Sudanese Lunch

Some friends wonder what type of local food that I eat. Well, lunch for today was mutton stew with lots of sauce, onions, etc ....... I also dunno what you call it .............








That mutton stew dish was eaten with french loaf type of bread that has to be dipped into it and scoop up with whatever you can scoop hehehehehe

There's also a bowl of fresh vegetables that was nicely cut - tomatoes, cucumbers, green vege - that serves like a salad for us. The third bowl is more of a local spicy stuff, Sudanese style, where it acts like a hot paste.








The aftermath ................ ran out of bread. This aftermath tells you the food quality. That mutton stew was one of the best that I have ever eaten ........... we were asking for more but no more ................ ahhhhhhhhh

Next time we have to contribute more money and add more varieties ...... that sounded like a buffet course already.








That pigeon could have been good on the table for diners.















My lonely colleague who was still sitting under the hot lunch time sun ............... hello, don't you feel the heat?

Tags: Sudanese Lunch, Mutton Stew

Whale Shark Freed from Dubai Hotel

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I did mention that The Atlantis would be holding an opening ceremony that may cost up to US$35 million. So, I decided to get a friend of mine to sneak near to the area and she managed to climb on board a yacht and took this pictures.

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The largest hotel built on the Palm Jumeirah artificial island development is called The Atlantis. This hotel was built at a cost of US$1.5 billion.

The large hotel has 1,539 rooms that will come with a designer shopping centre of about 27,000 square feet.

The most expensive suite with three-bedroom, three-bathroom suite complete with gold-leaf and 18-seat dining table is about US$25,000 per night stay.

It comes with a water park, Aquaventure. One could slide into (via a tube) or take the water ride in a shark-infested lagoon.

It has an open tank aquarium that houses 65,000 fish, stingrays and a large whale shark that goes by the name of Sammy.

Besides that, it has a dolphinarium, a bay around the size of 11 acre, became a home to more than two dozen bottlenose dolphins that were bought from the Solomon Islands.

It is here that has drawn the irk of environmentalists who have criticised the use of an aquarium in keeping a large whale shark and the torturing aspect of flying in the dolphins via a 30 hours flight. The large whale shark was 'captured' by the hotel and kept in the aquarium for rehabilitation purpose, as claimed. Environmentalists believed that the hotel was using it as a drawing card instead.

To the extent that Facebook (Set The Whale Shark Free From The Atlantis Aquarium Dubai group with 15,000 members to date) was used to gather people to pressure the hotel in releasing Sammy. Pressures from various groups has forced the hotel to release Sammy now due to official orders from the government of the United Arab Emirates at end October 2008. One never knows how strong is such Facebook group.

On the other side of the world, the sister resort located in Bahamas, called The Atlantis Resort ............. is facing bleak time. It has to retrench 800 staff from their payroll in order to surive due to the downturn of USA's economy. Will Dubai's heavy travel traffic help stave off the recession?

Just when they are retrenching 800 staff from the other resort of the same group, The Atlantis at Dubai will be launching an extravaganza official opening ceremony on 20 Nov 2008 that may cost up to US$35 million in total. The opening ceremony will see fireworks that will cost up to US$6.5 million and guests will get to see Kylie Minogue, invited at a rate of US$4.4 million, singing a few songs.

Before it even opens officially (soft opening somewhere around end Sept 2008), the hotel has to go through so many complicated situations ............. bad omen?

Reading: Dubai hotel urged to free shark - BBC News/Science & Environment
Tags: United Arab Emirates, The Atlantis, The Atlantis Resort, Palm Jumeirah, Dubai, Sammy The Whale Shark, Bottlenose Dolphins, Dolphinarium, Aquaventure, Kylie Minogue, Solomon Islands, Environmentalists

Asian Food in Khartoum

There is a variety of Asian food if we decide to go a bit further around the city.

One of them is the Asian Briyani Restaurant, basically an Indian restaurant, located at the Al-Manshiah area.

Our pure Mango juice (can't recall the price).

My Indian Lunch ......... a Chicken Briyani. Quite a big serving and upon finishing it ......... phew what a task.

Total price for three Mutton Briyani, one Chicken Briyani, four Mango Juice and four small Mineral Water - 55 Sudanese Pound equivalent to about US$24.
Tags: Indian Lunch, Mango Juice, Mutton Briyani, Chicken Briyani

Final Leg of Fantasy Travel

My tiring eyes that hasn't really have a good rest. Left house at 9.30pm the previous night and still travelling to reach Sudan.

I should reach Khartoum by their local time of 6.30pm (11.30pm Malaysia time) and by the time I checked out of the immigration, it should be a solid 24 hours travel from KL to Khartoum.


The numerous buttons you get to play with at the armrest of my business class seat.

Out of a total of 56 business class seats, only 9 were occupied in this final leg of fantasy travel.












In this business class, these are the drinks that could order ..... FOC and unlimited ...... of course depending on your capability as well.













Not long after departing Dubai, we were served drinks again.

While enjoying the drinks, I watched the Children of Huang Shi movie starring Chow Yuen Fatt, Michelle Yeoh and Jonathan Rhys Meyers. Marvellous movie. Talks about the time when the Japanese invaded China and two particular westerners were there to help 60 orphaned kids in escaping the tyranny of the Japanese soldiers.

This time I opted for the Taittinger Brut Reserve N.V. champagne. I find this absolutely fine and smooth. The grape taste was there but subtle.








I took the Chateau Canuet Margaux too. This is really one of those better red wines I have tasted thus far.














They do offer white wines too but didn't try.
















For starters, I ordered the seafood selection that comes with two slices of lobster meat, a king prawn and some smoked salmon.

There's the place of fresh fruits and not forgetting the garlic bread too. How generous of them.

Actually, I ordered the roast beef tenderloin for my main course but the chief steward told me that they don't have enough of that dish.

Presumably all the 9 of us ordered the same dish but impossible for the plane to have so little stock of this dish.

Eventually the chief steward offered this dish taken from the first class cabin .......... good exchange? It was finely cut beef, so tender, in veal jus that has pastas too. I didn't even leave a single bit of the gravy on the plate.

After the main course, my stomach has a bit of space left but when I saw their dessert, the stomach opened up. It was a marvellous cheese cake with some dried mamoul dates strewn over it. How can I resist it? To top it off, I must have a cup of tea with milk / sugar.
Tags: Taittinger Brut Reserve N.V., Chateau Canuet Margaux, Cheesecake, Mamoul Dates, Children of Huang Shi

Life in Khartoum

My English Lunch ................
















My Italian Dinner ................ (I prepared this)

the dinner that came with this wonderful gravy ...... full of tasty minced meat in thick tomato based sauce (I know how to do this but let my colleague to do something as well otherwise it would be boring for him to wait).

This is for my HP friends ............ this is your main competitor in Khartoum

Part of the Khartoum city centre. Their buildings are not really tall.

Tags: Khartoum, Sudan, English Lunch, Italian Dinner, HP

New Terminal 3 of Dubai Airport

An airport limo was supposed to pick me up from the hotel back to the Dubai International Airport. I thought the limo would wait for me but it didn't. The hotel staff did tell me when I check in earlier that the limo would be fetching me around 12.30pm. I only came down at 12.45pm.

Ended up having to take a taxi to the airport and the hotel staff hailed me a taxi. Then I realised I don't have UAE Dirhams. As I was told that the taxi fare would be 20 Dirhams, I found only 18 Dirhams in my wallet. Forced to change my US Dollars into Dirhams.

The taxi driver was really cunning. The hotel staff told me that I need to pay 20 Dirhams for the short journey but upon arrival, the driver said it was supposed to be 30 Dirhams.

So be it. If he thinks by earning another 10 Dirham would make him rich, let him continue to dream like that. And this fellow almost missed the drop off point for Business class passengers. Even though I have told him earlier, he almost wanted to go straight to the normal public entrance. Not that I hard up for making a grand entrance at the Business class area but the crowd there is much lesser and would be faster in going through the immigration checks too.

Another long walk back to the departure area of the airport. Really really big airport. As I was walking in, I just realised that I still do not know which boarding gate is it for my flight to Sudan.

Walked back to the check in counter and was told gate 222. My my ........... how many boarding gates do they have.

Even their lifts are super duper huge.






Dubai Airport is famous for their duty free shopping. How duty free also, you have to fork out money to buy whatever you wanted.

The Business class lounge in Dubai Airport is really spacious till I can't capture the whole area in one shot. It has a few rest areas and through my estimate, it could easily fit in more than 300 people at one go.

Of course, this shot was taken near the food counter. Lots of people were eating away just like me. In terms of quantity maybe not like me.

They have computer workstations for people like me to update FB and blog hehehe. Not only washroom was provided but shower areas too.

With 35 minutes to go, I went to my boarding gate no. 222. Saw the whereabout of the boarding gate prior entering the lounge ........ you know la, just in case it was my bad day in missing the major part of my travel ........ which is the airplane.






Upon entering the boarding gate, one has to walk really really far just to go into my airplane. You need to go down to a waiting area by escalator and then all the way passed the yellow coloured seats to enter another door to access the ramp to the airplane. Too huge.










You can't see me taking such picture at Khartoum airport due to security reasons ......... your camera will be confiscated if caught doing so, in which case, your friend here was almost the victim.

Yeah, beat that!

Awwwwww my airplane is already here ....... here I come Sudan. Khartoum, the capital city, is considered my hometown. This is the next city or town after Kuala Lumpur that I have spent most of my time.

Related post - Transit Time in Dubai
Tags: Dubai, Terminal 3 Dubai Airport, Dubai International Airport, Khartoum

Subway Grew Faster Than McDonalds

Subway, a fast food operator that serves sandwiches and salads, has grown so fast that it has overtaken McDonalds in the United Kingdom and Ireland markets. Subway operates via the franchising system and in the last three years, they opened up 800 outlets and it has 1,300 outlets in the whole of UK and Ireland now.

Their next target, 2,010 outlets by year 2010. Surprising to find out that their Meatball Marinara in UK's menu has a number of Facebook fan clubs. Must be very delicious that people reveal their love for it virtually. Subway is almost in every UK major cities / towns and would be flooding the universities, hospitals and football stadiums.

McDonalds in UK has been in the fast food industry long enough and would be able to withstand or counter such business competition with their 1,266 outlets in both UK and Ireland.

Even though Subway has more outlets than McDonalds, McDonalds' revenue is still much higher at £1 billion plus compared to Subway's £400 million sales. Looooooooong way to go for Subway.

Subway in Malaysia has only 27 outlets and if not mistaken, I have not tried their menu yet. Reason being that their presence is not wide enough to capture my attention during meal time. As for McDonalds, there's one just opposite my office building. How not to miss it. I like their Sundae Cone and French Fries.

Reading: How Subway overtook McDonalds - Telegraph UK
Tags: Subway, McDonalds, United Kingdom, Fast Food Operator, Subway Franchise, Subway Sandwiches