The Road to Hell

You’ve seen the Road to Paradise (my last post). Here’s the Road to Hell, for contrast.


The road across the Karakum Desert, Turkmenistan

This post is about a trip we took recently (Dec 2023), across the Karakum Desert of Turkmenistan in Central Asia, from Turkmenistan’s northern border with Uzbekistan to the Darvaza Gas Crater (aka the Gates of Hell) in the centre of Turkmenistan. The Darvaza Gas Crater (also spelt Derweze) is a continuously burning gas crater. I’ll let the photos speak.

We started our journey at Dashoguz city, near the border of Uzbekistan.


Dashoguz (also spelt Daşoguz) capital of a region with its namesake, i.e. Dashoguz Region of Turkmenistan

Turkmenistan is a strange country. People call it the North Korea of Central Asia, (I heard this from a Turkmen himself, in Dubai, and he’s not wrong). No one can enter Turkmenistan without a visa, and you can only get that with a Letter of Invitation issued by the Turkmen government*. The easiest (and I suspect, the only) way to get that is thru an authorised Turkmen travel agency (like Owadan Tourism, which we used). Media in the country is strictly controlled. And no, there is no social media!!! No WhatsApp, no WeChat, no Telegram, no Facebook, nothing, (except IMO, …shhhh), at the time of our visit. And if you think you wanna bypass that with a VPN, hard luck! Turkmenistan is well-known for shutting down VPN’s the moment they find out about them, like swatting flies in a clean room. Hell, Turkmenistan has one of the worst internets in the world! (Just Google ‘worst internet in the world’ and you’ll see Turkmenistan hovering at the top, or at the bottom depending on how they’re sorted). Of the 2 days that we were there, we had no internet or Wi-Fi connection whatsoever. (But our Uzbek SIM card works at some areas near the Uzbek border, hehe). The country’s leaders have their own eccentricities, especially its first president after independence, like renaming the names of the months and days to names associated with the leader’s family or things of interest, and requiring all and sundry to read and memorize his book, to pass school and university exams. Stuff like that, OK? Interesting, isn’t it? Anyway, this is not a post about the quirkiness of Turkmenistan. Go Google Saparmurat Niyazov if you wanna find out more.

* Some people claimed that you can get a transit visa, if you are entering and exiting Turkmenistan from one country to another country. No, I didn’t try that. Enter from Uzbekistan and exit to where? Afghanistan? Iran?

Anyway, after crossing the Uzbek border at Shavat into Turkmenistan, and spending an hour and more in Turkmenistan Immigration with our travel agency’s representative, we got our visa! Yippee! A visa costs a whopping 110 USD for adults, and USD 85 (or was it 90) for kids. (And they will accept ONLY US Dollars). (What? The costs include a mandatory test for COVID-19, OK?) Yeah, COVID tests are still around in DECEMBER 2023! Maybe, that’s why Turkmenistan is the only country in the world (excluding some small Pacific island nations) that officially had no confirmed cases of COVID-19 during the pandemic! Unbelievable, isn’t it? Well, that’s Turkmenistan for you!

Anyway, first stop, lunch, because after that, there’d be a 5-hour journey across the Karakum Desert to the Darvaza Gas Crater aka The Gates of Hell, and we wanna get there before sunset.


Lunch at Baytown Restaurant, Dashoguz with the very helpful Ms Aygul from Owadan Tourism

One tip for money in Turkmenistan. Don’t bother trying to get Manats (the local currency) from outside (except maybe from the Uzbek border crossing at Shavat). They’re not available as they aren’t convertible. And the official rate is a sham. Officially, it’s 1 USD to 3.50 Manats, but the going rate inside Turkmenistan is actually 1 USD to 15 Manats. Change it in the country. Ask your travel agent if you really need some.


Off we go. A wave off from the President of Turkmenistan, His Excellency Mr Serdar Berdimuhamedow. Good day sir! You have a nice and ‘interesting’ country


Leaving Dashoguz and civilization. Clear road ahead… (there’re not many cars on the road even though this is the main road that connects Dashoguz to Turkmenistan’s capital, Ashgabat. Is there a catch?)


A stop before we head into the Karakum Desert. Toilet here, anyone? Or bush toilet further onwards! (Bush toilet ain’t such a bad idea after looking at the conditions of the toilets, ahem)


Fancy a pishme?


Welcome to the Karakum Desert. Karakum means ‘black sand’. This desert is a cold desert (and believe me, it was freezing when we were there), that takes up 70% of Turkmenistan’s land area! The road, as you can see, is full of cracks and potholes, to add some excitement and body massage to your journey. (Maybe that’s why there’s not much traffic…)


Baa baa black goats, have you any wool? I wonder where the shepherds are. I’ve not seen a single human (except for drivers and a few policemen) or settlement (except 2 tea shops) in the whole 3-hour journey across the Karakum!


A woolly one-humped camel in the desert (and I thought only 2-humped Bactrian camels had wool)


Getting off the main road to get to the Gates of Hell


Finally, the Darvaza Gas Crater, nicknamed the Door to Hell or the Gates of Hell! It is a gas crater that has been continuously burning since 1971, when some Soviet engineers decided to set fire to the crater to prevent the possible emission of poisonous gases from the crater. It has been burning ever since…


The freezing Karakum Desert from the top of a hillock near the gas crater


Cool crater, looks just nice for burning rubbish, from the top of this hill. If only it could heat up this hill, brrrrrrr… (I’ll leave more photos of this interesting hole for another post)

That’s all for now.

The Road to Paradise

The Road to Paradise, Glenorchy, New Zealand

Here’s a quick holiday picture post to keep the blog going. I’ve meant to write this post a year ago, when my dad and Auckland sis’s family finally visited Queenstown in the South Island of New Zealand last January. They went looking for scenes of Middle Earth (from the Lord of the Rings movie which was filmed in NZ), as well as the well-known attractions around. Here is our own journey to this part of ‘Middle Earth’ in December 2018.

I had no idea where the Lord of the Ring's Isengard or Lothlorien's location was. It wasn’t marked on Google Maps at that time (I think), or I just hadn’t researched enough, before flying over to Queenstown and renting a campervan. I just knew that some of the LOTR scenes were shot in the Glenorchy area at the northern end of Lake Wakatipu where Queenstown was. I noticed a place named Paradise to the north of Glenorchy. That’s it! What better place to go, than Paradise??? The scenery there must be beautiful, judging from the name. (I bet you, the first residents to Greenland were conned just like that). We were also incidentally looking for a camping spot for our campervan, and Glenorchy has one (didn’t fancy staying inside Queenstown. …What? Hire a campervan, and stay inside a town? What the heck?!?)

This post is actually a continuation of our 2018 campervan adventure in NZ's South Island. We had visited Milford Sound and the Fiordland National Park, and had put up a night at Mossburn on our return trip to Queenstown. (Click on the links, if you wanna see what we were up). Here’re the pictures of our journey from Mossburn back to Queenstown and onwards. Paradise, here we come!


We’re back on the shores of Lake Wakatipu! Ahead is the Devil’s Staircase Lookout Point. (Don’t ask me why it’s called the Devil’s Staircase, I didn’t see any signs of any staircases. Maybe it refers to the road)


The Devil’s Staircase (that’s what it says on Google Maps), Lake Wakatipu, Queenstown, NZ


The shores of Lake Wakatipu! Is this Isengard? Beats me. I don’t think so. Isengard is a friggin tower on a flat land, surrounded by mountains, not in a lake. (And I bet you, it’s a CGI tower). But what the heck, the views here are fantastic, better than any Isen-friggin-gard


Lake Wakatipu, on the Queenstown-Glenorchy Road, just north of Creighton (thanks Google Maps)


Approaching Glenorchy, just next to Glenorchy’s Airport. (What? Glenorchy has an airport??? That’s what is sez on Google Maps. I think it’s a small one, probably for crop dusters and small planes…)


Shite, the road to Paradise sure is bumpy. It ain’t a tarred road. Let’s go a few more kilometres on this and if we don’t see anything, we’d turn back, OK? Don’t wanna shake all the nuts and bolts out of the rented campervan! The photo showed the limit of where we went, before we turned back towards Glenorchy. It’s near Earnslaw village on the Glenorchy-Paradise Road. Studying Google Maps now, showed that the mountain in the photo above, is Mount Earnslaw, and those forests at the foot was where Lothlorien was filmed. Heck, they have the location marked on Google Maps now. I’m sure it wasn’t there in 2018. A few more kilometres, and we would have been in Lothlorien and after that, Paradise. But what the heck, it’ll just be a forest, wouldn’t it? Besides, we had to get back to town to look for a camping spot


Glenorchy! Mrs Wooley’s General Store


Mrs Wooley’s Campground. Heck, the campground’s full! (The problem with travelling in December in NZ, is that it’s peak season and everything is either full, or amazingly overpriced, especially if you’ve not booked in advance). It was a near last-minute trip for us, because we weren’t sure that we could get an NZ visa for Anu in the first place. (Yup, it was my fault 😔.) The visa came on the very day of our flight from Dubai to Auckland!! Thank God!


Leaving Glenorchy, and heading back to Queenstown. The location of this photo is near a place marked on Google Maps as 'Little Middle Earth', a landscape designer office…


No luck in Queenstown, let’s head to Arrowtown. There’s a campground there too, but the app (or was it a website) that we used to check camping grounds (maybe CamperMate? or Rankers? I forgot) says that’s full. No harm driving there and checking it out. Shite, full as well. They said we could freedom camp on the Crown Range Summit. (Freedom camping is when you camp on public land that isn’t a recognised camping ground or holiday park). We had no choice, let’s do that. The view in the photo above is from the Arrow Junction Lookout Point on our way to the Crown Range Summit


Whew, made it! Crown Range Summit car park, our camping spot for the night. Brrr, it’s cold and windy (it’s a summit, what d’ya expect? ...But it's Summer!)


Time to try out the campervan’s cooking equipment! And the portable toilet. Etc, etc, etc. We’ve so far been spending nights in paid campgrounds or holiday parks which are equipped with shared kitchens, bathrooms and laundrettes. So, we haven’t really got a chance to try out all the things in the campervan. Hey, it has a fridge, wash basin, stove, etc, everything we need (except a shower). Cool! “But kids, don’t waste water, OK?” “Gotta fill it up with fresh water the next time we get to a filling station, and gotta empty the waste tanks” (All the paid campgrounds have this I think, or you could go to a dump station, which is a place where you throw your waste water away). In campervan terminology, waste water is called grey water. And sewage is black water! And no, you can’t throw this anywhere you like. Only in approved dump stations! Or you’d get a big fine and banned from camping for eternity (I made that up. I don’t actually know)


We survived the night!! View from the Crown Range Summit car park, of Lake Wakatipu and Queenstown below


Bye-bye “Weathertop Hill”. Weathertop is a hill in the Lord of the Rings story and movie, but the Crown Range Summit isn't the location where they filmed it. The name just got stuck in my head because of the blustery weather at that place. See ya in Wanaka (where we were headed to next)!

Justin’s First Year Abroad

Justin turned 14 in Dec last year!

Here’s a recap of Justin’s 14th year. This was his first year away from home. He’s now back in Singapore to continue his studies. All the best Justin. Stay focused, be diligent and use your time wisely. You’ll see your effort pay off.


Justin in his Singapore hostel, with his roommates. A rare photo extracted from his phone. He’s not much of a self-photo taker. He’s the antithesis of the people of this selfie age… The boy in front is Garren, Justin's fellow Sec 1 scholar from Malaysia


Justin’s back!! Mid-year school break. In Abu Dhabi’s old airport, Jun 2023




A theme park treat for Justin – Justin at Yas Waterworld, Abu Dhabi. It’s summer, but what the heck! There’ll be less of a crowd, especially if we go on a week day




Another theme park! Ferrari World Abu Dhabi! This is the first time we’ve been there, although we’ve been in the UAE for more than 10 years! (Yas Island Abu Dhabi has offers for combining your theme park tickets. There are 4 theme parks in Yas Island. The more theme park tickets you buy, the cheaper per theme park. But they’re still quite costly). Justin loves speed. If given a chance, he’d be into racing and skiing and all those crazy, dangerous sports… Not for the faint-hearted. (Luckily, he still has less access to these crazy activities, or we’d be worried sick…)


Meeting his Dubai friends! Sean (left) and Yiro (middle). At the ice-skating rink in Sport Society, Mirdif, Dubai


At the Mall of the Emirates, after a movie. I forgot which it was. Wait, it was the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.3. Great movie, by the way!


Guess who he’s pretending to be? …Caine from John Wick 4. Senseless, violent movie. Luckily, we watched it only on video


Time to go back to school. A family photo at the Abu Dhabi Airport, prior to his departure for Singapore, June 2023


School’s finished. End of the year holidays. Spending some time with his grandad in Malaysia, Oct 2023 (photo compliments of his Jikor thru WhatsApp)


Justin’s back in Dubai! Just in time for Diwali! Nov 2023


Our UAE National Day & Justin’s birthday outing – Jebel Jais, Ras Al-Khaimah. The boys at Wadi Bih, at the foot of Jebel Jais, Ras Al-Khaimah, our first overnight camping trip with Justin since he started school in Singapore. Camping up on Jebel Jais is crazy. It’s a jam-packed tent city with cars all over the hill, people coming and going throughout the night, floodlights and speakers blaring music. Not our idea of a night out in the wilderness. We’ve done it before and swore not to do it again, so we did the correct thing this time, camped at the foot of the hill, where there’s less people and cars. Bliss


Up on Jebel Jais in the morning. Here’re the kids, just after a ride on the Jais Sledder


Here’s a birthday treat for Justin’s 14th birthday – go-karting at Ras Al-Khaimah. We have a go-kart track near our apartment, no, TWO go-kart tracks actually (it’s not called Motor City for nothing, OK?), but they’re twice the cost of the one in Ras Al-Khaimah, Dec 2023

Justin, remember, a little bit of struggle is no big deal when you’re growing up. It is part of life, and it will produce results. Work hard, play hard, pray hard, stay happy, stay safe, be kind to everyone, help people when you can and always think of us. Love you.

Attack of the Killer Snot

Happy New Year. First post of 2024. Back to school and back to work.

Not really. School’s definitely back. Justin’s back in Singapore, and Jayden’s back to his usual routine, but the adults in the family have been taking turns to fall sick, right from New Year’s Day! From stupid infected snot.

The story started on New Year’s Day. Everything was normal on New Year’s Eve. We had a fabulous night out, counting down and watching the spectacular fireworks at the Dubai Festival City Mall. We slept in the wee hours on New Year’s Day. And then Anu woke up shivering with a fever! Most clinics were closed for the day but we found one that was opened in an adjacent neighbourhood. And so, we spent New Year’s Day in a clinic getting injections and loads of drugs! Anu believes that the things you do on the first day of the year, will set the tone for how the rest of your year will be. And so, on each New Year’s Day, we’d bathe in the morning. She’d do her ‘puja’. We’d dress in nice, new clothes, and head out to find a nice (but affordable) restaurant to have brunch, usually seafood, ahem. And so on and so forth. And from what happened, that just went down the drain in 2024. I hope 2024 isn’t gonna be a year of sickness, doctors, injections and drugs.

Anyway, after a couple of visits, tests and jabs, the doctor found that it was a bacterial infection of the sinuses. She was popping Panadol like candy for 4 straight days, to bring down the high fever (40C+), which would come and go, like the tides of the sea. Finally, after 6 days, she recovered.

And then it was MY turn. Fuck. Mine started on the wee hours of 8-Jan, exactly a week after Anu got hers. Woke up in the middle of the sleep shivering and feverish. Saw the doc later in the day and got about the same diagnosis. But this time, the clinics and everything were back at work, and so I had a lot more ‘feedback’ – swabs, blood tests, x-rays, what-have-you… My infection was more serious, and the x-ray showed that my left sinus was entirely filled with God-knows-what sort of bacteria-infested snot. Yechh! I was immediately put on some drip-type antibiotic and referred to an ENT. The doctor said that the infection could spread! (What do you mean spread? Where? Like snot oozing out of my eyes, ears and skin, like that? Turning me into a walking blob of snot? And if it was ‘radioactive’, a supervillain? The Snot-Thing?! …But who would be in control? The snot, or me? Would I end up as a host, to a symbiote?!?)

It took me 4 visits to the clinic and 6 days to recover! And then Anu started to have a swell and tenderness on her nose bridge. It obstructed her nasal air passage and made her nose, face and forehead sore. Here we go again, to the doctors, sigh! And the story continues…

I still have hopes that 2024 will be a fabulous year. Let all the wars out there STOP and let people forgive one another and make peace again. Let 2024 be a year where goodwill and peace prevail over animosity and wars.

Meanwhile, since we have a sickness-laden year so far, I’m putting some photos of the pandemic times… for memory. (I’d have put photos of the fireworks at Dubai Festival City, if I’d had them downloaded, but… nope, it’s not done. So, that’ll have to wait). Happy New Year People!


March 2020! Lockdown! No bother. We could paint, learn some music, do some computer programming. Heck! We could even camp in the balcony!


The kids' Ama (aunt) was with us in the lockdown year. Motor City Uptown, Dubai


And so was their cousin Kunal, Motor City Uptown


Finally, some relaxation, an outing at Atlantis Palm Jumeirah, before Ama and Kunal goes back to India


Shopping in Year 2020 – with mask, and social distancing – at the Dubai Garden Centre, Sheikh Zayed Road, Dubai




Cityland Mall, next to Global Village, Dubai – with hardly any people


Look, no waiters, only robots. Less human, less diseases??? Dubai Festival City


Remember this? The rise of Deliveroo! (Talabat, etc). All waiting, to get their delivery orders - at Me'aisem City Centre, IMPZ, Dubai. Hey, masks on and 1m apart (as if 1m can deter COVID-19!!!)


Duh, where’s the social distancing? It’s Nov 2020, people are getting tired… Mirdif City Centre, Dubai


Let’s chill outside and watch a movie, Mirdif City Centre


A rare playdate with Aria and Vivah at Al Barari’s playground, Jul 2021. (Didn’t manage to get any photos of Aria and Vivah’s family)


Dinner after the playdate, at Dubai Silicon Oasis (at Russo’s New York Pizzeria), but I only have a photo of Jayden, taken by yours truly (ahem), at the lobby of the building. We lost a chunk of photos (circa May – Jul 2021) from Anu’s phone! Beats me! Must have failed to transfer them from the phone to the drive…. That’s why they’re no photos of Russo’s or the Barari playground except the ones I’m putting here


That’s all for now folks. A toast to our health! (Aaargh, when will we fucking recover?) – DragonMart Sun Tour, Jul 2021