Living in a Fine City

OK, here’s a continuation of my earlier post, or something of it…


Some random scenery of Dubai, for decorative purposes – By the Burj Khalifa Lake, with the Address Hotel building in the background, Downtown Dubai

It’s time again to renew my Dubai car insurance and registration (or what we Malaysians call, the Road Tax). For that to happen, you’ll have to clear all the traffic fines you’ve collected in the past year. Yeah, Dubai is pretty efficient when it comes to this. Don’t pay your fines, don’t get your license, simple.

And I’ve collected some decent fines in the past year. 2 for overtaking on the hard shoulder, which the traffic tricked me into. 1 for obstructing traffic, which I strongly disagree. And 1 for lane indiscipline, which I vehemently object, (coz I wasn’t even at the place where it happened!). Nope, I didn’t get any for speeding this year, learnt enough lessons last year for that (i.e. paid enough). Whatever it is, and no matter how strongly I object or disagree with said fines, I’ve decided to shut up, and pay!

The first two fines (overtaking on the hard shoulder – 600 friggin dirhams each!), occurred on 2 straight days in a row, one day after another! F! The road that I usually take to go to work had a roundabout with traffic lights on. Just before the traffic lights, there is a free turning which I usually take. The darned traffic lights at the roundabout sometimes cause the queue of cars to extend beyond the turning, thus blocking off access for those of us who actually need not wait for the traffic lights. Naturally, sane people like me and all my fellow drivers taking that particular turning, will do the smart thing and squeeze out onto the shoulder to bypass maybe 5 cars (OK, sometimes it’s 10 or more) to get to our turning. Dubai Police, being the devious people they are, did the even smarter thing and parked a ‘broken down’ car with heavily tinted glass just outside the shoulder, on the grass verge, not on one day, but on at least 2 straight days. (Luckily the third day was on a weekend, i.e. Friday). Only God knows what’s inside the car, but I bet you now, that it’s got a recording camera to nab all the smart asses like us! I did the trick on a Wednesday. And on a Thursday, and lo and behold, on Friday evening, after a nice time out with the family, I received 2 SMS’es on my mobile phone, one after another saying. ‘A fine was issued on Wednesday… total 1 ticket 600 dhs.’ Next, ‘A fine was issued on Thursday… total 2 tickets 1200 dhs.’ Now that’s what I call cheating. If they’d have given me a fine on the first day itself, I wouldn’t have repeated it on the second day, would I? The week after that, I noticed that none of my fellow sane drivers did the same trick anymore, but after a few weeks, it started again. Nope, I’ve learnt my lesson, I’d rather lose 2 to 3 minutes than fork out 600 bloody dirhams!

The fine for obstructing traffic happened on a weekend, a Saturday morning. (I have alternate Saturdays off). I was fined for parking in what I thought was all along a friggin parking space of our apartment block! A whole lot of people (including yours truly, unfortunately) have parked in that space since time immemorial (since I started staying there anyway). OK, I admit that it is not technically a parking space as there’re no white lines drawn around the space, but it serves no other purposes (especially at night when the space right in front of it, and beside it will be parked with cars). See picture below (our car’s the white car on the right). Unluckily for me, on that particular Saturday, I slept in and had a lazy morning, and all the cars in front and beside mine decided that it was a super fine day to go on a picnic, or something like that, and left, leaving our car the only car to be parked in that blasted area. In comes a grumpy policeman (whose wife must have given him a hard time the night before), looking for a bone to pick, and probably with some ‘fine’ quota to meet, and there right before his eyes, stood our white Hyundai Tucson, ‘obstructing traffic’ …or more like obstructing his view. So there you go, 200 dirhams sucker!



Last but not least – lane discipline. We were having a fun time shopping when I heard the blasted sound of an SMS. SMS’es are scary things in Dubai. That’s how Dubai Police informs you of a fine, you’ve collected, through some mysterious action of yours, which you don’t know of. This particular time I was booked for lane discipline. (Something I’ve been booked before, in 2014, for driving from the fast lane of the highway across 4 lanes to the slow lane, to exit the highway, let’s just say, I lost track of where I was at that time…) But this time, I was nowhere near Emaar Boulevard at the date and time they said I did the offence! So I called Dubai Police, and they directed me to approach the Traffic Department for complaints. Found the correct Police Station after going to 2 other police stations, and talked to the officer there. He asked me to fill out a form, in Arabic, and attach copies of my passport, driving license, etc. I finished that (with the help of a typing centre, of course. What? You think I can write Arabic?). Went back to him, and he, in a very friendly way, advised, that to complain, he’ll have to open a file and book an appointment with the Prosecutor. From there, it’ll be presented to the Judge, and I’ll have to attend hearings in, I think the Dubai Court, or something, and it may not conclude with 1 hearing. It may take 10 hearings, and through all this period that the case remains inconclusive, yours truly will not be able to leave the UAE. And asked me as a matter of fact, to decide whether to proceed with it. Hell, I’d rather cough up that 200 dirhams than go thru all that. So, there you have it, 200 dirhams for just having your damned car number wrongly written by some policeman in his notepad, or for it to be wrongly keyed into Dubai Police’s system!!!

And that’s not all. All fine payments attract an additional 10 dirham as Knowledge Fee. Don’t ask me what that means. It’s probably for knowledge that, no matter how smart you think you are, the Dubai Police will get you!! …Oh wait, I correct myself, it is now 20 dirhams! Since …I dunno when. But I just paid the lane discipline fine online with my credit card, and I now see AED 20 instead, not 10. And it’s for Knowledge / Innovation Fee now! …So very innovative of the government!

Apart from this, the radio keeps telling us about more goodies on the way from Dubai Police, such as fines for tail-gating, additional hidden cameras to be mounted on shoulders for the wise guys trying to overtake from the shoulder, cameras mounted on unmarked Police Cars to nab those who speed in between the fixed speed cameras (yeah, we frequent drivers know where all the cameras are!)

And that’s only on driving. Bus and subway commuters have to contend with fines for sleeping in bus stops, for putting their legs on another seat in the bus, even if the whole bus is empty, for eating or drinking in buses (they have CCTVs inside the buses to nab these people), for running to catch a bus, etc. The list goes on.

Other funny costs that’ll keep you on your toes, and make you work harder to earn more includes a fee for sick leave certificates (yup, you have to pay 60 dirhams, if you fall sick and want to get a sick day off from work), a housing fee at 5% of your average annual rental price of your property (comes in your monthly electricity bill, ours is 187.50 dirhams per month!), etc. And I’ve not even started on the costs of living here. The house rentals are about 10 times the rents in Kuala Lumpur. Fast food is double the price. Schools are just about the most expensive things on earth, 42K per year for kindergarten for 6 year old Justin!!! I don’t really want to imagine how it’ll be when Jayden starts schooling!

Dubai is getting really good at making us, poor salary people, part with our hard earned cash. Heck! I think they’re getting better than Singapore!


A random picture to brighten up my day – Downtown Dubai

Wow, that was a long rant, must have been all the pent up frustration of trying to make ends meet. But hey, don’t get me wrong! Despite all that, I don’t really hate Dubai. In fact, I actually still like being here. No income taxes. Next to no crime (compared to my beloved Malaysia, at present times). The 1000 dirhams Dubai Police gave me as a prize for safe driving. (Surprise? I can be a pretty safe driver, …when I’m not in a hurry!) The amazing ease of sending money back to your home country. A brilliant visionary of a leader in Sheikh Mohammed, I salute him. Top notch education (of course, for that insane amount of money you have to fork out, that’s the least you expect!) The variety of things and facilities available due to Dubai being an international city – you can get just about everything here, every branded (and unbranded) item you can think of, food from all over the world, direct flights to just about everywhere, from 3 international airports around the city, consulates from a host of countries, if you’re in need of a visa. Everything is here. …Now if only I have the money!

More random pictures to decorate my post. Dusk around Dubai –


Dusk at the Dubai Festival City Marina, with the Intercontinental Hotel in the background


Dusk at Tecom, Dubai


Evening at the Palace (Hotel), Downtown Dubai


The Burj Khalifa


Burj Khalifa Lake at dusk

To Marry in India

Dnyaneshwar Temple, Alandi, near Pune, India

This month is our 9th anniversary together! Me and Anu’s. Yup, it’s nine years since we eloped from Aizawl, Mizoram and started our lives as a couple. It’s also Diwali or Deepavali, the Hindu festival of lights.

So I’m putting a post on getting married, the Indian way. It’s not hard, and it’s not easy either. Here are pictures of a temple town near Pune, where young couples flock to, to get married, if you’re Hindu, that is. If not, the easiest way to get married, is to do it in court. That’s how we did ours in Mumbai – see the post here. All you need are money, 3 witnesses and some identification documents. But identification documents aren’t the easiest thing to come by in India. Only now is the government talking about having a national identity card. Before that happens, there’re like 101 different versions of how to prove you’re Indian, some paper to show when and where you’re born, some document to show your permanent address, and something with a photo to show how you actually look like. (We took the easy way out, and just engaged a lawyer to prepare all our paperwork. Money works in India, you know? Smart huh?)

Also, if you are a boy, you should get consent from the girl’s family for marriage. Or just do it the Bollywood way, as my Indian friend taught me, elope, smuggle the girl away from the family. That’s what we did, when Anu’s family didn’t agree. But that is another story, for another time to tell, hehe.

Meanwhile, here’re pictures of Alandi, near Pune, where Hindu couples go, to solemnize their marriage, sort of like a Las Vegas of Pune, lined with marriage hall after marriage hall, in the dusty streets. The main draw of Alandi though, is the Dnyaneshwar Temple. Every year, around June or July, Dnyaneshwar devotees embark on a 240km pilgrimage by foot, (Dnyaneshwar Palkhi) from Alandi to Pandharpur. This will take a week to 10 days, if I’m not mistaken. Nope, I’ve not personally seen the procession, but a similar procession, the Tukaram Palkhi, takes place at exactly the same time and that passes through the Project road that we were building in 2010-2013. We’d have to close the road and stop construction works for 2 to 3 days whenever the pilgrims crosses. Oh yeah, it’s that many people! No kidding. And they don’t carry luggage, bags, anything. Don’t they need to change? Not even their underwear? And where do they go, when they need to …err go? (Toilet, I mean). Not something I’d like to think about…




Closer views of the Dnyaneshwar Temple compound




More pictures of Alandi


The Priest and his instruments – yup that’s it, a coconut, some strings to tie on the foreheads of the groom and bride (Maharashtra-style marriages), some metal pots and trays, some water, and some rice to throw around, red powder (sindoor) for putting on the forehead and hair parting of the girl, turmeric powder, other leaves and spices for cooking (nah, just kidding, don’t bloody know what they’re for), some garlands of flowers, a turban for the groom, and fire for the bride and groom to go around

And there’re no pictures of the couple. Let’s say they want to keep it private.

Every Day's a Bad Hair Day

Hello everyone, I’m back, and I’m gonna show you what I can do with my hair, before my parents decide to cut it all away! They dunno how irritated I get with hair getting into my eyes, and nose, and mouth, etc. Jayden at 8 months old

Aww… What the heck! Might as well post more photos of the little fellow, since I’ve now got a whole lot more photos of him! And it’s the easiest way to not need to think of what to write for the blog! So here goes, till I get more time for writing.


My hair was OK at 3 months old, people don’t mistake me for a girl


My hair is OK when it’s wet


Otherwise, I can be Kim Jong-il, ex-dictator of North Korea


And I can be Abdul Kalam, ex-President of India


Or a baby prince of Liechtenstein – in the Liechtenstein Center, Vaduz, Liechtenstein


Or an adventurer in Switzerland – near the Riffelsee, Zermatt


And Austria – in Lienz, East Tirol, from the balcony of the hotel we stayed in (Bierkeller)


On a good hair day


And on a bad hair day (i.e. everyday) ...wonder when I'm gonna have that haircut

Little Monster Turns 1

Jayden, 10 months old, beside a road in Switzerland (near Gluringen, I think) – the ground behind him is actually sloping downwards. His mommy put him there to take a picture, and caught him just in time before he rolled down the hill. Luckily, I didn’t have parents as adventurous as his.

Here they are! Photos of our little monster, Jayden. Finally selected a few photos. Here’s a glance through Jayden’s first year, from Month 3 onwards (For photos of him before Month 3 – see this other post).


I can roll! On his tummy, at slightly after 3 months old


4 months old, with his uncle Gopal, in Silchar, Assam (outside the State Bank of India, Tarapur Branch)


5 months old, amusing himself at Khor Fakkan Beach, on the east coast of the UAE


6 months old, Jayden’s finger eating days. He can fit all 10 in his tiny mouth. Different fingers, in different combinations, taste differently. Don’t think so? Give it a try!


7 months old, the squabbles start that young, you know?


I’m nice when I’m happy


Or I can be difficult, …your choice


I started crawling (7.5 months)


8 months old, I’m standing, and I’m a monster!


I can also be a good boy (9 months). Like some roses? …Before I eat them?


I’m a monster. I like to eat my mommy’s bed. I also eat my papa’s car, and my koko’s toys, and the dustbin, the bathtub, the soap, the pens, etc…


Now we know why he’s quiet (10.5 months)


My papa put me in a cell! (11 months) – at an Emirati restaurant (Al Fanar) in Abu Dhabi


Another way to keep Jayden under control (11.5 months). If only we could bring that cage back from Ikea


Happy Birthday Little Baby! We love you although you’re so much work to have around!

Killing the Buffalo Demon

Should I post something about our baby turning 1, or should I post something on the Durga Puja Festival, which happens to be today? I’ll take the easy way out, and post some pictures of temples, hahaha, since I’ve already got a string of photos lined up for that. And it sits just nicely with Durga Puja.

Jayden’s birthday will have to wait till I get time to sort out the humongous array of photos in our camera. And the 3 phones, and the 3 tabs! That’s the problem with the world nowadays. Everyone’s a photographer now. Life was so much easier when the phones were just for talking. The little fella turned 1 a few days back. And I’ve been sick for the past few days, so it’s crunch time at the office, to catch up on boring work! Shit.

Durga Puja happens to be Anu’s biggest festival of the year (see earlier posts on Durga Puja – a, b, c …). In India, and I think Nepal, it’d be a holiday. In East India, especially in the Bengali areas, it’d be a weeklong holiday! In the rest of the world (which we happen to be), it’d be a bloody working day. That’s life, you can’t have it all. Anyway, to all those celebrating this, here’s a Happy Durga Puja, Dussehra, Dashain, whatever you call it, to you all!!!

Meanwhile, here’re the temple pictures I mentioned – Tada!


Stone carving in a cave temple showing Goddess Durga (left on a lion), fighting with the Buffalo Demon, Mahishasura – this is the main theme of Durga Puja, commemorating the victory of the goddess over the supposedly invincible demon. You can see this everywhere on the temporary altars and shrines set up, especially in Kolkata. (I’m a sucker for myths, life would be so dull without some fantastic monster stories) – From a cave temple near a lighthouse, in Mahabalipuram, Tamil Nadu


Another carved relief inside the cave temple (wait… Google says it’s called the Mahishasuramardini Temple, and this carving is of a reclining God Vishnu – what would life be without Google?!?)


This is how the cave temple looks like (the temple below). There’s another temple on top of the hill (Olakkannesvara Temple), …and it sure has ugly railings huh? But safety is the priority. You don’t want people breaking their heads and bones every day.


The track leading to the temple – dirt tracks, steps cut on rocks, guardian monkeys (yeah, that’s the one you have to watch out for, if you’re carrying things like food!)…


Monkeys eyeing you, and your prized possessions (i.e. food)


The temple and the lighthouse


The lighthouse, Mahabalipuram, Tamil Nadu, India




Views of the countryside from atop the Olakkannesvara Temple

Our Fabulous Dubai Life, Take 2

(Take 1 was posted in 2010).


Dusk at the Dubai World Trade Centre, during the Big 5 Exhibition 2013, an annual construction exhibition, with the Emirates Towers and Burj Khalifa in the background

A brief update. Just completed some major tender works. A couple more due in 2 weeks’ time. That’s life. Tenders, tenders, tenders. Do the paperwork, get the job and pass it onto others. What a drag! I’d rather be in the team executing the works. At least I get to see the result of my hard work. But, …that’s not for me to decide. So I just sit quietly in my little corner, do my work, and …do what I’m doing now (ahem, in my free time, that is).

Dubai is a nice city. It is also a boring city. After all, what’s new to see after 4.5 years?! There’re still a lot of tower cranes all over the place, but not as many as in 2008 when we first arrived. Many of the old tower cranes are gone. Some old ones are still standing proudly gathering dust (the building developer must’ve decided to make this a permanent feature). Some new tower cranes are springing up (which is a good sign for people like me). Construction is still happening all over the place (luckily – definitely a good thing for me!)


Dubai is especially nice when it rains, …like once in a year. …Now if I can bloody figure out how to get to the car without getting my shoes wet… – International City, Russia Cluster, Dubai

Dubai’s defining feature (apart from the malls, and the fantastic architecture, and the miles and miles of man-made shoreline), i.e. the endless amount of fabulous desert sand, is still all over the place. It’s still nicely decorated with lovely (read, ugly) electrical pylons (how can we live without them). There’re no new fantastic parks yet (they’re under construction …excited!) We’re expanding the roads even wider (…even more excited). 6 or 8 lanes are for small fries, we need 12 lanes at least on our roads (heck, 18 lanes would be even better). The car and truck population is still increasing (that’s why we need 18 lanes), never mind that most of these cars travel to and from neighbouring Sharjah and the roads there have miraculously remained the same (almost). Traffic jams are a daily affair (probably due to unchanging Sharjah), so that we have time to catch up on some daily news on radio when driving, and on important topics such as which coffee is the best for health, what pet to keep at home, what benefits an olden time vinyl record has over a CD or an MP3, who bloody won the Rugbies 7, etc. (No, I have no idea what Rugbies 7 is?)


Here’re some sand and pylons to brighten up your day


And some sand on the highway, …I mean road (there’re no highways or expressways in the UAE, all of them are called roads, or streets. I guess it’ll only qualify to be a highway if it’s 24 lanes and above?)


More sand – seen from my office building, during and after a sandstorm. Taken on the same day


Some fabulous desert sand. Oh, this is not Dubai, by the way. This should be somewhere in Umm Al Quwain, near to the road leading to the Barracuda Beach Resort

The nicest thing about now, is spending time with the missus and the 2 kids. Yeah, nothing better than being a family man. No more working inside jungles, or high in the mountains. No more drinking nights out with the boys, ...or the girls?! No more non-PG rated movies or fine dining with the missus. No more sleeping till noon on your off-days, unless you’re trained in sleeping on a trampoline (yeah, the little ones can really jump).

Now it’s Justin’s homework and shopping for groceries. It’s about where to bring them kids on the weekend. It’s about how to save money from the miserable amount of salary I get versus the exorbitant costs of living here, especially to send the kids to school. On the plus side, now I don’t need excuses to play with Lego or plasticine, And I can watch whole cartoons without the missus nagging (if I’m lucky). I get free arm and back workouts for carrying little Jayden (that little fellow’s a parasite when I’m around).

All these fun family activities should keep me young and fit. And it is, to some extent. My weight’s maintaining at 69+kg, the waistline is still at 32”, and my body shape is as it was before, …if I remember to suck in my belly, that is. People say I’m looking thinner, on the face and on the upper body. Well, what can you expect when you have to sit in the office for 9 friggin hours every day in front of a friggin computer? Gravity naturally causes things to go downwards, right? …towards the belly?

My eyes are still good, …for seeing things far away. The problem starts when I wanna read things on the laptop (darn it, it’s the computer again), or the bloody text on my smartphone. My blasted hands are just too bloody short to hold the phone far enough for me to read. Darn hands! But these eyes do help me get some exercise when I’m eating. The reason why I’m standing up more frequently now while I’m eating is because I wanna see clearer what I eat.

Back to my face, besides being less chubby, I have two stubborn sun-burn spots, one on each cheek, that doesn’t seem to go away. My wife calls them brown spots. (And my mom calls them freckles! …How on earth does a Chinaman get freckles?!? Beats me!) The loving wife’s spent hundreds of bucks (maybe thousands now) on dark spot correctors, serums, scrubs, you-name-it, for me. I think it’s working. It’s now changed from brown to khaki.

Enough of me. Think I’ll stop here for now, it’s getting too long. To be continued…

Meanwhile, here’re some more photos of life in Dubai.


My office, in DIP (Dubai Investment Park) …after everyone has gone home


Inside the Pyramid Centre Building, where niece Karishma works


Trying out some Lebanese Food, …didn’t impress much, …friggin dunno how to order


And some Mexican food, …don’t really remember the food, only the sombreros, and that Anu can make an Asian version of the guacamole with more kick (i.e. chillies) than the one we had at the restaurant


Justin, with Bumblebee of the Transformers, at the Gitex Fair, an annual IT exhibition in Dubai


Another pic at the Gitex Fair, 2013