Friday 26 November 2010

round and round we go… not very merry, tho’

i finally applied for an internet connection in my apartment, but went through a whole merry-go-round process that was totally unnecessary! not to mention the amount of money wasted!

ok, here’s the (loooong) story. everyone i talked to (and even in their website), i was told that i’d have to go to the etisalat office to apply for an internet connection. and two of my colleagues even pointed me to the government building near to our apartment, where there’s an etisalat office there.

i was also told that i’d need to have my residency visa first before i can apply. so right after i’ve gotten my residency visa, i made plans to go submit my application. and it being a government building (and etisalat being government-run), i was of the opinion that they follow the normal government office hours. so i waited for my next executive duty* day to go submit my application.

*executive duty is when a manager/director/gm walks about the building after office hours to check on everything and then submit a report on his/her findings the next day. of course, there are other roles and functions, but i don’t wanna bore you with all those stuff. anyway, all managers/directors/gm will go on duty in turns, and on average, each will have 2 days of duty per month. duty starts from 6-11pm, and we’re allowed to come to the office at 12pm the next day.

so the next morning after my duty, with a copy of my visa and passport in hand, i got on a taxi and told the driver, “government building”. he just nodded and started driving. after a while, i asked him if he know where is it. he said, yes. to make sure he really knows it, i even told him that i wanna go to the etisalat office at the government building. he just nodded and said, “ya, ya”.

but then he made a wrong turning at a junction. i immediately told him that the building is in the opposite direction. he insisted that it’s the correct way. i argued that it’s not correct! apparently there are a lot of “government buildings” in dubai, all with etisalat offices, and the driver was bringing me to a further one! long story short, he had to make a few u-turns (coz that’s how the roads are in dubai, don’t ask me why!) and in the end, DID NOT even bring me to the government building that i wanted to go!

instead, he brought me to an etisalat outlet, along the very same main road and only a few blocks away from my apartment! and the fee came up to 40 dirham! i was so mad!! but i didn’t wanna argue with him coz we’ve wasted precious time driving around in circles and i still need to catch the 11am staff bus to the office!

so i paid up the blardy driver and went into the shop. but then the lady at the desk said i’d need a consent letter from my company, coz i’m staying at the staff accommodation. what the…??? the website didn’t mention anything about such letter. and my colleague in hr made a call to the etisalat office a few weeks back, and wasn’t told of such letter!

so i can’t apply without the letter. but i found out that the outlet closes at 9.30pm. ok, so i’ll just go to the office and get the letter from hr, then come again after work to submit my application. i hopped onto a taxi again to go back to my accommodation and the fee was just 7.50 dirhams! but i have to pay 10 dirhams as the standard minimum charge for taxis. 50 dirhams for NOTHING!

then that night, with the company letter in hand, i decided to WALK to the outlet, coz i reckoned it’s quite near. but i underestimated the distance, and ended up walking for like 30 min! so going home, i hopped on a bus instead. coz i already know where i am and where i’m going, and it’s much cheaper! anyway, upon reaching the outlet, i was told that for my building, i can only apply for the eLife package, due to some fibre optic thingy . eLife is basically a package with a higher connection speed, where they also throw in a lot of other useless “perks” like free 20 min international calls, 8hrs of free wi-fi at hot-spots, caller phone id, bla bla bla… things that i don’t really need. when i argued that my colleagues who stay in the same building are under the more basic al shamil package, the sales person said, “no, that’s from last time. now your building can only take eLife.” blardy hell, the cheapest eLife package is double that of al shamil!

but no choice lor. also have to pay for it if i want an internet connection. but guess what? the next day in the office, when i told my colleague about it, she said that was exactly what happened to her previously! but she was put off by the price and didn’t apply. then later she went straight to the etisalat office in the government building, and was able to apply for the al shamil package. she’s guessing that these outlets earn a commission from etisalat for every eLife package sold, so they tell people that their buildings/area can only go for eLife. argh!!! i’ve been conned!

so that night, i made the trip to the outlet for the 3rd time, on a bus. i told them that i’d called up the etisalat office and was told that the al shamil package is perfectly fine for my building (it’s true, i did make that call), and also, my neighbour had her al shamil installed just last week (not really true). so i want them to change my application to al shamil as well. the guy at the desk (the same one who did my application the night before) said he’s already processed my application and i can’t do any changes now. so i told him if it can’t be switched, i’d like to cancel it. he spoke to his colleague in tagalog for a while, clicked on his computer a few times, then said they’re not able to switch the package coz they only sell eLive at the outlet. what the hell??? instead of telling me that they don’t have the al shamil package right from the beginning, and that i’d need to go to the etisalat office to apply for it, they tell all these bullshit stories about fibre optic crap and that the cheaper packages can’t be installed in my building! if this is not a con job, i don’t know what is… and i nearly got conned too!

anyway, i canceled my eLife package and hopped on the bus to go home again… and you know what? as it turned out, all these merry-go-round was totally unnecessary. because when i called the etisalat office earlier that day, i found out that i can actually apply for an internet connection with just a phone call to them from my etisalat mobile number (with no charge some more!), coz they already have my visa and passport info!

so means i needn’t wake up earlier on the day after my night duty, take that super expensive taxi ride, make 3 to and fro trips to that outlet, walk my legs off for one of those trips, or get a consent letter from my company. heck, i didn’t even have to wait for my residency visa! i could’ve applied for it the very same day i moved into my apartment!

a total waste of time and money and energy! apply for internet also have to be so drama! haiz…

p/s: internet connection will take a maximum of 2 weeks to get installed. so yeah, no connection yet!

going chinese…

it was my working saturday (we have to work one sat in a month, on rotation basis) and my colleague, a burmese, suddenly had a craving for hot chinese soup. so she asked me if i wanted to try this chinese restaurant that is reputed to be quite good. being quite tired of all the cold, mostly “indian themed” food served by our staff cafe, i readily agreed.


we went to this restaurant called “china sea” by the creek. all their staff are from the mainland chinese, so you can’t get a more authentic chinese food than that! :)


P1070812 as there were only the two of us, we ordered a pot of seafood + beancurd soup…

P1070813 …and shared a plate of egg fried rice for one person (which we didn’t finish!)

P1070811my bowl of soup… ah, trust the chinese to make good soup!

total cost came up to 60 dirham for 2 persons, including a pot of chinese jasmine tea.

orange, anyone?

P1070501pure coincidence or do i have a secret penchant for things in the orange colour? heck, even my bathroom is in orangey hues! and i definitely didn’t have a choice in the colour of my bathroom tiles!

the bus…

N wanted to see the staff bus that i ride to and from work, which i’ve dubbed “bas kilang”. so one morning, i was quite early with 10 whole minutes before the bus was due to depart and seeing that there weren’t many people on the bus yet, i coolly fished out my camera from my bag to take this shot.

P1070807 the “bas kilang”…

as you can see, it doesn’t look one bit like a bas kilang. it’s just the feeling i get from riding it… well, i guess beggars can’t be choosers. this bas kilang is gonna save me lots of transportation money, so i shouldn’t complaint so much, should i?

Friday 19 November 2010

1st movie in sandland...

i went for my first movie in sandland today - harry potter and the deathly hallows, part 1. even though the cinemas here are damn expensive, i can't possibly miss harry potter! and since i'm not working today, i might as well get it out of my system, rather than letting it sit at the back of my mind...


today i also went on my first metro ride, thinking that i'd be able to save some money from the taxi. so i took a cab to the nearest metro station from my accommodation, then take the metro to deira city centre. but as it turned out, the total fare came to be about the same... :(




30 dirhams = RM25.50 per person!


but even more expensive are their popcorn and coke... a standard size popcorn and standard size coke (both bigger than the regular sizes in m'sia) came up to 34 dirhams = RM28.90! that's like nearly RM60 per person for a freaking movie! good grief, i'd better start smuggling in my own snacks from now on. and to think that coke is so cheap in the market... :(

dhow ride in dibba, musandam

we had 3 days of public holiday this week due to the eid al adha. so on tuesday, 2 of my colleagues and i (we were later joined by one of my colleagues’ friend, a fellow malaysian) decided to make a day trip to dibba, musandam, which is in oman. oman is a neighbouring country to the u.a.e, and is just about 2 hours’ drive away.


P1070740 passing through sharjah, one of the 7 emirates of the u.a.e. i didn’t know sharjah city is so nice, coz everyone’s been telling me that there’s nothing in sharjah. people only stay there because the property is cheap, but most of them work in dubai. but what about this place??

the tour agent’s van came to pick us up at 7.30am at the hotel. but they had to go pick up 3 other groups from around dubai and sharjah, so in actual fact, we only started leaving for musandam at about 9.00am.

P1070743 leaving the city behind us, the landscape is only of the dessert…

P1070745then after a bit, it changed to rocky hills…

P1070753after driving for about an hour, we stopped by this place called “friday market” (even though it wasn’t a friday), which is said to be quite a famous market.

P1070755 there were stalls selling all kinds of fruits, as the soil of sharjah is said to be very fertile…

P1070756other than fruits, there were also stalls selling knick-knacks, pottery, carpets, plants and flowers…

P1070764we stopped again after driving for another 1/2 hour, this time at a scenic spot for some photo-taking. here i’m standing at the edge of a cliff that overlooks the black rocky mountains of sharjah.

P1070765 the van that we traveled in…

P1070769the roads were winding without any street lamp. i wouldn’t wanna be driving here at night! the view at some parts were great, tho’.

P1070771 we arrived in dibba at 11.30am. this is the oman side of dibba, just a few minutes from the border check-point. while crossing the border, our driver kept warning us that we’re not allowed to take any photos. but as it was an eid holiday, the omani border guards let us through quite swiftly. they didn’t even check everyone’s passport! but going back to u.a.e. is a different story. the emirati border guard checked each of our passports thoroughly before letting us through...

P1070774 we got onto one of the many dhows waiting there, and went up to the upper deck. that’s the omani flag, by the way…

P1070775there were deck chairs in the middle of the deck and cushions all around the sides…

P1070777here’s how a traditional omani dhow looks like… as it was a public holiday, there were quite a lot of people. the previous time one of my colleagues came, she said there were only 2 dhows, but this time, we had about 9 to 10 dhows setting sail together!

P1070784the sea was so BLUE! ours was the last dhow to leave, only setting sail at about 12.30pm. and the water was rather choppy that after a while, we got quite tired of the rocking motion…

P1070790 after about an hour, we arrived at a cove with a short stretch of sandy beach. here, we dropped anchor and are allowed to go for a swim in the water. people were just jumping down from the dhow into the sea, even though the dhow was quite high…

P1070792the dhow operators also prepared speedboats to bring us to shore, but they refused to bring the boat closer to shore (like some of the other operators), so we had to wade to shore and get our shorts wet up till our thighs. and it was really crowded there on the beach, plus there weren’t any place for us to sit (other than on the sand), so we decided to go back onto the dhow.

P1070786initially, my colleague and i had planned on going for a dip, but as only i alone wore my swimsuit under my clothes and the toilet facility was rather icky, my colleague lost her mood to change into her bikini. and without any kaki, i didn’t feel like swimming alone. so we just sat around, waiting for lunch to be served.

P1070795lunch was finally served at 2.50pm, coz they waited for everyone to come back on-board before starting lunch. i think they could’ve just let those of us already on-board to get started first, and those who went for a swim or to the shore can join in as and when they come back.

P1070796 instead, we had to queue up for our food…

P1070798after lunch, we set off again for home, at about 3.30pm.

P1070805halfway, our dhow stopped right in the middle of the sea. we thought it had broken down, but actually they just stopped to allow us to do some fishing. fishing lines and baits were provided and a few people in the lower deck gave a few tries. but the sea was even more choppy than when we came and the dhow was rocking violently from side to side, that i felt like i was gonna vomit at any minute! do you think i’d have the mood to fish some more? i just wanna get moving, dammit!

here’s a video of how bad the dhow was rocking. imagine rocking like that for 1 hour plus. i was still feeling the rocking motion even after i’ve arrived home!

P1070806 and the evening sun was streaming in that we kept changing our place on the deck trying to stay away from it!

all in all, i didn’t quite enjoy this trip. i should’ve thought of taking some seasickness medicine before going on-board, but other than the choppy waters, i think the dhow operators didn’t do a good job in the organization. i don’t think i’d be going there again… maybe to khasab, another part of musandam also famous for these dhow rides, but definitely not dibba!


Thursday 18 November 2010

first encounter with sgi-gulf...

after one month in the land of the shimmering sands, i finally made contact with the sgi-gulf. ok, maybe not first contact, coz the first contact i had with them was an sms from a wd here, asking if i’m having any trouble getting an official introduction letter from sgm. apparently, their policy is not to have any contact with anyone claiming to be a gakkai member, until they’ve received an official introduction letter from the gakkai organisation the person was from previously.


anyway, as i’ve only moved to my apartment 2 weeks back, i was only able to provide my address (and other details) to sgm for them to issue the letter. so after giving them an appropriate amount of time (2 weeks plus) to prepare the letter, i asked my ywd from kl on monday morning if they’ve e-mailed it over to the person in charge here. she replied that they’ve already e-mailed the letter, and so i sent an sms to the wd who sms-ed me earlier, asking if they’ve received it. she promptly called me up to say that they did receive, and said she would like to meet up with me in advance, before i attend my first meeting, just to go through with me the guidelines of practising here in sandland.


coincidentally, there’s a recital by a famous guitarist, jason carter, that night and she asked me if i’ll be interested to go watch him play. this artist also gave a recital during a book launch of sensei’s book "the world is yours to change" (in english and arabic) in dubai recently. so apparently this wd and her husband liked his music so much that they’re going to watch his performance that night at a place called "the fridge". but as the wd is a japanese lady, i can’t really understand her english that well and thought that the book launch was going to take place that night itself. so i agreed to go...


she asked me to go to her house in mirdiff, which is right across dubai from where i’m staying. i was rushing a bit, coz i was at ikea earlier (finally!) getting my furniture. and then the taxi driver can’t find the street she mentioned in her sms, so we had to drive around a bit looking for her house and making several calls to her for directions. she was kinda worried when we arrived, coz she was standing outside her house on the street and when she saw my taxi stop, she rushed over to scold the taxi driver! "how much are you charging her?! going round and round like that!" :D


side note: the taxi drivers here are known for doing this "trick". if they know that you’re a tourist or new in town, they’ll try to take the further route so that the meter will give a higher reading and we’ll have to pay a higher fare!


but to be fair, the directions she gave in her sms were kinda vague, and i was the one who told the taxi driver to take the wrong turning. so it’s wasn’t his fault entirely lar... kesian, kena marah by a japanese aunty! :P that taxi ride cost me 35 dirhams (about RM29.75)...


anyway, i met momo-san and her hubby, nick-san (nick is caucasian) in their lovely villa. it seems that momo-san is everyone’s "mom" in the sgi-gulf here. after a brief intro, we did the evening gongyo together and then left the house for the "venue" (which i was still thinking as the venue for the book launch!).


we drove to this industrial area, with factories and warehouses all around... and the venue, the fridge, located in one of these warehouses. and then i realized that this can’t be a book launch, coz we need to pay 50 dirhams (RM42.50) to get in!


jason carter’s recital was scheduled to begin at 8pm, but we got there quite early, at about 7.10pm due to there being not much traffic on the road that day. and apparently, there was another earlier show at the venue, which we caught half of.


people were swinging and dancing in the air! these group of performers call themselves "aerial silk" and as the name suggested, they perform their dance routine on silks hanging from the ceiling...

someone used a very bright flash to take his/her photo, and i just managed to "tumpang" the brightness... as you can see, the fridge is just a big empty warehouse with lighting and sound system for artists to showcase their arts...


then at 8pm, jason carter's slot began upstairs. as i found out, he’s not going to be playing on a guitar, but on a harp guitar! this is my first time encountering this instrument...


it has 18 strings, the top 6 being the bass, the middle set of 6 are the normal guitar strings and the bottom 6 are the treble. interesting... i couldn't wait for the show to start!


this is how a harp guitar is being played... sorry if you can't really see the artist, coz i didn't wanna block the people behind me by standing up to take a photo.


for more info about jason carter, see his website here


anyway, i met 2 more gakkai members that night at the fridge, an italian girl and also another fellow malaysian ywd! never mind that i’ve never met her in m’sia before (she’s from pj)...


so that's my brief encounter with gakkai people here. we'll be having a gosho study meet next week and there's a chanting session every monday night at momo-san's place.

Sunday 14 November 2010

more bits of dubai…

1. the people here don’t keep their appointments. they don’t come at the time they said they’ll come and they don’t bother to inform us about it! below is an sms relay between me and my colleague, regarding an event involving one of the local socialite here.

colleague: hey, not sure if you’ve heard, but the event for this evening is canceled. hope you didn’t miss your camping trip!
me: nope, on my way to camping now. event canceled due to what?
colleague: no reason given. welcome to dubai!


2. contrary to popular belief, not everything here is expensive. i bought this can of coke for only 1 dirham! that’s about RM 0.85! it’s the same price at any supermarket or vending machine. of course, if you order it in a pub/bar/restaurant, then it’s a totally different price range altogether!

P1070722

3. one challenge for me here is to learn to recognise the money!
P1070721not sure if you can see the faint red circles on the top left hand corner of each note, but they’re all in arabic!

P1070719 lucky thing they have it in “normal” numbers on the other side! i’m missing the 50 dirhams note here but apparently, they’re rather similar in colour to the 5 dirhams note. i’ve been warned about this by a few well-wishers already…

P1070727 and here are the coins, in 3 denominations…

P1070728 but we’re not as lucky with these coins, coz they’re only in arabic… the top one is 1 dirham, bottom left is 50 fils and bottom right is 25 fils.


4. one thing i find freaking expensive here is the taxi! maybe i’ve been driving for too long and have been out of touch with the market price for cabs, but i still can’t get over paying 18-25 dirhams for a one way taxi ride of about 4 km! i better not miss the 8am staff bus to the office every morning, or i’d be broke by the end of the month!


5. even though i have a spacious balcony, i can forget about sun-drying my laundry out in the open. the amount of fine sand that collects on any open surface in just one day can be really mortifying! and i’ve also given up trying to clean my balcony… no point going against the elements!


6. it’s either there’s something wrong with the taste buds of the people here, or my taste bud has gone bonkers, but i find the food served at the staff canteen are extremely salty! the salty dishes are still ok, coz we eat it with rice. but the soup are something else. they might as well call it salt soup, instead of french onion soup or fish soup or chicken cream soup or whatever soup. at first i thought it’s just salty for that day… maybe the chef has a cold and can’t taste properly. but after a few days’ of trying out the different soups served, i’ve given up having soup from the staff cafe. just stick to plain water!


that’s all for now. stay tuned for the next episode of “bits of dubai”, brought to you by “bits and pieces of me”! :P

Friday 12 November 2010

could be dead, for all i know!



my phone's been so underutilised that if it weren't for the breather light, i'd really think that it died on me! gone are the days when i get unlimited data usage, where i receive my e-mails when i'm not sitting in front of a computer, log on to facebook when i'm bored, upload photos taken with my phone to facebook in real time, chat on msn, yahoo and gtalk on fring mobile and use the gps when i'm lost! now my phone is only used for making calls, receiving calls and texting. and that also don't happen very often nowadays... i can go for one whole week without charging my phone, whereas previously, i'd need to recharge my phone nearly everyday! seriously, after 7 freaking days, i still have about 1/4 power left! now only i know that my nokia battery can last THAT long...

sand in your ears…

and everywhere else! that’s what camping in the desert will give you… which was what i did last weekend! that’s one item off my list of things to do here. i just didn’t expect it to happen so soon! :)


anyway, this camping trip was organized by sf and a few of the malaysian airlines crew (not MAS crew, but airlines crew who are malaysian!) in dubai and abu dhabi. so all the people participating in this camp are malaysians, and all of them are from the aviation industry and their family. except for me, that is!


*warning, loooong post ahead!


P1070511 sf’s car, filled to the brim!

the ooi’s came to fetch me from my office after work on thurs evening, and i spent the night at their place. we departed from dubai at 12.30pm on friday, and met up with the rest of the cars from dubai at a petrol station just outside dubai.


P1070516happy and excited to be going camping!

P1070519the only landscape for the whole journey after leaving the city of dubai behind us

P1070523 after driving for about 1 hour plus, we arrived at at al falah. here, we waited for the convoy from abu dhabi.

P1070524 the kids didn’t waste any time to start their adventure… here, they were searching for bugs… they were so excited when they caught a beetle! real city kids… :)

P1070528after the group from abu dhabi arrived, we continued on our journey another 1/2 hour before going into the desert…

P1070532 after a bit, we had to stop to deflate the car tyres to increase the friction of the tyres on the desert sand.

P1070535 deflate to about 15 psi…


P1070538our camp leader even brought along the jalur gemilang as his car marker!

P1070546 after deflating the tyres, we went in search for a suitable campsite. actually our camp leader did a few trial runs before this trip and had already identified the perfect site for us, which he’d marked on his gps… such a dedicated and pro camp leader, huh?


P1070549 the patterns on a sand dune caused by the wind…

P1070559 this dune was right behind our camp, or more specifically, right behind my tent, acting like some sort of wind breaker. the kids loved to climb up and slide down it… don’t ask me where they get their energy. just looking at it is enough to make me pant from shortness of breath!


P1070560while the kids went to get themselves coated in fine sand, the adults started unloading the stuff from the cars and set up camp. it’s about 5pm now and everything must be up and ready before the sun sets and cloak us in total darkness!

P1070561 ta-dah, my 3-men tent! but i think can 3 person will be a tight fit. probably just 2 adults comfortably. but boy, was it hard to set up… it was very very windy at the time. right after i’ve got the structure up and was about to start pegging it to the sand (which was damn difficult coz the sand was very loose!), the wind just picked my whole tent up and blew it away like a kite! i was running like mad trying to catch my tent before it got blown away further! so memalukan, i tell u! and luckily sf was thoughtful enough to buy extra pegs for me (big and long ones too!), which helped to anchor my tent safely… *phew*


P1070567 after setting up camp, most of the adults drove off again for some offroad adventure in the dunes. i didn’t follow, coz i tend to get carsick easily. so i just stayed behind with a few of the wives to watch the kids. here’s sf driving off into the sunset (ok not really, they were actually driving in the opposite direction of the setting sun), the only woman driver among the offroaders…

P1070573 i love this shot! doesn’t it remind u of a scene from “the kite runner”?


P1070577while waiting for the offroaders to come back, we heard some quad riders riding about near our camp. so the wife of our camp leader, ayuny, asked us to see if we could hail one down so that she could give it a go. actually i wanted to try it too, but i shy lah… :P

P1070587sun on the horizon at 6pm…


P1070597 finally disappearing at 6.30pm…

P1070607it’s already getting dark in the camp. time to light up the torches…

P1070599  campsite at 6.30pm…

P1070618campsite at 6.40pm…



P1070626 with night fall, it’s time to prepare the food…

P1070623 as well as have a bonfire going, as temperature in the desert can drop drastically at night


P1070641 we had lots of food! bbq chicken, beef & mutton, prawns & squids. and some of the wives prepared fried mihun, salad and fruits for the kids, which we all had some too while waiting for the bbq stuff to cook…

P1070629at about 9pm, after we’ve done stuffing ourselves with food and couldn’t take in anymore, it’s time for teh tarik! here, ayuny is setting up the gas stove to boil water…

P1070646 and here’s me helping to stir the milo for the kids…



P1070638 while at another corner of our camp, the shisha station is also being set up!

P1070655 the temperature at midnight was about 22-23 deg C. at first, all of us were sitting in small groups scattered around the camp, but as the temperature kept dropping, all of us ended up sitting around the bonfire to keep warm. even the sand is cold under our feet (i’ve long since given up wearing my slippers) and i had to dig my feet into the sand to get to the warmer bits underneath.


i think i slept at about 1am that night, after going for a final pee in the desert! haha… everyone must be wondering about this. well, we just walk off with our torchlight to the other side of a dune, switch off our torchlight and do what we had to do. then when done, switch on our torchlight again to walk back to the campsite, making sure to avoid the wet patch. for me, this was a first. it felt really weird to be peeing right out in the open, under the stars! :P


and boy, there were stars alright! a sky full of stars! from horizon to horizon! and a captain among us taught us how to identify the northern star and learn where the north is from it. how cool is that?


P1070663 the next morning, i woke at about 6.30am to the sounds of children playing. again, one can only marvel at their energy level! i did sleep a bit during the night. i only remembered waking up 2 or 3 times from being too cold! anyway, the sky has already lighten up when i finally decided to leave the warm confines of my tent. and the campsite was already bustling with activity…

P1070661 breakfast was being prepared…

P1070669 nasi lemak! what more can a malaysian ask for in the desert?

P10706709.30am: after breakfast, it’s time to break camp before the sun got too hot…

P1070672while we were packing up, we realized that we had a visitor… a camel herder was just reclining on the sand, observing us from some way off. so we decided to show him some m’sian hospitality by offering him a plate of nasi lemak, a can of ‘zero’ coke and a box of juice…

P1070683 camel herder enjoying his ‘zero’ coke… later when he came to give us back our paper plate, coke and juice, we wanted to give him more food (our leftover food) but he declined, making a gesture with his hand on his stomach showing that he’s had enough. we asked him where are his camels, but apparently he don’t speak english



P1070689 after everything’s packed up and loaded into the cars, we gathered the kids around this square of sand for some “science experiment”. this was where the bonfire was and one of the guys have covered the pit up with sand. but as the bonfire had been burning for more than 12 hours, it should be very very hot down there. so if we were to pour water on it, the water should sizzle and smoke, giving off a volcano effect!

P1070695 but however much water was poured on it, nothing happened! experiment failed! :D

P1070704 before parting ways, we lined up the cars for a group photo. even this took a bit of time, coz first, we had to consider the direction of the sun and where we wanted to face. and secondly, it was really difficult getting the cars to go exactly where we wanted it to be! a few cars got stuck in the loose sand and had to do a few tries before we were able to line up all the cars…

P1070708leaving the desert at about 11am… yes, the desert is fenced up!


P1070710the nearest petrol station was about 30km away, so that’s how far we had to drive before we’re able to inflate the car tyres again…

all in all, this has been a super uber great experience! initially, i was of half a mind to give this a pass, coz i’ve been really tired that week due to my move to the apartment, all the cleaning, getting organized, and not to mention being a busy bee at work! luckily i didn’t, coz i’d definitely regret it!
other than a few camping newbies (me one of them!), most of the people in the group are experienced campers. they have all the camping equipments, know what to do, where to go… really the pros!


even though i don’t know anyone there, other than the ooi’s, and most of the time was just in the sidelines listening to the conversations around me, not saying nor doing much, i’ve really enjoyed this trip. so would i do it again? definitely yes! but not so soon lar… maybe in a few months time! :)



click here to watch how offroad driving looks like in the desert. or go to my fb for more photos!