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?

The Emirates Road Project

The Emirates Road with Dubai city in the background

OK, here’s to giving everyone a glimpse of the highway project I’m at everyday.

The Emirates Road is the highway running north-south across the UAE, much like our North-South Highway in Malaysia. Unlike Malaysia, where the current 4-lane highway is being expanded into a 6-lane highway, causing road users to hurl abuses at the Highway authority and whichever Contractor is carrying out the works (due to their tendency to close all but one miserable lane and effectively defeating the purpose of having a bloody highway in the first place, and having the guts to continue extracting ridiculous amounts of toll money from already recession-hit users), Dubai is expanding the Emirates road from an existing 6-lane road (note: not highway) into a hu-friggin-mongous 12-lane super road (note: again not highway) which is absolutely toll-friggin-free. Our Project consists of about 10 km of the said road (not highway) and 3 enormous interchanges with 10 flyover bridges and 2 underpasses. It’ll cost Dubai about a billion dirhams (approx 950 million ringgit) and generates incomes for people like me, and the others working here. Thank you very much Dubai for your foresight in developing your city.


Our office compound (the circular building behind is Dubai's Cricket Stadium, not part of our office)


Group photo of China State Construction, Emirates Road Project team

Dubai Update: Plodding On

View from our villa’s roof top in Al-Barsha 3

A short mid 2009 update on life here. Dubai is boiling hot. A usual thing every summer, but I hear this year’s hotter. So much so that washing dishes after lunch at home has become a hazard, to your hands (ya, the water is steaming hot).

I am growing up extremely fast now, 6 more months to being a father, 6 more months to doubling my responsibilities. Anu’s tummy is beginning to show the bump, her usual clothes don’t fit anymore, and I’m starting to notice pregnant women around, there’re actually lots of them in Dubai, …or they may just be fat (ok, I mistook one friend of my friend).

My attention (on women around) has been switching from being exclusively on pretty and sexy, to a broader pregnant and fat selection (in addition to the pretty-sexy types of course, can’t live without ‘em). And I never noticed (until now) that there’re actually a lot of special clothes here in the departmental stores for pregnant women. (But there’re not cheap). And the stores for kids… don’t even want to think about it for the time being. Looks like shopping just grew ten-fold.

Work-wise, nothing has changed, same Quality-related position, but getting to like the Quality role now. Sort of like being a critic, we can give our comments, give our ratings, behave like an expert and not needing to take care of the shit ourselves, not bad a job huh?

Anyway, very busy, time to get back to work. Until the next update, here’re some photos of our current home (the 3rd in Dubai, the umpteenth since getting married, lost count after the seventh).


Our ‘villa’ in Al-Barsha 3, Dubai – it has 3 humongous apartment-type rooms, 4 normal type bedrooms (all with attached bathrooms), a dining room, a laundry room and 2 enormous halls in the main building; and a kitchen, 2 servant’s rooms, 2 shared toilets and a laundry room in an annexe building. It also has a small swimming pool (that’s not working, and filled with sand & slimy water) and lots of space for parking your limousines, Hummers and Ferraris.


Views from our villa’s roof top – our neighbourhood mosque


On the extreme left is Burj Al-Arab and the slide-type building on the right is the Mall of the Emirates


Anu in our bedroom


Anu pretending to wear a burka ala Dubai


The Mall of the Emirates (about 40 minutes by foot from the villa), that bizarre looking slide-thing contains Ski Dubai, the artificial ski-slope-in-a-mall.

A Desert Oasis Town

I’ve always imagined an oasis to be some sort of a lake or pond with a few palm trees flanking it surrounded by acres and acres of barren sandy desert. This apparently ain’t so. Not here in the UAE anyway.

Here’re pictures of Al-Ain a typical oasis town in this part of the world (I presume). It’s a part of the emirate of Abu Dhabi and is about an hour’s drive inland from here in Dubai. It sits just across the border with the Buraimi oasis of Oman. There're no lakes, no visible water body of any kind as far as I’d seen. But yes, there’re palm trees, date palms to be precise, swaths of it all over town, especially at the location that looks like the middle of an oasis in the map. Went all over the place looking for the oasis, and what do I find, a freaking date palm plantation that looks almost exactly like our oil palm estates.


Al-Ain Palace Museum – see those palm trees at the back just behind the palace wall? That, is the oasis of Al-Ain.


This place used to be a palace for the ruling clan of Abu Dhabi (hence the name Palace Museum)


Anu and a museum / palace guard


The road to Jebel Hafeet, a hill of crumbling rocky outcrops that’s a tourist attraction near Al-Ain. What’s of interest there? Well, it’s a friggin HILL OK? You don’t get no hills for leagues around this place.


Development at the top of Jebel Hafeet – Fancy that, a tower crane?


A restaurant, or more like THE restaurant at the foot of Jebel Hafeet