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As I went into the indoor café where the “Samar Night” event has been moved to, I wasn’t sure of what to expect. All I knew from the event’s facebook page was that it is a story-telling event, where a specific number of individuals have been selected to tell a personal story that belongs to them or to someone they know.

The event is hosted by the cozy and homely “Arjaan By Rotana” hotel apartments property located in Dubai Media City. A small group of us gathered in the Arabic themed café “Arabesque” and were sitting in a circle around the speaker or story-teller.

I asked one of the organizers about the objective of this get-together. He explained to me that it was a type of performance art that didn’t exist in Dubai. So they wanted to be the first to bring it. It is an alternative to stand-up comedy and poetry shows, which are now widely spread all across the city.

The group is basically a community group. I learned that this was their fourth meeting, and that they plan to run it on a regular basis; on the last Saturday of each month.

There’s only one simple rule for this social gathering: all the stories told must be true life stories. Either belonging to you or to someone you know, like a friend or a family member.

Some of the story-tellers on the night were professional actors or people who like to act in plays as a hobby. But you don’t need to be a performer or actor to join in the fun.  If you feel like you have an interesting or inspirational story that you would like to share with others, then just make sure that you rehearse before coming to the event to tell your story. As notes are not allowed….and so are boring stories 🙂

After listening to six wonderful and heart-warming stories and having a falafel sandwich in the break time, I was feeling positive, amused and I had a sense of an amiable community spirit.

If you can’t remember a particular exciting or inspiring personal story, don’t worry. You can still join the group as a listener, and collect a discovery duck to take with you to your next trip or adventure.

All you need to do is post a photo of yourself with the duck at your chosen destination or adventure on the event’s facebook page, and be prepared to tell the story behind the photo at the next “Samar Night” episode.

If you would like to meet new interesting people, practice speaking in front of a small crowd, or simply want to get a sense of a friendly and welcoming community spirit, then I would suggest you drop by one of the “Samar Nights” with a fascinating and attention-grabbing story in mind. And don’t forget to skip the notes 🙂

Since it was the weekend, I decided to spend my day at a park and avoid going to the tourist attraction spots which will be overcrowded. Especially since it was the holiday season.

Getting off at the “Admiralty” metro station for Hong Kong Park means that you will have to go through “Pacific Place” shopping mall. A very luxurious mall with mostly high-end designer stores and sophisticated cafes and restaurants; “Pacific Place” is a haven for fashion lovers. The winter sale was on, and all I could think of was finding the nearest pharmacy to get a cure for my upset stomach from the previous night’s local dinner.

Once I got my medical condition diagnosed by a lovely pharmacist who spoke fluent English with an American accent and had my medicine, I was ready for my first tourist attraction of the day: Hong Kong Park.

It was a rainy day with a good amount of showers. Nothing like London showers though. Just a nice drizzle combined with some light winds. It seemed like I was the only person enjoying the rainy weather at the park. As the park was almost empty except for a few care-free tourists, and some people who were passing through the park to get to the other side of the street. I didn’t mind the rain at all. In fact, it made my park day even more enjoyable. I was exploring the different areas of the highly lush and green park, walking down trails, and taking pictures of everything from pretty trees and flowers to cute turtles and fishes in the pond. The rain added a zest of fresh air to my walk at the park, and I was grateful for being able to enjoy a lush green park under the light rain.

I wanted to check out “Jardine’s Crescent” street market; which was in the area, and I spent a considerable amount of the day looking for the market and asking around for it. But with no luck. Some people couldn’t understand what I was talking about, others didn’t speak English, or simply had no idea about a market in the vicinity. Being the stubborn and strong-headed person that I am, I could not forget about the market or dismiss the thought of getting to it. Since it was already a part of my plan for the day! and I had to find it no matter how challenging the process was!

But first, I needed to sit down somewhere as I was exhausted from all the walking and roaming around. I also wanted to eat my lunch which consisted of a banana and a cup of hot tea that I got from a nearby Starbucks. That task proved to be even more difficult than the mission of finding the street market. It was a Saturday afternoon during the busy holiday season in Central Hong Kong and it was raining. This only meant one thing: there wasn’t a single seat available at any of the coffee shops in the area.

Students were sitting at Starbucks catching up, working on their projects, or saving the empty chairs for their friends who will be joining them soon. At another popular cafe a few blocks away, all the tables were taken. And although this was an extremely spacious branch with many places to sit, I was greatly surprised and frustrated when I couldn’t find a single empty place to sit. I continued to walk down the streets with my hot cup of tea in my hand, dragging my tremendously tired legs and body. Until I decided to head to the park across the street which turned out to be “Victoria Park”. Luckily, the rain had just stopped by then, and so it wasn’t a problem to sit at a park bench and finally have my banana lunch and fortunately still warm tea! Yes it was an unpredictable situation and I was glad to have found a way around it.

Going back to my previous challenge of finding the street market, I continued to ask staff at random stores. Eventually, someone directed me to the street that the market is named after: Jardine’s Crescent. As I walked down that street – still asking people about a street market and not getting any clues – I began to loose hope of ever finding that market (which I was certain that it existed). Then, I spot a flower stall and my heart fills with joy! Because I had read an online tip about that market that said: Don’t miss the small wet market at the end of the street (flower stalls). So, as I walked towards the flower stall, I was hoping (and wondering at the same time) that I have finally found my lost market! And I was thrilled that I did!

I walked along the flower stalls to find myself in this twisting little market. Full of a wide range of items from fruits and vegetables to cartoon stationery.

As I exited the market onto the main shopping street, I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw the sign that I was planning to follow at the beginning of the day when I first started my search for the market! But because I was lost in the busy and densely populated streets and the mayhem of the weekend crowd, I had completely forgotten about that clue that I intended to try out…I was also amazed at the tiny corner that leads to the market. It was more like a whole in the wall kind of thing. Literally! a space in between two walls on the busy shopping street….and next to the store “Forever 21” where the lady at the first shop that I asked for directions had guided me.  Except that I couldn’t find the high-street retail store to begin with!

Oh well, I guess most of us women are not so good in directions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By the time that my third day had arrived in Hong Kong, I was lost when it came to what to eat and where to eat in the city. In Kowloon, where I was staying, the local food was well, too local! So what I thought would be a smart decision – filling myself up at breakfast – proved to be a very bad and terrible idea. As that, combined with a deep-fried dinner resulted in me getting sick for the next couple of days.

The hotel breakfast buffet included both American and Chinese dishes. I decided to have both! I didn’t want to miss out on the scrambled eggs and sausage, and at the same time I wanted to experiment the authentic local cuisine.

My third day trips included a visit to a legendary Chinese temple, a renowned nunnery and a magical garden.  I spent my time at the temple performing all sorts of prayers, making wishes and throwing coins at a fountain for good luck. First, I did the fortune-telling prayer using the numbered sticks and had my lucky number translated at the palm reader’s stall. Where I also had a palm-reading session. Next, I spent some time walking around in the garden at the back of the temple and exploring the rest of the place. I found a lot of inner-peace while sitting in that temple. The general atmosphere brought a sense of serenity and calmness. And I didn’t want to rush to leave and end my time at the temple so quickly. While I was walking around and watching the locals perform their prayers and make their wishes surrounded by the smoke from the burning incense, I came across a designated area where three statues stood connected to one another. I went up to the lady in charge and asked her what this was for. That’s when she asked: “are you married?” and I replied with: “no, I’m single.”  She then directed me to the statues in front of us and said: “you can make a wish at the Chinese GOD, and then tie the thread at the man statue.” And there I went tying the bright red thread around my fingers as she showed me and faced the GOD statue to make my wish for a prince charming to make his way into my life. But then, when I attempted to tie the thread around the pole connected to the man statue, I was surprised to find out that the thread is too short for the pole, and I panicked for a few moments, worried that all my sincere wishes to bring a perfect match into my life had gone to waste! Luckily, the lady directed me to tie it at any part of the GOD-male-female figure, and so I did; relieved that my wishes hadn’t gone to waste, and excited about what these prayers could bring 🙂

I decided to keep the fortune teller’s reading to myself after a wise friend advised me not to reveal her translation on my blog. But instead, I could tell it to my close friends and the people who I trust. So, in following my friend’s valuable advise, I will just let you in on one piece of information that she said about my future: “you will be happy from age 40 and over.” That means that I still have a long time to go folks! I am currently 32 and a half years old for those of you who are not aware of my age…Which makes sense as I am still going through a transitional phase in my life. So I can totally understand the upcoming years of extra suffering 🙁

My next stop after the wishes-packed temple visit was to the Chin Lin Nunnery. I was told by a security guard at the garden opposite the Nunnery that it was now closed for praying, but the door is still open for sight-seeing. Now I’m not sure where he had the idea that I would be going there to pray. Was I dressed like a Chinese monk? did I look like a Buddhist lady? or was there an invisible halo surrounding my head?I explained to him that I just wanted to have a look inside and went off to the other side of the road to visit the Nunnery before it closed its doors for the day.

It was compact, not much to see. Which surprised me a bit. I took a few pictures before going back to the Nan Lian Garden. It was already dark, but luckily the garden didn’t close early. I was also glad that I arrived there at night, because the lighting and the whole garden looked more beautiful at night. I also found some particular spots very romantic and saw a couple just standing there admiring the view from one of the scenic areas.
After snapping a couple of photos and wishing that I was there with someone special instead of by myself, I headed to a nearby mall to have dinner at a food court that I saw earlier.

After making a round at the different restaurants at the food court, I decided to go for the Hong Kong cuisine for two reasons:

1. Simply because I was in Hong Kong and should be trying the local cuisine.
2. I thought that it would be the most affordable option, since I was still not sure at that time if the cash I had with me would be enough for my whole trip.

Not being able to eat using forks or knives and having to rely on chop sticks was not the problem. The problem was that I didn’t predict or think for a moment that my local cuisine dish of deep-fried fish would give me a terrible stomach ache and would make me miss out on my friend’s mother invitation for dinner at her home…in addition to a strict diet of a banana for lunch and a yogurt cup for dinner for most of the the rest of my trip 🙁

I didn’t feel anything odd while I was having my authentic local dish. The uneasiness settled in hours after I had my dinner. And continued on to the next day, which led me to visiting a pharmacy at the posh Pacific Place mall in Hong Kong Island and asking for a medicine to cure my upset and painful stomach ache.

Luckily, the pharmacist spoke fluent English and was able to clearly understand my condition and prescribe the suitable medication.  And I later found out from my local friend after showing her the pictures of my meal and asking her about the dish, that it is deep-fried fish in a sweet corn sauce and it is called: sweet corn fish. The funny fact is that the batter covering the fish was more than the fish itself!

I will continue my Hong Kong trip stories in another post. For now, have a look at some of the pictures that I took on my third day in the city…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’ve always believed in the theory that the Universe helps bring our goals closer to us, and that we naturally attract to us and into our lives the things that we mostly desire and work towards achieving.  What happened last night at the World Luxury Expo only proved that notion of the Universe even more and now I have stronger faith and trust in the Universe and GOD!

I was sitting in Johnny Rockets (the American burger joint) waiting for my lunch when I saw an sms from a friend asking me to join in attending the World Luxury Expo at the seven-star Bur Al Arab hotel. The message mentioned that we should look sharp as it’s a VIP invitation-only event at a highly glamorous location. When I considered the time that I had to get ready, the other errands that I had planned, and the time it would take me to gulp down my mini burgers and fries, I knew that I wouldn’t be able to make it on time, and might make my friends run late. However, my friend’s persistence made me change my mind and decide to skip the dry cleaners trip, eat half of my meal and head out as quickly as possible to get ready in time for my glamorous night in town.

While in the car, my friend told me about a magazine who will be at the event, and I thought that it would be a good idea for me to approach them and give out my business card. As we got there, my friend went to the magazine’s stall and I followed minutes later. Only I wasn’t sure where it was located…So, I was in the second level of the exhibition, not sure where to look. I ask a lady about any magazine stands and she replies that she has no idea. As I stand there slightly confused, I glance the logo of the magazine that I have been dreaming to join for the past six months on the projector screen! Yes, I had been exchanging e-mails with the Vice President of that new magazine since he announced on Linkedin that it was coming to the UAE. And it has already been six months, believe it or not! But since he was traveling a lot and had been busy, we didn’t get a chance to meet in person.

My heart beating so fast, I saw my friend heading down to the lower level from the other side of the floor, and so I ended my conversation with that lady explaining to her that I found out where that magazine is. (To make the story clear, the magazine that my friend was heading to is not the same one that I had been dreaming to join for the past six months). I walked towards the area where my friend was, and eventually found the magazine stand for the magazine that my friend was communicating with earlier. After a few minutes of networking with the lady at the stand, filling out a form to receive a complimentary copy of the magazine to my door step, and asking her desperately if she knew where the “T Emirates” magazine stand was and her replying with “no idea”, I was ready for my next challenge: finding the “T Emirates” magazine stand in this two story compressed space venue. I had a feeling that I was close, but the lady’s answer of not knowing where the other magazine stand was brought doubt into my heart. How could she not know about another magazine’s stand in this small exhibition? Are they really here or are they just advertising on the expo’s screen?!

As I walked towards the end of the hallway approaching the stairs to go down, I was about to head in the opposite direction to look in the rest of the floor in case I missed it earlier and since there seemed to be no more stands to look at, (and was also planning to take the other stairs down to meet my friends), I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw the stand for “T Emirates”! I immediately went up to the ladies at the stand and explained to them how I had been contacting the VP for the past couple of months…I was pleased to meet with the Assistant General Manager and to get her contact details to send her my CV and cover letter!  At the end of our conversation, she took a picture of me with the preview copy of the magazine, and I ran down the stairs like a child who found a piece of candy and was roaming the venue looking for my friends to tell them my exciting story!

The most interesting part of the story is that I wasn’t even planning to attend the event. Unless my friend had insisted that I join them. And another remarkable fact is that I randomly met one of my friends from last night at a University alumni event last October, when I was looking to network, and have approached that lady friend who was standing alone in that event to start a conversation!

I guess the Universe does work in our advantage at all times. We just need to give it time to reveal to us its miraculous ways!

Leaving you with some images from our magical night at Burj Al Arab…

The fact that my friend who lives in Hong Kong couldn’t host me at her home because she had guests staying wasn’t a good enough reason to stop me from completing my booking and plans for my much-needed short getaway from the city of Dubai.

It was my first trip to a far-eastern country, and my first trip for leisure that I make on my own.  As a teen and a twenty-something year-old Saudi girl, I always faced rejection and disagreement from my parents when I opened up the subject of traveling alone to visit friends in other countries, or even traveling with friends from my own country. The answer remained the same over the years. It was: “No way, are you crazy?” and the like.

The years passed by…I remained calm and silent. But I never forgot about my dream to travel the world alone or with friends. I never lost my passion…it was just suppressed and hidden for a better opportunity and moment in time. I knew that I would be able to do as I wish one day. I just held on to my dream and remained patient until the right time came.  I never take “no” for an answer in anything that I want in life.

My dream of traveling was delayed until the day that I would be financially independent and would be living on my own. So far, I have managed to move out of my parents’ house and live on my own. However, the goal of being able to support myself hasn’t worked out yet. Due to it being tied with my career change goal. Which is a story for another post 🙂

I must admit that I have worked hard on my career change objective, and continue to work on it. It has been more of a learning experience than a destination to get to. The journey to my new career path included a lot of self-development and valuable life lessons that were essential for my personal growth as an individual. And I’m enjoying every bit of my journey now, more than I did when I first started out.

Then I read a book that said that on your way to achieving your goal and in order to make it happen, you need to start doing the things that you would do had you already reached your goal. And in following that advise, with the fact that I desperately needed a change and a getaway from the lovely city of Dubai, I found myself at the Emirates Holidays office on Sheikh Zayed Road booking a holiday package to Hong Kong!

My lovely travel agent has helped me greatly in making the suitable flight and hotel bookings and other travel arrangements. Even warning me about areas I should avoid when sightseeing in Hong Kong. We later found out how much we had in common and became friends immediately!

I arrived to Hong Kong late at night after a seven-hour flight from Dubai. The fact that both my Saudi credit cards were declined was the first surprise that I had in my trip. Thankfully I had enough cash on me as a tip from a friend in Dubai, who advised me on the amount that I should take with me for my daily pocket money.

I spent a considerable amount of my first day trying to find the local pharmacy and grocery store, and to get a local SIM card for my phone. Which proves difficult when most of the people outside of the hotel don’t speak a word of English. I was staying at the Novotel in Nathan Road in Kowloon. Which means that I got to experience the real city, with its struggling faces, its homeless beggars on the streets, its disabled elderly, and under-privileged youth.

Later I discovered that I must learn how to eat using chop sticks if I wanted to survive! And that I need to find the way on the streets on my own with the help of the hotel map since only a few people will be able to communicate with me in English. Thankfully that wasn’t a major problem as Hong Kong is a small city and it’s pretty easy to find your way around its streets and neighborhoods.

While walking down the street that was recommended to me by a hotel staff for finding good local eateries, I was beginning to panic after going through the street more than once and not finding a place that served food that I was familiar enough with. However, my fear diminished as I stumbled upon a sushi bar that served salmon rolls and other Japanese food at reasonable prices. It was my first day in the city and I wasn’t sure if the cash that I had on me would be  sufficient for my whole stay. I wasn’t familiar with the currency or how expensive sightseeing and eating would be. Therefore, I opted for a simple choice of two types of sushi rolls for dinner, accompanied by a traditional hot green tea.

As I left the sushi place, I made a note of it and its location in case I wanted to eat there again one night. But I never made it back to that low-profile yet cool place. I was too busy discovering other areas of the city.

After dinner, I had a walk through the nearby Temple Street night market, before continuing to explore my neighborhood and walk down the main road: Nathan Road. Where as a tourist, you will be approached by people trying to sell watches, hand bags or tailor-made suits and dresses. In addition to the occasional local foot massage place flyer handed to you.

Next time, I will be telling you all about my visit to the first of the top tourist attractions in the lively and bustling Hong Kong….

 

When I’m feeling stressed, I tend to eat more. Unlike others who might loose their appetite when they’re feeling down or going through tough times. I guess I am one of those who try to find comfort in food in a failed attempt to hide their anxiety and uneasiness.

To give you an example of the things that make me stress, I am currently stressed about the fact that I still have a lot of work to do to promote my personal blog and increase traffic into it. Or to simply add the essential buttons and modify its layout to make it look more professional. At a later stage, I would like to try to get income out of it somehow. And although I am a graduate in Business Information Systems, with a couple of years work experience in IT support, I was never into IT or technical stuff…Therefore, I might have to ask for technical help in taking my blog to the next level. Actually I have to…I managed to somehow loose the login button on my blog’s homepage right after I tried to add some widgets on the side bar!

The picture you see at the top of this post is a collection of takeaway menus that I have accumulated over time in my cupboard. Since most restaurants distribute these menus on flat doors….Now the funny thing is, that I rarely order takeaway. Maybe more in the recent period since I was following my neighbor’s advise in “putting myself out there” and “stop hiding in my apartment”!  So I didn’t get to work on my cooking skills as much as I would like to, since I need to put more time and effort into my goal, and cooking and especially washing dishes afterwards does take up time!

When one of my friends was visiting one day, she was amused by the pile of menus I owned and then said: “just put it with the pile” when we found a new menu outside my apartment door as we were leaving!

Tonight, it is Friday night. And despite wanting to share my home delivery dinner with someone special just like every single girl out there, and despite getting that feeling almost every single time that I decide to order dinner for home delivery, I am thankful for having great friends in this city. It’s true that, while some live on the other side of town, or might find it difficult to commute, or could be working even on Fridays…we all share one thing in common: we are all struggling to survive in this dynamic and highly fast-paced city. Most of us (including me) are also busy in trying to establish ourselves from scratch and become financially independent.  Hopefully, the next time I decide to get a meal delivered on a weekend for dinner, I will try to arrange it early with friends.

My Napoletana pizza had less anchovies than what I expected.  But I managed to accommodate that loss with some leftover anchovies that I had bought from the deli about a week or so ago. I must admit that the supermarket deli anchovies tasted much better and were far juicier than the anchovies used on my pizza. They weren’t as salty either.

Although under stress, I assure you I only ate half of the medium pizza I had ordered. The rest will be taken care of on a different occasion for sure.

When my food order had arrived, and after opening the door for the delivery man, guess what I saw on my door mat?

Yes, believe it or not, it was a new delivery menu…for another new pizzeria in town! and of all the names they could have chosen for their eatery, they chose to call it:

Romantico

How insulting is that!  😛

 

 

 

 

Sweets and Snacks Middle East is an exhibition that was held at the Dubai World Trade Center exhibition hall between the 19th to the 21st of November.

I went along with my dad who was visiting at the time. I only had time to write a post about it now. I think this is partly because I didn’t find the exhibition or products displayed interesting enough for my taste. I wasn’t even planning to write a post about it until the time when we were about to leave and I saw the only interesting object at the hall; a Santa and other chocolate figure sculptures!  Yes I know, they’re not that interesting either. But when compared to everything else that was on display in that space, these figures truly stood out!

I guess I had higher expectations for an exhibition with the name “Sweets and Snacks”. I was hoping to sample and maybe purchase some gourmet and unusual sweets and snacks. The rare types that you wouldn’t find at your local grocery store. Authentic Japanese crackers maybe? But sadly, the majority of the companies that were present had similar items on display. Mainly commercial, unhealthy, and low-end sweets and snacks.

I don’t want to sound arrogant, but that’s just my personal opinion of the fair.

But I can’t complain much, as I did get some free samples of a nice selection of flavored tea from Hong Kong.  Who thought you would come out of something healthy from a sweets and snacks exhibition? 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

Living in an international city means that you have a cosmopolitan mix of multiple nationalities, cultures, and obviously religions.  It’s always exciting and interesting to learn about other cultures and societies. Since we are currently in the festive season, a Christmas festival was held at Dubai Media City for the first time this year. Who doesn’t like to see beautifully-lit and decorated Christmas trees, wonderful gift ideas and gift sets, and happy children going around hugging Santa and taking pictures with him?

Whether you celebrate Christmas or not, sharing the season’s joy with others and embracing the holiday spirit can be a fun and rewarding experience.

I had mostly been to the area of Media City where the festival was at during day time. So seeing the wonderful brightly-lit skyline at night from a close distance was a scene that I had to take a picture of.  My friend and I had a stroll around the different kiosks before sitting down for a meal at the wooden benches and table at the grass. Being able to sit outdoors and enjoy the cool breeze is a luxury to be taken advantage of, specifically in Dubai where the summer season could last for up to six months in a year.

Luckily when we arrived, an English band was playing traditional Christmas melodies, as well as funky classic and new hits. Bright red and green spot lights brought life to the stage, and a selection of festive images were displayed at the back of the band.

Parents danced along with their little kids as we all sang along with the band and enjoyed the lively ambiance.

Other artists continued to entertain the big ethnically diverse crowd at the festive stage till it was closing time for the chilled and joyful festival…