Our Tuesday in Dubai

 

Day 053 of Our Winter:  It's easy walking around in light clothes even if a "cold front from Siberia" is present. The temperatures were between 18 and 25C today. We were out in the morning just walking around enjoying the bustling environment. First, we crossed the creek by taking the Metro's Green Line to Sharaf  DG. There's a supermarket that Jay's sister's especially like for things such as packed cashews and hair products.

   

Out typical schedule here contains a bit of an afternoon nap. We have done that for much of our retirement though and so it is not unusual. It works well in warmer places even if it's not called a siesta around these parts. The evenings are a great time to be out!

We took an abra across the creek to the Bur Dubai.  These are historical staples in the transportation system here and still cost us one dirham each to jump aboard.  Dozens ply the waterway although there are numerous bridges, a tunnel, and several subway lines that cross over or under the water.  It is a quintessential and still common method that works well.

 

We walked around along the water front near the old Bank of Baroda.  The old souk area was refurbished nicely and remains an important link to Dubai's past.  We decided to get on the Metro system again and return to the Sharaf DG stop.  Rather than visit the Medina Supermarket as we did in the morning, we walked though the Mina Bazaar area.  It is an area of east Indian shops and restaurants.

   

As it was getting late, we stopped for dinner at an outdoor, covered restaurant we usually visit when in Dubai.  Eating out, just as most supermarket food, is cheaper here than at home in Canada.  Four people cannot eat at home for $20 CAD but last night that included the 10% tip.

I put this image on Facebook today.  I wrote there's nothing that say's Merry Christmas like a bowl of chicken biryani.  If you don't know what it is, look it up because you are in a minority of the world's population.

Take-Away Biryani / Getting the Edges Chopped

 

Day 082:  Jay and I found a nice, busy restaurant where we can buy take-away food.  We wanted to pick up a single serving of biryani rice.  We bought some once last week and found the amount was sufficient to serve both of us for three meals!  The walk-through business space is called the Eastern Food Bazaar.  It has Indian food from different sections of that continent and also food labeled as Turkish, which I think really means Mediterranean here. Some dishes are Chinese as well.  It is in the set of buildings that look very 'Gotham-like' in design.  Food seems fairly cheap here in comparison to other cities.

 

Oh, and that is not the only thing cheaper than home.  This morning, I walked to a barbershop just down Long Street a ways.  I hadn't had a haircut since before leaving home at the beginning of November.  I wait to get my money's worth, you see.  

Getting a buzz never takes a long time because I only have the sides cut short with a #1-sized clipper attachment.  When I retired in 2014, I decided that I didn't need to cut my hair often or so traditionally. 

Banana Leaves as Natural Tin Foil

Day 23 - This was another rest day after our second evening at the Dubai Expo 2020 last night.  Tomorrow is Friday and we will not visit as so many people will be off on the first day of the weekend here.  The weekends are an interesting topic as several days ago, some changes in the UAE were recently announced for the beginning of next year.  

Let me go back a bit.  When we first came to the Gulf in the 1980s the weekends used to be Thursdays and Fridays.  The holy day for Moslems is Friday so that made it similar to a western weekend, just on different days.  Next, around 15 years ago things were changed in Gulf countries beginning with the UAE.  Weekends became Fridays and Saturdays.  That meant the first day was for the religious observance of Friday prayers.  Saturdays became a free day of rest for many workers.  One benefit has been that the common days of the workweek with the majority of the world increased by a day.   Soon, starting in January, the UAE will be among the first in the world to move to an official workweek of less than five days.  In the new year, Friday mornings will be for work and afternoons off for prayer time.  Then, government and some businesses will have free Saturdays and Sundays.  The 4.5-day workweek announcement says the change is to give a better work/life balance.

Our days are always free.  In the evening we walked to a huge Aster Clinic, near the former A-Fahadi Metro Station now called, Sharaf DG.  Our hotel provides a service that will come to our hotel to provide COVID-19 PCR tests for a fee.  Many countries require travellers to show negative results.  As we'll be leaving here in the early hours of the morning of next Thursday, we need to have some tests taken on Monday.  We asked at the front desk if there were a walk-in clinic close.  Tonight's walk to the clinic was to check whether we needed to make reservations.  It is a huge complex and is open 24 hours per day.  We found that it's probably speedier to make a reservation by telephone as, otherwise, it's on a first-come-first-serve basis.

We walked around a bit in the old Indian section of Dubai called the Meena Bazaar.  We decided it was time to eat as we passed all the restaurants and the great smell of food.  We stopped at a place with outside dining very close to the Sharaf DG Station intersection.   The Green Land Restaurant had an amazing assortment of food. I had Kerala-type, chicken biryani which came out of the oven in banana leaf rather than a clay bowl.  Jay had the chicken shwarma plate that had so much chicken he didn't bother opening the flatbread.  We drank bottles of water.  The total bill was about US$11.  So now I'm getting excited about Sri Lankan food at prices even cheaper but with cuisine with an even greater selection of exotic spices.

We Last Saw Them in New Westminster

Day 67 - There were folks we know in town today. We met these guys through mutual friends just last fall. The rather amazing thing is they live in New Westminster, about a half kilometer up the hill from where we do. In fact, this is an entry which seems appropriate to reference today. So meeting up in downtown KL seemed serendipitous.

They're in Malaysia until April too but they're based much closer to where we spent last winter. Penang is about 300 kilometers from Kuala Lumpur. We caught them as they had recent connecting flights through the airport here and were staying with relatives.




They came to our studio apartment just in time for us to head to lunch. For the first time, we ate at restaurants just across the road. A number of different vendors share an area with common tables. Of course, as usual, I gravitate toward a place which sells biryani. I definitely missed that in Bali.




They didn't have long but hadn't been over to the Masjid Jamek area recently. The 'River of Life' walkway along the confluence of the rivers has really improved the area making it much more of a must-see for visitors. I am glad we had the little walk there with them.

We're Retirees with Coupons

Jay has a birthday coming this Saturday. As we signed up for Tradoori Flame's marketing email earlier this summer, he got a coupon offer for a free lunch buffet. Today seemed like the perfect day to drive over the river and up Scott Road. It was a little hot and hazy.

I think I ate a bit more than I should have. Though now, I can add an additional entry to this blog with the new 'category tag' of biryani!

Mentions of Biryani Over the Years

Biryani is a rice-based meal originating in South Asia. It is a go-to dish whenever we travel as it can be found from the Middle East though South East Asia, and in restaurants anywhere catering to such an audience. The spices used are what determines its richness and signature. Everyone's idea of good biryani can be a little different. It is sort of a special-occasion, comfort food. I found this old photo from seven years ago which Jay made to bring to our annual condo barbeque.



During my afternoon nap today, I wondered how many times I had talked about biryani in these daily postings. The great thing about random notes in this format is that they're forever searchable. In the footer section on the web version of each page, one can find a search bar as well as the link to blog category tags. I searched for the word and then tagged each occurrence. Now this will form the top entry for the current 17!

Tomorrow will be the 15th anniversary of this blog. I have written a daily entry for 15 years! I am proud of myself for keeping at it from well before some now-common features of the Internet were even available. This is mostly just a place for me to write common things I might want to remember or share. I like that things which are not written in order can be accessed and made part of a new story.

What's My Gulab Jamun Limit?

From the spring, we followed the news of its opening in Surrey/Delta, BC. The Tandoori Flame already had several restaurants in Ontario. Yet, the one in British Columbia boasted it'd be 'The Largest Indian Buffet and Restaurant in North America'.

We just hadn't gotten around to visiting yet. Then, because we'd signed up for their email announcements, I got a free buffet coupon for my recent birthday. I printed out the offer.

Today seemed as good a day as any to drive around eight kilometers up Scott Road and take a look and, of course, sample the food.




I am happy to say that had some of the best chicken biryani I've eaten in months! The interior was nicely decorated and the amount and variety of food were quite remarkable. The staff were working hard and were very polite. I was surprised it was so busy for a Thursday lunch! Overall, I will give a thumbs-up. We probably won't go really often, but it is a place we will definitely visit in the future.

Good Morning, SF!

It was a smooth ride to SFO on our WestJet flight. We grabbed a BART train right to Powell Street Station. Our hotel is just a five minute walk on Mason Street.

We walked in the Tenderloin and found biriyani for dinner. We try that on our travel and always receive something a little different. We also stopped at a Trader Joe's and picked up some small items.

The sky has been and remains really blue. The news on TV talks about a wicked heat wave coming. I've been rather chilly so far. I had no idea the bay and shore were so much cooler than the inland areas. They're saying it'll be 100+F is some areas but it looks to be a perfect 70F here for all our time remaining.

The bed in the King George was comfortable and I feel rested.

The Royal Indian Restaurant

Day 106 - Jay and I should start a star-rating system for chicken biryani. We've eaten the Indian rice dish in many different countries and crafted by many different cooks. Each presentation has been unique, for better or worse.



Until today, we hadn't eaten at an Indian restaurant here in Siem Reap. However, the host of our guesthouse invited us to eat at his favourite place for that type of food, the Royal Indian. It is located on the opposite side of the street from the back of Siem Reap's Old Market.



It was fun to share a meal with Dominique.

Oh, and the rating of the chicken biryani? Well, it was a solid 6.5/10. The presentation was fine and the taste acceptable. There was certainly a sufficient amount of chicken. I missed the addition of cinnamon sticks. One way to bump the results higher would be to have included a hard-boiled egg. Tonight they didn't. The biryani was a solid attempt and we've had far worse.

Coming to Kuching

Day 50 - Getting up in time for our 8:00 AM flight seemed pretty unusual. I would rather roll out of bed at that hour than fly.

However, the flying was non-eventful and easy. The flight from Kuta Kinabalu to Kuching was supposed to take one hour and 45 minutes but we made good time and landed early. We UBERed downtown here and were able to check into our hotel early as well. On some travel days things go well. (That, of course, implies that on other occasions, they don't.)



It was overcast today but the rain held off. I already sort of love Kuching. The name means cat in Malay although the reason is disputed. Some say that was a general British-era term for Cochin, as in India, meaning a good harbour. Others say actual cats may have been involved, but the locals here don't use the real Malay word for felines. It doesn't really matter as there are numerous statues and even a museum for them here.

The city has excellent riverfront walkway and a very inspired new pedestrian bridge spanning near the center of things over to the iconic Sarawak Parliament Building.

We walked to the main bazaar area almost directly to India Street. It also must have been covered fairly recently. It was good planning to have kept an old section and make it so trendy!



We had a fine biryani lunch before going up on the amazing bridge. We went back to the hotel for a short nap and then walked around some more. My Mi Band shows we walked over 10 kilometers AGAIN today! Evening along the river is nice and the neighbourhood where our hotel is located is perfect too.

Lorong Burma

Day 15 - We headed to Pulau Tikus this morning. It was a perfect day to see two Buddhist Temples. We stopped at the Komtar post office and mailed a few Christmas cards and then got on a Rapid Penang Bus #101. We disembarked on the Burma Road.

Dharmmikarama Burmese Temple

First, we went to the Burmese Temple.








This picture was taken at the very spot I vowed to one day return to Penang. It was on the top floor of the Bell Tower. We were on a visit to China and Malaysia in 2011. Little could I have known, that within seven years, we'd be spending three months of our winter on the island!




Reclining Buddha Temple (Wat Chayamangkalaram)

Nearly across the street is a Thai temple. It contains a reclining Buddha image dating back to the mid-1800's.









We caught a bus back to Little India where we had lunch again before heading back down to Bayan Lepas. We had never eaten in the Kapitan Restaurant, perhaps because we'd often seen tourists eating there. However, it was really good biryani and I want to return to try other dishes on their menu.