Across the Alps in One Day

Rain in Ehrwald, Austria, with the Zugspitze, Germany’s highest mountain, in view

This month is a mad month. 15 FRIGGIN TENDERS in 1 month! It’s like not even 2 days per tender (not counting weekends, OK?) So, it’s gonna be picture posts for the time being until work returns to sane levels.

Here’s a continuation of my previous post. As I was saying, we decided to leave Munich after only 1 day, because the brilliant weather forecast website that I relied upon when planning our trip, said that weather in Munich will suck, from Day 1 (which it didn’t). And not only that, it’ll suck for the entire German-speaking area which we planned to visit (Germany, Austria, Switzerland), for the next few days (well, it was still beautifully sunny in Munich when we left). Anyway, I got our rented car, and drove across …the Alps (what else?), in one day, to Italy.

No, it’s not too far away. Europe’s not that big, or is it? Hell, I’ll even take the less travelled route, not the main boring autobahns (expressways) that goes west towards Lake Constance, and cut south through the western edge of Austria. No, I’ll drive south from Munich itself, to Garmisch-Partenkirchen, cross the Bavarian Alps, then cut straight across Austria using the shortest and most direct route, into the Romansh-speaking part of Switzerland (I’ve seen the French, German and Italian parts of Switzerland in 1994, but never the Romansh part, …always wanted to see how this part looks like, not to mention the allure of St Moritz, even if just in passing, hehe). And there we were, in quiet country, with rain and cloudy weather, even in friggin Italy, and arrived in Lugano, Switzerland (where we had planned to spend the night), 5 minutes before midnight. Lugano is inside Switzerland. We effectively crossed 4 borders that day, Germany to Austria, Austria to Switzerland, Switzerland to Italy, and Italy back to Switzerland, in 1 day. (Imagine the face of Anu, who had to tend to the 2 kids while yours truly do the driving. …Well, how would I know that the roads in the Lakes Area in Italy would be so narrow, and that it’d rain non-stop??)

And here are the pictures, till another freer time.


Gloomy weather in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Bavaria, Germany


Justin, Papa & our trusty rented Opel Zafira, at Garmisch-Partenkirchen


Rainy in Ehrwald, North Tyrol, Austria


In Switzerland, right after the Austrian-Swiss Border – the hills in view are in Austria


The Village of Ramosch, Grisons, Switzerland




The road less travelled, between Ramosch and Scuol, Grisons, Switzerland


Bridge to Tarasp, Grisons, Switzerland


The Grand Hotel des Bains, St Moritz, Grisons (or Graubünden, or Grigioni, or Grischun). In Switzerland, everything has 4 names. There’re 4 official languages, and so 4 versions of many of the place names. The canton that St Moritz is in, is called Grisons in French, Graubünden in German, Grigioni in Italian, and Grischun in Romansh

And that’s all folks, for the day. …As it then became too dark to take anymore photos. It became completely dark after the Maloja Pass. So from there on, and the entire part of Italy from Chiavenna, to Menaggio (beside the famous Lake Como), and then into Lugano, was driven in the dark, in drizzling rain, almost the entire way.


OK, here’s a photo of Lugano from the next day – with the weather still cloudy, and greyish – and the weather forecast said that Italy / Southern Switzerland would be sunny!?! No, I don’t trust European weather forecasts anymore.

Thinking back, it seems like quite a good idea now, that we've decided not to go anywhere this summer, ...especially with the spate of terrorist attacks in Europe, and the plane accident in Dubai. Scary.

If All Summers Were Like This…

Yeah, if only. Unfortunately for us, we’re gonna be stuck, baking in Dubai, for this entire summer. So here’s something from our holidays last year – a hot summer’s day in Europe, the day we arrived in Munich, Germany from Dubai.


Kids frolicking in the fountain at Frauenplatz, Munich, Germany


Street café, Frauenplatz – no, I’m not posting pictures of Munich’s famous twin tower church, Frauenkirche which overlooks this square. What, with all that scaffolding covering one of the towers?!?


The fountain at Karlsplatz, Munich


The Neues Rathaus (New City Hall) at Munich’s main square, Marienplatz – the green balconies in the middle of the tower is the famous Glockenspiel, something like a musical clock with animated figurines that played at certain hours – no, didn’t watch it, don’t even know when it’ll play…


Café inside the Neues Rathaus, München




Views of Marienplatz, Munich, Bavaria, Germany

Munich (or München in German) is quite a nice city. I remember it from my backpacking trip in 1994 in my student days. (It was like my second favourite city of our 1 month long Europe trip then, after Prague). And I remember how spell-bound I was with Neuschwanstein Castle in nearby Füssen. So, here I come again, Bavaria, with the wife and kids in tow this time.

I was pretty sure it’d be nice, IF …the darn European weather was kind to us. No, don’t get me wrong. The day we arrived in Munich, the weather was beautiful. It was hot and sunny, and our hotel room which was right on the top floor, had no air-con, nor fans (air-cons and fans don’t exist in this part of Europe, they’re for the people in the tropics, OK?) The hotel manager said that Munich gets only about a week of hot summer weather in a year, (…maybe she hadn’t heard of global warming), and asked us to open the windows to sleep. (Imagine going to Germany to experience Malaysia!)

So there we were, in the room with this amazing window. After twisting and turning it a bit, we managed to open it, …one corner of it anyway (and I thought I friggin broke it! What lousy windows they make in Europe I was wondering then, and I thought the Germans were technologically superior… This one must be made in China). One corner was better than nothing anyway, and we slept in our sweat, listening to a group of drunk boys outside, in the park beside our hotel, challenging each other to fights, in English of various European accents, till the friggin sun rose! I made sure we closed the window nicely before leaving the room (hell, made in China or not, this is Germany, …how much do you think they’d charge us if they found out that we’d broken their lousy window??) I found out not too long after that (in another hotel) that windows like these are the norm in Europe (the German parts which we visited anyway), and they’re not friggin broken. They’re made to open horizontally, like a door, and also if you choose, to open vertically, like an air vent - what a marvel! Don’t remember coming across these in 1994! (They’re called Tilt & Turn Windows by the way). …This brush with technology early in our trip was a blessing looking back, because all the other places we visited later had the same window or glass balcony door design like this, and by then it was a piece of cake for yours truly, ahem.

We left Munich after one day. Why? Because when I planned the hotel bookings, the weather forecast said that Germany and the entire friggin area around this part of the world would be blanketed with clouds and thunderstorms. That was to include the first day of our arrival in Munich, which turned out to be quite the opposite. The last day of our trip which we would also be spending in Munich, was forecasted to be beautiful, and it turned out to be a brilliant day, of heavy rain and clouds! See what we did then here.

Anyway, we spent about 5 days of our trip in Germany and we had ONE beautiful hot summer’s day, and FOUR miserable wet and gloomy days! So, thank you very much, oh great weather of Europe, for making our trip such a memorable affair. I officially hate you now. I hope you’ll be better the next time we visit… Can’t wait for that to happen actually.

Here’re more photos of Munich till that happens.


Munich International Airport


A street musician playing a beautiful tune on a cimbalom (I googled it, OK? Thought it was a harpsichord, but harpsichords have keyboards, this one doesn’t)


The streets of Munich – Sendlinger Strasse (Street)


Anu at the Sendlinger Tor, Munich


Asamkirche (Asam Church) – no it’s got nothing to do with the Assam State of India, Asam is actually the family name of the owners / builders of this private church. It’s small, but the details are simply astounding


The exterior of the Asamkirche, on Sendlinger Street


The Neues Rathaus at dusk, with the Frauenkirche (the twin-towered church) in the background, Munich


The Hofbräuhaus – How can a visit to Munich not include a beer hall? The Hofbräuhaus is I think, the most famous of the lot, but nope, we didn’t try the beer here (too darn crowded). We skipped over to the place below to try out Bavaria’s famous beer and pork knuckle, hehe


Pork knuckle (Schweinshaxn) at Haxnbauer, Munich – eating with the kids was near impossible. First, there was the jet lag, and Justin and Jayden were both sleepy. Second, the place was crowded and service wasn’t what you’d get in Asia (this is Europe, OK? Live with it). Third, the place was stifling hot and stuffy – these Germans, despite being so technologically advanced, dunno nuts about the trusty air-con and the humble fan. Pity them. And us. Gotta take turns carrying the little one, so that we could eat. And Justin ended up eating only a few mouthfuls before he fell sound asleep in the noisy, stuffy restaurant. Well done, Justin!

And here’re more pork knuckle adventures in Munich, if you’ve not had enough.

Friends in the Past, Dubai

Hmm… still reminiscing about the past, and about friends long unseen, so here’s more of the people in our lives back when Justin was a wee baby, and before. Another tribute to the people in our lives.


Manjeet, wife of my Malaysian work colleague Ajit, and their 3 children, plus Aunt Helen and little new born Justin. Manjeet used to visit us and give little Justin baby massages, Indian-style. Wanna see how their youngest daughter Ravneet, has changed thru the years? Check out this post


Manjeet and Ajit, at the Mercato Mall, Dubai


Connie, wife of Bill Wong, another of my Malaysian colleague. Connie was a god-sent during the first month after Justin’s birth. She visited almost daily, gave us herbs and ginger wine, made Chinese herbal tea for Anu, helped prepare confinement meals and generally helped Aunt Helen out. What? You think Auntie Helen could do so much by herself, after err izit…10+ years of not looking after new born babies and their moms?!? Connie even called up her own mom in Malaysia for advice on confinement practices! What a friend!


Helen and Connie, at the Carrefour Hypermarket, Mall of the Emirates, Dubai

More work colleagues…


Ramasamy Kailasan, another Malaysian colleague in Dubai, at Dubai Festival City, 2008


With Indian colleague, Navab and Chinese colleague, Han Guang, at the Grand Hyatt Hotel, Dubai during our Company’s Annual Dinner in 2010 – Notice the mark that bloody shingles left on my forehead? Just recovered from it.


With Pakistani colleague and friend, Rana Sharafat Ali, who would occasionally call me up just to find out how I was, even when I was working in India!


Anu with some Chinese colleagues at the Al Mamzar Beach Park, 2008 – Hu Yiming is the one on the right, and umm… I forgot the one on the left, sorry


Project Manager aka Boss aka Papaji, Donald Wong, the maverick Malaysian Senior Project Manager of the project I was working in Dubai (…but I think this photo was from an earlier time, during our short working stint together in Bharatpur, Rajasthan, India, 2007)


Livia (left), Ching (middle) and Anu at the Creek, Bur Dubai, on a really dusty day, 2008 – Livia and Ching were my Malaysian colleagues in Mumbai in 2007

Mosque of the Indian Captain

Masjid Kapitan Keling, Penang, Malaysia

Here’s a short post for Raya. Wishing all my Muslim friends a Happy Aidilfitri! Selamat Hari Raya! Eid Mubarak!

Unlike Malaysia, here in the UAE, we’re still waiting for the experts to try to see the moon tonight to decide whether Eid Al-Fitr will be tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. Our company has already, in advance, decided it’ll be on Wed, 6 July, and if it falls tomorrow, …well hard luck company, we get an extra day off! Don’t blame us, blame the moon!

OK, I’m gonna put some photos of a mosque here to match my Raya posting. Here’s the Masjid Kapitan Keling, of Penang. In English, it’ll literally be the Mosque of the Indian Captain, since Kapitan means Captain, and Malaysians have been calling Indians ‘Keling’ for ages. I think it’s from the ancient name of India, Kalinga. Malaya (or Malacca) used to be a bustling maritime trade centre in the past due to it being located halfway between China and India, and used to have people from India, China, Arabia, etc stopping by for trading. The Indian leaders were called Kapitan Keling, while the Chinese leaders were known as Kapitan Cina.


Another view of the Masjid Kapitan Keling, Penang


OK, here’s a nicer photo of the mosque taken from the web (this marks a first for me, first time I’ve ‘borrowed’ a photo from the internet) – compliments of virginmojito.wordpress.com. I hope the photographer doesn’t mind

Our Circle of Friends 2015

Chinese Hotpot Lunch in Dubai (JBR) with Malaysian friends Kok Wah, Kathy and their family. Kok Wah and Kathy were my UK university mates in 1995. Kok Wah was also working in Dubai during my first stint here, in 2008 – 2010. They came for a short family tour of Dubai! …And I thought the UAE isn’t really on the tourist list of Malaysians, what do I know?!

People are important in our lives. When I first started blogging, I seldom blogged about people, seldom posted pictures of people. The posts then were mostly about the places I visited, and about the strange and interesting things I saw.

As time progressed, I realized that, ‘Hey, things actually last a lot longer than people!’ (…Except when ISIS is involved. With ISIS, nothing lasts, not buildings, not people). The people in your life changes, you move away, they move away, they go to the world beyond, etc and we don’t get to see them ever again. So I started capturing the photos of the people in our lives. Or at least I tried to. (It can be awkward, OK? ...How do you go from say, discussing politics, to suddenly ask, ‘hey, can I take a photo?’ Won’t the person you’re talking to think you’re some kind of a pervert, or something?? Maybe they’d understand if you’re a selfie-junkie, but I’m not! And besides, when you’re busy catching up with friends or family, would you like think of pulling out the friggin camera or phone?) Luckily, there’s Facebook, and social media nowadays, or we’d probably not have known where many of our past school friends have gone!

Anyway, here’re some moments we had with friends and acquaintances in Dubai in 2015. We don’t really have friends here in Dubai. Heck, we don’t really have friends anymore period. Somehow or other, our friends evaporated (or it’s more like WE evaporated from the friend scene after having our own family!) Now, our whole time is dedicated to our lovely family, not that I have any complaints with that. Worse, I’m actually happy! But I have to admit, once in a while, some friend comes along and makes the world such a nice place to be in. What’s life without the special people in it? And therefore, here’s a toast to the people in our lives in 2015! (The ones I managed to photograph, anyway.) And 2016? Oh, that’d have to wait, …till 2017 I guess. I’ve not sorted out the friggin photos, OK?

Our friends nowadays seem to revolve around our kids’ activities, school functions, birthday parties, etc. Yup, that’s life, I guess, after you start a family, especially if you’re friggin working overseas, by yourself…


Justin’s kindergarten (FS2) classmate Miriam with her parents, on her 5th birthday, at Uptown Mirdif Park. Talk about a small world – Miriam’s father turned out to be the owner of the apartment we finally bought, after looking at err… ten, maybe more apartments. The strange thing is that I found out only when we started chatting at the land office, while waiting to sign the transfer of ownership papers! And this was after we met at Miriam’s birthday party. No wonder I found him to be kinda familiar looking! Miriam’s father is Iranian with a Person of Indian Origin card, while her mother is Kenyan, of Yemeni Arab descent. Miriam's Kenyan. That’s what you call the Dubai-mix.


The kids at Miriam’s birthday party – there’re a few Justin’s classmates here, but I only know Pyper (the little blond girl on the left in the Eiffel Tower T-shirt, she's American), Sunichi (the little boy in green beside Justin, then Justin’s best friend, he's Japanese) and Nidhi (I think! …the little girl in black on the extreme right, from India)


Lamiha’s birthday party, another of Justin’s kindergarten classmate, who is British of Pakistani or Indian descent, at Mirdif City Centre


Justin’s FS2 (kindergarten) End of Year Concert at the Royal Dubai School


A farewell to Amy (left), Justin’s kindergarten school mate, and daughter of Dong Weihong my work colleague. She was to continue her studies in China, staying with her grandparents, while her parents would stay put in Dubai. The girl on the right is Mifi, daughter of another of my work colleagues, Song Lichun. She’s now also going to the same school as Justin, and taking the same school bus. She’s one year Justin’s junior


Halloween Party at Emma’s house – Emma (little girl in the middle) is Justin’s Year 1 classmate. She’s also of mixed descent, father’s Scottish (or is it English??) and mother’s Lebanese. Unfortunately, this is the only close-to-decent photo I have of the party …hey, you think it’s easy to take photos of constantly moving 5 year olds with a compact camera??! The little devil on the right is Varshana, Justin’s fellow Malaysian classmate, while Justin’s the scary spectre on the left.


Justin and Emma on UAE’s National Day celebrations 2015 at his school – photo compliments of Justin’s school class blog


Justin’s Year 1 Teacher, Ms Vanessa Gray, dressed as a Victorian school marm, in line with the Now & Then Topic that was being taught at that time – another photo taken from Justin’s school class blog


Justin and Juju (I think), his classmate from the UAE, at the start of Year 1, compliments of the school class blog


Aria’s birthday party, one of Justin’s Year 1 classmate, from India


Justin and Leah, an Ethiopian classmate at Magic Planet, Mirdif City Centre


Celebrating Justin’s 6th birthday at home with our Chinese friends / colleagues. From left, Dong Weihong, Li Lei (Dong Weihong’s wife), Jia Weimin’s wife (honestly, I dunno her name!), and their son, who is about 4 months older than Jayden


The Pink Sikhs – our neighbour for a month. Our next door apartment is something like a holiday apartment. The husband who has been working in Dubai for err… more than 10 years finally decided to bring his wife over from India for a one month visit. The wife, being lonely started talking with Anu, and that’s how we ended up with this photo


Finally, church friends – a photo with a Filipino family. Their younger daughter is about the same age as Jayden, she’s a few months younger, I think