Sand, Rock and Grass - We Play Them All!

While Q is having fun in Vietnam, I stayed at home and participated in a few of rather interesting events during my work (i.e. job searching) breaks: Desert Challenge, hiking trip in Oman, and Abu Dhabi Golf Championship.

My friend G and I went to the Desert Challenge as valued customers of our bank, which was one of the key sponsors. It was an annual off-road rally with vehicles of different categories driving up a 300-meter-high sand dune with, take this, a 50-degree incline! The goal is to get the fastest time - sounds simple enough, but it turned out as a new driver, I didn't have a good level of appreciation of how difficult it was until the first two cars blew up their engines before even reaching the half-way point. I was told the engines were about 800-900 hp each, lasted about 30 hrs for their life cycles, and cost some ridiculous amount of money. It is one of those AD phenomenon - so environmentally unfriendly and bizarrely intensive, I found myself having trouble pulling away from it at the end of the night. Among the total of about 40 carts and 4x4s, my estimate is that about 1/3 of them managed to blow up their engines spectacularly - including the winning 4x4 just before it crossed the finishing line. FYI, the fastest time was around 9.7 seconds. G joked that his second-hand jeep wouldn't even be able to do that fast on a paved flat road. Here is the video clip of some guys practicing before the actual competition and here are some photos. Yep, that's sand play for ya.



A few weekends ago, a few other friends and I went to Oman together for a hiking trip. It was our first time, so we took it easy and enjoyed a 4-hr round-trip hike to an abandoned village. The area we were in was know as the local Grand Canyon - a lot of bare rocky mountains with sharp and huge drops. At night, the temperature dropped to just above freezing, and it was actually terribly cold - I think my body got acclimatized a bit too quickly. Here is the photo album. That was us playing in the rocks.

Then this weekend I volunteered at the AD Golf Championship which was hosted at the AD Golf Club. I am not a gulfer, in fact, I often spell the word wrong (so much for having a spellchecker!). I did it for a nice walk under the sun and an opportunity to meet other community members. AD shocked me again with a green grass covered 18-hole golf course - I couldn't believe my own eyes when I first saw it! I was assigned as one of the marshals (that's the people holding the "Quiet" signs and walked the course with assigned pair of golfers). For you golfers out there, I was with Darren Clarke and Padraig Harrington. All in all, it was a pleasant day and I did manage to talk to a few expats, but not too much since most of the time I had to hurry and catch up. Here is the photo album, and that's fun on the grass.
Besides the above events, a few things worth mentioning include: watched a Dutch movie "Ober" at a European Film screening - international movies are rare opportunities here and are much appreciated by film junkies like myself; offered a casual beginner salsa lesson to a few friends taught by yours truly at our apartment; and survived driving in a terribly-flooded Dubai after some record amount of rain (see photo below): 500 car accidents were reported by 10 am of the rainy day within the city and I saw at least a dozen crashed cars in about 100 km highway stretch!
I shall continue to survive and update you with more "interesting" stories from Abu Dhabi.

Thoughts on Bush's UAE Visit

When I stay over at someone else's home, personally I'd like to have as little impact to their normal life as possible - that's the least I can do to show appreciation to their hospitality. The US President G. W. Bush obviously does not think the same way.

Dubai made a public holiday yesterday (Monday) due to Bush's visit in UAE. It sounded all nice at first, but really it's because of some major road closures and motorists were "advised" to stay home and not to drive on that day. And the "holiday" was only announced one day ahead, that's right. This is the gridlock caused because of the unannounced road closures. Not to mention the other visiting tourists have to revise their travel plans.


And this is Mr. Bush's convoy of vehicles. Nice. ...I know who NOT to invite to my home.

P.S. For the record, this posting is by no means political. It is a basic courtesy discussion. Cheers!

A quick update before...

...I fly to Vietnam!

My bag is packed... well, two bags. One for clothes, one -of course- for my camera equipment. Well under 15 kgs, I'm happy! I fly in under 9 hours!

Okok, so I haven't really updated anyone with what's been happening for more than a month now. So here's the quickie!

Last days of November and first few days of December was my trip to Kuwait! Or rather, to the Ruis' family... hehe, because I ended up spending a whole lot of time with my friend Erik, his wife Marlène and their oh-so adorable daughters Marlo and Evie, and not so much exploring Kuwait. But it was great fun, I had my first-time-out-of-The-Netherlands Sinterklaas celebration, and yes, he visits Kuwait too, I even saw him in person (although no gift! I must have been bad this year ;)
And I got my first 'off-road' driving experience (in the passenger seat, Erik was having wayyy too much fun ;)
Thanks again, guys, for having me over! And a big HUG for Evie and Marlo!

Then we had our second overseas visitor -> my mom! She stayed for a whole week, and not a moment got wasted. We did the sites in Abu Dhabi, went to Dubai for a day, saw the desert, cooked, cleaned (thanks), met people. Fun filled. And we were seriously pooped when she left. But all was good, and it gave my mom the chance to have a look at the new city we live in, the apartment we have, the new friends we met.

On the 18th of December... tragedy :( on my way to work I had an accident with 'the Lexus'. I had to do an emergency break due to a car that had stopped in a different lane, and other cars wanting to enter my lane. The car behind me wasn't able to stop in time, and he hit my car. I'm doing ok, 'the Lexus' not so good. We've been without ever since... annoying.The whole theatre after the accident with calling the police and the towing service is a story in itself, but I'll tell that one another time. Let's suffice to say that Shu's experience with the police when she had her fender-bender was not a one-off... (me calling the emergency number: 'I have had an accident with my car on Salam Street between 23rd and 25th!', person on the other side: 'I don't understand!', and this went on and on and on and on... *gosh*)
Anyways, we're waiting for the go-ahead from the insurance company. Don't know why it would take this long, either the guy's insurance pays (which they should, I got the 'pink slip', which indicates that I was not at fault), or mine does, either way we're insured. But it doesn't work that way, so patience's the word.

Christmas and New Year were great fun. Spent a lot time with friends -and in the kitchen-.
And we ---finally--- have put up things on our walls -> paintings, display cabinet, wall rug, and much, much more. It feels more and more like home! (thanks again Mike and Lorri for 1-0-1 on drilling and hanging stuff!)

So... what's next, I hear you ask. It's Vietnam!
It'll be me-myself-and-I, Shu wanted to continue looking for a job (and landing one too). I fly to Bangkok tomorrow, stay there for one night, then fly to Hanoi the next day. No plans yet, I have my ever-faithful Lonely Planet to help out and plenty of tips from friends. Can't wait! Any tips are welcome of course ;)

2007 Review and 2008 Forecast

Many of you have asked us how the Christmas celebration was like in this part of the world. Well, let's just say the consumerism is well-globalized phenomenon. There was full-blown ad campaign to encourage holiday shopping just about everywhere. Snow domes and Santa Clause photo booths can be spotted in just about all major shopping malls. For X'mas Eve, we had a few friends over for drinks. And on X'mas day, Danielle and Johan from South Africa kindly hosted an outdoor party at their place and other guests include friends from Wales and Switzerland. here's a photo taken from our X'mas day meal. The temperature was in mid-20s, so no snow. ;) There was a constant stream of jingle-bell music and they even had a little x'mas tree. All in all, a very cheerful celebration.


Looking back, 2007 was a wonderful year for us, and I can't agree with Q more - we have all our family and friends to be grateful towards - thanks again for all your support! As for our new year's celebration, initially I was so caught up in job searching that I didn't even want to do anything. But a day before that when I was writing one of the "Happy New Year" emails, it occurred to me how much we have accomplished in 2007! It overwhelmed me to recall our experience with moving to AD, and just amazing and exciting people we have met through my/our trips in Central Europe, Indonesia, Sigapore and Abu Dhabi(Obviously!). After this realization, we toasted to 2007 with lotsa bubbles, enjoyed an amazing four-course dinner by Chef Q, together with a couple of friends from Edinburgh. It was a very cozy and great celebration! Here is a photo of the main course with Stephanie and Richard enjoying it! For the foodies out there, it's pea risotto with fish fillet and homemade sun-dried tomato. YUMMMM!)

Another worth-mentioning event was that 2007 ended with a loud bang, literally. Q is overdued with his report, but I will give everyone a little hint - it involves our beloved Lexus. ;)

Looking ahead at 2008, we expect more family and friends to visit AD, and explore more places ourselves. So far Q has a two-week trip to Vietnam coming up, and we both will go to the Philippines in February for the family reunion. The rest of trips will follow in due time and I am sure we'll find ourselves in the middle of nowhere pretty soon. ;) As for me, I am also very excited about wrapping up my job searching soon and hopefully starting to work within January. I will post separately about that since I am sure some of you would want to know the juicy bits in detail.

All in all, in 2008 we will continue following the wise words of Mr. Mark Twain:"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in you sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." (psst, Q: I don't see an "Xbox" anywhere in the trade winds, do you? ;)

Happy New Year and Cheers, Everyone!

Happy holidays from Abu Dhabi!

We wish everyone a smashing 2008!


As tradition has it, I've put up my Filipino Parol! (Not that anyone except from the people in the building across from us can see it, since it's up on the 10th floor, but it's the thought that counts, eh? ;)
Here's some more exuberant versions from the Philippines:



We'd like to thank everyone for their support of our big step moving to Abu Dhabi this past year! We could not have done it without all of you! We miss you all dearly, and we extend a warm welcome to anyone who'd like to come visit! :)

Observations on driving in U.A.E. - part I

When cars -be it 10 or 100- are waiting in front of a 'robot' (as my South African friends call it so endearingly), or traffic light as we call it, and the light turns green, the last car, all the way in the back, will simultaneously -as if magically connected to the traffic light- honk his horn to let everyone know that the light actually has turned green and is his way of showing his displeasure at the fact that no one has started moving yet.

My First Car Accident

First let me assure you that nobody was hurt during the event, now here is the whole story of my first car accident. :)

A bit of background on the car situation. Remember Q has a nice shiny Lexus? Well, I wasn't comfortable driving it since I was still a very new driver and AD traffic is crazy and dangerous (this in itself should be a tourist's attraction). As a workaround, we got a Ford Focus rental car recently just for me to practice and get more comfortable. Very important to know: we made sure the rental had zero deductible.

So last Tuesday night, when I came back home with the Ford Focus, I tried to find a parking spot. Here is the bit with parking here - it is always a headache since underground parking is scarce and with all the surrounding apartment buildings, it can be a problem to find a spot. It's very evident in the photo below: parking lot block is further divided in the middle with a line of parked cars, narrow streets are further narrowed with parked cars, people often blocking others, etc etc.

Anyhow, so I was trying to find a parking spot, and I went into the left lane of a parking lot - realizing then I was against traffic, but I thought to myself, "what the heck, it's 1 am, there shouldn't be any cars around, I should be down at the end of the parking lot in no time." And I was wrong. Just as I was reaching to the end of the parking lot, a SUV pulled up, and nope, it didn't wait for me to exit either, it just barged in and forced me into reversing all the way out of the parking lot. I have to admit I got a little impatient, and half way out of the parking lot, I reversed right into a parked car's rear end. I can't tell you how stupid and upset I felt at that moment.

Still very shaken, I managed to park my car and inspected the damage. Well, the first thing I noticed was that the parked car was another nice shiny Lexus! :-O There were some paint scratches at the corner of the bumper, but the victim car was still in good shape. Similar story with mine, except my bumper came out a little on the side. Well, here in UAE regardless of the scale of an accident, even if it's just a small scratch against a wall, a police report is required before any mechanic could work on the car. So I got over the shame and made myself call the police (999). It turned out by the end of the night I made a total of 4 emergency phone calls!

The first call is to report the accident and location. The second call is to tell them that they drove past me and had to come back. (Recall in AD there is no street address, so spotting someone in a sea of car pools is pretty tricky especially at night. I was waving my arm like a mad woman - oh dear, what a scene!) I was very lucky that at least one of the two police officers spoke decent English, but I was told that my car's registration sticker had expired (the darn sticker was in Arabic numerals, ack!), and I had to go to the police station with them, right away! After talking to the rental company and the police again, it seemed that I had no other choice, so I decided to follow the police car to the station. But before I managed to pull my car out, the police car took off so fast that you'd think they were practicing their Die Hard moves. So lost and confused, I made the third call to the police hotline, asking for direction. That turned out to be a disaster since they couldn't tell me where the police station was other than that's on MuroorYonge street in Toronto - going for miles. In the end, I was told to go home and sleep, and call in the second day morning. Fine. After I reparked my car, as I walked away, I noticed that my driver's license was missing! Of course the police officers took it! So I had to call the emergency number a fourth and last time. At 3 am, I was finally back at home, unscratched, but without my driver's license nor police report, and then I realized I had no idea what the police officers' names were. Yah, I was definitely having a blond moment. (FYI, Q was on night shift when all this happened.)

The second day turned out much better. Q talked the rental company into sending a car to take me to the police station and help sort out all the paper work. Later that day I went to the rental car and swapped for a Mazda 6, which I drove off with the hand brake on and only realized after Q helped troubleshoot over the phone. *Sigh.* I figured the more mistakes I make, the more I learn, right?!

So all in all, nobody was hurt, I didn't have to pay for any of the damages, I have a police report as souvenir even though I can't read it since it's all in Arabic (see photo below), and there were a lot of lessons learned.


Other than the car accident, there are a few other things as well, like my first job offer (but I declined nicely), Q's trip to Kuwait, our first couchsurfing guest, and in three days, Wads (Q's mom) visiting AD! So, more to come, stay tuned... :)

Shu Means What

This is the conversation I had with a Scottish I met at a salsa brunch yesterday afternoon.

Scottish:"So what's your name?"
Shu:"Shu - it's a Chinese name."
Scottish:"Shu means what?"
Shu:"Comfort."
Scottish repeated himself:"Shu means what?"
I repeated myself:"Comfort."
Scottish repeated himself again.
By now I was seriously confused, and then it finally occurred to me - I only found out recently that "shu" meant "what" in Arabic!!

Well, I guess it could've been worse. :)

p.s. On a separate note, apparently not everyone on our mailing list has been receiving our email spam. FYI, Q and I are looking into the problem. Thanks for your patience.

Indonesia is Incredible!

Back in Toronto amusement park, there's this giant wooden rollercoaster that is extra scary because it can get oh-sooo-shakey, well, imagine doing that for 3 weeks, without the safety buckle - that's how Q and I bumped our way with a Honda Tiger 2000 through Indonesian islands! ;) Even though Q was an off-road virgin prior to the trip, by now he has become somewhat experienced, after a burnt-out clutch and a flat tire, both in the middle of nowhere!

During the three weeks, we essentially submerged ourselves into the rural villages and fields of the beautiful country side. I was surprised to see how organic and agricultural the life was there - we barely saw any building with more than one level! The people are very adorable, warm, friendly and, most importantly, happy! Of the four islands we travelled through (Bali, Lombok, Sumbawa and Flores), we spent over a week on the volcano-dotted Flores and it was also our favorite - gotta love the fact that the only time we had hot water bath during the week was at a hot spring. :) Don't get me wrong, it definitely wasn't an easy country by any means - the group experienced corruption, sun burn, starvation, dehydration, heat stroke and lotsa and lotsa delays. Read this solo motorcyclist's story for a better idea. On the side note, the local mosquitos had a feast over my sweet blood - at one point my bite count was over 100! Oh well, the lesson learnt is not to leave the essential purchases for the destination country - in a country like Indonesia, good luck finding contact lens solution! Here is the photo album with ~260 pics. The trip was organized by MotorTrails.nl, which means we travelled with a few other Dutch: Rob, Nicole, Erwin, Simon, Jeroen, Jan, Micheal and Joost. They were great companions and made the trip even more wonderful! Thanks to Joost for being the best tour guide there is for Indonesia. Thanks to Erwin for still laughing and singing even facing the hardest situation. Thanks to Simon for the wonderful smiles from Day 1! Thanks to Rob for being the team mechanic. Thanks to Jeroen for all the Amsteram-style funnies, including giving me a new nickname - "Spongebob"! And finally thanks to Q for driving me through all the distance and telling me that "I'm not leaving you behind!" :) Here's the team photo:

Now that we are back, Q already went back to his regular work schedule. Since I have done my fair share of travelling, I have decided that it is time to settle down more and start job searching. Wish me luck! :)

Joy in Thailand

After months living in Abu Dhabi, Q and I took our first together-trip to Thailand. Even though it was quite short (only six days), it was joyful nevertheless, filled with - you guessed it - food. Anyways, photos are worth a thousand words, so here they are, all through Q's observing eyes (In case you are wondering, I left my camera at home thanks to my blondeness).

As for impression of the country, we both felt that we barely scratched the surface, and will definitely go back for more. To me, it was even a bit interesting since it's my first Asian country outside China, it was, different yet familiar. I was relieved to see the Thais seemed to have done a better job in preserving the some traditions, but just about everywhere supermarkets are popping up, cornering out the local markets, so maybe it's just a matter of time.

With just a few days back home, we're itching to set off on a month-long journey in Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia. Should be very exciting!!!