Greeting from Dubai

Since i graduated and started working ... i never spent christmas at home ... it's always somewhere else .... 2006 was at Miri ... 2007 was at Bandung, Indonesia and this year i am spending it at Dubai ....

But unlike previous years ... this year travel was strictly business ..... so basically there is no celebration .... but i would like to take this opportunity to wish all my friends all around the world .... MERRY CHRISTMAS and a happy new year .... cheers !!!!

Festival City Dubai

Deira City Center Dubai

Wafi City Dubai

Golden City of Dubai

I have not been able to blog for some time, the internet connection here at Golden Sands is really terrible. Everytime i try to upload a picture, the whole webpages will ended up freezing. Also, most of the weekdays, i will be busy with school and i will try to travel around whenever the weekend arrives. But surprising this morning, the internet connection is exceptional good .... so i decided that it's time for me to update on my stay at Dubai.

I was fascinated by the fact that many people telling me that the gold here is cheap. So on my second week here, i took a cab and travel to the gold souk .... "souk" in arabic i think is market .... one thing i realize about the metered cab here at Dubai .... they charge by mileage .... not like the one at Malaysia ... which is a combination of time and mileage ... so if i got stuck here in the jam at Dubai .... well, my pocket is safe ....

A few weeks after that also, i found out that it is actually not far to walk from my apartment to the souk .... actually it is quite an interesting journey .... on the way ... we will need to cross the river using a "abra" = boat .... for 1 dirham (almost equivalent to 1 ringgit) .... i think that is the cheapest thing i have paid for my entire stay at Dubai so far .... and recently, Dubai is entering into winter, and that makes walking around by foot much more attractive ....

The souk there was not only for gold .... they have the textile souk, perfume souk, electronics souk and etc .... but basically the gold souk in the most interesting souk of all .... located at a busy streets, these gold shops are very unlike the one that we usually see at Malaysia .... our gold shop especially at the busy streets are usually heavily grilled and secure .... but the one here are just like any other ordinary shops .... just glass pane to display their products .... my friend told me it's like selling chicken rice in Malaysia .... hahahaa .... and most of the gold shops here are operated by Indians ... so it do feels like brickfields at Malaysia ....

I went into a few shops to check out the price .... well, i must say that it is cheaper than Malaysia .... how much cheaper ??? well .... i dun really know .... gold price has been fluctuating very much recently .... until i also confuse .... unless you are interested to buy gold, textile or perfume .... or else i think there is nothing much to do ... plus the place is really crowded .... anyway, i do have some good time here .... eating their delicious Kebab .... hahahaha

City of Gold

1 Dirham "Abra"

Golden Lane

Tired of always being away .....

Tonight is another night where i can finally breathe a sigh of relief after my end of the week exam, sitting here at Golden Sands lobby, surfing the net to my full satisfaction. Anyway, the connection is really bad, it has been better since the last 2 weeks .... it took more than 5 minutes just to log into my yahoo mail .....

Tonight, i just suddenly feel that i finally feel tired, tired of always traveling, tired of not being at home always, tired of always missing the fun with my friends and tired of always missing meaningful/important like my good friend's wedding .....

I have always thought that having such a out of ordinary job like mine is very interesting .... no 8 to 5 office hour, no long sleeve shirt with tie, always get to travel around (plane, boat, helicopter, rig), working in the middle of the sea where most of the ordinary people will ever understand ..... but when time actually passed by me in a blink of an eye .... i finally realize that i have missed out a lot good things in life ........

I have try to always make full use of my time when i am not working, trying to do recover back what i have lost when i am away, but i must admit .... it doesnt really work this way .... basically when you found out that what you lost is time, the clock will never turn back for you ...... all you can do is always to look forward .... and continue to try your best not to lose it again ....

Anyway, my good friend Alex just became a father to a beautiful daughter named Eunice, and i am really happy for him ..... and even tough i am away again, i want to wish him congratulations and i promise i will pay him a visit someday .... cheers :-)

Desert Safari, Dubai

Even before i came to Dubai, i have always heard people talked about desert safari at Dubai. When i am actually here, it is no doubt that desert safari is a must go .... judging from the heavy promotion they got here .... and it is high recommended by the tour agents here ....

So what am i waiting for ??? Within the first weekend itself ... i booked myself a tour for the desert safari .... and waited for the day to come ....

At 3.30 pm on a hot friday afternoon, i waited with excitement for my pick up at the entrance of my apartment. Until finally a white land cruiser arrived ....

Actually it was not the only white land cruiser around ... they were several of them .... it took a while until i finally manage to find out which is the one .... and immediately i hop into it :-)

The journey started with more than an hour drive away from the city .... it was a long journey ... and the hot weather didnt help at all .... i was getting more and more sleepy along the way ....

Finally we reached the desert .... and as what i expected .... it was basically sand ....

We stopped to release some air in the tyres .... i guess that it was necessary for the bumpy ride ahead .....

So there we go, crusing into the desert ..... driving along and across the sand dunes at the desert ..... as it was sand all the way, the tyres didnt really grip .... so the land cruiser basically skidded all the journey ..... and we basically swing and turn and jump all over the desert ... there are times where the land cruiser was more than 45 degrees travelling down the sand dunes .... altogether it was quite a fun ride even tough it gave a head ache after the rides ... :-P

And we do stopped and have a look at some camels .....

After the break, we continue cruising until we reached a camp set up in the middle of nowhere .... it will the place for our dinner .... and we have the opportunity to take a ride on a camel here .... anyway, it was just for a small round .... i would say that i do not enjoy the ride tough ....

It was almost sunset by then, and we proceed into the camp for our dinner ..... Kebab as a starter and BBQ for dinner ..... and in between, we were entertained with some belly dance performance ....

Overall, the trip was rather ordinary .... but it was an interesting experience for myself .... coz i havent really been to a dessert b4 ... :-P

Here I am .... DUBAI !!!!!

It was my first time to the middle-east, so i was a bit excited when i got into the plane heading for Dubai. The trip came super last minute, only got to know barely 2 days before that i will be travelling to Dubai. Since i will be here for 3 months for my training, and i have less than 2 days to prepare .... i just basically stuff everything i could into my bags and hope that i will not miss out anything ... and the next thing i know, here i am at Dubai.

Dubai basically is a city build on a dessert .... if there is no building or road around, it will be sand .... very little greenery compared to back home at Malaysia ... most of the plant here are either grass or palm tree ... i think they are the only plant that can actually survive the harsh condition here .... not to mention that it hardly rains here .....

I am staying at Golden Sands 10, a service apartment located at Bur Dubai .... quite a good place as there are a few shopping malls around at walking distance ... and some shops over the highway ... but the only setback is that it is 1 hour away from my training school ... which means that during weekdays, i will need a longggggggg and boring journey for training .... and even tough the have like a 4 lanes highway here .... most of the time, the traffic is still bad ....

If we Malaysian think that we are a multi-racial, multi-ethnic country ... wait until you see Dubai ... they have so many kind of people here .... from the taxi driver to my training school
staff .... i can hardly tell where the majority of the people from .... but most of them are not from here .... according to my friend .... more than half of the population here are foreigners .... a big portion of them working in either the Oil & Gas or the construction industry ......

I will be going to be here for a while .... and i hope my stay here will be a enjoyable one .....

Everything that happened .....

Since touching down at KL, everytime when i wanted to start to blog ... my eyes will started to close and my brain started to shut down ... everyday is a tiring and busy day .... ermmm, maybe some of the days are reserved for just pure relaxing .... hehehe

A lot of catch up with friends .... Clement who has just returned to from Saudi for a month long holiday ... David and Sia who has just left the country .... David left for Perth while Sia left for Netherland .... sob sob ... just when i manage to get my ass back to KL .... 2 more of my buddies left .... i have the feeling that they are trying to avoid me .... :-P

The next morning after i touched down at KLIA, we have agreed to meet for dim sum at PJ ... some sort like a farewell for David and Sia, and to welcome Clement back to Malaysia even tough it is for a short while ..... i dun know what happened that day but we ordered so much food that after forcefully stuffing ourself with the delicious dim sum, there are still much left .... well i guess that's what happened when hardly get dim sum out there ....

Started my job at Baker, manage to get to know some really nice friends ..... everything is going pretty well for me so far .... :-)

Hmmm .... my whole family will be moving to Kota Kemuning soon .... so while i am still around ... i was forced by my mum to clean the new house ... ouchhhh .... so many things to do ... day after day of hard work .... i almost thought of engaging a house cleaning service ..... hahaha .... too lazy to waste my time cleaning .... i thought i should have many other better things to do than to clean .....

Manage to squeeze in some time to have dinner with my long lost school mates ... some of them which i have not met for more than 8 years .... that's a really long time ... we settled for dinner at Ole Ole Bali at Pyramid .... wow ... the new Pyramid really Rocks !!!!!! I like it very much .....

and Finally this morning ... got a call from office telling me that i am required to go to Dubai for a 11 weeks training school ... flying this weekend .... what a rush .... damn kelam kabut now .... and the next time i will be back to Malaysia .... it will be a new year 2009 .......

Farewell at Miri

At first, i thought b4 i leave Miri i will throw a big party at my house ... the normal BBQ and steamboat that we used to have .... but after coming back from offshore, i was so tired ... and everyone was so bz .... so i just decided to ask all my close friends out and just have a simple dinner .... so end up having my last seafood meal at "yu ha hai" by the riverside ....

Early bird taking photos while waiting for others to arrive

Leng luis .....

Leng chais ....

Smile of the newly married couple ...

With Teh and Kong

With housemate buddy Calvin

With Tracey

Pujut 6 Housemates ....

With Couple "Ah heng & Siaw Khur"

With another couple "Hin and Caroline"

With Hooi Koon

The last dinner ......

with friends at Miri .....

With Frankie at Imperial Restaurant

Well ... i guess that's it .... another chapter of my life closed .... 3 meaningful years at Miri .... and i promised to return again ... :-)

Farewell to West Berani

The time has finally come, to bid farewell to West Berani ... a rig that i have worked for the past 5 months .... it's being like part of my life then ... and i have so much fun working with all the crew onboard ...

Not until my last day that i realized that i have never take any pictures at West Berani, ermm ... wait a minute, i actually never really taken any picture on any rig since the beginning of offshore job ...

b4 i leave, i finally manage to take some pictures ... also maybe my last picture wearing my red coverall ... :P

Me in the Halliburton Unit

Team Halliburton at West Berani

Me and "Fearless Lead Engineer" Benjamin

Me and "Super MWD" Yiek

Me and "Specialist" Yip

Me and Directional Drillers, Irwin and Kan

West Berani Derrick

West Berani Floater

Goodbye West Berani !!!!!

Friendship

Throughout my life, i am glad that i have been able to know a lot of friends and some have been a very good buddy to me until today. Friendship is the best thing that happened to me.

I have always enjoy knowing new people, and making friends along the way. Good friends especially are irreplacable, as they have gone through good and bad times in life with me, the one that inspire me, the one who share common interest and basically someone that i can talk forever with. I have realize that there is a lot of things that we can learn from our friends whether intentionally or unintentionally, something that has been so important to my lifelong learning journey.

People used to tell me that friends usually come and go, from the moment you enter and leave schools, enter and leave university and when you start working at different companies and locations. Even tough friends might be physically be around or leave us, I still stubbornly believe that we can maintain a very strong friendship bond among us if we put in the effort. And thank god with existance of the current communication technology, keeping in contact with friends have been much easier, something that is very important to me due of my job nature as an offshore engineer.

And right now, i can't wait get myself back to Miri to spend my remaining time I have there with them. I am also very excited to be able to move back to KL to meet catch up with my old buddies and also to make new friends ... and even though i will be leaving Miri, I still believe that we can remain good friends ...

"I live my life revolve around my friends" ... :-)

Bad day

Yesterday was a day when everything that can go wrong, goes wrong ...

First our tools downhole failed ... then when it finally reached to the surface ... we have problem communicating with the tool ... so we decided to change out a new set of tool for our next run ... just when i was starting to work on the rig floor making up the tool ... suddenly it rained so heavily ... coupled with strong wind at about 20 knots ... even tough i was wearing rain coat ... it did not prevent myself to be fully drenched ... and after that more and more problems .... #$%^^@#$!

Just when we finally manage to solve the problem and finished our work... suddenly the sun started to shine again .... by then I was awake for almost a day ... it was day that really tested my patience to the limit ....

However, things do work fine again and the sun do shine again ... so i guess it might the god's test to me on my final hitch at West Berani

Wake Me Up When September Ends

1st of September --- suppose to go offshore but boat cancelled .... woke up as early as 4.oo am and waited for over 2 hours b4 i decided to call the rig only to find out there is no boat today :-(

What a good start for the month ... :-P

This is a crucial month, reason being ----

1) Starting a new job
2) Moving back to KL for good after spending 3 years++ at Miri
3) Moving into new house
4) Good friends leaving and coming back to Malaysia

A month full of uncertainties .... full of excitement ... full of emotions .... and definitely going to be a tiring month ....

I just hope that i can sleep thru the whole month ... and wake up when september ends ....

Spending my last moment at Miri

It's been over 3 years since i am here at Miri and I still remember the first time I stepped foot here. Everything seemed so lost to me, a total change of lifestyle and the feeling of emptiness. I do not have many friends here then and mixing around was also a challenge for me.

Yet when i am now just about to leave the land of Miri, I am almost reluctant as there are so many fond memories to be left behind. I have made some good friends and build a new life of my own here. I started to understand and discover the beauty of this of this small town, and living here and mixing around with people here have taught be invaluable lessons in life.

I enjoy waking up early in the morning and go out for breakfast at Miri, chit chatting over life, work or even politics under the cool morning breeze accompany by a bowl of kolok mee and a cup of milo peng.

I enjoy visiting the wet market shopping for fresh food and shopping for groceries at boulevard supermarket, for the sake of having our very own home-cooked meal at our beloved Pujut 6 house.

I enjoy to go for a walk or jog at Bulatan Park or go for a swim at the public pool at Miri. Maybe sometimes taking a stroll at the beach at Luak during the weekends or some swings on the driving range at KGM (Kelab Golf Miri) or Eastwood Valley.

I enjoy the occasional BBQ gatherings, or the sushi gatherings that we used to have here and the subsequent gambling session over the night.

All the things that we do here actually very simple, but yet we have so much fun.

I will definitely missed Miri, for the good quality of life without headache and worries about traffic jam or long queues at the banks or post offices.

I will definitely missed Miri, for the land of so many ethnic and culture whereby the kindness of the people here truely inspired me.

I will definitely missed Miri, for all the sweet and bitter moments that shaped me to become a better person.

If not that I was posted here for my first job back in 2005, i think i would never think of or have a chance to know Miri as how i know her today. I have never regretted to come to Miri and I will bring back many good memories , together with all spiritual values that I have learned here with me back to KL.

And i will continue to enjoy and cherish my last moment at Miri .... :-)

Learning to appreciate

We tend to worry about everything, we are worried about career progression, we are worried about not having enough money and .......

We tend to complain a lot too, we complain about our job, we complain about colleague, we complain about price hike ......

All our worries and complain has somehow seems to be so routine to us, so everyday is like a bad day to us .... even waking up late for work deemed to be a stroke of bad luck ...

Recently i have been talking to a few of my friends, telling them about my worries and did some complaining about my recent life ... and they struck be back hard back by telling me that what i am worrying is unnecessary ... it's " Luxury Worries" ....

Many of us worried about getting a good house, whereby there are many out there are actually without a shelter

Many of us complain about the food we eat, whereby that there are many people out there starving without food

Many of us worried about getting a better job, not realizing there are many out there without a job

Many of us complain about our family, not realizing that someone out there are even without one

So when we reached the peak of our worries and start to complain too much, take some time to evaluate our situation and maybe we will realized that we are actually doing good enough compared to many unfortunate people out there ....

I know that for us to chase for improvement, we need to keep on looking higher and not lower .... but sometimes it no harm to look lower at people that are less fortunate than us ... at least we will learn to appreciate our life ....

And when we start to learn how to appreciate ... life will be much more beautiful ... :-)

Financial Freedom

I used to be amazed by the idea and concept of financial freedom ... my first exposure to it was by reading "Rich Dad Poor Dad" back in my university days ... and subsequently a lot more of this kind of books .... the idea is really very attractive and who does not want to earn a lot while not doing anything ??? But i think at some point, i somehow feel the idea is wrongly bought ....

Network marketing for instance an example .... nothing against it at all but i think the business itself have been using the concept of "Financial freedom" too heavily to attract and encourage their workforce to do well .... i totally agree that network marketing is one of the path to financial freedom ... but i also believe that above all, professionalism and passion shall must be the upmost important in this customer service industry .... not oneself interest for pursuing "financial freedom"

I have also come across many insurance agent which called themselves "retail financial consultant/planner" ... but all they do is to sell you insurance policy ... dun get me wrong, i am a very supportive for people to buy insurance ... in financial planning, they called it our primary protection ... which is very important to safeguard ourselves and family ... before we can even think of doing other investment for our pursue for financial freedom .... but the question is, how many actually giving professional consultation to their client and help them to plan their financial protection ... i think most of the time, the more a client buy the better ... that is the rule of thumb ... sorry to say, but honestly have not encountered any insurance agent that really draft a policy based on the client's needs, by understanding their commitment and level of income ... and recommend an optimize policy which can fully benefit their client ... instead i do see a lot that always asked the client how much maximum they are willing to pay ... and trying sell the most expensive policy to the client by convincing them it is actually worth it ... at the same time squeezing every penny out of the client .... i know not all insurance agent is like that ... i know some decent one also ... but " one bad apple spoils the barrel"

So to what extent does this financial freedom concept actually influenced our life ... honestly, i think it well much do today .... and i do strongly encourage all to pursue and fight for it ... but obviously not to the expense of sacrificing one professionalism and morality ... and the most important thing you must be happy doing it ... because believe me it's a long and suffering process ... and if you dun enjoy doing it ... you will trade years of your happiness in life for a mere "concept"

A good friend of mine has started to embark on his journey to search for financial freedom, and i am really fascinated by his commitment and fighting spirit ... something that i have always admire and still trying to learn .... so if you are interested to find out more ... please visit http://malaysiainvestmenttips.com/

And to those who is planning and already embark on this wonderful journey for financial freedom ... GOOD LUCK !!!!!

Simplicity

Human life started simple ... seeking for food and shelter everyday just to survive through .... but today we are seeking 5-star fine dining and big houses to get our day by ... is it necessary??? Human are getting more complex day by day and the world we lived today is really overcomplicated, as a consequence for the human nature to pursue more in life ....

I couldn't agree more, things like handphone and internet services has become a "necessity" in out life today .... can we live without it??? yes .... but are we willing to live without it ??? NO ....

Now let's look into the what is in our mind nowadays .... good insurance policy, good house. good car, good school for our children, good company, good salary, good companion .... we are trying very hard to carve out our short term, middle term and long term 20 years plan for us to achieve as much as we can .... and again is it necessary ???

People always complain that they are working very hard to make end meets, and ironically some people complain about it with a cup of freshly brewed cappucino in the hand at Starbucks ...

Some people opted to live in a simple life, but it always misunderstood as resistance to self improvement .... but when we seek for improvement, material needs which are beyond our basic needs ... at the end of the day what are we trying to achieve??? better quality of life living at a big house, eating out at 5-star hotel ?? when we are busy selling our time in exchange for our "improvement" ... we might forget that our health is deteriorating and that we spent lesser with family and close friends ... so again everything for the sake of "better quality of life" that money can buy ....

We might have forgotten that how simple is it for us to stay healthy; regular exercise rather than expensive supplements and medication .... how simple is it for us to bring up our child; constant care and attention rather than expensive private school fees + tuition fees .... how simple is it that we can care for our parents; a regular visit rather than splashing them with expensive gifts .... and how simple is it to keep in contact with our friends; an e-mail, a phone call or a teh tarik session

So allow ourselves to look into how simple life can be .... and make improvements from there on

Home sweet home

In this competitive world nowadays, it is very common for most of us to study and work away from home; whether it is just our neighbouring state up to half a globe away. I have stepped out from home barely a month after i finished SPM, got an offer to study at UTP (University Technology Petronas). Since then, I have been at home maybe around 4 months a year, and the number is slowly and surely decreasing as i moved on. Today working as a offshore field engineer which is based at miri, i hardly be at home. This year itself, i have only been back once and it's already July.

I think many of us today faced the same situation. We always try to get the best opportunity available, even in the expense of leaving home and struggle somewhere else. Home is getting lesser weightage when it comes to our consideration for a job. We always think that our parent will understand and home will always be around while opportunity doesn't comes by always. It's true, our parent will always understand us even though they might missed us dearly, and yes it's true that home is always be around, just that we didn't realize that family bond might be fading. Time is always ticking, and we will one day soon realize that we are trading a lot of good things at home for our ambition and money.

People always say that their hometown food is the best, whether theirs is at kuching, ipoh, penang or even subang jaya. That is how much we love our hometown, as we live our childhood and teenage life in this place called hometown. We will never forget the path that we walked everyday to school, the junkfood we bought at the stall outside our school and the playground that we used see-saw and swing. Sweet memories about home will always emerged in our mind, because no other place is better or sweeter than home.

So no matter how busy we are or no matter how inconvenient it is, make your best effort to go home as there is no place like home. Call home often when we still have a chance. This blog is dedicated to me and all my friends out there, to remind ourself about our "home sweet home".

West Berani Video

Cool video i got from the rig ....

6 days break

Just came back from West Berani last week .... after a long 29 days hitch at West Berani ..... and I only got 6 days break b4 i go out again .....

I almost forgotten that i actually have a blog .... hahaha .... have been bz since i am back .... bz watching Euro 2008 .... bz catching up with friends .... bz getting some quality rest ..... all need to be done in such a little time ....

I was lucky as i get to catch Albert and Chee Hoe, 2 of my university buddies at Miri .... both of then came back from the same rig SEDCO 601 ... but at different time .... it's really great to see them again ... :-)

Life will be hectic for me from now on .... and i cant wait until the end of the year ..... hmmm ... time really flies .... i still remember my new year spent at Bali with my friends ... and our new year resolution .... hehehe .... and now it's already half a year down the road ....

Let's hope that this year will be another great year for us ... :-)

Fuel Price Increase

Still on the rig (West Berani) .... and heard about the petrol and diesel increase news .... almost everyone i know is complaining about the increase .... and to make matter worse .... all prices will also follow suit to go up .... not to mention that the government just increase the price of rice and abolish the ceiling price for chicken ..... which translate to higher cost of living in this coming days ....

I still wondering how does it going to impact me .... well ... i am on the rig and i am trying very hard to imagine that .... maybe i just need to get back to town and just let it hit me hard on my face ... maybe i'll start to yell and curse like everyone else .....

A lot of people said that we are net exporter for oil .... so we shouldn't pay so much for petrol ... a very good example is neighbour country Brunei .... but today Petronas actually says they will go bust by 2018 if they continue subsidising petrol .... i just wonder company like shell, exxon and many others that does not own a national oil reserves .... how can they actually survive .... and i am pretty sure that our government actually uses the oil taxes and royalty paid by oil company for the subsidy ... which includes all petronas, shell and many others .....

I am definitely not against the idea of reducing the subsidy of oil .... but i am just concern about how the government is going to spend the money saved from reduced petrol subsidy .... something which is very interesting to observe in the coming days ....

SMILE

In our busy and stressful everyday life, one thing that we shouldn't forget is put on our smile ... from the beginning to our last second of our day .... nothing is more valuable in life then our sweet little smile .... even money can't buy it .... and you might even lighten somoeone's day with your smile ... :-)

So let's start our day everyday with a big SMILE

10th day at West Berani

It was already my 10th here onboard at west berani .... a rig hired by nippon oil exploration to drill 7 wells at Helang Platform ... at offshore sarawak ....

before i came out to the sea, my miri home internet was down for a couple of days ... what a time to break down .... cant even tell my friends that i will be going offshore .....

the journey to the rig here was terrible .... sea was rough and i actually vomited terribly .... first time since a very long time for me to be this seasick .... didnt take my motion sickness pill .... i never thought it will be that bad .....

finally got access to internet after a week of total loss of communication ... the rig just moved in so they havent actually install the statellite yet .... so no internet and phone initially ....

my work is really physical for the last 10th days .... need to rig up and prepare tools for the drilling later ..... and i think i still have 19 days to go .... hmmm ... dun really want to think about it .......

Luak Bay

Evening stroll on the beach .... that's one thing good about Miri :-)