Spirit of the union

As promised a few impressions of yesterday's national day celebrations. Unbelievable how much time, effort and money people are putting into this....

By the way it was not only cars :) - a little traditional dance:

...an amazing sunset:

and the beautiful skyline of the Marina:

UAE's 40th National Day

Yes, 40 years of United Arab Emirates on Dec 2nd. 

This weekend is going to be crazy. Hope we'll find our way in the chaos of celebrations and post some pics like the one below.

How much is the fiiiiiiiish ?!?!

Interesting sign-board letting you know what 'to do' and what 'not to do' on the Dubai Metro....

By the way: sleeping is as well forbidden on the Dubai Metro. Few days ago an American got fined AED 300 (60 EUR) for falling asleep in a train; carrying a weapon is AED 200  :)

Read the full story: here

Sky is the limit?!

...or not?

Fog in Dubai Marina

Hard to believe this  picture was taken by a friend of ours two days ago from his living room on the 66th floor.....

Thanks for the pic, Joern. You'r livin' it up ^^

My employer of choice.....

I should update my CV -- I assume they have branches all over the world :)

 

Dubai-Asian-European-International Investment Co. Ltd.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Just came back from our quick city trip to KL. Amazing place and not too far from DXB. Sharing some impressions from our trip.

After a 6.5hrs flight (and two hrs delay - thanks Emirates) and 45min train trip to the city center we finally arrived. God knows why but we received a free room upgrade upon check-in. Gotta be lucky sometimes.  View from the balcony was stunning especially at night:

This picture says a lot about KL in general. It combines very modern parts with some true Asia feeling. Night and day markets, fake markets, busy streets, cheap street food....

No clue what exactly we were eating but we kind of liked it. You pick your stick (for sure stupid tourist like us had no clue what was on it and the explanations of the salesman did not help either :) The sticks get then cooked in boiled water for a few minutes. Well, not the best but definitely the most interesting food we had there.
 

By the way this market was crazily busy. The later it got the more busy.

On to the more modern areas: we went to see the one and only landmark that most people have heard of: The Petronas Twin Towers. Both of the towers on top of each other would just have the same height as our Burj Khalifa :)

And another landmark the KL Tower.

By the way the city is very very green. Just a few metro stops sway you can find yourself in a tropical, rainforest-like jungle. Steep hikes included.

 
We used the below as an excuse to not continue our walk - unprepared city people :)

After the loooong hike I took a rest in KL's Tourist Center. You can see me on one of these amazing massage chairs (really have to get one of these one day).

The first few days we did not find our way yet and only discovered the busy markets.. one after the other. Below you can find us in the tourist centre, in doubt whether we should leave KL to go to on of Malaysia's islands.

 
But soon we discovered a lot more in the city and were happy that we stayed.

Oh, I almost forgot our cultural program. As usual we were customizing our self with the local traditions.

 And trying to understand a Malaysian board game..anybody know how that works?

OK, after all the local stuff you need a break. Where better than at the Brussels Beer Cafe?!?!?!

OK, back to the local food: Very, very good but spicy as hell (Dary you would love it ^^)

 

And laksa's (soups) all over the place. Ever tried to have soup with chop sticks only? Manageable but not very stylish :)

And some funky dessert after....all natural ;)

As mentioned the city is very green and KL housed the "worlds largest free-flight walk-in aviary" to sum it up: a bird park :)

  

We spare you the boring bird pictures but not only free-wheeling birds were to be seen:

 

 

We took so many more pictures but it think this is enough to give a quick impression.

Which place to discover next?!?! :) 

Home Sweet Home

Yes, we did it (again) - moving house!

This time we took the full hit: UN-furnished ;) - there are more fun things in life than furnishing an apartment but we are really happy with the result. 

Before

During

 

After 

(Design & Ideas: 100% Eef)

View from the living room - day

view from the living room - night

 I admit the view was there"before" and "during" as well :)