Ramadan Kareem

It might be a bit cruel to expose this but I can’t be selfish as I need to share it with the world. Working in Dubai during Ramadan month is the best. LOL!

You can’t eat or drink in the public but there are designated areas for these “illegal” activities just as they said “there are places and times for everything”.

I’m currently working from the client’s office, a ½ government owned organization so most of the staffs are Muslim. I can’t drink my coffee or tea on my desk but I can still drink and eat as much as I like inside the pantry.

Restaurants and coffee shops are closed during the fasting period but not those located inside a hotel. My current working station is located in the Dubai Exhibition Centre where there are two 5-star hotels attached to it.

I have been having my “sinful” lunch inside these 5-stars hotels for the pass two weeks, very good food indeed. They even have Mee Goreng, Satay and of cause my favourite Pork Chop.

I felt like I am the most sinful person in Dubai; Having Pork Chop Lunch in the Ramadan Fasting period. The price is slightly higher but I love it, the best pork chop I ever had and sometimes I do had a bit of Red Wine too as it good for digestion.

Forbidden food taste the best!

Another great part about working in Dubai during Ramadan Month is the shorter working hours. My company policies for those who didn’t had lunch can leave office at 3pm and those who had lunch can leave at 4pm, it doesn’t matter if you are Muslim or not. That’s fair!

I am now based on client office and our client is one of Dubai government wings but their policies are not fair. Fasting staffs works from 9.30am to 3.30pm while non-fasting staff works normal hours.

Not fair!

But I’m technically rented out by my company to the client, so I am still my company asset and according to my HR I can leave at 3pm. LOL!

Because I am at client office with “Moh Wong kun”, I come in 8.30am, eat my breakfast, drink my coffee (of cause in the pantry) then sit the washroom for 15minutes before I start a thing called “work”!

I had my lunch at 12pm, the Pork Chop Lunch till 1.30pm then go back at 3pm. Lalalalala!

Work? Ramadan is a partial holiday la! Everything slowed down to celebrate Ramadan and there are plentiful of Iftar Dinner (Buka Puasa) FREE OF CHAGE and it’s not Dog Food.

But all great things will come to an end; this Thursday is the last day of Working Ramadan for me. Is very depressing to know that, when I came back from Egypt everything will be normal again.

I only learn the true meaning of Ramadan from Dubai.

Scary Land of Moses II

Gunmen free foreign hostages seized in Egypt

Cairo/United Nations: Kidnappers have freed 19 hostages they seized in Egypt, including Western tourists, and all are safe and sound, Egypt's Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said on Monday.

The tourists, identified as five Italians, five Germans, a Romanian and eight Egyptians, had been on safari in a remote desert border area, Egyptian officials said.

"They have been released, all of them, safe and sound," Aboul Gheit told reporters in New York before a meeting with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. "It was a group of gangsters."

The kidnapping was the first of its kind in Egypt in living memory, although militants have hit the country's tourist industry in recent decades with bomb and gun attacks that have killed hundreds.

Tourism Minister Zoheir Garrana told reporters the hostages had been taken out of the country.

The tourists were believed to have been seized on Friday from a safari near where the borders of Egypt, Sudan and Libya meet.

Security sources said the kidnappers had asked for 6 million euros ($8.8 million) to free the hostages, they said there was no sign militant Islamists were involved.

The state-run Middle East News Agency (MENA) reported that the group had spent the night of September16 in a hotel in Dakhla oasis in Egypt's Western Desert before heading out toward the Gilf Al Kebir national reserve. They had been due to reach another oasis on Saturday to end their tour, but never made it.

Garrana said authorities learned of the kidnapping after a tour operator called his German wife and told her he was being held hostage with the group. Egyptian state television said those held included an Egyptian border guard officer.

Gilf Al Kebir, the area where the tourists were seized, attracts adventure travelers with bleak desert scenes including a massive crater and the Cave of Swimmers, whose prehistoric paintings were made famous by the 1996 film "The English Patient".

Garrana told Egyptian television the kidnappers were "most likely" Sudanese. He later told Al Jazeera television that the area from which the kidnapped tour operator called his wife indicated that the hostages had been taken to Sudan.

6 million euros ($8.8 million), I bet UMNO wont bailed me out.

Scary Land of Moses

All my friends who went to Egypt complained, they complained about those dishonest tourist guides, those rude tips demanding toilet cleaners and those undying attitude of traders. Going to Egypt sounds more like a war than a holiday to me.

I have seen the Great pyramid and Sphinx millions of time on TV but there is nothing greater than touching and seeing those thousands years old relics personally. That’s why I’m going to Egypt no matter what but from friends’ respond, it just a ONCE in a lifetime kinda trip. You won’t feel like going back for a second look.

According to my housemates, who is an Egyptian the tour guides, tour bus driver and almost everyone else in Egypt live on tips as they got very low salary. No wonder, they demanded tips like Jantan looking for Betina.

Another problem is the sleeper trains which we will spend two nights in it; a FEMALE friend told us that it’s very dirty. Not sure to trust her words or not as I know she is super “yim jin”, she apply four or five types of lotions during the Nepal trip. For UV light, AV light, VV light & etc.

Hope its all start and end well.

Earthquake Dubai Again

It's the 2nd earthquake in a week and I'm worried about all those Super High-Rise Building in Dubai. I really dont understand why they need to build so many Super Tall Structures when they have plenty full of land. The best part about empty land in Dubai is that it's EMPTY, no trees, no grass, Totally Nothing!

I hope all this SUPER HIGH RISE STRUCTURE can withstand all this "little" turmoil.

Petrol Fueled BBQ

It was suppose to be a MID AUTUMN FESTIVAL BBQ, but till 8pm the one that suppose to bring the Arang didnt arrive yet. It was a saturday night and everyone need to work on Sunday le!
With 30+ people waiting with hunger some like me since 6pm...
Even the wild cat beh-tahan also...
And the chicken wings not a bit burn...

We added Petrol Fuel into the Arang....
Not a good idea though, with the fire strong enough to burn down a house.
Finally after some adjustment through WATER... we got our BBQ underway at 8.30pm. LOL!
0ne of the besta chicken wings ever because I was very hungry.
But the STAR of that night still Mooncakesss

Happy Mid Autumn Festival

If not for numerous “Happy Mid Autumn” greetings, I would have still believed that it’s a Moon Cake Festival. LOL! But of all those Mid Autumn Festival I attended, nobody mention about those old legends anymore.

What is the message in the moon cake?

Who is that woman who flew to the moon?

Are we losing our roots?

Thanks to Emirates Cabin Crews, I’m able to taste variety of moon cakes from around the world.

Making New Fren during Mid Autumn

Last Friday night was my first 2008 mid autumn festival and dinner organize by James an office boy turn super rich businessman.

He booked a room with two tables in Spring Bamboo, a Chinese restaurant. It was a perfect time to meet up with friends as I have lost touch with few of them recently.

The dinner was suppose to start at 7am but James was no where to be seen but we were very hungry so Neil order some cold dishes for us. He ordered 5starter which was very China-like dishes; nevertheless we were so hungry we finished most of it.

So a lotta people came, some we also dunno who as we thought that James the young entrepreneur most have a lotta guest, I guessed! Within the 2 tables there were few unfamiliar faces.

When James arrived at 7.45pm, that's 45minutes late, his reason was that he just got his 4x4 Audi and not familiar with the road. We continue with the main dishes which were so delicious I felt like eating again now!

I was sited facing the door, so I see on of James "guest" went out of the room and start looking at the open area and other room fanatically.

I wonder why?

So I asked James, is that your fren?

James said "No, I thought your fren!"

Wakakakaka… That fellow must had gone into the wrong group.

Wakakakaka… Hhoohohohoho

To be fair, he wasn’t those who intended to cheat eat! Hahahaha

He did pay for the dinner as we divided it among 17 of us but he did earn a slice of mooncake which Ray's GF brought from HK! The mooncake wasn’t costed LOL!

I would say it was all James fault, if he didn’t came late; we wouldn’t have thought Ken was his fren.

Well at least we know a NEW fren now… wakakakaka! A really memorable day!