This was taken at 3 o’clock in the evening. It was actually starting to cool down. Between 12-2 in the afternoon, the figure could go all the way up to 55. Cooked!

PS: Takpe, neraka lagi panas…

A picture says a thousand words. I have 15 pictures here, so that wraps up a 15000 words, the longest post ever in this blog. =)

Feast your eyes!

The white/gold walkway.

Ablution center. There are 6 centers. Fully air conditioned.

Preliminary praying hall. Just next to the main hall. Note the ceiling. Hand made.

The main hall, snapped from the first entrance door on the right corner of the mosque.

Stepping on the RM 4 million Persian/Egyptian carpet, handcrafted by 2000 people, and covers the area of 6 fo0tball fields combined.

The Mimbar, with Asma Ul-Husna wall behind it. Another exquisite handcraft.

Beautiful columns (I lost count of how many of these), with a flower-patterned spotlight.

Another preliminary praying hall. This chandelier is probably second biggest in the world, as the biggest ones are inside the main hall. Four of them, that costs about RM 14 million.

The main entrance (South end), taken from the main hall. See how bright the sunshine is? it was 46 DegC.

Gold-plated bronze date trees. There are hundreds of these columns.

With Saleem, in front of the real date tree. I was never a date fan, but the ones we picked freshly from the tree tasted way, way better than what we usually have during Ramadhan in Malaysia. Sweet and juicy.

Lunch fiesta! Thank you, Saleem, for the Lebanese treat. Bila mau kurus ini macam……

Sleepy, sleepy me. Kelas Bahasa Melayu kat koleq yang diajar oleh Penolong Kanan HEM pun aku belasah tido, apatah lagi training ni.

Anyway, we also had CPR training today, the only practical we did, for about half an hour. It was an excellent projection by the trainer. Now I know exactly what to do if a water accident happen.

Learning aid. Dummies, of course.

CPR. DRABC is the key!

Spooky, isn’t it?

This too. Spooooooookyyyyyyyy!!!!

A tiring day I must say. Enam kali kena rejam dalam air. Ikan pun boleh pengsan ini macam.

Enjoy the pictures, folks!

Tighten seat belts, secure loose items, deploy EBS, remove window seal.

Brace! Activate EBS.

Notice the difference? Yeap, the ‘chopper’ is upside down now.

Head count. Ade yang lemas? Fortunately, no. Nice!

I’m done. Your turn, guys. I’m off to the cafeteria. Hahahaha…

PS: I hate that yellow North Sea suit. Waterproof la sangat…

PPS: EBS = Emergency Breathing System

Introduction and facility briefing received, we started the day with the pool. Same ‘ol, same ‘ol. It was good, but nowhere near fun. Training has never been fun for me, except the one I had in Phitsanulok, three years ago. Well, I guess it’s all depending on the trainer himself.

We wrapped up the day with fire fighting and smoke house escape. Again, same ‘ol same ‘ol. CO2, dry powder, water, bla bla bla. To add pepper on the rotten pizza, the shine of the bright evening sun was burning deep into the skin. Humid and hot day, with fire and smoke training? They shouldn’t get along together, should they?

Waiting for the shuttle. Look at the wall pewter art. Just brilliant.

The training barge. Yup, it’s all in the barge, except the fire fighting yard.

There’s no option but to have lunch in this silly restaurant. The food? Perhaps Royal Canine tastes better.

Fire fighting. Guess who’s the clown in bottom right picture. Answer’s below.

Yours truly. And the clown. Hahaha. No offense, dude!

Our coordinator has booked a villa in Tanjung Puteri Golf Resort, here in Pasir Gudang. As we arrived, I completely lost my sanity. This is, by far, the biggest resort I’ve ever been. It’s probably much bigger than KSB, the place where I go to work everyday, where hundreds of oil and gas companies are stationed. It’s so huge, with three 18-hole golf courses and a 52-bay driving range, as well as an Olympic-sized swimming pool. Tennis courts, futsal arena, horse riding field, and even a football field, are available too. How amazing.

We’ve checked ourselves in a villa called Mahligai. With 4 bedrooms, each with its own dedicated bathroom, this is luxurious, for me at least.

Enjoy the pictures!

PS: This is golfers’ heaven, surely. Family gathering is okay too, but nothing much to do here, as the villas are at the heart of the golf courses. Compared to this Tanjung Puteri Golf Resort, Awana Kijal is indeed, ‘cap ayam’. =)

Exterior views of Mahligai.

First floor, with exquisite view of the Plantation Course.

The rooms. Mine is the bottom left. See my jacket?

Ground floor. I personally like the split level dining/living.

I also made an order for two pairs of Crocs, Tideline and Prepair. My wife’s colleague was the dealer or something like it. They told that they can sell several types of Crocs with a very tempting price (the price is around half of the retail price). Rejected stuff, they said. I’m always a big fan of Crocs but they retail price for each pair is rather ridiculous, although I have to admit that they make excellent flip-flops and shoes. Amazingly light and comfy.

Unfortunately, due to the crazy out-of-the-world orders they received, they can only fulfill my Tideline request. The others, including my wife’s, had to be cancelled, or delayed, or whatever, but they did refund. I received my pair yesterday, thanks to Ms Wawa, my wife’s friend. I rushed back home to try it out. I knew it would fit nicely, because I tested the size few days back at Crocs in One Utama. My size is 9, but they said Crocs’ sizes are one step smaller, so I ordered size 10. Got it unpacked, I slipped my left foot in (my wife gets angry whenever I put on my shoes, starting with the left side). Whoaaaa! It didn’t fit as it should be. I checked the size again. Still, it shows 10 (42). Why? I thought I got it tested the other day. Or did I test on 11?

Aaaaahhhhh there goes my raya shoes. Bummer =(

PS: Going to Timberland today haha…

Let’s not go through all the details of this course, or it will take a few weeks to complete this article.

It was 42 degree the day I arrived. Yeap, hot as hell. It seemed like a bad sign, why on earth did I signed up for this course here. On the brighter side, I felt that I am lucky to be borned in such a nice country (I used to curse Malaysia has such a hot and crazy atmosphere). Nevertheless, the hot temperature here is the only bad thing about this place I guess.

Abu Dhabi is an extremely safe place to stay. One of the taxi driver I met here said that this town has an approximate population of 4 million people, more than three quarter of them are Indians, Philippins, Indonesians and some from Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Only about eight hundred thousands are the local citizens. Imagine all the shops are all occupied with these immigrants, even the taxi drivers and megastores casual labors. Infact, you will see one original Arabian after seeing ten to fifteen immigrants as you walk down the pedestrian walkway.

They must really making good fortune in this country, as I heard that the cheapest house rent is about 3000AED (multiply with 0.85 to get into Malaysian Ringgit) a month, and the cheapest hotel is about 600AED per night stay. Even with this extremely high pays they have to afford monthly, you can still see them around texting with Nokia N91 or Sony Ericsson w960i, with iPods earbud inside their ears.

A friend of mine, a Brazilian, went to Dubai on the last weekend (it takes about two hours to get there by taxi). He came back with an explosive story that the cost of a can of Coke costed him 22AED, and he had lunch there with three of his friends at about 600AED. Another friend of mine suggested that we should go to Dubai and have a look around at the Burj Al Arab, the 7 stars hotel where you can find a hotel room that costs you a mere 50000AED a night. Luckily I thought that it wasn’t a good idea to go Dubai on the weekend as time is a major factor which stops us from having a nice sightseeing around the westernized-urban Dubai. If I agree with him, I will have to pay about 200AED just to get into the lobby and look around.

Back to Abu Dhabi.

As a whole, this big city is a nice place to take your family on a vacation trip, but make sure you come on winter, as summer here will get your skin burnt with almost 55 degree centigrade heat. But it will be better if your company or whoever gives you a full sponsorship on accomodations as the hotels and apartments here aren’t easy to get, and quite pricey. For shoppaholics and tech brats, this place can be a good spend-my-money destination. Goodies here are slightly cheaper than in Malaysia, and electronic appliances can be really cheap. You can get a Sony DSC-H50 500AED cheaper than the outdated Sony DSC-H9 in Malaysia.

Overall, everyone is most welcome to come here. It surely is a nice place to spend your quality family time.