Dubai International Airport

	Dubai International Hotel in Dubai International Airport.
	Dubai airport is one of the most crowded airport in the world. From first floor, I can see the crowd at the ground floor.
	From far, I thought this are real trees, until I go very close to it than I found out they are artificial trees. There are many this type of artificial trees in the airport.
	On the way to the departure gates, there is this wall painting on the left hand side, it's very special.
	This is the internet access lobby, there are many passengers using computers provided to surf net. There are also wireless internet access point, but due to high usage, the speed is very slow. To connect to Yahoo and show the home page, it took me about 1 minute. I was thinking of using the internet access to send a message with my laptop, but finally give up because too slow (unable to connect).
	This is duty free shop selling jewelry. There are many customers in this stall. According to my friends, gold price in Dubai is considered cheaper than in our country.
	When come to Christmast and New Year, there are many lucky draws in most shopping centers, even in Dubai Airport. You just need to spend 1,000 dirham (about RM 1,000), you are entitled for a coupon for lucky draw to win this car.
	At the other corner of the airport, there is another car to be won.
	This one is a motorbike for lucky draw.
	This is one of the souvenir stall in the duty free zone.

Car Display in Al Serkal Building

	The ground floor of Al Serkal Building is reserved by the owner for car display. The car collections is displayed to public for free of charge. I found this is a very special one, I think it is a 4 wheels drive vehicle.
	This car is not so old, I have been this model in some of the small village in our country.
	This is a Chevrolet, initially I thought this is a Volks Wagen.
	This is one of the very old car. I doubt anyone can still drive this car on the road. If require to change any parts, I think the owner has to order special from oversea.
	These two cars are displayed outside the building, may be it is not as expensive as those displayed inside the bulding.

Burj Al-Arab Hotel and Wild Wadi

	This is the famous 7 stars hotel, Burj-Al-Arab. It is about 100 meters away from Jumeirah Beach. I heard from some locals that it is initially designed to be a offshore casino, but they couldn't get the license for that, so it is finally converted to a 7 stars hotel. The road connecting the beach to the hotel was built after they failed to get the license. To enter the hotel, you have to pay 500 dirhams as deposit and you have to spend this money in the hotel. Due to this, we did not enter the hotel.
	The hotel is not the only famous spot a long Jumeirah Beach, there are quite a number of other famous hotels also. Right in-front of the hotel entrance, there is a water park called Wild Wadi. The entrance fee to this park is 140 dirhams (RM140) for the whole day. Children price is cheaper.
	I hardly see this kind of long luxury vehicle in my country, but it there are many in Burj-Al-Arab hotel. I heard the hotel is using this kind of vehicle to pick-up their guests. We wandered at the hotel entrance for about 45 minutes, we saw 3 cars like this enter the hotel.
	This is Wild Wadi, the water park right in-front of the 7 stars hotel. It is a nice place to visit. We did not enter the park, because when we arrived it was a bit late (after lunch). Or else we may enjoy the whole day inside.
	This is the map in-front of the park. From the picture, we can see that it is a real big one. Really get attracted by this park.

In Door Ski, Dubai

	In door Ski Dubai. Heard of this place and have seen it in many e-mails. This is the first time I personally visit this place. From its outlook, it does not look like an attracting place to me. It is situated in a shopping mall called "The Mall of Emirates", it is also very near to the famous 7 stars hotel "Burj Al Arab". As far as I know, this is the only in door skiing center in the middle of the desert.
	From the shopping mall, you can actual see those people having fun in the Ski Dubai. The shopping mall and the Ski Dubai is only separated by the glass wall. Inside is freezing, but outside is normal air-conditioned temperature. Entrance fee to this park is 60 dirham (about RM60), the rental of winter cloth is included and a pair of new sock. But, you may need to buy a pair of glove and a cap.
	This is inside the Ski Dubai. This is the place you can try skiing. Entrance fee to this place is 140 dirham (about RM140) for 2 hours. For novices, you have to spend sometime to learn before you can actually ski, because it is quite dangerous if you don't know how to ski and finally sliding down from the slope, you will lose control and finally bang onto the wall.

Al Serkal Building, Dubai

	This bulding is called Al Serkal building. It is one of the most beautiful building in that area. It is owned by a person, not a company, in our country this is a bit strange and rarely happen. It is rented to a bank as IT Center and I work in this building during my assignment in Dubai.
	At night, when lights are switched on, it is even much more beautiful. But some of the people working inside the bulding like me are not really happy.
	This is the front entrance of the building, most of the people working in this office hardly walk into this door because through this door you will enter the car exhibition hall. To access to offices, you will have to use the side door.
	This is capture using Google Earth. The building is right infront of the cross junction. The traffic at this juction is bad whole day.

Skype Is Not Allowed In Dubai

This is the real strange thing in Dubai. You are now allowed to use Skype. The moment you type www.skype.com in your Internet Explorer, this message will be displayed.

But the message appear mislead you to think that this is Skype Server problem, because it show "The Web Server may be down . . ."

So those local people will never be able to use Skype, because you will not be able to download Skype software. How about foreigner who enter Dubai and already have the software installed? The answer is, "some time you can use". But most of the time you will not be able to use it, because you just can't sign-in.

I heard from some of the people in Dubai, they say Skype is barred because the Telco "Etisalat" wants to ensure their profit. If they allow Skype, then their business will be affected. For comparison, if I call back to Malaysia using mobile phone, per minute it cost me about RM12.00. If I were to use Skype, the cost is only about RM0.30. So you can roughly know how much profit the Telco is making.

Desert Safari Tour

	We went for the desert safari tour on Friday. Over here, Friday is week-end instead of Saturday. I was a real exciting tour, the driver really drived the 4WD (Toyota Land Cruiser) to reach its maximum limit. They will only start the journey when they are in a group of 5 to 10. They do not travel alone in the desert.
	After about half and hour cruising in the desert, we stop down and wait for sunset to come. This is also time for the vehicle to take good rest.
	Unfortunately, one of the machine broke down. The driver has to replace the tyre.
	This is the first time in my life to see camel in the desert, it is definitely different from what I have seen on zoo.
	After sunset, we went to the camp for our dinner, and there are many types souvenir are sold here. To me, I found this is the most special one. Of course I bought one for my self. The artist put the sand (coloured sand) into the bottle to drawing sand picture in the small bottle.
	After the dinner, there is belle dancing performance. She is a well trained dancer, all of us were very enjoy with the performance.
	At night, the desert is quite and beautiful, you can even hear the sound of someone talking at about 500 meters away.
	Just sitting in the middle of the desert and enjoy the beauty part of the desert. But it is definitely not a good idea to stay here for long.

How They Do It In Dubai

	My first impression of this country is that it is a city in the middle of desert. I arrived Dubai at night, as such, I could not view the city from the airplane. I could only see that there are lights every where in the city. In the morning, I found this country does not seem to be in the desert, because I can see greenth everywhere.
	Few days later, until I see this, then only I know how they turn desert into greenth. If you go to the desert, you will not be able to see this kind of flower, because in the desert, it seldom rain. According to some local people, it rains once or twice in a year only. This kind of flower needs water.
	How they do it? First, the worker will lay the black color pipes on the ground, then over lay the grass with soil on top. Every morning, the worker will feed water into the pipe. With water, the grass can growth, and finally it covers the surface of the desert.

Thailand Safari World

Lion feeding in the Safari. This is normally performed in the morning about 10AM. As such, you have to arrive before 9.15AM. Because from the entrance of the Safari Park to the Lion site took about 15 to 20 minutes.

Guess what is the lion doing??? It is doing "BIG BUSINESS". Actually it's very smelly one. This lion look skinny, I think it must be quite old already.

This is the site where those tame animals are resided. Over here you can open your car window and take photos freely, so long as you don't get out from your car. Anyway, you can still see sign boards the warn visitors do not feed the any kind of animals in the park.

After we visited the Safari Park, the entered the Sea Park. This is the Sea Lion show in the park. The weather was hot, so if you got a mini motor-fan with you in hand will be very good. Anyway, if you don't have, you can always purchase from stalls in there. As usual, it is much more expensive than if you buy out side. During weekdays, there are 4 shows per day. But during weekend, there are more shows for visitor. So, visit during week-end.

Samui Peninsular SPA

	I was staying in this hotel during my trip in Koh Samui. I got this hotel via Vacation Time Sharing week exchange. I did not find out the hotel rating, but I think it should be a 5 stars hotel. The service is good. For the room type we stayed, my wife actually checked the walk-in room rate, before discount it is about RM1000.00 per suite per night, it comes with 2 bedrooms with attached washroon, 1 living hall and a small kitchen.
	In the evening, we were having buffet dinner here, the scene is perfect. The buffet dinner cost us about RM50.00 per person. There were many types of seafood available, like grayfish, lobster, crabs, prawns etc. The only thing that I don't quite like is that most of the food are spicy.
	From the hotel lobby, we can see the swimming pool and the seaside that is not too far from us. Because it is very near the seaside, the lobby is not installed with air-cond. It is very windy the whole day. At night, it is even much better.
	This is one of the very expensive hotel suite. We asked the hotel staff on its room rate. It is more than RM1500.00 per night. We don't have a chance to have a look at it facilities, but the hotel staff told us that it has a private swiming pool and garden.
	The seaside is very quite because it the hotel beach management does not provide any type of sea sport. As such, most tourist will go to Chawaeng Beach if they like sea sports.

Koh Samui Airport

Recently, I went to Thailand for a 2 weeks holiday. One of the detination is Koh Samui.
A very beautiful island.

When I arrived at the airport, then only I realised that this is a non-air conditioned airport. This is the arrival hall of the airport. We collected our bagagges here.






This is how they handle our bagagges, a simple truck brings our baggages to the arrival hall.













This photo was taken when I was about to leave Samui. We were sitting at the departure hall and the airplane we are going to take is landing at the airport.












This is the restaurant at the airport. We were thinking of trying the food of this restaurant, but due to time constraint, we finally didn't do that.











Before we get into the airplane, this is another airplane running at the runway which is going to take off.













I think this man is a policeman or soldier, he is walking around the airport with a wolf-dog.













This is the post-office at Samui Airport.














This photo was taken right before we get into this plane. This is a very small plane, there are about 50 seats only.











This is the control tower of the airport.













This photo is taken right infront of the boarding gate. We got to pay 300 Baths for each person. This is the only airport I ever been that provide freeflow of biscuits, tea and coffee.