A Purple-Themed Garden and Some Tea

Lavender Garden, Cameron Highlands, Pahang, Malaysia, Aug 2024

November is the month that the missus and I got together. I’ve been scratching my head on what to post, it's gotta be something to do with love, from the photos which I already have…

I guess it’ll be this – Cameron Highlands. Again? Yes. Anu loves the hills and the flowers, the trees and the birds. She’s a nature-lover. So, here’s to you, honey, I love you. Like always, and it’ll never stop…


We ended up back in Cameron Highlands, after 2 years of our last visit. Our intended destination was this place in the photo, Cameron-Santorini, but alas, it wasn’t opened. I learnt later, that the authorities closed it down because the owners failed to obtain the relevant approvals from the authorities. They actually friggin demolished it!!! 3 days after this photo was taken, talk about chance! The developers said they would rebuild it after obtaining the necessary approvals. Let’s see…


Never mind, there’re other gardens around… (as the Hokkiens say, if there’s no fish, shrimps will do! Bo hu, he a ho - 无鱼，虾也好) And so, here’s the Lavender Garden… A lavender farm in Cameron Highlands


Whoa? A purple castle??


And a purple booth, with purple teddies!


Looking good, honey!


Flowers galore, just the thing for the missus!


What’s it with the strawberry motif? I thought it’s a lavender farm? They actually do have strawberries… Can’t make money from lavender alone, I guess. Lavender Garden, Cameron Highlands, Pahang, Malaysia, Aug 2024


Even the temples here have flowers! The Guan-di Temple, Tringkap, Cameron Highlands


This was where we put up a night, compliments of sis, Hazel’s, Berjaya Club membership – the Berjaya Vacation Club at the Copthorne Hotel. This was the same place we stayed in, in 2007, on Anu’s first ever visit to Cameron!


Cameron Highlands… (Kea Farm) from the Copthorne Hotel premises. Look at the amount of plastic sheet coverings! I guess it’s for protecting the plants from the incessant Malaysian tropical rain…


Finally, a tea stop, at the Cameron Valley Tea House


How’s this for a breakfast in the hills! Pasta, mushroom soup, scones and strawberry jam, with tea!


A stream in the tea estate


I LOVE U. This is our 19th year, and I’ll never want this to end! Cameron Highlands, Malaysia, Aug 2024. (Hey there, lady, can you please move!?!!? Sigh… never mind, you’re going into our photo, don’t say I didn’t warn you… WTF)

The Lesser Pavilions

Urghhh… What the hell. Haven’t found time to think, or sort out photos for a new post, due to work. Just finished 2 big assignments (and there’re 2 more to go before the end of this month). For a mini celebration, I thought I'd finish off the stash of Expo photos that I’ve gathered up earlier… Give some recognition to the smaller pavilions in the Expo, you know?

Here goes. An express photo post coming up! A tribute to the smaller pavilions of the Expo! (Until I find some time to come up with something fresh…)


Opera 360… Don’t exactly know what this is for. It’s a small unmanned pavilion in the Expo’s Al Forsan Park. I guess it has something to do with the Dubai Opera?!??


Of all the small pavilions, Vietnam’s (for me), was the most interesting… It had water puppet shows and traditional music performances! Bravo Vietnam! – Vietnam Pavilion (looks like China, but it ain’t. Noticed all the Latin script in place of Chinese characters?), Opportunity District, Expo2020, Dubai


This is from Vietnam’s neighbour, Cambodia. What a strange lion…, Sustainability District, Expo2020


Some costume fun at ASEAN’s newest member, Timor Leste, Opportunity District


And the Caribbean features lots of elaborate headdresses!!! It’s Carnival time – Trinidad & Tobago Pavilion, Mobility District


Here’s something from Africa… A Lesotho Hat or Mokorotlo, Lesotho’s national symbol! Sustainability Dist.


Continuing in Africa, why not have some traditional music fun… DR Congo Pavilion, Opportunity Dist.


Back to the Caribbean, chilling out at the birthplace of Reggae, Jamaica, Opportunity Dist.


A football try-out at the Uruguay Pavilion (what else…) Mobility Dist.


All green... and sustainable. Well, it ain’t in the Sustainability District for nothing, OK? Suriname Pavilion


Huh? Batman’s at the Expo?? Yup, even Gotham City has a pavilion! It’s a publicity stunt for The Batman movie that was released at that time!


This photo isn’t of a small pavilion. Putting in a photo of the only time we went with a friend… We brought Justin’s Egyptian classmate and friend, Moaaz with us to the Expo on our first ever visit. Here’re them having a game of chess at the Spanish Pavilion


A mysterious glowing lion. The expo has lots of strange creatures like this lion in the photo… There were also glowing falcons (or is it a phoenix?), birdmen, etc…


That’s it for now. One final expo picture of us at the UAE Pavilion. We’ll be back (in an Expo)… in 2030, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia! I hope…

I think this would be the last of my Dubai Expo posts… (I’m only 4 years late, ahem…)


Here's a bonus map of the Dubai Expo, just for memory's sake!

Memories of the Expo

A display in Terra, the Sustainability Pavilion of Dubai Expo2020, Oct 2021

Earlier this month, the Osaka World Expo 2025 officially ended. Justin had brought up the idea of us visiting this Expo during the days of the Dubai Expo, in 2021. Alas, plans changed and we ended up not visiting Japan. Of the whole family, only my NZ-based sister Kim, visited. The next expo will return to the Middle East, to Saudi Arabia, more precisely. Hopefully, we’d be in Riyadh in 2030!

Here’re some photos of Dubai Expo2020… Miss you, my son. Hope to see you back home soon. And hope you will do well in your next exam. Love, Pops.

Here’re some of the more memorable pavilions which I’ve still not posted about in my many posts on the expo.


From the ASEAN countries… Indonesia! The ASEAN countries are one of the more visible countries when it comes to the Expo… Out of 10 countries (it’s actually 11 now, Timor Leste just joined a couple of days back), 6 had large self-built pavilions!


Next up, the Philippines… What the heck is that? All I remember of the Philippines pavilion is that it’s big (3-storeys-high if I’m not mistake), and that it featured strange art installations, like this one in the photo


From the Land of Smiles, Thailand! Smile, boys!


From Down South, Australia - What's that thing on the top supposed to be? Clouds? Australia isn't really cloudy, is it? The architect must have confused it with the UK...


Next, Europe… Switzerland, with its ginormous mirror façade and umbrellas


Slovenia, was the first pavilion we visited in the Dubai Expo 2020, because it was the nearest one to the Sustainability Entrance which we entered on our first visit in Oct 2021


Water-themed Hungary, with its bluish hue, and ball pit (one of the few, and since I’ve already featured the ball pit from the German Pavilion, I’d give the Hungarian one a miss)


The Serbian Pavilion was one of the more iconic-looking ones in Expo2020


Here’s a strange one, the Bahrain Pavilion is a metal cube with metal stakes piercing thru it from all over


The Moroccan Pavilion is a hybrid between a large pavilion and a modular (Expo-built) pavilion. It’s in the modular (small pavilion) area of the Expo, but have been so extensively modified that it bears next to no resemblance of those modular pavilions of other countries…


The centrepiece of the Kazakh Pavilion is a robotic arm which interacts with the scientist acrobat shown here


The Brazilian Pavilion’s ground floor was largely made up of a large pool, where you could wade in… In the latter months of the Expo, they would have to stop people from going into the pool due to the huge crowds


Here’s a traditional pavilion showcasing the culture of the UAE… where we’d go to, to get free Luqaimat (deep-fried Emirati dessert) and Qahwa (coffee) …if there’s no queue, that is – Sameem – Story of Our Culture Pavilion


Finally, the DP World Pavilion (the UAE corporation in charge of the ports in Dubai. They also manage a number of ports worldwide). Do you see the Christmas Tree shaped by the water-cascade?? Cool huh? This was on Christmas Day, 2021! They’re not the only ones in the Expo to feature water cascade sculptures, but I think they’re the biggest one, Dubai Expo2020, UAE, Dec 2025

That’s it for this post. It’ll be quick photo-posts until the workload eases up, ahem… (And I have loads of photos, just for circumstances like these, hehe)

A Temple in the Arabian Desert

It’s Diwali, and I have just the photos for this!! Happy Diwali, Happy Deepavali, Happy Tihar, everyone!!!

Here’s a temple in the desert of Abu Dhabi, specially for the occasion!


The BAPS Hindu Mandir (i.e. Temple), Abu Dhabi, UAE, Feb 2024


That eye-shaped thing at the bottom of the photo is a digital screen, called the Wall of Harmony. It emphasizes harmony among people of different religions… There're actually temple attendants, when you visit, who explained its significance. For its inauguration, leaders of the different faiths of the Indian diaspora in the UAE, high ranking officers of the UAE and the Indian Prime Minister himself, came together in attendance. If everybody lived like this, there’d be peace on earth… The wall is purportedly the largest 3D-printed concrete structure in the UAE


Didn’t know there was such a big temple in the UAE, huh? There you go!


The Prayer Dune… a replica of the Sharjah desert, where in 1997, the then long-time leader of the BAPS organization, Pramukh Swami Maharaj, prayed for a temple to be built in the UAE…


Look at the amount of visitors!!


You can’t actually take photos of the inside, but… just one, OK?




Just look at the level of details of the sculptures…

BAPS stands for Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (of course, I Googled it, what d’ya think?) and is the same organization which built the Akshardham Temple in New Delhi, which we visited (twice), but have no photos of, due to it not allowing any friggin phones, or cameras, to be brought in… (You have to keep it in a locker outside… what a spoilsport!) Luckily, you could bring in your phone in this temple!


Happy Diwali everybody! May the Festival of Lights bring happiness, peace and prosperity to you and your family!

There, another super-express post done!