeled himself up and threw it out (no, not me, I ain’t kind, or I just don’t frequent the kitchen that much, hehehe).

I’ve got no pictures of the new apartment yet, but the building’s got a swimming pool, (and unlike the bungalow’s pool which is filled with sand, this one’s filled with water!), it’s got a gym (according to some, nope haven’t checked it out), a playground, a tennis court (I heard) and that’s about it. No shops for kilometres around us, no restaurants for a quick bite, no laundries. No internet connections for about 2 more months according to the building management, and almost everything is centralized and billed. The company’s got to cough up 5000 bucks for the air-conditioner to be connected (nope, no individual air-cons allowed), 1000 bucks for the gas (they don’t allow your own gas cylinders), 1000 bucks for water, electricity and shit. And we’ve not even talked about the internet and TV… Recession or not, Dubai’s still one bloody expensive place.

For the time being, here’re assorted pictures of Dubai to whet your appetite for making a visit. Just remember one thing before coming, bring lots of money, hehehe.


Eid al Fitr (Hari Raya) tents for the breaking of fast at Mirdif Uptown


Deira City Centre, one of the most popular malls in Dubai, getting a taxi here at peak time can take as long as 2 hours, get a coffee and a book while you wait.


The creek that divides Dubai ends here, Ras al Khor, a wetland reserve inside Dubai City


Anu at Dubai Festival City, before the pregnancy


Dubai Festival City

A Trip Back to India

The Barak River, Fulertal, Cachar District, Assam

Yeah, and that’s what happened for the major part of August, a return to the idyllic Barak Valley of Assam. Assam is steamy hot and humid this time; not as much rain this monsoon as compared to past years. The power supply as usual is erratic – ideal conditions for a steam bath and mosquito fest. This is where hand fans are still absolutely essential. Without places like these, the hand fans would have been extinct, confined to shelves in a museum. The local hand fans are of a rotating type – can’t really describe it – it’s something like a circular shaped flag with a sleeve on the handle, usually made with bamboo. You hold on to the sleeve and twirl it around, fanning service for the entire group of people sitting around you, cool huh?

Monsoon or not, Assam is completely green (as opposed to Dubai), with throngs of people and buffaloes planting rice in the paddy fields (it’s the paddy planting season). Come to think of it, Assam is always green whatever season it is.

Anyway, this time round we bought a house (or more like started the process to buy a house), in Silchar, the biggest city in that area. Silchar is difficult to describe in the short time I allocate myself to complete this blog entry. Let’s say that it is the antithesis of Dubai, if you know what I mean. The house is a somewhat worn-out medium sized Assam-type house (house built with timber and zinc sheets for a roof, I’m a sucker for rustic looks ok?). It has a small lawn in front (which is one of the reasons why I liked the house compared to so many others we’ve seen before). I don’t like the hugh monstrous concrete structures favoured by many of the locals there (land is limited, so they try to make full use of whatever land they have and build it high, three to four storeys typically, with no remaining space for a car park) – not a very smart idea for an earthquake prone area, I’d think. There was one night while sleeping, that I felt a small jolt, like somebody shaking my bed. The thing is, I was sleeping on the floor that night!

For the time being, here’re some photographs of the Barak Valley and Fulertal Village, Anu’s home village taken in March last year, when it’s not so hot, and the Barak River is nice. Nope, didn’t take any pictures of Silchar or the new house yet.


The Barak River aka Fulertal's public swimming pool - the one in purple is Anu


Bamboo floating down the Barak, view from a rocky island


Anu and 3 of her sisters, from left Rekha, Manju and Amrita


The kids, our nephews and niece, from left Kunal, Sonia and Raja


The boatman, ahem, just kidding hehe

Dubai Global Village

Dubai Global Village

This is an extremely hurried post. Why? Because today's a Friday, and over here Fridays are the only off-day of the week. This Friday however, happens to be my turn to work, so there you have it. Today is also the last day of the month and I am going home in about 15 minutes time and I have scheduled so many things into the last 30 minutes of time including an update of this blog (actually it just dawned on me about 2 minutes ago... didn't really cross my mind that today's the 31st already, time flies huh?) Anyway, this is Dubai's Global Village, the once in a year Pasar Malam (night market) extravaganza in Dubai that takes place in winter (of course, who'd want to go out in summer??!?)


A man-made canal inside the Global Village


A performance outside the Chinese Pavilion - each country (which participates) has it's own pavilion, with it's own shows & performances - wanna know how the Saudi shows are? Go, see for yourself, but one thing, don't expect any girls OK?