Hidden Jewel of Sharjah

For the past one week I have been busy looking for a new apartment, as my rental in Al Warqaa 1 is coming to an end in the middle of March 2010. My mission this year is to move to a 2 bedroom apartment with rental in a range of AED50,000 to 70,000 a year.

The property market in Dubai and UAE in general has slowed down due to the credit and economic crisis. When I came to Dubai in 2008, the property market was in the biggest of its bubble. A studio in International City and Discovery Garden was for AED40,000 to 50,000. A 1 bedroom in Jumeira Lake Tower was for AED80,000 to AED160,000. A 2 bedroom in Jumeira Beach Residence was for AED200,000 to AED300,000. At that time I was even ready to rent just a bed space in Bur Dubai or Deira. Luckily my recruitment agent was kind enough to let me continue the rental of his studio by paying monthly installment. Not only the rental price was blown over, the accepted payment terms was for 1 or 2 instalments only. The landlords were really greedy at that time. And being a newbie to Dubai at that time, I simply did not have the cash money.

Coming 2009, the rental prices has come down tremendously between 30 - 40%. I was able to rent my current 1 bedroom apartment at AED62000 which was a reduced price from AED80,000. I have been living in a peaceful place called Al Warqaa 1 which is just a 20 minutes drive to my office with smooth flowing traffic at any time.

So for this year 2010 I checked the property market again for a 2 bedroom. As expected, the price is not only affordable but I have a privilege to choose for prime location and development, because for the past 1 year there have been a lot of new buildings completed all around Dubai that a tenant can choose from.

There are several prime locations in Dubai which are marked by its building quality, location and community. Some of the prime areas are Jumeira Beach Residence, Dubai Marina, Jumeira Lake Towers, Emirates Hills, Arabian Ranches, Discovery Gardens, The Gardens, Al Wasl, Mirdiff. These places are closer to the sea (except Mirdiff) and mainly populated by expatriates. My area Al Warqaa 1 is not a prime expatriate area but it is a peaceful Emirati villa residential area and very close to Dragon Mart, Uptown Mirdiff, Dubai Festival City and the upcoming Mirdiff City Centre. My only complaint about the place is its lack of landscape and undergoing construction. The latter is a general complaint by everybody who lives in Dubai !

After surveying rental market in Dubai, I found that I can get a 1 bedroom in the most prime area within my budget but not a 2 bedroom. So I expand my search to the neighbouring emirate of Sharjah.

Talking about Sharjah, my first impression about this city is, a driver's nightmare. My few excursions to Sharjah last year were not really happy experiences because of its traffic jam and crowd. Eventhough in Sharjah I could get a 1 bedroom apartment for AED30000 last year, I figured that my life would be miserable everyday to see its traffic condition. So most of the time I just avoided Sharjah and it remained as the least explored emirate in my travel log.

I stumbled upon rental advertisement in areas called Al Khan and Al Majaz in Sharjah. These places are the areas surrounding the natural corniches of Buhaira. It is a newly developed area in Sharjah. So last week I drove around the Buhaira Corniche to look for a 2 bedroom apartment. To my surprise, the area is quite exclusive and primary for its fantastic view of the Gulf Sea and of course, the Buhaira Corniche. There is a family entertainment place called Qanat Al Qasba which offers a big ferris wheel and outdoor F&B area along a man made canal. There are also plenty of shops and shopping mall surrounding the area. It is not over crowded with traffic and the population is mainly arab families from the Levant countries. A hidden jewel indeed !

What is more surprising, almost all the 2 bedroom apartments that I checked, offer a high rise view of the sea and corniche at a rental price between AED60,000 - AED70,000. To me this is a very good price at a premium location. There was one unit in the Palm Tower 1 building which I like very much. I think I am going to go for this one. The landlord even accepts payment by 4 installments.

Attached are the pictures of the building location and a video of a unit at 35th floor, Palm Tower 1. Feel free to say something.

All windows offer picturesque water view

To the extreme left is the famous Al Mamzar Park

The three corniches of Sharjah

Just 14.5 kilometres to my office

A house is good if it can make you smile every morning.

me

First Melody of 2010

I was sitting in Old Town White Coffee kopitiam in KL LCCT waiting for my flight back to Abu Dhabi, when I received a message (sms) from Azli - "Ko sampai dxb what time? Gimme a buzz nanti. MTC suruh perform depan Najib on the 18th ni."

My face immediately beamed with a light of excitement. My UAE band (now we have decided to call it Ashabul Kahfi) was asked to perform in front of Malaysia's Prime Minister and his delegate in Abu Dhabi. I was very delighted to think that at least I have something to be busy about rather than suffering from my post holiday depression alone at home. When Azli sent another sms - "Ko interested nak main tak?", I frantically typed and sent "Yeah, I am in !" without any hesitation.

We had only 7 days before the big event. My UAE band members have not met and rehearsed together for more than 2 months. I have not been a good bass player for not brushing up my bass lines at home unless there is a jam session or a show to attend. So that means my finger memory of our usual songs was not really smooth and I need to practice very hard in a very short period of time.

When I arrived in Dubai, we agreed to jam on four consecutive days - Thursday, Friday and Saturday followed by a last full rehearsal on Sunday's night. The show was set on Monday's night (January 18, 2010). Because we were engaged by Malaysia Tourism Board, so we were given a privilege to use the Malaysia's Embassy in Abu Dhabi as our jamming venue.

It was really a tiring ordeal for me to commute between Dubai and Abu Dhabi (distances 160 kilometres), to practice everyday and to crash into someone's house when I should have a quiet week to wind down (and do laundry) after my hectic holiday in Kuala Lumpur.

But I must be lying if I tell you it was no fun at all. Because I indeed had another great time with my friends in the band. In fact I made a few new friends who are very talented musicians.

Rahimi and yours truly

Sahibulkahfi during soundcheck

On the day of the event, we were all ready to give our best. We had a list of 8 songs as follows:

1) Mustika - M Nasir
2) Getaran Jiwa - P Ramlee
3) Lagu Kita - Aizat
4) Sinaran - Sheila Majid
5) Ayat-ayat Cinta - Rossa
6) Widuri - Bob Tutopoli
7) Pupus - Dewa
8) Hati Emas - M Nasir

Azli the percussionist

Latif and Faniz, the singers

Taufiq the darbuka and toy master.
Also happens to be a creative videographer

Azlin the keyboardist

In the end we were only allowed to perform 4 songs because of the time constraint. I noticed PM Dato Sri Najib and his delegate were really tired with their round the clock tour and was hardly seen as really enjoying the event. But I was glad to see the PM made an effort to tap his fingers and moved his body to the beat of Sinaran and other songs. Well at least, some reaction.

Our show lasted for less than an hour. But the journey and preparation behind the scene was what really counts. It proves my believe that with music, peoples of different backgrounds can be friends and work together more easily. I find it interesting when our singer made her opening remarks during the show that - "We are not professional musicians but we are professionals here in UAE with 3 lawyers, 2 engineers, 1 architect and 1 financial analyst." That kind of summing up some of our diverse backgrounds but unity in music.

"Ah, music. A magic beyond all we do here"

J.K Rowling

Enter 2010

If you noticed, my blog posts lately have no pictures in it like usual. The reason for that because my Olympus pocket camera's lens is jammed. So until I fix it or buy a new one, I don't have a picture to show to you. But already I am taking this as a strong excuse to look for a new camera. Only money could tell.

I just got back from 2 weeks holiday in Kuala Lumpur which turned out to be the most hectic holiday of the year 2009. Despite the busy schedule I managed to spend a quality weekend holiday in Langkawi Island together with my wife and son. The trip to Langkawi has been in my list of Cuti-Cuti Malaysia for quite sometime and I am relieved now that I can to strike it out a done deal. My wife was the one who insisted for the Langkawi trip as she had never been to Langkawi before. I first visited Langkawi back in 2002 by bicycle. Yes - I have traveled from Kuala Lumpur to Langkawi by bicycle. Although our stay in Langkawi was a short 3 days but we managed to ride the longest and steepest cable car in Asia and eat the most delicious and authentic laksa I have ever had.

The reason for my hectic holiday started when I received a set of keys to my new apartment - the one I mentioned in Life is an Improvement.

Then I met a contractor and the rest was like a spinning game of home improvement where a participant is given a budget and a task to renovate his house within that budget and specific timeline.

Except for the days I was in Langkawi, my life started with waking up before 7.am to send my wife to her school. Then I either have to run for breakfast (if my brother has not left for work) or stay at home until my son woke up and ready to be sent to his caretaker.

After that I drove around Klang Valley to look for lamps, airconditioner units, hob and hood, sink bowls, taps and many more. It sounds like a task which can be completed in one day but with the KL's notorious traffic, the abundance of designs and specifications, the quest for reasonable prices and the fact that I have to pick up my wife at 6.00 pm everyday, I hardly can buy many things in a day. In fact when I left KL for Dubai, there were a few items left which I could not find and buy. However I am a happy caveman with a new cave now. And I look forward to see how my apartment looks like after its renovation soon. Especially when I decided to let my wife choose and surprise me with her choice of colours for the apartment.

I still feel tired since I arrived from Malaysia last week. But this is due to another reason which I will tell in my next posting, hopefully with a few pictures.

"Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it."

Henry David Thoreau

Happy New Year 1431 Hijra

The Dubai World's chronicle on the indebtedness of its subsidiary developer Nakheel was finally settled with Abu Dhabi's injection of USD10 billion to Dubai. This was expected by many. I personally have anticipated that there is no way Abu Dhabi will just let Dubai be torn apart by the creditors. Dubai is not a separate country. It is an emirate in the UAE. Between the 7 emirates in the union, Abu Dhabi is the richest and considered the big brother. Abu Dhabi gives budget annually to the other emirates. It has written and unwrtitten obligation to take care of its sibling emirates. That is the ties that bind them all together in the union. To let Dubai down would be an embarassment to Abu Dhabi and the union. But what interesting was the way Abu Dhabi and Dubai managed the announcement and all. Critics say that the waiting period had given enough time to tarnish Dubai's image in the market, and highlight the superiority of Abu Dhabi. Other people say the down time gave Dubai opportunity to buy back its shares in a stock market at a very cheap price. My friend in the Dubai Ruler's Court told me that Sheikh Mohamed prefered to downsize Dubai World rather than accepting a rescue fund from Abu Dhabi. But has Dubai got enough to survive without any rescue in a first place?

Again I dont think the rescue fund comes for free. There will be some consideration to be negotiated between Abu Dhabi and Dubai, business wise. We will see.

At the same time I am glad that Dubai managed to move on with the Nakheel's problem before the New Hijra Year. I hope Dubai will recover very fast and remain as one of the top cities in the world. The last thing I want to see is Dubai becomes a deserted city like the one depicted in the latest released for the Grand Theft Auto game.

I had a blast fun time with my parents and family for the past 2 weeks. It felt great to have spent 2 weeks with my parents at my age. The last time I stayed home with my parents for more than a week was about 15 years ago. Both my son and I really enjoyed our moment in the morning whenever we wake up, check out the living room and see my parents were already sitting on a couch and greet us together.

Let us pray "peace be upon Prophet Muhammad" and may the new Hijra Year 1431 brings more happiness, peace and prosperity to the world, as same as it did when the Prophet made the first Hijra.

To put the world right in order, we must first put the nation in order; to put the nation in order, we must first put the family in order; to put the family in order, we must first cultivate our personal life; we must first set our hearts right

Confucius

Go Picnic or Panic?

For the past 5 days Dubai has once again made to headline news but for the wrong reasons. This time the world talked about the debt laden Dubai with total liabilities of up to $80 billion. The news was triggered when a government linked company announced its wishes to ask for at least 6 months delay for its bond's payment due to be paid in another 2 weeks. That request was believed to be the first for a series of defaults in other borrowings by that conglomerate. Being in the capital market industry I will not say that I am not excited at all about this news. In fact most of my times in the office lately were spent on reading and monitoring this story. Some peoples criticised on how it happened or laughed at the misfortune. To achieve fast tracked development like in Dubai involved a lot of money and risks. It has been a great 9 years for banks and investors in speculating and earning money out of Dubai's potentials. So now it is time to share some risks and bear losses. But the question with these capitalist banks and investors, are they willing to share the risks or incur losses at all?

Although the situation is serious for the future of Dubai in particular and UAE in general, Dubai need to experience this as a process towards a matured nation. My interest is to see how Dubai managed and solved this problem, what lessons have they learned and how can we improve the situations through laws and regulations.

Off course the hope of being saved by Abu Dhabi is always there, but Dubai is reminded that nothing comes as a free lunch. So we will see what will be the solutions soon.

Moving on to another interesting stories, Muslims in UAE are celebrating Eid al Adha since last 27 November and tomorrow will be the 38th UAE National Day. That means a long holiday to us yuppies. To celebrate these joyous occasions my wife, son, 2 brothers and parents came over to Dubai for 2 weeks holiday. My house is full with travelling bags, clothes and what more important, good laughters and foods. Despite the gloomy business news, peoples in Dubai continue to do what they are best at - work smart and party hard ! And that is business during these holidays. I have lined up some activities with cooperation from a few friends, like sight seeing, desert trip, beach and parks picnic and road trip to Oman. We will still discuss the grave going-ons in Dubai but over BBQ, shisha and home made cookings, out in the colder temperature of Dubai.

Adha Mubarak and enjoy your year end holiday, wherever you are.

Desert Offroad: Series 1 2009

Yalla..yalla...yallaa I got an interesting story to tell here.

Remember that I just bought a new SUV in Honk...Honk..Vrromm..vroommm ? After about 2 weeks driving the Nitro I am quite happy with its handling in the city. I feel safer and superior on the road, and the ride is sure more comfortable than Toyota Yaris. But yesterday an opportunity came to test the Nitro off the tarmac road !!

I have been wanting to do offroad since I first saw Jeep cherokee in Malaysia. That was like more than 15 years ago. But buying and maintaining a four wheel car in Malaysia is not cheap. Hence all this while I could only dream about it.

Last week a friend invited me to join a group of Malaysians who planned a desert 4x4 excursion. It so happened that one of the organisers was my friend Farid Hussein, a Malaysian lawyer in Zaid Ibrahim & Co, Dubai. So without further ado I said yes to the invite and quickly packed my gears for the ride. Actually I didn't know what to bring except bottles of water, fruits and gas stove...hehe. Hey I was a newbie alright...

So on the day of event (Friday 30 Oct.) we gathered at Eppco petrol station, in front of Dragon Mart, sharp at 2.30pm. In the email only 7 cars signed up, but to our delight 10 cars turned up at the last minute, bravo! The cars were:

1) Hummer H3
2) Nissan Armada
3) Mitsubishi Pajero
4) Ssyangyong Rexton
5) Jeep Wrangler 2 doors
6) Jeep Wrangler 4 doors
7) Volvo XC60
8) Dodge Nitro (mine)
9) Toyota Land Cruiser
10) Honda CRV

After a briefing by our 'kapitan' we headed to Al Awir desert, which was apparently just 15 minutes from my house. We stopped briefly at the last groceries store to buy firewood. The shop charged us AED5 per log. My friends told me, in colder days, the price will go up to AED8 per log. Hhmm..nowadays even price of firewood fluctuates.

We passed through a small rural village before we arrive at the entry point of the desert route. Typical of my ignorance, I became the first car to get stuck in the sand. That was only after 5 minutes off the tarmac road. I was confused at first but quickly realised that I forgot to switch to 4wd mode. Haiyaaa bikin malu !

Ascending...well executed ! Good Nitro !

We charged into the desert area until we arrived at our first hilly area. This time we stopped again to deflate our tires. I was clueless on how to measure the deflation. Later I learned to use a deflator gauge to deflate the tires to a correct pressure. The ideal pressure is 15 - 20 psi. Next trip, I definitely will buy this gauge. The reason to deflate the tires was to get more tires surface touching the sand for better traction and to prevent the tires from sinking easily into the soft sand. Brilliant huh ..

Farid was giving me a tutorial on deflating tires

Anak bukit

When all tires were set, one by one, we revved up and ascended the first hill. This was when I started to feel proud of my Nitro, which managed to execute it very smoothly. The tip was just to accelerate without hesitation and never apply a sudden brake, as it will sink the car into sand. However we got delayed for about 1 hour when Volvo XC60 and Honda CRV got stuck in the sand several times. One thing I quickly realised about desert offroad, we could hardly rescue a car using a rope as most of the time, there was no hard surface area for the rescuer car to base on. When a car got stuck we have to push it up and rev up the engine until it gets out. The Honda CRV finally gave up as the driver felt his car was not suitable for the route. So I offered him and his family a lift in my car, as I was driving alone. But to save any embarrassment I reminded him that I was also a first timer.

Tires stuck in the sand

Men giving direction to a struggling Honda CRV

The next 1 and a half hours ride was exciting and fun. I could not follow the Jeep Wrangler 2 doors bashing the silky smooth dunes though, as I got 2 toddlers in my car. But at least I got to explore the Nitro's capability in ascending and descending the steep hills. Nitro definitely shares the similar specification and capabilities of Jeep and Hummer. I felt worth every fils of my purchase price for the Nitro. Had I not been carrying passengers in my car, I would have talked and praised the Nitro everytime we passed a hill.

Is that car going into a hole?

Nitro was taking a breath

Finally we arrived at our camp side. After a maghrib prayer, we lit up our firewood and set up barbecue pits. The rest of the events were nothing but talking, grilling, eating, laughing, drinking and eating again. The ladies were busy with their stories and news, the kids were singing and running around the silky dunes and the men were occupied with their fire and barbecue. It was another great chance for me to know more Malaysians in Dubai. Most of them have been around for more than 3 years. One guy has been in Dubai for 13 years. Where was I 13 years ago?

Praying in a desert reminded me the life of prophet

The "kapitan"'s Hummer H3

Goodbye sun

The ride back was short using a shortcut to the nearest tarmac road. When we got on the tarmac road, we stopped again to inflate our tires. This time we use air compressor which was charged from the car's battery. This another gadget I should buy next time. After saying goodbye and exchanging telephone numbers, everybody departed to their own destinations.

Air compressor inflating a tire

Jeep Wrangler 2 doors..the champ that day

It was my first introduction to a desert offroad excursion. I am excited to do it again, now that I have the right vehicle to do it. One of the must-go destinations which they told me, was a place called Fossil Rock. It was named as such because the area is full of fossil of pre-historic sea creatures as the area was under the sea billion of years ago.

Fossilised taik unta?

"Sunshine all the time makes a desert"

Arab proverb

A Child's Hug

Everything has its end. I knew the time will come but I didn't expect it to be very emotional for me. My wife and son have been staying with me for more than 3 months and last night they have to leave for Kuala Lumpur as my wife's school term will start before a long holiday in December.

So after an early dinner I sat on the sofa and watched TV. My son suddenly came to sit besides me and we watched TV together. This was one of those rare occasions when he wanted to watch TV together instead of jumping and playing around the house. So I just started talking to him about what he was going to do that night, going to the airport, flying to Kuala Lumpur, behaving good in my absence, listening to mama, meeting Atuk and Nenek and he occasionally repeated the words I said like aeroplane, Atuk and Nenek. I just talked to him and didn't expect him to understand anything at all. It was just talking, to get him occupied with me.

But I underestimated my son. He actually understood. He started to calm down and looked up to my face when I was talking to him. He rested his head on my arm and hugged me. He never acted like that before ! I was so surprised and touched.

I stopped talking and patted his back. I didn't know what to say, I just lost for words. My ego and macho armour as a man and a father slowly melted down like an ice cream. It felt awkward. For a moment, I tried very hard to hold my tears by swallowing my saliva and focusing on a scene in TV, but it was hard. Tears brimmed quickly in my eyes !

I just could not hold it anymore when my wife came out from the bedroom and looked at me hugged by my son like that. Drops of tears slowly fell from my eyes. I tried to talk to my wife but I was so overwhelmed with my emotions. I never experienced this feeling before ! I never felt so touched, never by a man that small.

My wife whispered to me that I shouldn't be too sad as they will come back after a month. I wanted to say 'Yes, I know' but the more I opened my mouth, the greater the emotions. My lips just trembled and oozed some inaudible words. Finally I just succumbed to the feeling and let it takes over everything. My wife understood and quickly snapped a few pictures of us.

I was stunned not just for the fact my son understood the situation but because of his simple and honest gesture of hugging me. It was the very right response. I didn't expect it to come at all.

My son finally fell asleep on my chest, letting his father to deal with his newly found emotion.

It was my first cry for the love of a son. I felt embarassed at first (for shedding tears) but eventually felt very natural. It was indeed a lesson of life and fatherhood. And I praised God for the wonderful feeling.

I love my little man.

I was speechless

My oh..my, life is tough sometimes

"It is a child's hug that permeates our soul and thus we are graced"

Salvador G. Valdez