Winter UAE : Dune bashing & belly dancing

The moment i’m writing this, Nadal just advanced himself to semi-final Australian Open 2012 after beating Tomas Berdych in four sets battle of quarter final. Meaning that, he will meet Roger Federer in semi-final match and i bet it’s gonna be such a mouth-watering match. Yeaayy!! Two of my favorite tennis players will play against each other and if i may recall, it was three years back since the last set up. I don’t have any preferences, in fact i don’t even care who’s gonna win because i just fancy both of them. Ok, enough said about tennis. Let’s just stick to the real topic, about continuing my Emirates venture. And this time, it’s Dune Bashing and ‘tarian gelek’ a.k.a belly dancing episode! The desert safari adventure started at 3.30pm and ended roughly around 9.30pm on the very same day. It’s an Evening Desert Safari and the driver picked us up at the pickup point near Mariah’s apartment. Then, the driver drove us to Al-Ain which located about 1 hour away from the central of Abu Dhabi. There was only 3 of us in the jeep,excluding the driver – me, Lyn and another Indian guest (i could not remember his name). And i also remember, that the driver is also an Indian, from Kerala to be specific who already worked in Abu Dhabi for the past 13 years and he can speak Arabic fluently. One thing that i noticed about the Arab culture, that all Arab mens will wear ‘jubah’ to work. That’s one thing that you can actually distinguish between the true local Arab mens and the foreigners. So, our driver just wore a collared- tshirt and blue jeans – my presumption was right! Once reached Al-Ain area, the driver stopped for a while at the camel farm. That was my first time seeing so many camels in front of my eyes at one time, like bunch of them. People were right when they say camels has a thick and wavy eyelashes. Having seeing that in real life, well i could not agree more on that. Very tall, humphy and stink! Masya Allah, the smell..i just could not stand it. Busuk nak mampus!! With all the urine and the poo-poo all over the places, i need to watch out my every steps.

Tumpuk- tumpuk…tahi unta (Pendekar Bujang Lapok).

Mat saleh is always a mat saleh!

Silly me, i forgot to bring my shades from KL. I know, i know! I thought i did packed the shades into my luggage and not that i realize i just brought the shades box with no shades in it. * slaps forehead* Even though it’s winter but the sun was so bright. Had such a hard time to capture  good pictures with my eyes widely opened. Well, this is the best one we got!

One of the stupid pose with the camel (credits to Lyn for the pic)

Some of the drivers were performing Asar prayer in between the jeeps.

Here we go, the dune bashing adventure started. All the jeeps lining up and ours was leading the group. Wicked!

The dune bashing itself took about 45 minutes with one stop. Basically, the stop is just to cool down the engine as you may realize by now, that the driving method was very rough exploring the dunes. From the beginning, my friend Lyn was a bit nervous as she kept on telling me how scared she was, but for me..i didn’t even feel a thing! I don’t know what’s wrong with me cos throughout the journey, i just feel so sleepy and very much giggling all the way until these  two Mat Saleh mens who joined our ride later on called us the ‘ Giggling Group’! No, no..i ain’t being so stuck up about it or anything. Well, the rides were bumpy but i ain’t scared or anything. Am i heartless? Truly speaking, i don’t know! You tell me! Maybe it was because i’ve done much scarier attempt last time when i traveled to New Zealand- bungy jumping. So, that has countered it all, i guess!

(credits to Lyn for below pic)

The dune bashing continues…

And 20 minutes later, we reached our final stop – the desert camp. The camel ride begin, sand boarding, BBQ dinner and belly dancing yo!

This is obviously not a belly dancing. Just a bunch of Pak Arabs dancing to Arab songs, the routine is very much slow moving in circle formation with tossing up the stick to the air.

Right, this is it- the belly dancing! The dancer just gelek gelek on the stage and then later invited some of the guests to join her ‘joget lambak’. Haha!

No, she does not have a flat tummy like Megan Fox. According to some source, the Arabians prefer the one with the belly cos apparently, they found all the ‘spare tyres’ are very much appealing to their eyes and sexy! Yes, pleasing for them  but not for me cos i do find it’s distracting. Hehe! The belly dance formation also not so erotic and nothing like ‘Goyang Gerudi Inul‘. In this case, Inul took the throne with no exceptional! Hahaha!

We reached Mariah’s crib around 9.30pm later that night. Had shower, napped and packed our stuffs for the Turkey trip and off we to Istanbul on the same night via Turkish Airlines at 4.30am . We supposed to be flying an hour earlier but our flight got delayed. So, stay tune for the next episode which is the main highlight of the trip – Istanbul a.k.a Isketambola , Turkey !

Winter UAE : Nasi Lemak Corniche

I was safely landed at Abu Dhabi International Airport at 12.30am (UAE time). Flew by Etihad Airways was really pleasant, which made me feel pity to MAS at one point. The spacious aircraft, the good services, the fulfilling meals, the catchy in-flight entertainment, the comfort ability, the decent humility and hospitality of the cabin crews were totally unbeatable. Had my 1st night sleep over at Nadia’s crib at this one tower apartment (which i could not remember the name) located at the central Abu Dhabi. Nadia’s  crib is at 31st floor and the aerial view from there is totally amazing (see this!) I slept soundly on the first night and did not had any jet lag because during that 7 hours flight from KL, i did not sleep much . Instead, i occupied myself by watching 3 movies and only napped for 45 minutes throughout the journey. I read the tips somewhere, just to keep up with the jetlag – if you’re flying from the east to west, you should stay awake as much as possible and if you’re flying from west to east, you should sleep as much as you could. And that’s what i did, and it totally w0rks like a charm! It took about 30 mins to reach Nadia’s apartment from the airport and to be frank, I was a bit impressed to see all the sky crappers buildings surrounding Abu Dhabi and how actually they clustering their residences area in town. The idea is totally like New York, where all the apartments or the service luxury condos are located above the offices or groceries market in the same building. The buildings were built so close to each other and in every residence squares, there will be a mosque. So, there’s no chance you gonna miss the prayer time cos you always gonna hear the azan. Really keen about this idea!  The next morning, Nadia took me out and we walked from her apartment to Corniche. The weather and the wind was just perfect for a walk on that day. Had a long chat about life and work while strolling, stopped a few times to take pictures and bought some sandwiches along the way. I had my 1st breakfast at Abu Dhabi near Corniche, just nearby the beach. Awesome!

Later on, Mariah and Lyn joined us at Corniche just when we were about to eat our breakfast.

We just hanged out at Corniche not for too long as we have to rush back to Nadia’s crib to freshen up and off we go to another Malaysian’s house located a bit outskirt from the town. Mariah told me that her friend cooked Nasi Lemak and inviting some friends to come over. Walaaaa!!! Pucuk dicita ulam mendatang.Rezeki jangan ditolak! Hehehe.

I still remember what Marina said at this time ” Iphone ni patut dicampak dalam laut Abu Dhabi je!!” Doinkk!!!

the adorable little Rania

See, how kenyang they look in this picture. The Nasi Lemak memang ade ummppphh!! Punye la sedap..sampai tersandar masing-masing lepas makan. Thanks to the host for the invitation. We did not stay at Lin’s house for too long, as Mariah need to send us to pickup point of Desert Safari at 3.30pm. Till then,stay tune for next episode of Winter UAE – Dune Bashing!

Winter at UAE and Turkey, teaser

Some teasers from my recent winter holiday at UAE and Turkey. Will upload more once i recovered from high fever – i got this on my last day at Turkey, due to non-stop raining at Istanbul, ice rain at Selcuk and first day of heavy snow at Pamukkale. Nice combo! And it even got worse once i reached Abu Dhabi. It was so torturing to fall sick during vacation. *mood deprive*

Aman & Yana

Trying to recall the moment how me and Aman first met, frankly speaking I can’t remember much. I just remember he once tegur me at NEO program at Sheraton Hotel, KL as he said i was lucky to receive such an early invitation to attend the program without having to wait for one for too long. Maybe he was comparing with his situation, i guess. But i was so surprise to get that kind of ‘uninvited hello’ from a stranger, like “who the hell is this guy ?! Do i know you? How dare he say something like that to me and whining all over?” Seriously, i was  totally clueless of who he is ! Until the day i first came to our new office at Cyberjaya and  i saw he was sitting at one of the cubicles that belonged to our team cluster. And i was like….OMG, this guy is my DTS. Darn! *embarrassing dispute, i know* Anyway, that was one year ago. See, how time flies so fast. He’s now someone’s husband. Congrats dude, may you find happiness with your dearie wifey until Jannah. Thanks for having me as your photographer even though it was a last minute call. Not to mention, with quite a few of change of plans at the very last minute too! Haha! Again, happy newly weds to both of you and all the best. Cheers!

The mother and father of the groom *happy faces*

Normally, i don’t prefer posting up group photo (unless specifically asked by the client) but i cant resist this one. just look at the puppy look that little girl in baju kurung purple (sitting at two from the right in the front row position) has. she was all sweating and sobbing in tears refused to look at camera during this session. Awww….poor little girl!