Abu Dhabi - Dubai Dhow Cruise

  

Seen that wooden boat sailing in corniche at night? It’s be-yu-ti-ful yes?! They decorated it with many lights like Christmas tree! Try it pal, it is a special peaceful experience. Calms the mind after a stressful work-week.

In Dubai many brightly lit wooden boats are parked at the creek docks on late afternoons. You gotta choose one of them and hop in, doesn’t really matter which one coz they are all nice and pretty!  2hour ride plus Buffet dinner costs 150 dirhams. Won’t regret it, lots of delicious food choices on the table.
While in Abu Dhabi there’s just 2 dhow boats parked backside of the old fish market. Here no need to choose coz only one’s sailing. They got 5-course dinner on board (if you love seafood like me, you’ll enjoy it!) also 2 hours ride at 225 dirhams….WHAT? Twice Dubai’s price? Yeah, what do you think? Abu Dhabi’s always bit more expensive than Dubai, right?

At Dhow cruise Dubai: most seats are occupied by tourists. You are free to select your table. (I prefer near the food stalls!) The glass windows show the other boats floating in the sea outside and the quiet blue waters of the Dubai creek. There is a phony magician at the upper deck, no problem, he is funny enough. Will entertain you for 30 minutes with his magic tricks, disappearing magic money, magic water pot, magic rope, magic stick, etc... etc…don’t forget you have to clap, clap, clap.

vs.

Abu Dhabi’s Al Dhafra Dhow: most customers are black and white kanduras and abayas, children more. Business towers and hotels line up the shores of corniche. The ride goes near Marina Mall until the heritage dome, U-turn beside Lulu Island then back towards Mina while eating the 5-course menu. Warning: the food amounts are huge so eat slowly and with small quantities, inorder to enjoy all the varieties. Was hungry when I’m on board so I swallowed all the food placed in front of me, as a result my stomach almost blasted, thank goodness the waitress served mint tea, helped it calm down. Wahehe!

Fresh experience, relaxing at the upper deck, you can feel the cool wind against your face, hear the soft splash of the sea waves under the boat, swaying it gently. Listen to the steady hum of the boat motors, the distant traffic of cornice road, smell the fishy waters and observe the cars, the lights moving along Mina. Nice. Nice. Then at 11pm go back to reality. Au Revoir!

UK

British Capital - London, England

When you see the city, you may feel the same way.... its like as if the city is time-frozen. Looks sad yes?

cold city

walking up the hill towards the castle

Windsor Castle, huge home of the Royal Family. Around 52,000m2... 10thousand times a sharing room basis in Abu Dhabi.

looks lonely here

Buckingham Palace

the famous kiss of Prince William and Kate happened there after their wedding - on the balcony of the Buckingham Palace for those who watched it...

London Tube- underground train transport...the cheapest, fastest, easiest way to get anywhere in London.

This is a pretty wax model of princess Diana, one of many real-life famous people replicas inside madame Tussaudes museum. I was hoping to see Jose Rizal...hehe.

The London Eye, 30-40 minutes ride in a complete revolution, you can see the whole city up there, maybe that's why its called like that, very big eye, indeed.

the biggest eye

Clock Tower, old great Big Ben is inside this beautiful structure- the bell that faithfully chimes hour by hour and every quarter of an hour.

mr. big ben is the clock

at night....London bridge over the Thames river, I think it is not falling down, it is very steady actually :)

cold freezing evening

Town of Stamford, England- here they produce good quality wool, sheep's wool no wonder...they tend many sheeps here...

great Cathedral of York Minster- tourists are not allowed to go inside, but you can go in as a christian...

The Shambles (York) - very narrow streets, we must walk here side by side hehehe, very old timber buildings almost leaning each other and looks like it might fall down anytime, feels like home...

You know Canola cooking oil? it is produced from these yellow flowers, these plants covered most of the farmlands, you can see it  anywhere in the country roads of UK.

stepping on a 1,800years old remains of Hadrian's wall...It is the name of the Emperor who built it 'to separate the romans from the barbarians' ;)

On board the Royal Yacht Britannia, 5-decks before its the Queen's ship, now Scotland's tourist ship, still on the sea but steadily parked only coz its old.

Edinburgh (Scotland) it is pronounced as e-din-bra...this is the castle housing the crown jewel of Scotland, not allowed to photograph it but i tell you it looks like our sto. Nino's crown. (William Wallace is the statue in the right).

Castles have big guns...here is one, hehehe the nozzle is pointing at the city.

Add caption

This is the HAGGIS. Our tour director and the host in our scottish dinner, said Haggis is a native animal which is difficult to catch. Well, when I tried it, it taste like our 'sisig' filipino dish made up of 'laman-loob' or internal organs of the animal, suspicious right...it is actually cooked out of sheep's heart, liver and lungs. good joke folks!

Town of Chester, famous for its black and white half wood-half stone nice buildings.

 Stratford. This is the house of William Shakespeare. very old yet tourists admire it.

Wales, west of UK. Cardiff Castle (this country has so many castles). Compared to England, and Scotland (I dont know about Ireland), the Welsh gave the warmest welcome.

City of Bath, the spring water is not allowed to touch. Ssshh... I touched it and its warm. History said in the olden times, this place was treated as holy place. Very old 30,000 roman coins was discovered here under this place...now 1more is added when I made a wish. (I wished I brought a peso).

the water is steaming

still standing

 The 3000yrs BC mysterious Stonehenge monument.

Very cold here but people still go see it....people loves mystery aye?

Another Lesson to Learn

I think I am getting crazy.

I have definite goals, definite plans, definite steps. 

I know what things to do and what things to avoid.

and then suddenly this 'familiar symptoms' started....it blocked my mind.

day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute

its squeezing my heart

Gaaasssh! stop! get out of there or else....

I will keep you locked up inside forever.

Working with Koreans

Working with koreans is fun but exhausting, boring but exciting, yet also challenging, if that confused you it's ok because honestly I am also confused.
One year has passed since I joined in this great company, and I enjoyed working here every day beginning that Wednesday afternoon of 05May2011 wherein a seriously lost looking korean man interviewed me in that cold meeting room inside the building under construction. I remember him softly saying "Please speak slowly, I cannot understand." Ahhh sorry sir! I immediately liked him. About 10minutes of interrogations, he went out and returned back with another lost looking older korean man, when he smiled his eyes disappeared and he said, "ok you need to start tomorrow." Really, I thought Wow! Koreans are quick decision makers! 

Fast forward to May 2012. The lost looking man is now my boss (and the lost looking older man was the big boss!) Actually after a year I also feel lost at work because here, you just follow orders, "call this, write this, prepare this, do this and that"...as simple as that. Maybe that is the reason why I became a little bit idle. 

All koreans in our company are very polite, or so I thought until yesterday, a new pujangni swore at me. He gave me an instruction a week ago and i failed to do it, so today he got angry up to the point of swearing: "ssshhhit!".... I was shocked. I wanted to strangle him to death upon hearing the bad word spoken at me. I thought all the koreans staff here in our beloved company are cool clever guys.
Well perhaps an occasional 'variation' can remind my heart that humans are a mix of good and bad.

At the end it is fun working in a korean company. The environment is happy. We get to eat free snacks many times. They like giving gifts! (click here) .Koreans speaks very softly, no one shouts at mistakes. When sometimes I did something wrong my bosses taught me to correct it. All are focused & intent to meet deadlines. The managers are all worthy of respect, they are all 'silently wise'.

It is exhausting because it feels like the martial law period in the Philippines during the time when Pres. Marcos dictated everything.

It is boring because before I joined here I am used to shouting at suppliers and being shouted at by project engineers everyday, that is how we solved problems. But here, every problem is worked out calmly and quickly.

It is challenging because we need to improve continuously, to finish more work faster and more efficiently. Also in the job site, it's a challenge, to know how to deal with the construction people, they're always on fire.

Okey...I feel better now. Eventually we will graduate from our companies and move on to another place so let's enjoy each unique experience, because maybe it wont be long when we'll start missing it.

I love you Boss!

Life again is painful. Aahh!

We meet people we'll come to like and to love instantly, then suddenly just like that- they'll go... or someone or something takes them away. Its painful, yah! And all we can do is cry and think about the good memories of time spent together, although those times are very short...yet all very precious. 

Together with a few expats, I recently join in a Korean construction company in the Middle East. We are one of the few who are so blessed to find a great company and a very good boss. In the construction business especially in the Middle East it is almost impossible to work in a peaceful working place, to have harmonious relationship with colleagues, where superiors and staff treat each other with genuine politeness, labours and staff mingle together with equal respect. Thanks for our boss' gentle yet firm leadership, we all hold our project as our one mission, so even though we came from different races- filipinos, indians, koreans, some pakistans and arabs, each day we work united...aiming to successfully finish our project ahead of schedule. During the last few months, work is both pleasant and fun.

Today we said goodbye to our boss. Aaah! What a sad time. Tomorrow we will not see him at work anymore. All will definitely miss him. We will miss him in our early morning exercise, being the earliest korean staff to fall in line. We will miss him making his silent rounds in the office and in the site, gently guiding and advising all "bujang-ni" (managers). We will miss his tired smile at the end of the day before we leave in the bus home. We will miss his leadership most of all. 

We love you boss. Thank you for all the lessons you taught us and for being the strong yet humble boss you are.

Au Revoir!

follow your passion....

love this speech...share with you friendssss, enjoy!

How to use Fire Extinguisher (demo)

Korean Exercise - good morning!

Every morning, before we start work, before 7 o'clock AM, all our office staff, site engineers, managers, labours, bosses and employees alike join together infront of our site office beside Al Maqta Bridge, Abu Dhabi and do the Korean Exercise! Very very very good way of building team spirit! I love the last part, we get to back -shoulder massage each other, hehe! Enjoy watching....Kamsamnidah :>

Switzerland

... rhine valley on the way to Julier Pass. The country’s largest canton-the Grisons  where you can see some of the best Alpine views before arriving to St. Moritz mountain.

short intro of the Switzerland:

1^st century BC discovered by the Romans - a small country in central part of Europe, has 4 official languages, its area is only 41,295 km2 (16,100miles) same as Netherlands and Poland yet less population, 7.4m inhabitants out of which 1mil  are foreigners or guest workers – Italians, Spanish, Portuguese.
Middle of::: North - Germany, South - Italy, East - Austria & Liechtenstein, and West - France.

It is a neutral country, 500 yrs ago (from year 1515 never had a war) till now - not yet part of the European union so, their money is not yet in Euro (Swiss Francs).

Government is Federal Republic consisting of 23 Cantons –a canton is like a small state and each Canton is independent -each is responsible of its education, roads,  electricity, public transport, income tax. The capital is Berne. Very well organized. 30% of the surface area of Alpine is in Switzerland.

The Bernina Express Train - Unesco’s heritage. Very beautiful red train, crossing the alps. It is one of europe’s most spectacular train rides that begins in st. moritz and takes you across towards Italy.

They have around 2,000 train stations (in order to reach the small villages).

Lake Lugano. Near Italy, Tirano. Here, main business is wine, there are lots of farm fruits and vineyards of raspberries, grapes and redberries also apples
*Italy is divided into provinces and each part of the valleys have specific wine product.

Observation: I noticed that the people here compared to us are very organized. When you need to cross the road just find the pedestrian lane (there's no need for stoplights) and just stand there at the edge, the cars will politely and patiently stop for you until you cross to the other side, how nice! Life here is so casual- so relaxing. Savour the luminous atmosphere of Lake Maggiore.

Small island Isola Bella- it is a magnificently located palace and garden island (middle of the lake).

In Zermatt, try the Walliserhoff hotel -which is very lovely, it is like a cuckoo clock wooden house. The hotel is run and owned by a local family...very clean and beautiful, full breakfast of cheese and hams and croissants & home made jams of many fruit choices and hot-hot boiled coffee, the milk of course is very fresh! plus yummy wine of course.

MT. GORNEGATT

Gornegatt, you can reach here thru train from Zermatt.

View at the top of gornegatt at 10000feet or 368 meters, here you can see the famous matterhorn mountain where people from all over the world gather for skiing, lots of construction works still goiung on to improve the roads and buildings more and to accommodated the big number of tourists flooding in on winter, cooold.

local cheese fatory in GRUYERE (my hamsters would love to live in Gruyere!)

The evian mineral water comes from the lake in lousane in the town named Evian.

Berne came from the swiss-german name which is bear, so it is their symbol or emblem  until now. A very beautiful city. With old buildings and interesting fountains and statues with a culture so unique. The people love to eat outside the restaurants. The buildings are very large and old. Einstein lived here.

BERNE

LUCERNE

Lake Lucerne

MT. TITLIS

the end....

Exploring Dubai Creek

Feeling like tourists, we bought 20Dirham tickets to ride the RTA double decker bus from Abu Dhabi to Dubai. Women are treated with respect here, so as usual there is a separate waiting line for women hence it was very easy to purchase our tickets.

Our ride started from Abu Dhabi Bus Stand near the Al Wahda Mall and then we got down to Al Ghubaiba Bus Station in Bur Dubai.

Piyek 2: Isuna Met! (November 7, 2010)

Na-irwamakon nga agbibyahe. Manipud idi nakapuutak, pasaray mapan kami agpasyar idi idjay Villa Garcia. Sabali nga ili ti nakaiyanakak ken dimmakelak. Napalalo ti rag-ragsak ko nu adda kam ijay ta adu ti makaay-ayam ko, saan nga kasla idjay ili mi, manmano ti padak nga ubbing. Apagsangpet mi pay laeng mangrugin ti kin-namatan. Saan kami mabannog nga agtataray ngem no dumanon tay oras ti pang-ngaldaw umay da kamin tun sapulen daydi inang mi nga baket. Paturugen dakam tun malpas kam nga mangan, “Tapno alisto nga dumakkel!” kunana. Bantayan da kami ah daydi inang mi, “Agingga nga saan a makaturog, saan nga mabalin ti rumwar!” Intun malem nga makariing kamin, rugyan min tu manen ti agay-ayam uray no saan kampay nga nakamur-muray.

Agpapukis pay gayam ti maysa nga ranta mi nu mapan kam ijay Villa Garcia, dijay maysa nga ankel mi ti para pukis mi. Kayat ko idi ti pukis na ni ankel ta karusen na nga pirmi ti buok mi, mangibati la bassit idjay tuktok, highcut! Isu na laeng ta medyo nasani-it idjay banda na nga makarusan aglalu nu nangudel tay labahas na.

Idjay ili mi, as-asideg ti riknak kadagidjay duwa nga apong ko nga babaket. “Mama” ti tawag ko kadakuwada. Manipud kina-ubing ko isu dan ti kaka-iddak iti rabii. Nai-ruwamakon idjay angot da saanak nga makaturog no saan ko nga kaidda ti maysa kaniada. Isu nga nagbati ak idjay ili da mamang ko uray kayat dak nga ikuyog idi immakar da idiay Sta. Cruz. Idjay dan nga nag-naed.

Nu domingo idi kanayon dak nga itugot idiay ili. Kalpasan ti misa agdiretso kam idjay tiendaan, maipagatang ko manen tay kayat ko nga makan wenno abal-balay ken makaluganak manen ti karitela! (ta manmano pay ti traysikel idi). Agtarayak tun nga mapan lumugan ijay sango abay ti kutsero, uray no agunget da ipapilit ko latta, kayatko idjay tapno makitak amin nga malabasan mi.

Idjayak kanu Pattuko nga agiskwelan. Sakbay ti panagse-serrek, immay nak sinundo ni tatang ko. marigatanak idi damdamo, awan am-ammuk ngem di bumaybayag gagay-yem ko amin idan. Idiay ko nga nakita datay first crush nga kunada. Manmanu nga makitak isuna idiay nga agay-ayam. Makitak laeng isuna no lumabasak iti asideg ti balay da ken maranaak latta idiay ruwar nga agbum-bumba idjay gripo da. Manipud idin ket tunggal lumabasak idiay batug da tumalyawak latta idiay ayan ti gripo ta bareng nu adda isu na idjay.

Dili. Byahe manen ta idjayak kanu nga agbasa ti hayskul. Di damdamu makapanerbyos aglalu nu mapan ka idiay sango “to introduce yourself”. Kaadwan na nga ka-eskwelak dagidiay met la kaklasek idjay Caparia-an. Nu malpas ti eskwela ti malem, awanen ti ay-ayam ken tinnarayan.

Maysa nga malem agtudtudo, idi magmagnaak nga agawid nakitak isuna idjay siruk ti balay didjay kaaruba da nga agkam-kamat ti piyek. Tilewen na kuma ngata ngem haan na matiliw. Nagtakderak idjay ken buy-buyaek isuna agingga nga nadlawnak. Dinamagko, “mano ti piyek na?” Duwa kano. Ken tinulungak isuna nga nangtiliw. Idi naiyawat ko jay maikadwa nga piyek, pimmanawakun. Mabainak sa idi.

Napanak idjay Manila malpas ti hayskul. Trabaho ti bigat, eskwela ti rabii. Nakitak manun isuna idjay Recto Ave. “Uy! Sika gayam!” nakunak laeng idi. Isun ti naudi nga panagkita mi.

<photo id="1" />