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 :)

Take the dog - ehhhh - goat for a walk

Snapshot taken on my way to work today - some people have dogs, some people prefer goats :)

Istanbul, Turkey

Yes, we are back and survived 4 days in Istanbul :) - without knowing a word of Turkish, which was not always that easy.

Took quite a few pictures - I'll walk you through some selected ones here:


1. The Hotel

Well, after being being in a taxi for about an hour because of the crazy traffic and suicidal driving style of our driver we reached the hotel. Very nicely located in a central area of Istanbul with plenty of small shops, restaurants and bars. However, the "star" system in Turkey is quite different in Turkey than let's say "any where else in the world". How else can you explain that our first room in this 5* hotel was located side-by-side with the hotel club and facing the busy street. Needless to say that it was impossible to sleep the first night with hoking cars and booming bass as background noise....2nd day we changed the room and at least got rid of the club music.


The bridge on the second picture is the humongous bridge connecting Europe and Asia. Better picture later...

Main Entrance

Hotel pool with bridge view

2. Taksim Square

Like every big city a shopping street cannot be missed. This one was crazy: Istiklal Street.
Before I seeing this I assumed Mall of Emirates on a Friday evening is busy but it is nothing compared to this.  People everywhere. No wonder: Istanbul has an estimated 19 mio inhabitants.

 

3.  Sightseeing

Even tough the city is huge and extremely busy there are some very beautiful and peaceful spots. Not far from Takism we found a nice park on a hill overlooking the Bosporus. Amazing view....

Bridge connection Europe and Asia

4. Culture


Yes, we did some but not too much :). We went to see the apparently very famous Blue Mosque and an underground Basilic.

Blue Mosque

Some stone ;)

another mosque

Basilic I

Basilic II

And for sure some local markets....

5. Relax & Eat

Most important part of a vacation :)

The infamous DOENER KEBAB

One is not enough ;)

And we got thirsty after all the local specialties...

Beer from Turkey...

...wine from France :)

And some local fish served in a sandwich sold straight from the boat (reminds me of the Doener-Boat in Frankfurt - Dary & Peter know what I'm talking about ^^)

tasty but bony :(

Another local specialty is a baked potato with a million topping on it, very very tasty

PS: No, this was not all on one day :)



6. Trip to "Paradise Island"

Paradise Island  - or Buyukada in Turkish - is an 1.5hrs boat trip off Istanbul. Not much to see there and packed with tourists. However, we enjoyed the boat ride and the scenery.

The usual "Ameisenhaufen"

Inhabitants of Butukada :)

Hope you liked our quick summary - many more stories to tell and pictures to show.....