Finally, you get to see some sights of Doha, and the beautiful Corniche.
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2007-12-29
2007-12-25
20071225: Doha Apartment and views
So, it's Xmas and we get to capture some shots of the Adam apartment in Doha.
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2007-12-23
2007-12-22
20071222: Winter Solstice has arrived
The time of the TONG YUEN is here again!
This year, I cannot relish it back home in Malaysia, as I am stuck in the Winter of the Middle East in Doha, Qatar.
I have however found a couple of links for the recipes here and here.
My favourite is the latter one.
The history of the festival can be found here.
If you can't bother jumping to that link, here is a summary:
"The Winter Festival, or Dong Zhi falls on the twelfth day of the eleventh lunar month. It coincides with the Winter Solstice when the sun is at its southernmost point, above the Tropic of
Capricorn - two or three days before Christmas and ten days before the New Year in the Gregorian Calendar. This festival marks the turning point between winter and spring, daylight and darkness. Days begin to gain hours as the sun retraces its path northwards."
20071221: Sunset in Doha
SO what does the dusk bring, when the sun sets so early during the winter months at 4:55pm?
Take a look here:
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Take a look here:
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2007-12-21
20071220: Qatar, Doha, City Centre, Shanghai Garden
Lunch Buffet here at QR39/pax or add QR10 for the dinner buffet.
Met up with some old chums and had a jolly good time.
The food variety was fair, and my only grouse was the lack of Chinese tea in the menu.
Amongst the food served were:
Photos pending
Met up with some old chums and had a jolly good time.
The food variety was fair, and my only grouse was the lack of Chinese tea in the menu.
Amongst the food served were:
- 2 types of starchy soup, including corn soup
- Deep fried Belt fish
- Prawns in tomato sauce (best of the lot)
- Stir fried crabs
- Stewed beef with bamboo shoots
- Lemon Chicken, Sweet & Sour Chicken, Kung Pao Chicken
- Shiu Mai dumplings
- Beancurd with mushrooms
- Fried noodles
- Fried rice
- White rice
- Cold Chinese appetisers (like gizzards, blood, etc.)
- Oily Chinese salad
- Western salad
- Dumplings
- Savoury desserts and pastries
- Agar Agar jelly
- Fresh fruits (grapes and oranges)
- Free flow of cold soft drinks (no water provided)
Photos pending
2007-12-20
20071219: Fish Market, Corniche, Doha
Went for a quick sandwich breakfast before driving over to the Corniche in the Mitsubishi Lancer (fortunately it's on automatic transmission)
Loads of fishermen selling their fresh catch of the day here.
They come in their motorboats to the steps on the Corniche, lay out a canvas sheet and dump all their produce from the ice box.
Visited on both 19th & 20th December, during the Eid Festival.
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Loads of fishermen selling their fresh catch of the day here.
They come in their motorboats to the steps on the Corniche, lay out a canvas sheet and dump all their produce from the ice box.
Visited on both 19th & 20th December, during the Eid Festival.
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2007-12-19
20071218: Back to Doha, Qatar after 18 months!
Off to KLIA again on the ERL using a return ticket, paid with Diners Club.
Managed to use the free KLIA Wifi for a few emails prior to departure.
Lunch was only served at 2pm (Malaysian time) 1hr 50mins after the takeoff.
First time encountered a faulty WC on the Airbus A340 with a 2-4-2 configuration.
Food was fair with 1 lunch and 1 refreshment served prior to touchdown in Manama, Bahrain.
Managed to squeeze in 3 in-flight movies on the pathetic 6 inch LCD.
Watched: Shortcut to Happiness (Jennifer Love Hewitt), Bourne Ultimatum (Julia Stiles) and Stardust (Claire Danes). Yeah, I only noted the female stars!
Landed in Manama about 3pm (Manama time) Transited for 90 minutes before boarding GF514 at Gate 16 for Doha at 5pm. The departure lounge has a Chilli's outlet. More expensive though!
Detected a few Wifi base stations but couldn't connect. Managed to get a 3 pin plug point to charge the notebook until 95% charged status.
Arrived safely in Doha at 545pm on the Airbus A320 (3-3 config) with only a serving of orange juice and a pack of tidbits prepacked in England!
Immigration was swift with the renovated terminal building. Entry for Malaysians is now QR100 providing a 1 month visa.
Was fetched by my new colleague here in his patriotic left hand drive grey Waja.
Scooted off to the Adam Residences apartment. Located at: Lat: 25.2825° Lon: 51.5417°
Nice cosy place nestled on the 5th floor, with a small 20 m pool at the Mezzanine level. After settling in and introduce to 2 new buddies, we went downstairs to catch some grub for dinner. As the nearby Kebab shop was already patronised earlier, the only other option was the Indian restaurant next door, unless you wanted to exercise your appetite another block away.
So the Rolex restaurant provided us with some good food and of course, I took my fresh mango juice.
After tucking in to a QR 44 meal for 3 (which is reasonable, considering the amount we took), we strolled back to the apartment within 5 minutes!
Took a nice warm shower and checked some email! Luckily the apartment has got broadband! Very convenient! Speed ranges from 1 Kb/s to 70Kb/s depending on what time you log in!
Note that the time difference of 5 hours took it's toll on my sanity, and I had to get into bed (super single size) by 1030pm! Good nite!
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Managed to use the free KLIA Wifi for a few emails prior to departure.
Lunch was only served at 2pm (Malaysian time) 1hr 50mins after the takeoff.
First time encountered a faulty WC on the Airbus A340 with a 2-4-2 configuration.
Food was fair with 1 lunch and 1 refreshment served prior to touchdown in Manama, Bahrain.
Managed to squeeze in 3 in-flight movies on the pathetic 6 inch LCD.
Watched: Shortcut to Happiness (Jennifer Love Hewitt), Bourne Ultimatum (Julia Stiles) and Stardust (Claire Danes). Yeah, I only noted the female stars!
Landed in Manama about 3pm (Manama time) Transited for 90 minutes before boarding GF514 at Gate 16 for Doha at 5pm. The departure lounge has a Chilli's outlet. More expensive though!
Detected a few Wifi base stations but couldn't connect. Managed to get a 3 pin plug point to charge the notebook until 95% charged status.
Arrived safely in Doha at 545pm on the Airbus A320 (3-3 config) with only a serving of orange juice and a pack of tidbits prepacked in England!
Immigration was swift with the renovated terminal building. Entry for Malaysians is now QR100 providing a 1 month visa.
Was fetched by my new colleague here in his patriotic left hand drive grey Waja.
Scooted off to the Adam Residences apartment. Located at: Lat: 25.2825° Lon: 51.5417°
Nice cosy place nestled on the 5th floor, with a small 20 m pool at the Mezzanine level. After settling in and introduce to 2 new buddies, we went downstairs to catch some grub for dinner. As the nearby Kebab shop was already patronised earlier, the only other option was the Indian restaurant next door, unless you wanted to exercise your appetite another block away.
So the Rolex restaurant provided us with some good food and of course, I took my fresh mango juice.
After tucking in to a QR 44 meal for 3 (which is reasonable, considering the amount we took), we strolled back to the apartment within 5 minutes!
Took a nice warm shower and checked some email! Luckily the apartment has got broadband! Very convenient! Speed ranges from 1 Kb/s to 70Kb/s depending on what time you log in!
Note that the time difference of 5 hours took it's toll on my sanity, and I had to get into bed (super single size) by 1030pm! Good nite!
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2007-12-09
20071208: Le Meridien, Kuala Lumpur
Just a brief breather and short weekend stint at Le Meridien KL.
Shots of the room and a great buffet dinner at the Latest Recipe restaurant.
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Shots of the room and a great buffet dinner at the Latest Recipe restaurant.
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2007-11-26
20071126: Finally back from Dubai
After a hectic week of project management, buffet lunches and car tyre replacements, I'm back again in my homeland of Kuala Lumpur.
Check out the pictures here:
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Check out the pictures here:
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2007-11-18
20071117: Back to Dubai - for a week
So tonight starts my journey again, back to a cooler Dubai for a week stint!
Journey begins at KL Sentral, took the ERL, checked in at Emirates counter at 1030pm. Got seat 47A, departing from gate C12 at 2:10am! Yawn!
Journey begins at KL Sentral, took the ERL, checked in at Emirates counter at 1030pm. Got seat 47A, departing from gate C12 at 2:10am! Yawn!
2007-11-11
20071110: Vacation in Port Dickson - Disaster and nightmare
A short 3 night stint in our local timeshare package, at the Legend Water Chalets from 7th to 10th November 2007.
Somehow, the happiness was short lived after a terrible THEFT incident! So much for Visit Malaysia Year!
After breakfast on Friday morning, Jessica and I returned directly to our room, as I felt a bit uncomfortable and nauseous.
I took a couple of Panadols and rested until the afternoon, when we decided to have a stroll along the beach. I then searched for my NORTH FACE sling bag, which I then noticed that it was missing. I was definitely not in the car, as I checked there already.
So, the security was alerted and a full report was lodged. We were also escorted by the courteous security officer from the hotel to the Police Station.
All the normal procedures were adhered to including making a graphic report to the sergeant in charge.
His table had 3 thick stacks of files of unsolved cases, each about a foot tall! Talk about small town, but high crime.
According to the sergeant, there is a syndicate roaming around the hotels, targeting tourists (like me!)
My wife, Jessica, then made a comment, which I was unaware of, and this is the THRILLER!
According to her, when I was away to grab some food, some guy tapped her on her right shoulder and alerted her that she had dropped some money.
Not thinking too much, the "notes" were picked up. It turned out to be 2 sheets of FOLDED money.
This was 1 YUAN each. Current street value of the 2 Yuan = slightly under RM 1!
The strange part was, why on earth would we have dropped Chinese money in a Malaysian resort?
Yes, it is true that we recently returned from China, but the strange part is that China is NOW using COINS for all their 1 Yuan denominations. The notes picked up were dated 1999!
Is this a "trick" to fool the victim?
It is suspected that when Jessica picked the notes up, the accomplice would have snatched my bag without her notice!
The security guard mentioned the possibility of "jampi" or "some form of hypnotism" to the extent that:
It is up to you to believe such folklore, but this was most shocking to us.
What irritated us even more, was the fact that millions was spent on the structure of the hotel, but no budget was appropriated for security cameras!
Would you believe it, they DO NOT have CCTVs in the lobby areas!
So this daymare took a good 4 hours out of us, spanning from tea time to dinner time.
We then returned to the hotel to await the arrival of the investigating officer. We met up with his entourage, after we made our way out to dinner, with the intention of trying out seafood at SEAVIEW restaurant, just 5 minutes away from the hotel. When we reached the restaurant, we got a call to return back to the hotel immediately.
This was a blessing in disguise, as if we did not returned, we would have been slaughtered by the SEAVIEW restaurant with their exorbitant prices!
After describing the entire incident again to the team, we then investigated the in-house dinner buffet, which we agreed in unison to dine!
At RM 55 nett, you get a plethora of seafood including crab, squid, fish, scallop cakes, smoked salmon, Japanese sushi, with salmon, beef, veal, chicken, sharksfins soup, seafood soup with clams, mussels, prawns,
vegetables, rice, etc.
It was a no brainer.
Anyway, part of the contents in the sling bag that was stolen is as follows:
Pictures HERE!
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Somehow, the happiness was short lived after a terrible THEFT incident! So much for Visit Malaysia Year!
After breakfast on Friday morning, Jessica and I returned directly to our room, as I felt a bit uncomfortable and nauseous.
I took a couple of Panadols and rested until the afternoon, when we decided to have a stroll along the beach. I then searched for my NORTH FACE sling bag, which I then noticed that it was missing. I was definitely not in the car, as I checked there already.
So, the security was alerted and a full report was lodged. We were also escorted by the courteous security officer from the hotel to the Police Station.
All the normal procedures were adhered to including making a graphic report to the sergeant in charge.
His table had 3 thick stacks of files of unsolved cases, each about a foot tall! Talk about small town, but high crime.
According to the sergeant, there is a syndicate roaming around the hotels, targeting tourists (like me!)
My wife, Jessica, then made a comment, which I was unaware of, and this is the THRILLER!
According to her, when I was away to grab some food, some guy tapped her on her right shoulder and alerted her that she had dropped some money.
Not thinking too much, the "notes" were picked up. It turned out to be 2 sheets of FOLDED money.
This was 1 YUAN each. Current street value of the 2 Yuan = slightly under RM 1!
The strange part was, why on earth would we have dropped Chinese money in a Malaysian resort?
Yes, it is true that we recently returned from China, but the strange part is that China is NOW using COINS for all their 1 Yuan denominations. The notes picked up were dated 1999!
Is this a "trick" to fool the victim?
It is suspected that when Jessica picked the notes up, the accomplice would have snatched my bag without her notice!
The security guard mentioned the possibility of "jampi" or "some form of hypnotism" to the extent that:
- She didn't tell me about this incident until the police report at night
- She didn't notice anyone taking my bag
- I didn't notice that my bag was missing
- I felt uncomfortable after the breakfast, leading to forgetfulness
It is up to you to believe such folklore, but this was most shocking to us.
What irritated us even more, was the fact that millions was spent on the structure of the hotel, but no budget was appropriated for security cameras!
Would you believe it, they DO NOT have CCTVs in the lobby areas!
So this daymare took a good 4 hours out of us, spanning from tea time to dinner time.
We then returned to the hotel to await the arrival of the investigating officer. We met up with his entourage, after we made our way out to dinner, with the intention of trying out seafood at SEAVIEW restaurant, just 5 minutes away from the hotel. When we reached the restaurant, we got a call to return back to the hotel immediately.
This was a blessing in disguise, as if we did not returned, we would have been slaughtered by the SEAVIEW restaurant with their exorbitant prices!
After describing the entire incident again to the team, we then investigated the in-house dinner buffet, which we agreed in unison to dine!
At RM 55 nett, you get a plethora of seafood including crab, squid, fish, scallop cakes, smoked salmon, Japanese sushi, with salmon, beef, veal, chicken, sharksfins soup, seafood soup with clams, mussels, prawns,
vegetables, rice, etc.
It was a no brainer.
Anyway, part of the contents in the sling bag that was stolen is as follows:
- Sony Ericsson K610i grey mobile phone (with my name sticker on the rear)
- My Celcom 3G SIM card (which I have cancelled)
- My Diners Club card (which I have cancelled also)
- My Le Meridien Member card
- MyKad! (Drats! another fine!)
- Legend Worldwide Member card
- Alliance Bank ATM card
- Public Bank ATM card
- Vegetarian restaurant member card
- My Toshiba 1 Gb thumbdrive
- My spare 1 Gb MicroSD card with SD adapter
- My mini tripod
Pictures HERE!
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2007-10-23
20071016-21: Shanghai Vacation
Yay, finally I manage to have a short trip with my wifey Jessica.
Took MAS this time. Can't use Diners Club card in our MAS Golden Lounge though! Sheesh!
Stayed at the RUITAI Hotel, which has INCLUSIVE (free, no additional charge) wired broadband internet at an UNBELIEVABLE (for 2007 standards) FIVE, yes 5 MEGABITS speed!
I was downloading stuff at 500 Kb/s, so talk about infrastructure (and this is NOT in the city centre!)
Wanted to return on Sunday, 20th, but no flights, thus had to take another extra day off!
Loads of photos here:
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Took MAS this time. Can't use Diners Club card in our MAS Golden Lounge though! Sheesh!
Stayed at the RUITAI Hotel, which has INCLUSIVE (free, no additional charge) wired broadband internet at an UNBELIEVABLE (for 2007 standards) FIVE, yes 5 MEGABITS speed!
I was downloading stuff at 500 Kb/s, so talk about infrastructure (and this is NOT in the city centre!)
Wanted to return on Sunday, 20th, but no flights, thus had to take another extra day off!
Loads of photos here:
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2007-10-15
20071014: The iPhone reviewed
Yup, finally got my hands on this piece of superb engineering from the fruity company,
and yes, I am still in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to do this review!
Check out the photos here:
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and yes, I am still in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to do this review!
Check out the photos here:
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2007-09-03
20070903: Back from Dubai
Yahoo! I finally escaped from "Alcatraz"
Talk about uncomfortable living conditions (2 inch mattress), unnutritious food (read - CHINESE food from Chinese village, either full of OIL, Chilli, or salty soya sauce!), excellent entertainment ( 1000 satellite channels from ALL the provinces of China, all in Mandarin, including the dubbing of old Hong Kong movies!, peaceful and conducive washing machines (which rotates at about 600 rpm and has the acoustics of a machine gun!
Pictures soon!
Talk about uncomfortable living conditions (2 inch mattress), unnutritious food (read - CHINESE food from Chinese village, either full of OIL, Chilli, or salty soya sauce!), excellent entertainment ( 1000 satellite channels from ALL the provinces of China, all in Mandarin, including the dubbing of old Hong Kong movies!, peaceful and conducive washing machines (which rotates at about 600 rpm and has the acoustics of a machine gun!
Pictures soon!
2007-08-20
20070822-Dinner at Radisson SAS
Invited by my old Suncon buddy, Mr WOO, from Suncon, Abu Dhabi. Had a great buffet dinner at the 5 star hotel, Radisson SAS, which was formerly the Intercontinental.
Had roast duck, lobster tails, beef steak, lamb and veal steaks, tandoori pomfret, amongst others.
Met up with old chaps, like LIM BL, Ramdani, Ms Toh and Edmund.
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2007-08-18
20070817-Tea time in Burjuman
Met up with Cypark Alumni members for a tea break on a hot sunny afternoon weekend in Dubai, UAE.
Had my mug of green tea, whilst the other chaps had Cappucino and a Mango smoothie (Patrick)
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2007-08-01
E90 arrives in Dubai
The super duper Nokia E90 has finally landed on the shores of Dubai during this super duper hot season.
Here are some shots of this baby!
Here are some shots of this baby!
2007-06-19
Welcome to Paris, er no, Dubai!
All the glitz and glamour which are normally personified by the metropolitans of New York, London and Paris are no longer true.
Welcome to DUBAI, the MIDDLE EAST. Welcome to THEATRIUM!
This is situated in the Royal Ascot Hotel in Bur Dubai!
Shocked? Don't be. This is what all Islamic countries should have, including Malaysia.
Very cheap, prices start from FOUR HUNDRED DIRHAMS only (per person)! (AED 400!) Includes LATE dinner at 9pm, don't worry OK?
The show is > 3 hours, so imagine if u are having fine dining in Lafite, Shangri-La, KL, dinner would cost you at least RM 100 ++ per pax.
So treat the show as RM 100 / hour.
And for that, you have > 50 people entertaining you at any one time (works out to be less than 2 bucks an hour!)
So there you go, enjoy this during the HOT summer nights!
It's not Moulin Rouge, Paris or PatPong, Bangkok!
Don't expect vulgar entertainment or adult strip tease joints here. Pure fine family fun (for over 12 year olds!)
Sorry, I don't get any commission from this, (perhaps I should), just fancied fine entertainment.
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