A Short Weekend At Tanjong Jara Resort

After Pangkor Laut Resort and Gaya Island Resort, the next resort on my list would naturally be Tanjong Jara Resort. After much consideration, I decided to book a room there for 10-12 February 2017, mistakenly thinking Thaipusam fell on Friday. I had booked and even bought bus tickets to Dungun (I did consider flying to Kuala Terengganu but I would need to take a cab to town and then wait for the next bus to Dungun whenever that would be so ditched that plan) when I realised that Thaipusam would fall on Friday and not Thursday -which meant I had to apply for leave of course. I did consider changing my check-in and check-out dates but the resort was filling up and prices had gone up too for a few weekends that I checked. So in the end I decided to stick to my plan.

Friday, 10 February 2017

The bus was supposed to depart at 09:30 but we only left after 10:00 and had to stop to fill up barely five minutes into the journey. I was expecting a stop at Temerloh R&R but we continued on. We only stopped after a toll plaza to use the facilities and shortly after at Warung D’Nie for a lunch break that was supposed to be only 30 minutes. Well, we only continued our journey 50 minutes after we stopped.

I had booked seat 1C to sit all by myself and across the aisle from me were two men from mainland China who kept on talking ever so loudly. So uncultured and uncouth!

I asked if the driver could let me down by the road near CB Wee Restaurant and he obliged. I got down near a bus stop and walked in to the resort. It took only five minutes to get to the resort entrance and it was a fine day (it was initially forecasted to rain). Terengganu was still in the grip of the monsoon season then and some areas were still experiencing floods.

The guard checked off my name and I continued on to the reception. Somehow the staff were alerted to my arrival for one of them hit the gong. I laughed, pleasantly surprised at this gesture. Check-in was a breeze and I was given a cool scented towel followed by a glass of refreshing Roselle drink and a miserable piece of kuih cara. I asked if I could have a late lunch and at first was told that they stopped serving lunch at 5 p.m. I pointedly looked at my watch and said it wasn’t 5 yet and after checking, they decided to let me have a late lunch. So I had mine at Teratai Terrace. While waiting for the food, I walked around taking pictures and even ventured to the beach. My, the sea was very rough. Well, at least it was windy. I find it strange that many beaches are hot and breezeless.

After a satisfying lunch, I was shown to my unit. I was lucky that my room on the upper floor (Bumbung Room) had a good view of both the garden and sea as some Bumbung Rooms don’t get a view of the sea at all. Alhamdulillah.

After performing prayers, I went for a walk around the resort. I bumped into some couples and was told at the reception that they just arrived in their Porsches and Ferraris (I then saw the cars just outside the reception). I also borrowed a book from the mini library and gave them the book I finished during the bus trip. I returned to my room just after dusk and ironed my clothes before sinking into the tub.

I had booked to have dinner at 20:30 but arrived at 20:43. I asked the chef for recommendation and had prawns cooked in butter and mixed vegetables with white rice. For starter, I had a small bowl of tom yam soup and a pau. I must say, the prawns were simply divine! Alhamdulillah I don’t have gout, otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to enjoy them. I could feel myself gaining some weight after that. I finished off with a mixed fruits platter. Well, I was coughing and sadly couldn’t have either the lava cake, banana fritters or ice cream.

I returned to my room, read a bit and then called it a day.

Saturday, 11 February 2017

I went for morning walk after morning prayers around the resort but mainly at the beach. The sea was very angry today with its pounding waves. The wind was strong too but I didn’t mind it nor did I mind the dark threatening clouds overhead. I walked to the rocks and a wooden platform and sat perched there watching the sea. It somehow had a strange calming effect as the sea always does. I’m a Cancerian but I don’t much like beaches. I can stay for a maximum of three days before I start getting restless. I’m not one to laze in the hot sun but the sea would always calm me down.

I left the beach and went to wash my feet at the bathroom before joining in the Sucimurni Exercise near the reception before having a long and leisurely breakfast. I then returned to the room to shower and rest. Despite the dark clouds, it only drizzled a bit. Nothing near a torrential rain at all.

After afternoon prayers, I went for a late lunch at Nelayan Restaurant. The restaurant overlooks the swimming pool and the sea. There were a lot of people by the pool, sunbathing, swimming or keeping an eye on their children. I had salad and burger for lunch then returned to my room to continue reading.

I was told at the reception that a taxi to the bus station would cost a whooping RM30 (add a bit more and you could ride a bus all the way to KL!) so spent part of the afternoon googling for taxi contacts. It was a fruitless task. I even installed Grab apps but it couldn’t locate my location (?!) so I deleted it off with glee after that. All these delayed me from the Kampung Sucimurni Lifestyle activity which is held every Saturday from 5 to 6 p.m. It was held at the Beachfront Anjung Gardens not far from my room and I came to a scene of a few men playing sepak takraw, a monkey and his minder bringing down coconuts from a coconut tree, two little goats, some girls beating the kompang and playing traditional games like congkak. I had a shoulder massage and then went to help myself to some fish sausage and then had a whole coconut to drink all by myself. I stayed for a while more before returning to my room.

I had earlier thought of having steamboat for dinner but was advised that steamboat would only be fun if you are with your family or friends. In short, it’s not fun to be cooking your own dinner all by yourself. So I cancelled my steamboat plan and went to Di Atas Sungei restaurant for dinner. This time, I had Chef Ann advise me and it proved excellent. Too good actually that I told I had to ‘surrender’ and not finish the dishes, as good as they were.

I returned to the room and watched a bit of the Arsenal-Hull City match with an eye on my book.

Sunday, 12 February 2017

I woke up early, finished packing and continued reading – I had to finish the book before checking out as it was the resort’s! I went for breakfast then returned to the room for one last time before heading to the reception. The cabbie came early so I had to take photos of the few pages of the book that I didn’t manage to finish before returning it to the reception and rushing to the cab. This time, one of the staff hit the gong three times. I thanked them all and entered the cab. It took all of 7 minutes to reach the bus station. I realised belatedly that there’s a market near the bus station and if I had left earlier, I could have gone to the market to buy some food to bring back. Oh well. I finished the last few pages of the book while waiting for the bus. It was punctual to my pleasant surprise.

We took the coastal road, Jalan Pantai Sura, for a few km before joining route 127. The sea was still very rough this morning.

We stopped at Kuala Kemaman to pick up passengers before continuing on and stopped again at Warung D’Nie just before noon for lunch break. I found the bathroom this time. The bathroom and small prayer room were in dilapidated state. Ugh, disgusting.

We reached Terminal Bersepadu Selatan at almost 5 p.m. And so that was my trip to Tanjong Jara Resort.

La La Land of Excess and Land of Frankincense: Part III

Land of Frankincense: Part II

Wednesday, 1 February 2017

Early start today. We left the apartment just before 08:00 and walked up to the main road to catch a cab. We had barely stopped when a car pulled up and asked where we were going. Apprehensive, we told them we were going to to Mwasalat bus stop and the bloke inside offered to give us a ride. I was uneasy and asked how much he expected for the ride. He assured us he wanted to help and showed a file, saying he was an engineer. We looked at each other then decided to trust him. We just hoped he wouldn’t turn out to be like the man in Petra who demanded us to pay him.

He drove to the taxi stand near the souks and asked the cabbies there before driving off. We would have been happy had he dropped us there but he drove on and finally I recognised some landmarks and told CT that we were on the right track. We made small talk and he mentioned that he was actually an Egyptian who had lived in Oman for the past 15 years. He dropped us off and we got down after thanking him profusely. We then made our way to the Mwasalat office and bought tickets to Muscat. The fare was OMR1.8 for each of us.

The bus came along and we boarded it after loading our bags. The journey took almost two hours. At Ruwi, we changed buses for the red city bus no. 4. Unfortunately, it didn’t pass Mutrah High Street so we got down a stop before the Mutrah Souk stop and walked to our hotel. We walked for about 35 minutes in the hot sun dragging our bags behind us. Well, the journey wouldn’t have taken as long if I had not needed to stop every now and then to check we were on the right path. We finally reached Mutrah Hotel and checked in (check-in and check-out times are 12:00). A Bangladeshi worker who used to work in Malaysia showed us to our room. I was disappointed when I saw our room. It was spacious but the furniture looked like it came straight out of the 1970s. The wifi connection was also unreliable that first day. I ventured out around 13:30 to check out the neighbourhood. There was a SPAR supermarket and Muscat Bakery (it has a branch in Nizwa and in fact I bought the previous day’s lunch from the outlet in Nizwa) just diagonally across the street so I went over to buy a 6-litre bottle of water from SPAR and some buns from the bakery before returning back to my room.

We left at 15:30 and walked down Mutrah High Street. We decided to take some back alleys until we emerged out at Al Mina Street. We walked on until we saw the direction for BaitAl Baranda (no, there is no Tourist Information Centre in either Bahla, Nizwa, Mutrah or Muscat, at least none that we could find!). The house has many exhibits on the archaeological and maritime history of Oman and Muscat. Entrance fee was OMR1. We spent about an hour there before heading out.

We then walked along the waterfront or The Corniche. The sun was getting down so it wasn’t too hot and there was the light breeze that made the walk very pleasurable. We enjoyed people-watching, bird-watching and even spent a brief while watching some foreign workers catching fish without the use of any fishing rod. We walked all the way until we almost reached Riyam Park. There were some benches and we sat down for a while before turning back. We went to the Mutrah Souk but we were also starting to feel hungry so we decided to return the next day or on Friday.

We decided to try out some fish biryani (the ticket man at Bahla Fort told us that Omani eat a lot of fish) for dinner from a restaurant across the street from our hotel. I think it’s called Amazon Restaurant and it has a lot of customers because we saw a lot of people who drove by to pick up their orders which they placed by phone calls earlier. It was a good thing we bought only one portion because it was a huge portion and yes, it was very good! The portion was so big that we managed to save some for the next day’s lunch.

Thursday, 2 February 2017

We had a lot of places to cover today so we had another early start. We went for breakfast just after 07:00 – it was adequate, Alhamdulillah – before walking to the fish souk. Yes, you read that right, the fish souk. We had to go through a covered market selling vegetables to get to the fish market. I was pleasantly surprised by the lack of any fishy smell there and we spent some time enjoying the atmosphere before leaving. A new fish souk is being constructed next to the covered small market.

We waited 15 minutes for the bus no. 4 to Palace Al Alam. The fare was 200 Bz if you travel within one zone. The Palace is the ceremonial palace for Sultan Qaboos. We couldn’t enter the palace grounds but we could walk outside the palace perimeter.

We then walked around until we stumbled upon Bait Al Zubair Museum, funded by its founders, the Zubair family. The museum houses the family’s vast collection of Omani artefacts and consists of a number of buildings. We first went to Bait Al Bagh which is the main museum building and houses exhibits of Oman’s architectural heritage. There are also galleries on the ground floor that exhibit excellent examples of khanjar (Omani dagger), male and female attire, traditional swords and firearms, antique jewellery, musical instruments and even a wedding display. On the first floor is a stamp collection and also some coin collection. There are also other buildings, one housing an art gallery and the other, a café. In the garden is a miniature example of falaj, the irrigation system in Oman, and miniature forts. The entrance was an eye-watering OMR2.

After that, we walked to Omani French Museum, a museum located in the former residence of the French Consul. It provides a snapshot of mostly 19^th Century colonial life in Muscat. I didn’t enjoy it as much. The lady who manned the reception (first time we met a lady receptionist) was excited when we told her we were from Malaysia and said she had been to KL just last year.

We left and sat in the garden, eating the biryani leftover. I then went to ask the lady at the reception if there was a prayer room and she said no. Nevertheless, I used the bathroom and performed ablutions. We walked back to Al Alam Palace and I decided to perform prayers outside a mosque.

After that, we walked back to the bus stop and waited 15 minutes for the bus. I asked the driver if it was possible to take the bus to the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque and he said yes. A helpful female passenger told us we would need to change buses at Ruwi station. No problem, we thought. So we rode the bus all the way to Ruwi bus station and at the station, I asked the bus no. 1 driver if his route cover the Grand Mosque. He said yes so we boarded. We had to pay 300 Bz fare as it was in another zone. I then asked if the bus would pass the RoyalOpera House and he said yes. Great! So it was possible after all to travel on your own without going on the Big Bus Tours to explore Muscat. We did it the ‘backpacking way’. Heh.

  

As we were approaching the Royal Opera House, the driver asked if we wanted to get down. I thought quickly and said we would stop on our way back so we continued on. The Grand Mosque is in the Madinat As Sultan Qaboos district and about 25 minutes away from Ruwi. The driver told us the stop so we got down and walked to the overhead bridge to cross over. It was a bit of a walk to the Grand Mosque. The Grand Mosque is open to non-Muslims only at certain times. We told the guards that we were Muslims and they allowed us in but told us to go to the ladies’ side only. On the way, I saw some ladies peering in the men’s section (the much larger section) so we joined in. We stayed probably all of five minutes as the call for Asar prayers came on not long after we were there. We then made our way to the ladies’ section before checking out the garden. I had already performed Zuhur and Asar Jamak prayers, otherwise I would have joined in too.

We walked back to a bus stop on the same side of the mosque and waited for the bus to the Royal Opera House. He told us where to get down and man, on hindsight, we should have just got down earlier and visited the Royal Opera House before taking another bus to the Grand Mosque. As it turned out, we had to walk back to the overhead bridge to cross over the highway and then walk to the Royal Opera House. Two buses passed by and we still hadn’t reached the Royal Opera House and as the bus frequency at that time of day was still every 15 minutes, it meant we took more than 30 minutes (or about 2 km!) to get to the Royal Opera House from the bus stop. We entered the grounds and took pictures of the exterior (we were not allowed inside) before checking out the Opera Galleria.

We trudged back and took a shortcut to cross the road – instead of walking all the way to the overhead bridge which we had used before, we went down into a dry river (drain?) and ran in the dark tunnel to the other side, just like the foreign workers. Haha! We reached the bus stop and checked the schedule: the bus was due in 4 minutes. Had we gone all the way to the overhead bridge to cross over the highway, we would’ve missed the bus.

We went down at Ruwi station, changed for bus no. 4 and got down at Murtah Souk. We browsed the souk and bought some dates (it’s kinda expected of me to buy dates for dad) before heading back to the hotel. Tonight we decided to try another restaurant and bought one Shely fish biryani to go. The portion was huge again but the rice was better at the first restaurant although this restaurant provided us with some gravy which was delicious. I also ordered some prawn soup which turned out very differently from the photo on the menu.

We had walked for more than 30 km today, yes, you read that right, more than 30 km (!) and with the biryani dinner, had no problems at all falling asleep.

Friday, 3 February 2017

It was an overcast start to the day and I was surprised to find the ground was wet when I stepped out before breakfast. We decided to have a late breakfast today as we weren’t planning to go out this morning. All museums are closed on Fridays (hence why we did the whirlwind tour of Muscat the day before) and the souk would only open from 15:00. We checked out at noon and sat at the lobby. I then went to pray at the corridor of the fourth floor (hotel looked like it was part Indian-owned and I doubt it had a prayer room). We then had leftover biryani before walking down to the souk after 15:00 and the waterfront where we waited for bus no. 4 to LuLu Hypermarket. Yes, it’s the same LuLu that has a supermarket at Capital Square in KL.

CT wanted to buy some souvenirs and managed to get some at LuLu at better prices than at the souk. We then went to the supermarket where I bought some buns before taking the bus back to the souk. At the souk, we bought some perfume oils to bring home. We probably spent an hour there checking out the different scents and haggling! This despite having visited the shop on our first evening in Mutrah! I was happy that I managed to buy perfume oils which cost less than the tacky made-in-China souvenirs.

We then walked back to the hotel and placed an order for chicken biryani at Amazon Restaurant before crossing over to the hotel to collect our bags. The owner had told us that the taxi fare to Ruwi station was 300 Bz (per person as it turned out) so after dinner, we stood to wait for taxies and of course where was one when you needed it? One came and asked for OMR6 (you gotta be kidding me mister) and another came and asked for OMR2. We bargained it down of course and the driver agreed. A man jumped in and sat in front, apparently another passenger. So in a way, that helped us because if he paid 300 Bz, why should we be asked to pay more (granted we did have some bags in the boot)? A taxi all the way to the airport would cost OMR10 at least. Definitely a no-no.

At Ruwi bus station, we saw a couple of no. 1 buses but we decided to head to a money changer first to sell off our OMR for USD. Thankfully the transaction didn’t take long. We managed to board the third no. 1 bus and got seats. All the buses were full that evening for some reason. The wind was very strong the whole day today and made the day seem cold.

It took 35 minutes to reach the airport stop and we got down and wrestled with our bags against the strong wind to the terminal building. We went to change and freshen up first, then I had to go to a mosque outside for prayers (again, the wind!) before rejoining CT. I must say that Muscat International Airport is woefully inadequate in providing seats for the travellers and those sending them off. We finally went in with the hope that we would get seats inside. Well, there were only 16 seats inside. 16 for all of us travellers waiting to check in our bags! We managed to get two vacant seats somehow and sat down to wait for the IndiGo check-in counters to open.

I got up to check the relevant counters and was surprised to find they were already opened. We finally joined the long queue. When our turn came, the man behind the counter proved less competent that his peers. He kept having to refer to his colleagues and acted as if he had never seen anyone checking in their bags, collecting them and checking them in again for the next flight. We finally got our boarding passes and went to the boarding area for another long wait.

Saturday, 4 February 2017

We finally boarded the bus to the plane and I fell asleep almost immediately. When I next opened my eyes, we were landing at Cochin. In Cochin, we went through the same routine as before. One thing though: make sure you get a bag tag for every hand carry bag you have. I was given only one and was told to get another one for my backpack. Not my fault when I was given only one at the counter! I was so angry that I stuffed my backpack into my Longchamp tote and carried on.

We boarded the plane (got seats close to the rear of the plane). No cushion and no blanket this time – do you only provide them for evening flights, Malindo?! We landed at KLIA at 17:30 and the bags took a while to come out.

If I ever had the opportunity and rezeki to visit Oman again, I would love to go to the Bimmah sinkhole, Wadi Shab and maybe Musandam. I tried fitting Musandam into our trip; unfortunately, we were pressed for time and there is only one ferry going and one returning in a week. You could fly there of course but we didn’t really consider that. Or you could go by land via UAE but be subject to another UAE exit fee and Omani visa fee on arrival. Oman is a beautiful country and still relatively unexplored.

La La Land of Excess and Land of Frankincense: Part II

Land of Frankincense: Part I

Monday, 30 January 2017

I tried to doze off but any attempt was made futile by the two hags sitting behind me. They sat across the aisle from each other and just couldn’t stop yakking and loudly too. I gathered they were Omani but from some governorate in the south or middle of the country as they were very dark. I just don’t understand people like them who couldn’t understand that even though people choose to travel by public transportation at night, they still want to rest and sleep. They talked loudly non-stop and when they eventually stopped and dozed off a few hours later, I still couldn’t sleep! It also didn’t help that the woman across the aisle from me stretched out until her legs rested on the seat next to mine! I mean, come on! Where is your courtesy to fellow passengers? Did you think that only you yourself want to sleep but not others? Did you not think how disgusting it was for me to discover your feet – wrapped as they were in your blanket – next to me? Seriously, some people just shouldn’t be allowed to travel by public transportation!!!

We had to get down twice: the first time, to pay the exit fee of AED35. The man who took the payment issued a receipt and I then went to another window to hand over my passport and the payment receipt. The second time we stopped was after we had crossed into Oman. Visa on arrival was OMR5 for a ten-day visa. OMR1 = MYR11.40 O.O and it was a good thing we managed to buy some Omani Rial in KL before we left for this trip.

We continued our journey, me having lost any hope for sleep by this time. The bus stopped a few times the closer we got to Muscat to drop off passengers and then asked us to change to another bus. We finally pulled into the Mwasalat bus station in Ruwi. It was just before the call for morning prayers. We used the bathroom and I performed ablutions before heading to Sultan Qaboos Mosque nearby (not to be confused with Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque in the Ghubrah district of Muscat. There was a ladies’ section but the door was locked and none of the male mosque goers came to our aid. In the end, I borrowed a prayer mat from the Mwasalat ticket office and prayed outside the door leading to the ladies’ section. Seriously, being a Muslimah shouldn’t be an inconvenience. Grrr! On that note, there are some mosques that we came across in Oman that did not allow for female worshippers (there are some that did). I know that Algerian women cannot perform prayers in their mosques which I thought is very strange and disturbing.

After prayers, we returned to the ticket office and bought bus tickets to Bahla. The bus destination was Ibri and it would stop at Nizwa and Bahla along its way. We then sat down to wait. I also went to buy some samosa and hot milk tea (it tasted like it was spiced with cardamom or sth but it was good!). The bus came and we loaded our bags before boarding. We stopped for ten minutes in Nizwa before continuing on and that was when we found out that the return bus from Bahla was at 15:30 and not 17:10 as stated in the Mwasalat website. No complaints there as we were initially apprehensive at reaching Nizwa late and after dark. We only had our Airbnb host’s YouTube guide to the apartment (which I studied twice and the second time, I had to rewind, pause, and play again to remember the landmarks. Mustafa, our host, had earlier told me that there’s no proper address. We did know that it’s about 500 metres from Nizwa Fort).

At Bahla, we asked the bus driver if we could leave our bags on board as we would be travelling by the same bus back to Nizwa. He agreed and that was our luggage problem sorted!

We walked the few steps to Bahla Fort. Now, Oman has a lot of forts (there are over 500 forts, castles and towers in the Sultanate!) built way back when on the orders of tribal leaders. Some were built on strategic seacoasts to protect Oman’s shipping interests, some at valuable oases or on frankincense and myrrh trade routes, some built on fortifications dating back to earlier Persian occupation or pre-Islamic times. So while they did (and do) have tribes, they were not nomadic herders living in tents who roamed around but were some of the finest architects and engineers. I think it’s also appropriate for me to add here that unlike the other Arabs who don the kaffiyeh, the Omani men wear the kuma (prayer cap) or massah (embroidered wool turban tied neatly around the head) and dishdasha, a long garment with a slit in front and a long tassel hanging down the neckline and off to the side. I think the headdress and dishdasha are neat and give the Omani a strong sense of identity.

Back to Bahla Fort: it is the one of the biggest and oldest fort in Oman and the only fort to be listed on the UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was in the list of world heritage sites in danger before it was restored in the 1990s. The whole complex was huge and we happily spent about three hours in there. I even performed prayers in the mosque there. Entrance fee cost 500 Baiza (Bz) or ½ Rial.

At Bahla Fort

Besides the fort, Bahla is also well-known for its pottery; alas, the souk was closed from noon to about 16:00 so we didn’t manage to visit the souk. The Mwsalat bus arrived promptly at 15:35 and we reached Nizwa less than an hour later. I asked at the Mwasalat office if there was a micro bus that we could take but we were advised to cross over the main road and take a cab instead. So we crossed over to the National Gift Market and took a cab to the apartment, heading towards the souk before turning right. The cabbie wanted OMR6 so we bargained the fare down to OMR2.

We reached the apartment block (I was amazed we managed to do that what with the lack of address and all. Mustafa had advised us to get the local SIM card to be able to play the YouTube clip to the cabbie we managed to get but we didn’t) and had to climb up to the third floor with our bags (no elevator!). We heard some noise and thought it came from the apartment across the hall so we were a bit surprised to find a man inside who turned out to be Mustafa himself as we didn’t expect to meet him at all (he had also given us the code to enter the apartment so we didn’t need any keys). Mustafa greeted us and showed us around the apartment. We managed to take some pictures with him before he left.

With Mustafa, our host. He’s wearing the kuma and dishdasha 

Sunset over Nizwa

We stayed in that night.

Tuesday, 31 January 2017

We left just before 09:00 and walked to Nizwa Fort. The fort is one of the most popular and most visited tourist attractions in Oman due to its amazing old Omani architecture. The fort is unique due to its cylindrical main tower which is also the biggest fort tower in the Sultanate. Entrance is again 500 Bz. Unfortunately some rooms were closed to visitors so we spent only about two hours there (I predicted three hours when I looked at the size of its tower). There are rooms furnished with cushions and crockery (to indicate they were dining rooms), some with pots and pans (denoting kitchen), even an ablutions room and a room for a shepherd! All these gave us a good idea of how they used to live in the fort. There’s also a mini museum on the history of Oman. We also climbed up the tower for a bird’s eye view of Nizwa.

At Nizwa Fort

At the small museum in Nizwa Fort

We left just after 11:00 and wandered to the nearby souks. There are a few souks there and although the whole complex is the site of the one of the oldest souks in Oman, the old complex had been torn down and what you see now are the modern version of the souks. There are areas selling potteries, weapons, silver and crafts, meat, fruits, even a goat souk but only opens on Fridays (!), vegetables, halwa... we had fun walking around exploring and soaking in the atmosphere. One thing missing? Women. Local women mostly stay at home. Those who do venture out are the elderly women or very young girls. However, no one gave us a hard time at all.

 This shop was doing a brisk business of halwa

 At the indoor souk outside a shop selling crafts

At the outdoor souk

We then explored the shops before returning to the apartment to rest. Most shops are closed anyway from noon to about 16:00 for siesta. Anyway, it was much too hot to be wandering around anyway. And it was supposed to be ‘winter time’!

We returned to the souk after dark to explore before returning to the apartment.

To be continued

La La Land of Excess and Land of Frankincense: Part I

Land of Excess

I had planned with CT to visit the Land of Frankincense for some months and we agreed we would make the visit over the Chinese New Year holidays. We also looked at visiting either Abu Dhabi or Dubai and finally agreed on Dubai. I then searched for flights and finally we bought tickets for RM2,002.50 each via Cochin (this despite having to clear the immigration, collect our bags and check in again for the next flight). Of course this entailed applying for an Indian tourist visa. Le sigh. I told CT to remind me to never again book a flight with a transit in India, ever. The visa fee costs RM189.60 (rounded up, not down) and processing fee costs RM21.20 (we actually applied for transit visa only to be told we had to apply for tourist visa as there’s no such thing as multiple entry transit visa). I refused to take new photos for the visa application and used previous photos (two colour photos on white background, size of 5 cm by 5 cm). I found filling in the visa application a tedious chore as you need to provide information of the last visa granted, the hotel you stayed at, reference, etc. We submitted our visa application forms and passports on Tuesday during lunch and they were ready on Friday afternoon, the day before our departure.

Saturday, 28 January 2017

I arrived at KLIA after 18:30 and went to check in at the Malindo counter. Our ETD was initially 21:05 but it was rescheduled for 21:35 and there was a gate change too. The food wasn’t bad and we had small cushions and blankets too. We landed in Cochin at 23:05 local time and had to fill in landing forms before clearing immigration. My bag came out late and once it came out, we went to check in for the IndiGo flight to Dubai. This airline is just like RyanAir and AirAsia. Seats are small and cramped. I can confidently say we were the only two non-Indian nationals on the flight. I couldn’t sleep as usual.

Sunday, 29 January 2017

We landed in Dubai, the Land of Excess, at 04:15. We had to take a train to the terminal building to clear immigration and collect our bags. We then went to the prayer room to wait for morning prayers. We stayed in the prayer room until after 07:00, after the sun had risen, before making our way to the metro station. After discussing, we decided to buy a one-day ticket for AED22 (AED1 is about RM1.215) and rode the metro to Deira City Centre station as we wanted to buy our night bus ticket to Muscat at Oman National Transport Company (ONTC) office. The office is opposite the road from a hypermarket. We arrived shortly after 08:00 and after assuring the Indian man behind the counter that we could get Omani visa on arrival, we paid AED55 each for the bus ticket.

We couldn’t, however, leave our bags at the office (no left luggage facility) so we had no choice but to drag them back to Deira City Centre. I suggested checking out the facilities of the City Centre Deira mall which is linked to the metro station and was happy to find prayer rooms in the mall directory. CT then noted there was left luggage facility provided so after asking for directions, we headed to the left luggage area which happened to share the same waiting room as the Big Bus Tours Dubai. We were told it would open at 09:00 and we sat waiting and waiting. I got fed up and went to check out the mall after a while. My, the prayer rooms were on the second floor and at the extreme end of the mall! Well, at least they were there. I then went to check the washrooms at three different locations and was happy and satisfied that they were clean and spacious.

Early morning in Dubai but already so bright! Navigating our way to ONTC

Two mall security officers came ten minutes before 10:00 and unlocked the left luggage area. We were told that the service was complimentary; however, we could only leave our bags for a maximum of three hours. We thought about it and decided to still avail of the service, reasoning that we could use my name first to deposit the bags, return within three hours and then used CT’s name. So it was after 10:00 when we finally rode the metro again, this time heading to Jumeirah Lake Towers. I didn’t expect the trip to take that long and we only emerged out about 45 minutes later. We walked down to the marina and walked around for about half an hour before returning to the metro station. We then rode to Mall of the Emirates station for some zoomed up photos of Burj Al Arab Jumeirah, it being too far and too hot to walk (and it was supposed to be ‘winter’!) plus we didn’t have the luxury of time.

Not close enough to Burj Al Arab Jumeirah but good enough

We returned back to the metro station and rode the train to Burj Khalifah/Dubai Mall station. Again, we only took photos from afar as we needed to rush back to City Centre Diera mall. A bit on the metro: there are carriages exclusive for women only and most men would studiously avoid stepping over the line literally. Women can ride the other carriages but you’d be lucky to be offered a seat. And this is where you’d meet the foreign workers besides the tourists (I don’t suppose the locals ride the metro?!).

We reached the left luggage waiting area just before 13:00 and stopped to rest after collecting our bags. I then went to the prayer room, but not before checking out shoes. I wasn’t wearing socks then as I didn’t want my feet to feel trapped and whereas I had done this before without any issue, this time, my feet were already developing blisters. So dang painful. I finally relented and wore socks and Alhamdulillah, it worked.

We left the mall after depositing the bags under CT’s name and rode the metro to Al Ras station. We then walked to the spice and gold souks. I felt this area was the authentic part of Dubai, rather than the glittering skyscrapers all crowding and jostling for space. Sure, progress and development is all fine and good but as a visitor, I also look for the history and culture of a place. We walked and walked and finally came to Dubai Creek. From here, we took an abra across the creek. The breeze, the water, the seagulls made it a very pleasant atmosphere although when you look around you, you’ll be forgiven for thinking you’re in India, Bangladesh or Pakistan, such is the concentration of foreign workers there!

On abra across Dubai Creek. See what I mean about the foreign workers who have settled there?

We wandered around before returning to the jetty to take an abra back across the creek. Then we rode the metro back to Deira City Centre station, collected our bags and rested.

We left the waiting area and went to the prayer room at 20:00. I changed in the washroom, applied body wipes and cleansed my face before performing prayers. Then we went to the food court for dinner. Nothing much appealed to me so I hurried over to Carrefour and bought some falafel and a bottle of water. We had each packed bottles of water for the trip as we had two long days before checking in to our accommodation in the next destination.

At 22:00, we left the mall and walked to the ONTC office (we were told to be there by 22:30) but the office was dark. We spotted the bus across the road and I went to confirm before we hauled our bags across. The bus was punctual; we departed exactly at 23:00. Goodbye, Land of Excess!

To be continued

An Afternoon In Tehran

An Afternoon At The National Jewellery Museum

Below are some photos that a chap in our group managed to snap in the National Jewellery Museum (cameras are not allowed inside the museum).

Persian Trip: Some Facts

These are some facts that I found out in Iran (you may find some of them trivial). They are not in any order:

The Persian language is an Indo-European language brought by Turks from Central Asia.

Iran means land of aliens. It changed its name from Persia (Persia encompassed a smaller area) to Iran in 1936.

Theocracy system ended the monarchy system (the Revolution).

Iran is a third of the size of the USA and is as large as Western Europe with a population of 80 million.

Its main industries: oil, petro-chemical, car manufacturing and handicrafts.

Main fruits: citrus, apples, nuts, pears, peaches, kiwis, pomegranates.

They have caviar from Caspian Sea sturgeons.

Winter is the rainy season.

The most popular car is Peugeot as it is also produced in Iran (as is Kia).

Unemployment is 15% in the cities, 30% in rural areas and inflation is at 9%.

Iran embraced Shia 500 years ago, imported Shia mullahs from Lebanon to teach Shiism. Nevertheless, there are 6 million Sunnis in Iran. There are also 60,000 Zoroastrians (some are now in Mumbai, India).

Shia Muslims performed prayers three times a day: Dawn, noon and afternoon, dusk and evening.

The Supreme Leader is commander of military and judiciary. The President is elected for four years and can be re-elected for second term. There are 86 mullahs. There is a Guardian council and there is also an Expediency council (you can google them up).

Iran has a national service for 20 months at age of 18.

Age of marriage is 18 but on average, Iranian men and women get married when they are 30 and 27 respectively.

A woman can initiate divorce if husband is in jail or has left home for more than 6 months or addicted to drugs.

No polygamy is allowed although a man can take a second wife if the first wife approves of it (generally they don’t practise polygamy there).

Ayatollah means son of God and is an honorific title for clerics. Those in black-turbans are direct descendants of Prophet Muhammad while those in white-turbans are not direct descendants.

Tehran was founded 1796 and it was chosen as capital as it has favourable access to water and transportation with Caucasus (Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan). It remained capital throughout 19^th Century. The population in Tehran is 10 million, and there are 3 million cars. Isfahan and Shiraz were capitals before Tehran.

British and Russia dominated Iran, and caught in their power struggle, Iran underwent tremendous stagnation. Iran waged two wars against Russia in 19^th Century where they lost badly and lost all Caucasus to Russia.

Modernisation started in 1930s during the reign of the father of the last King of Iran.

Iran has 4 sanctions: first by US Congress because of its anti-Israeli policies; second by successive US Administration also because of anti-Israeli policies and Hezbollah especially during the Obama administration on banking and oil; third by United Nations because Iran was building nuclear weapon; fourth by European Union. President Rouhani held talks with the US and made a deal and UN and EU sanctions were lifted. Sanctions started when they held hostages of the US Embassy.