Plans and Ramadhan

Everybody in UAE is rushing now to complete all urgent jobs, disputes or deals before Ramadhan. My clients tried to close deal or settle disputes as soon as possible. This is because peoples here reserve Ramadhan as a month to focus on ibadah, family and relationship with friends and clients. Nobody really want to talk business or quarrel during the holy month except for networking. This month is not only for fasting and attending tarawih prayer but also strengthening relationship with peoples and helping the needy.

I personally feel Ramadhan to be a very lively and busy month with family and friends. I hope I will get that same feeling again here in Dubai as this is going to be the first time my family and I spending Ramadhan outside Malaysia. I really thank Allah for making me able to bring my family here.

One of the Ramadhan things in Malaysia is the food bazaar. Recently the UAE Malaysians Association has been planning on having our Malaysian Ramadhan Bazaar in Dubai. Although I dont really need that much of food for Iftar or Sahur but the food bazaar will certainly be a good session to meet friends and create new one. Especially for expatriates, our friends are our families now.

I have also been busy planning certain personal projects this month. We will be travelling to new places during our upcoming Eid holidays and I am planning to acquire some things by end of this year.

I just hope that Allah Almighty will give His approval and blessing to me, as always, to carry out all these plans, inshallah.

Ramadhan Karim to all my blog readers !

yours truly

Deira Fish Market

The weather in Dubai is very bad today. It is not only hot and humid but dusty with a visibility of around 100 meters. They say this dust come from nothern Iraq. I hope a strong wind will blow away all these dusts soon. My wife and I are already coughing a lot since last week. Thankfully my son Adrin doesn't suffer the cough. I have been drinking a lot of water to clear my itchy throat.

Yesterday my wife and I executed our weekend's project. It was a trip to Deira Fish Market. The hassle was to go there early in the morning in order to escape the heat. We arrived at the market at 9.00 a.m. It was too late. The temperature was a soaring 39 degrees celcius. There was no parking available in the market compound. I have to drop my wife and son at the market and parked further 300 metres away in Hyatt Hotel. I walked to the market from my car, and I still regret it until now, because it was so hot that I bled my nose rightaway !

However our discovery in the fish market was worth the trip. My wife being a Melanau loves fishes very much. The Deira Fish Market IS the place for the freshest catch in Dubai. To our surprise we also found some species of cockles and fish that is available in Oya, Sarawak. We bought Ikan Lumik and later prepared it with Sarawak sago for our lunch. My wife even prepared her first Dubai umai which was really spicy to me. I told my wife that she should suggest other Melanaus in her hometown to come and work in Dubai, because of the similarity in the fishes.

Because of the heat, we totally forgot to take out camera and snap photos. I was in fact became clumsy a bit trying to finish everything very fast and escape to an air-conditioned environment.

I bought a half mackerel fish. At home we cut it to fillet and I personally prepared a lemon butter mackerel for lunch. The taste was quite satisfactory..hehe. Really, I think I did a good dish yesterday. I like it.

We plan to go to the Fish Market again next week to stock up fresh fishes. My wife's face is beamed up with happiness now that she can eat the freshest fishes again.

"All cats love fish but fear to wet their paws"

Chinese proverb

Sharing

Ever since I bought a Macbook laptop and subscribed to internet at home, I am wired to the cyberworld almost 24 hours of my daily life. This could be literally true considering that last night I felt asleep infront of my Macbook and woke up this morning with my hand still on the keypad. I hope I didn't send out any nonsense email whilst unconscious. I am connected at the office and even can google whilst walking, using a blackberry. Indeed I am living in two worlds now.

One of the things which fascinates me lately is on the sharing concept of the internet users worldwide. Like the Mac applications that I am using now, I didn't have to spend any single cent to use the additional software, as I can get it free using the sharewares and freewares abundant in the web. Not only that, the inventors of the software also make sure that the users get all the latest fix and upgrade from time to time. How cool is that !

I naturally tend to be "overdosed" with my new-found hobby. I have long heard about torrent files sharing but never had the time to learn and use it. With the plenty of spare time at home now, I had the chance to use torrent application and ...what a great discovery ! There are several torrent hosting websites in the net that you can choose from. These websites host the files 'torrent-ed' by the users or act as search engines to locate torrent files in the world wide web. My favourite search engines have been isohunt, mininova and pirate bay.



As a background I am a movie maniac. I have spent thousands on purchasing VCD, DVD and VHS tapes. I was also addicted to DVD rental. Sometimes I rented DVDs on daily basis. But with torrent sharing network, I feel like I am the son of a DVD shopowner. I can download any movie I want for free and the picture quality is generally very sharp and high. So far my average downloads are 2 movies per day. I am so addicted to watching all the downloaded movies that I watch a movie before going to work and another movie before going to bed, ....sometimes two movies.

The plus point is that sharing movies in torrent network does not give me the guilty feeling of contributing to piracy industry. Simply because I dont have to pay anything and the guy who uploaded the movie to the network, I believe, would have bought original copy of the movie judging from the picture quality. Yes I will not be contributing moneys to the directors' pockets, but I am not stealing money from them too or give money to the piracy bosses. I am just sharing with my friends. On top of that I sometime donate to them for being very generous friends. So my simple mind says sharing is better than stealing.

Really, I feel very grateful to live in this era !

"It is appalingly obvious our technology has exceeded our humanity"

Albert Einstein

First Jamming with the Abu Dhabi Gang

Last Thursday relived my memory of the busy life as a musician juggling between work and studio when I was in KL. But this time I experienced it in Dubai when I tried to finish my work at 6.30pm to be at the studio at 8.30pm. In between I must get back to my apartment to pick up my bass. I decided not to bring and keep my bass in the car since the temperature was hot and that could affect the guitar's wood.

To make matter interesting, I lost my way to the studio. The studio was oddly located inside a warehouse in an industrial area. But I like the studio's setting because it looked like a garage studio. It had the "homey" ambience and "discreet & underground" feeling to it. I memorised the route based on Google Earth map but in reality the routes were messed up with diversions and construction sites. At the end I arrived 1 hour late at the studio. (To Dewangga Sakti gang this all sounds too familiar huh..hehe)

The jam session was arranged by my friend Azli (the drummer). I got to know him in the Iron Maiden concert last February. Azli is actually a familiar face in the circle of performing art back in Kuala Lumpur. He has performed with acoustic bands like Siul Murba, Akar Gita Estetika and Swakarya etc. He is also a member of the Dubai Drums of the World, an 18 pax ensemble which performs every year during the Dubai Jazz Festival. He is the only Malaysian with a set of Gendang Sunda in Dubai ! He has been in Dubai for 4 years now. The other musicians were Zaidi (aka JD the pilot) on guitar, Mie on guitar, Ida (Zaidi's wife) on keyboard, Hanizan and Zaki (both sang that night). All of them hail from Abu Dhabi.

I had really a good time jamming with them. It was a sort of breaking the ice session with new friends but through our instruments. The songs "destroyed" by us that night were:

1) Green Tinted Sixties Mind - Mr Big
2) Hati Emas - M Nasir
3) Gerhana - M Nasir
4) Yellow - Coldplay
5) Clock - Coldplay
6) Californication - RHCP
7) Use Somebody - Kings of Leon
8) Larut - Dewa 19
9) I Will Survive - Cake (this was played impromptu when I was running the bass line to warm up my fingers and suddenly everybody followed...and I said jalan !)
10) Fade to Black - Metallica

It was an exciting introductory jam with new friends. I look forward to know all of them in person. That night we could not chat for long since the jam finished at 12.30am and they all had to rush back to Abu Dhabi. But I can tell they are very talented musicians. They also own several guitars each. I look forward to see their collection.

Azli

Mie

JD

I felt a little bit awkward heading back home after a jam session without any teh tarik session. Because to me the teh tarik sessions before and after the jam are integral and as important as the jam itself.

But it was a great fun and my first jam in Dubai with totally new friends. I really want to do it again !

yours truly

As good as I am, I am nothing without my band

Steven Tyler

Making a (feel) good decision

The month of June always inspires me to look back and asses the trail of life which I have left behind. Times fly very fast since I first set my foot in Dubai in October 2008. Now it is going to be another 4 months to complete a 1 year cycle of my life as an expat in this great city.

As my life settles day by day in this new place which I started to call home, there are many decisions which forced me to make up my mind on my commitment to my new life. It is easier to advise a client than to advise myself. Because to me the struggle is not only to ensure that I make a good decision but the decision must come with a feel good factor with it. It is about making a decision and feel happy about it.

One of such decisions is as simple as whether I should buy a car or continue on renting. On 6 June 2009 I attended the most awaited event of my life in Dubai i.e my driving test. I passed the test and now I have a valid UAE driving licence which also entitles me to buy a car here. I can write a lengthy opinion if a client ask me on the advantages and disadvantages of buying or renting a car in Dubai. But when it comes to me making that decision, the hard facts alone are simply not enough for me. I need something to spark the good feeling behind the decision. I dont know what it is, but I must continue looking for that factor.

Anyway, maybe there is no such factor in the first place. Maybe it is just the overwhelming anticipation of going home this July. So let me not run to the car showroom but instead take a lazy relax leisurely stroll whilst listening very hard to the beats of my heart.

The risk of wrong decision is preferable to the terror of indecision

Maimonides

Spanish philosopher
1135 - 1204

Hot.. Hotter.. Hottest News

Trees in Safa Park during summer

For those who came to Dubai in November last year and thought they have come to paradise where the beach is a stone throw away, it is sunny day everyday and the wind is soothing and cold, this month they have to re-think again. For UAE is entering its pre-summer season and already the temperature has been 40 - 50 degrees celcius and the daylight is longer. The weatherman reported that this year the temperature rose very early in the season compared to last year. Welcome to the desert as you love it!

I love the dry heat and my iced tea. As long as it is not humid, I am smiling to the sun. In fact last weekend I met up with 2 friends for evening tea and it was around 4.00pm when the temperature was at 44 degrees celcius. I purposely asked them to sit outside the cafe in the heat and I saw my friend's boyfriend raised his eyebrow to my invitation. We sat outside anyway and I enjoyed the conversation whilst the hot air was blowing to my face. But I could see the boyfriend could no longer sit still and not long after that broke his accommodating politeness and asked us to sit inside as he did not want to soak his shirt with sweat.

However I am not the only person who likes this heat. My salute and admiration goes to the construction workers who work through out the day not under a single shade. These guys are really amazing and indeed a special breed. As much as I like to challenge myself to withstand the heat and sun, I think I can only withstand it for 1-2 hours or so, before I get any serious dehydration syndrom or heatstroke. But I never saw any single worker who run and hide under the shade but they continue to come to their sites and work as usual. However

Recently I have been trying to lose weight by swimming and running everyday. However the harder part was to change my diet. Nowadays I only eat vegetables, fruits and fibers. As you probably know, I cannot live without eating rice and because of that I have overdosed on my rice intake due to my passion for Mandi Laham and briyani since I came to Dubai. I hope with the help of the inconvenient temperature it will hinder me from going out to restaurants for heavy meal. But I am also sensing that by restraining myself from my usual food made me longing and aim for the food more. Lets pray that I will not go crazy with this lack of rice in my body.

Last weekend I attended an Extraordinary General Meeting of a group of Malaysians living in UAE for the formation of Malaysian Association in the United Arab Emirates (MY-UAE). MY-UAE is the first formal club for Malaysians in UAE under the patronage of the Malaysian Embassy and it will be the umbrella club for any other Malaysian clubs in the future. All this while the Malaysians expatriates in UAE have been organising activities under an unofficial club called MY-UAE Pro. Legally the setting up of this club in UAE is quite easy here since UAE do not have laws governing societies and clubs. So it was sufficient by just writing officially to the Ministry of Interior informing them of the formation and existence of this club with no political and commercial interest. They have launched their new MY-UAE website which can be the one-stop portal to interact amongst the Malaysians in UAE specifically and worlwide in general. The annual membership fee is fixed for AED50.00 and members will get to be informed and involved in all activities run by MY-UAE.

The Constitution of the MY-UAE club

The line-up for the Executive Committee of MY-UAE chapter 2009 - 2010 are as follows:

President : Affandy Mohamed Shaari
Vice President : Ahmad Imran Zainul Abidin
Secretary : Yusree Yahaya
Treasurer : Nor Afzanizam Bin Abd Manan
Exco members :
Ahmad Firdaus Mansor
Chan Chooi Lai
Clinton Ooi Chin Keat
Hasnoal Idris
Haza Hilmy Mat Zean
Khairul Affendi
Mushil Mustafa
Nik Fakhrulanwar Nik Abdul Rahman
Putri Khadijah Mohsin
Rozana Rahmat

During the EGM in Malaysian Consulate Office.

So if anybody need help from Malaysians community in UAE, the above peoples are contactable through the MY-UAE website. I can also help, no problem.

One of the activities by MY-UAE is the upcoming Tri-Nation Soccer tournament between Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia to be held on 5th June 2009 at Airport 2 Terminal Field. I hope it is not on the airport landing field itself.

Malaysian soccer players and supporters

The ladies will be having Captain's Ball Tournament

I will not be participating in the soccer tournament because I am not fit at all. Maybe I will join next year. Anyway I came to their training day and met up with the players. Good thing is, during the tournament like this, some entreprenueral Malaysians will open their discreet stall selling nasi lemak, mee rebus, kuih, nasi dagang and many more. That where my interest is !

Chef Haris manning his nasi ayam booth. AED12 per box.

It was hot yesterday, it is hot today and it will be hot tomorrow. I got to go for another glass of iced tea..

A community needs a soul if it is to become a true home for human beings. You, the people must give it this soul.

Pope John Paul II

Muscat : From Dusk Till Dawn

Arriving Old City of Muscat

Have you ever watched a 1996 horror movie called From Dusk Till Dawn? This is one of my favourite road-trip movies and it has been my inspiration for spirit and excitement for road trips in the past. That includes my recent road trip to the land of Sinbad the Sailor - City of Muscat, Sultanate of Oman.

I was having a chat with my friend Zulkifli Hasan last week when we suddenly talked about going for a road trip to Muscat. None of us have any information about the journey and the destination but we thought it will be a great adventure for both of us, the lonely husbands in Dubai.

We started our drive at 8.00am, slightly late from what we planned (as usual we planned right after Solat Subh) and the temperature was already hot like in a mid-day. In denial of the hot temperature and the desert surrounding us, we packed our home-made Nasi Lemak with a dream that we will enjoy it at any good spot in the desert (I magined the silky soft sand dunes..yehh) we could find on our way to Muscat. After 2 hours of driving, we reached Hatta, the last town before the UAE border post and we decided to finish our breakfast at the best spot we have found. Inside an air-conditioned shopping mall.

The immigration process in UAE border post was smooth amidst the fierce faces of the Emarati officers and the hot air blowing to our faces. Next we drove into the no-man's land, a stretch of 4 kilometers road between UAE border post and Oman border post. Before reaching the Oman border post, we stopped to buy an insurance policy for our car which caused us AED100. I found it interesting that despite Dubai's addiction to big buildings and structures, the UAE border post was very simple, only movable air-conditioned cabins where visitors have to queue outside, compared to the Oman border post which has a proper building, a big parking lot and an ATM machine. I guessed the comfortable working place made a difference when we noticed that the Omani officers were more friendly in their communication to us.

We passed through the Oman border post without any problem and drove for our first marking in the map, Al Widayat junction. By the will of Allah, we couldn't find the junction but we found a short cut which led us to the freeway to Sohar. Sohar is famous for being the birth place of Sinbad the Sailor as well as its souk and ancient forts. However we decided to just pass through it and continue our drive to Muscat. For the first 1 hour I was really amazed with the scene along the journey. There were a lot of dates trees, banana trees, green bushes, wadis, camels and sheeps visible from the main road. For a brief moment I thought we were driving in Terengganu because the houses, the landscape and the calmness of the place resemble the typical scene in Terengganu. We didnt feel like we were driving in a desert at all !

After driving for about 3 hours, we reached our first destination marked in Zul's tiny pocket map - Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque. I read that this is the biggest mosque in Oman. We went in and snapped a few pictures. As I was busy taking photos of the main entrance to the prayer hall, I was stopped by an officer (tok siak). The following dialoque ensued:

Officer: wein ruhh? (where are you going?)
Me : Solah ! (praying)
Officer: Ente muslim?
Me : Aih, ana min Malaizi, ismi Muhammad (yup, I am from Malaysia, my name is Muhammad)
Officer: Kam raka'ah fi Zuhr? (how many rakaat for Zuhr?)
Me: Arba'ah ! (Four)
Officer : tayyeb (ok)

Big Lamps Inside Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque

Cheh.., I guessed because Zul and I looked like Filipinos or Indians (I of course look like Italian la..) to him, that we have to answer his quiz first before we can enter the prayer hall. And the "tok siak" was carrying a pistol ! I wondered if our tok siak carry a gun in Malaysia.

We continued our journey towards Muscat. We passed through the modern Muscat city area where we observed there were no tall towering buildings but 3-10 storey buildings lining up the streets. Muscat certainly don't need tall buildings to impress its visitors because it already has beautiful rock mountains surrounding the city. The view of the city backed by the rock mountains was simply majestic !

Frankinscence burner..not flying saucer

Gate Museum

After about 2 hours we reached the Old City of Muscat. The view of the old city from a top of the hill was really fantastic. The buildings were painted in white surrounded by black rocky mountains and the architecture was truly of ancient middle eastern. I felt like a merchant arriving at a busy port city to trade my spices. We checked the map and took the right turn to Qantab beach. Again we were in a state of denial hoping to dive and swim in the Oman Gulf in the middle of a hot desert afternoon. The road to Qantab beach was quite steep and winding as it ascend and cuts through the rocky mountains. The view of the mountains and the sea was fantastic. We were completely mesmerised by the beauty of the rock formation and the greenish sea next to the rocky fjords.

Winding Road to Qantab Beach

Qantab area and the yachts

After spending about 30 minutes in Qantab beach, we drove down to the Muttrah area. Muttrah is one of the areas in the Old City Muscat. The main attraction in Muttrah is the Muttrah Souk where visitors can find and buy varieties of perfumes, silverwares, fabrics and traditional jewelleries. There are several old forts in Muttrah namely Muttrah Fort, Al Jalali Fort and Al Mirani Fort. These forts were built during the Portuguese occupation of the area in the 17th century. I was surprised to learn, that not only these forts are preserved in good condition, but they are still being used by the military for security purposes. Amazing isn't !? Imagine our A Famosa fort is still in use by our military! Other than the Souk, Muttrah also offers 1.5 kilometres pavement by the corniche for visitors to walk and enjoy the sea breeze and the view of the busy port of Sultan Qaboos. Yeahh, we found out almost every building and big road here is named after Sultan Qaboos. He is the Sultan anyway..

Muttrah Fort

Muttrah Souk

Ceiling inside Muttrah Souk

We checked in at one of the hotels facing the corniche. At night we tried to look for a local Omani restaurant selling "mandi laham". We drove around up to Ruwi city area to look for the restaurant. Our clue was based on the direction given to us by one of the hotel staffs. After searching for about 1 hour we concluded that the hotel staff misunderstood us because the area that we went to was full of meat shops (selling "Luhum") and not even a single restaurant serving "mandi laham"....chit poddahh..!

Muttrah corniche at night

I couldn't finish it

The next morning we went to Qantab beach again with an ambitious plan to swim. Again we were disappointed because the temperature was so hot. In fact when we arrived at the beach we were the only visitors. We were greeted by a fisherman who offered us a ride in his boat to explore the area. Hahaha.. he must have thought we came there to be fried and baked by the sun. ..No thank you sir, I have enough tan on me.

As the temperature continued to rise, I suggested to Zul that, instead of feeling down, let's embrace what the nature was giving to us. Let's enjoy the heat and the dryness. So we hung out at one of the alfresco cafes facing the corniche and enjoyed a good glass of iced tea (actually several glasses and a big bottle of mineral water) under the cafe's facade. We looked around and there was a table full of "mat saleh" group sitting beside us, also enjoying the heat and the sunshine. The temperature was at 48 degrees celcius. We felt so cool...

Zul and the Huge Rocks

Grand Canyon?

Thermometer

As soon as we got to our senses and sanity again, with the help of the iced teas, we decided to visit the museums in Muscat. There were quite a number of museums and art galleries in Muscat. In my opinion, if a city has museums and art galleries, indeed the city and its peoples have souls and organic growth. We chose to visit a private museum called Bait Al Zubir first. This museum was actually the house of Shaikh Zubair Bin Ali, a wealthy merchant of Muscat during the early 20th century. The house was built in 1914. In fact, the items displayed in the museum were his private collection of the daily items of Omanis like old pictures of Muscat and other regions in Oman, swords, personal affects, clothes, musical instruments, guns, silverware and jeweleries. The items and the information gave us insights of the rich traditions and cultures of the Omanis. No wonder when Marco Polo visited Oman, he called the place "paradise".

Entry Fee 1 Omani Rial

Abu Fatylah (P. Ramlee called it "Senapang Gajah"). 

Guns were amongst the early export of old Muscat

Dishdasha and Khanjar of Omani

It was a shame that we had to cancel the visit to Omani-French Museum because we were running out of time and hungry. So we headed off to the town of Al Khuwairah searching for a restaurant called Bin Ateeq which serves traditional Omani foods. The GPS system in my brain worked this time and we found the restaurant after just a one time miss of a junction. We ordered a local Omani food called "Qabooli Laham" which was a serving of rice cooked with ghee, raisins and mutton. The dish was served in a big iron tray (dulang) in a private room where we can eat while lying on the carpet. We wiped out the tray clean in less than 30 minutes. Amazingly Zul did it whilst texting his wife ! The dish was so delicious and it was worth cracking the GPS in my brain to look for the restaurant.

On our way out from the restaurant I bumped into a guy wearing a suit. He looked like a Malaysian. So I asked him and my guess was right. Apparently he is the Third Secretary in the Malaysian Embassy in Oman. He came to the restaurant together with the Malaysian Ambassador to Oman, His Excellency Datuk Mohd Zamri Mohd Kassim to entertain a group of Malaysian lecturers (Ustaz) who came to Oman for Arabic language courses. I was about to leave the restaurant when the Ambassador came out from a room to wash his hands. I greeted and introduced myself to him and we ended up joining him in his room with his guests. We had a great tea session with the Ambassador and his guests chit chatting about the Ambassador's adventure in Oman. The chance to meet our Ambassador in person really compliment our road trip. At the end of the session we were even invited to join them for a group photo. I thought, had I worn my Motorhead t-shirt that day, that group of Ustaz would have a guy with a Motorhead skull t-shirt in their group photo. Pheww...

Qabooli Laham..settled

Datuk Ambassador cracking his joke

Our journey back to the Oman border post was filled with picturesque view of rural Oman and its dwellings. I kept saying to Zul that the feeling was really like driving in Terengganu. We tried to look for any stall selling local fruits or delicacies but there was none around. But we could see Omani children and youths riding their scooters without helmet, playing football on sandy pitch, hanging around at coffee shops, sitting with friends playing poker and discussing about cars in front of a car workshop. We even saw camels and cows jaywalking by the road sides. It was really a retreat for us from the hustle and bustle of the metropolitan life in Dubai.

We arrived at UAE border post around Maghrib time and proceeded smoothly to my home in Al Warqaa 1. It was a great introductory excursion to Oman and I am planning to do it again in the near future.

Zul was happy to have made the trip before he leave Dubai this weekend. I look forward to do the road trip again with my family and friends. In the meantime.. I will go to work.

Ma'a as Salamah..

I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake. The great affair is to move.

Robert Louis Stevenson
(Scottish travel writer 1850 - 1894)