oi Nagham!

Arabic is what brings us together

I'm a big fan of Google- I use everything from Gmail to Google Docs, Calendar Translate, Reader, Google Maps (saved me so many times), Blogger, Scholar, Chrome; I even used to use Wave (and I'm still upset that they shut it down- the world just wasn't ready yfor it I suppose), and used to have an Android phone (I got a good deal on the iPhone 4, I couldn't resist!).

So you can imagine my delight when I was invited to attend a press conference at UAE G-day, and lunching with Nelson Mattos afterwards (he was nice enough to make time for my questions!). It's the first event of its kind by Google in the UAE, with lots of sessions throughout the two-day event for uni students and developers to make the most of Google products. It's really great to see this kind of support from The Big Guys here in the Middle East- I only wish this kind of support existed in 2005 when I was a computer science graduate...perhaps my career path would've taken a totally different direction!

One thing that stood out to me at the press conference, was the level of Arabic localization- not translation, there's a difference- Google was working on for the region (starting with the UAE). From map maker, to map directions in Arabic (btw, have you noticed that you can get around Dubai's bizarre road layout with proper routes on Google Maps? Yep, these guys have been working on it! You can opt to avoid highways and Salik!), we're starting to see more and more content that caters to this region- something that is seriously lacking (less than 1% of online content is in Arabic!).

Whilst I've tried to improve my Arabic over the years (I've come a long way in the past decade or so, but it still needs work), my language interests have always lied in learning Italian. I studied Italian for 5 years (but that was ages ago; my skills are beyond rusty), and I've been working on making time to sign up and attend classes.

Meeting and chatting with Fayeq Oweis*- Google's Arabic localization manager- however, rekindled my interest in the Arabic language. When I asked asked him about Arabic dialects and if they're going to be incorporated into Google products, he mentioned that they're working on something very exciting along those lines for voice search (awesome!), but not for any of the other products (i.e. choosing Arabic- lebanon, Arabic- egypt etc. as a 'language') as he believes that the Arabic language needs to be preserved in its classical form because it's "what brings Arabs together". That last statement really struck a chord within me- for the first time I really understood the value of knowing Arabic, and felt proud of it.His passion for the language and the way he spoke about the localization project was inspiring as well, so I'm definitely looking forward to the rollout of other parts of the Arabic localization project!


*Fayeq Oweis manages the Arabic Localization team at Google. He works on Google's localized Arabic products, performs linguistic QA, manages terminology and style guide, and collaborates with different teams on the Arabization of Google products and services.  Fayeq holds a Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Studies with Concentration on Arabic and Islamic Studies. Before joining Google, Fayeq worked for many years as an Arabic language specialist and consultant for technology companies in the Silicon Valley. He was also a professor of Arabic Language and Culture at Santa Clara University in California.

Catching waves

I'm the worst surfer ever. Even for a beginner, I suck...

For the last leg of my Bali trip, I headed south to Kuta. Whilst Ubud is very peaceful and spiritual, Kuta is the opposite- loud and congested.  It reminded me a lot of Surfer's Paradise on the Gold Coast. Kuta, like the Gold Coast, is also one of the best places in the world to learn how to surf so yesterday I went to my first surfing lesson at the Pro Surf School.

Update 1: Here are some pics of the School and Kuta Beach
How it works is you start at Beginner 1, and work your way up to Beginner 2 and Beginner 3, then you move to Intermediate 1,2,3 where you end up taking surf trips and stuff. For the beginner stages, if you're not quite ready to move to the next level, they stick you in 'sessions' to practice more of what you learned in the last level (so S1 for B1, S2 for B2, S3 for B3).

Day 1

Beginner 1 started off with a theory lesson, where they told us about the boards (materials, length, width, thickness, names of the different areas of a board), the waves (white, green), how to get on the board, catch a wave (look behind you for the wave, paddle, paddle then get up) and control the speed. From what I understood, it's all in the knees and upper body: to get up you put your arms behind your shoulders and push up locking elbows with chin up; to go faster you lean forward; slower you lean back; balance by bending knees lower; lose balance take the knee of the back leg down. They also explained how currents work and how surfers use them to gain speed and catch waves, and safety stuff like what to do if you lose your balance (back knee down on board or worst case fall on your stomach) or if you get caught in a current (don't panic and go with it, then swim parallel to the beach and then back to shore), and how to avoid collisions with other surfers. It was a very interesting session, and I definitely learned a lot. We practiced a bit on board-shaped mats on the sand then it was time to hit the beach and catch some waves!

Everything in the theory lesson went out the window when I hit the water. My balance was so off and as soon as I stood up (for a whole second) I kept forgetting to bend my knees and ended up falling backwards three times. Then they changed my board to a wider one to help with my balance; yea that didn't work, I just kept falling. The one time I did fall forward I lost my balance on the sand and heard my ankle crack. Two hours of practice later, I was not able to stand up so I was stuck into S1 for my second lesson (and a lost bet with my teacher- I have to buy ice-cream).

Day 2

Today was my second lesson, and my ankle still hurt a bit so I had to be careful when I was out there. It turned out that I wasn't the only one who's been put into S1 from my batch- there were two other people- so I didn't feel like a complete loser...until they didn't show up. Quitters! 

Before going to the beach, my teacher made me practice in the pool- paddling (I kept hitting the edges and forgetting the direction of paddling to turn), sitting (i fell off twice), turning (fell once), and standing (lost count of the times I fell). After heading to the beach and kept trying to get up and standing on the board for about 30 minutes, I finally managed to stand up and stay there- knees bent, arms up and not looking down to stay balanced. What a feeling that was! 
After that first time I managed to stand up a few more times, but there wasn't enough consistency to move to Beginner 2 (I still kept slipping off and falling, or not getting up at all- weeeeeee!), so my third lesson will be another S1. My teacher say that I don't trust myself, and that's why I keep falling off. I say the waves have it in for me. Either way I will not give up!

So at the end of two lessons, I'm still very much a beginner- so I'm a slow learner, bite me- with sore muscles, a bruise on my backside, a twisted wrist and an ankle nearing the size of a golf ball now (I am taking care of it: ice packs, keeping it elevated etc. I've been through worse before). 

Can't wait for tomorrow's lesson!

Update 2 (2 Oct): Lesson 3 (or S1 x 2) was much better; I managed to stand up alot more today, and even got my board to turn once! I only fell a couple of times, and the palms of my hands are scratched up, but whatever- I'm just glad I'm out of S1! Tomorrow's my last lesson: level B2. Woohoo!

Legong & Ramayana

On Tuesday, I went to Ubud Palace to see one of the traditional dances. Each night there's a different one, so I was curious to see what it was all about.

It started off with instrumental music, followed by the Legong Dance, then the Ramayana Dance. Each dance has a story, which I tried really hard to understand and failed miserably. According to the brochure, the Legong Dance is based on two brothers, Kings Subali and Sugriwa, who are turned into monkeys and fight with each other until they recognise each other and realise they're both monkeys and become very sad (!).

The Ramayana is a very long tale and the dance we saw covers only a part of it, when Rama, Sita and her brother Laksamana enter the jungle of Dandaka. The demonic minister, Maricha of Alengka, finds out about their trip and discusses the possibility of kidnapping Sita with King Rahwana. Marcha transforms into a deer to get Sita's attention...like I said, it's a long story.

Here are some pics (sorry for the blurry ones). I absolutely loved the costumes- they're so bright and colorful. The movements are very precise and you need to be totally fit to do this (videos are coming up soon check out the videos below)!

The whole performance was about 90 minutes, which went by really fast given how slow time goes by in Bali!

Monkey Forest

After my yoga class yesterday, I visited Monkey Forest. As the name suggests, it is a forest, with monkeys. I thought it would be huge, but it took me about 10 minutes to walk through it:

 
It's on the corner of Monkey Forest Road (go figure), which is also lined up with many lovely shops, galleries and cafes, and is the quickest route to get to The Yoga Barn (had to learn that the hard way!):

Afterwards, I went to Three Monkeys, an art cafe, and tried some local food for lunch- Nasi Goreng and a Tamarind Soda- with a stunning view of the rice fields. Totally loved this place:

Being in the moment

Despite 4 hours walking around Ubud on the first day, and climbing all those steps (there were at least 300 of them!) on the second day, I managed to get up to go to my first yoga class at The Yoga Barn the next day (Monday, 19 Sep). This place was surrounded by rice fields, and the upper studio had the most stunning view and breeze. It really created the perfect atmosphere to practice yoga.

 I went to the 'Intro to Beginner's Yoga' class with a Yogi named LJ. Nice bloke, but talked way too much for my taste- I couldn't concentrate! I took a few yoga classes with Yogi George in Dubai months ago, and one thing I learned was to focus on the breathing because it helps with the meditation and balancing and stuff. Yea, none of that happened in this class. It was too many quick moves, and coupled with the talking, it was really hard for me to focus. I was all over the place- my balance was off, I couldn't hold steady in any pose (except Child Pose...that one's my favorite haha).

Img_2543

Needless to say, the first 3 days in Ubud left my muscles very strained. So I popped into a recommended spa, that's just up the alley from The Yoga Barn, for a massage (honestly I just wanted to shower after the class...the way I look at is that I'm paying to use the shower, and getting a massage for free). The great thing about the Balinese people is their service; they will do their best to accommodate you. 

If you're used to Sensasia or Talise Spa in Dubai, then this place would be a shack compared to them. But whilst the facilities were very basic, it was one hell of a massage. I managed to walk all the way back to the shuttle bus after that (a 30-minute walk)!  At the end of the day, it's the results that count, not all that other stuff; Sensasia and Talise Spa better shape up in that aspect!

Yesterday (Tuesday, 20 Sep), I went to my second yoga class. On my way, a procession of some sort just appeared on the street. Apparently this type of thing was very common in Ubud.

Anyways, this class was called 'Japanese Hatha', with a different teacher, Balinese. She kept switching between languages when instructing us and she was quite strict. Balance was slightly improved, and she taught us how to do the Downward Dog pose properly. She was a tough teacher!

Today I decided to get up early and try to catch the 'Slow Flow' class. Teaching this class was a woman called Tanya, and her teaching method reminded me very much of Yogi George's. She focused a lot on the breathing, followed by the poses, so I felt a big difference in my focus and balance. 

It's really important to clear your head and try to just be in the moment. With the madness of living in a city like Dubai, it's very hard to do that; I tend to either think about the future or dwell over the past whilst managing everything in between. Life can get so overwhelming sometimes, and I need to get better at letting go and  just appreciating the present. I hope these yoga classes will help me do that.

Temples and Volcanoes

In my last post, I mentioned that on my first day in Ubud, I stopped in Dewa Sita and signed up for my first tour in Bali...

 

I don't know how I got up for this tour with only 3 hours of sleep, but I did. My legs were already sore from all the walking I did the previous day- I'm not the fittest person (my contribution consists of a monthly donation to Fitness First, i.e. I pay and never go)- but I sucked it up and went along. How bad could it be, right?

The group was a total of 5 people- an old Canadian guy and his much younger wife from Taja-something...one of the countries from the old Soviet Union. I wonder how they met...), two girls from Germany who just graduated in Biology and were touring Asia with leftover college money, and myself. Our first stop was Goa Gajah, aka Elephant Cave Temple:

Then we went to Gunung Kawi. One thing that Ubud is known for is the rice fields- they are everywhere- and this place was no exception.  In addition to it being a temple, it was surrounded by rice fields. It was an incredible sight! We stayed here for about an hour; exploring this place reminded me of the time I attempted the 1000 steps last year in Melbourne, or the trip to Petra, Jordan, in 2005. Except it was a lot harder. There were so many steps, and being the person that I am, I attempted to climb all the way to the top. And I did- hurrah!

Then it was time to go back. Oh my God I felt like dying. I was on the last dozen or so steps back up and I just couldn't take another step! I've sworn off stairs for at least a month now...

After Gunung Kawi, we headed to Tampaksiring to see yet another temple. It was really crowded with people going to pray and worship; this was tied to a cremation ceremony that apparently took place in the streets of Ubud yesterday at noon, when I was asleep due to exhaustion. 

Then it was off to the coffee plantation in Tampaksiring to see where the coffee and cocoa beans grew in Bali (and some other fruits too), and learn about how they grind the coffee. Being a coffee lover and drinker, this was definitely one of the highlights of the trip for me:

We even had the chance to try different types of coffee and tea! Bali coffee is very mild and not so bitter- a good start for a 'beginner' in the world of coffee.The ginseng and ginger coffees were my favorite. I ended up buying some of the former to take home! There was Luwak coffee too, which is basically Civet (the animal in the last set of pics) poop and all kinds of fancy, but I wasn't daring enough to try it:

Img_2516

We stopped off for lunch at a restaurant that serves local food, and to also see the stunning Mount Batur. I was hoping this tour would literally take us to the mountain, but having the kind of view while eating lunch was still an experience words can't describe:

It was my first time to try Indonesian food, and taste some of the exotic fruits. Yummy!

Our final stop was in Pujung to see more rice fileds and terraces. Absolutely stunning:

There were also lots of stalls selling paintings, sarongs and all sorts of pretty things on the side of the road:

It was a great trip over all, and for some reason I remembered Lara and Terence,and my friends who are currently in Peru on vacation too.

 

That concluded day two in Ubud! I had no idea how I was going to get up for my first yoga class the next day...stay tuned for the next post!

Finding my bearings: where is the Yoga Barn?

I arrived in Ubud on 16 September at around midnight.  When it comes to accomodation in Ubud, or anywhere in Bali for that matter, there were loads of options- from bungalows to cottages, villas, 3-to-5 star hotels. Accomodation wasn't something I was going to skimp on because I hate bugs, and I'm on vacation, and I want to be comfortable dammit! I booked a hotel for the first leg of the trip; I have to say it was a risky choice but a good one, given it was relatively new and had very few reviews out there.

Whenever I arrive at a new place, I usually spend the first day walking around to get my bearings (read: getting lost because I can't read a map and have no sense of direction). My venturing out on the streets of Ubud started at about 2pm the next day- after waking up for breakfast then going back to bed (the exhaustion of the previous day's travels hadn't worn off yet at that point)- with the main objective of finding The Yoga Barn, where I was planning to go for yoga classes during my stay. I read so much about it on trip advisor that I had to go and check it out.

Starting off on the main street, Jl Raya Ubud, I started walking and then made a turn down a street, and then a turn into some other street (yea I had no idea where I was going) that I later found out was called Dewi Sita and has some really cool shops. I found a stand that has all sorts of tours you can do, and after chatting to a Mr. Kiki (really, that's his name) I opted for the group 'Kintamani/Volcano Tour' for the next day (Sunday, 18 Sep); there are private tours where you get your own driver for the whole day and they explain everything to you, but where's the fun in that if you're a solo traveler? I figured with a group tour I'd meet other tourists and talk to them and stuff. 

Anyways, I kept on walking, and looking at my map, and walking, and looking at my map again. The streets of Ubud are filled with motor bikes and small-sized cars and mini vans. There are no traffic lights, or lines indiciating a one-way or two-way street. There are pedestrian crossings, but they don't count because motorists just ignore them. The pavements are uneven, so I really had to watch my step. There's also offerings on every street corner, monument, pavement- everywhere. Balinese are really committed to their Hindu beliefs.

Img_0466

I made another turn somewhere and ended up on a street called Hanoman. After walking a little further, I spotted a shop called 'Namaste', which I read about in my travel guidebook. I decided I could use a little time out of the sun and check out this 'little gem', as the book put it. The couple who own it have been living in Bali for over 40 years- the man was American (but hardly lived there; his parents were travelers) and the woman was born in Bali. The shop sold stones, pendenants, wands, and other pretty things all made by the woman. She went on to explain how each stone has an energy and special meaning whilst my mind wondered off to the wands and the Harry Potter world (Stupefy!). The woman was unbelievably calm...I've never met someone so serene. After asking for directions to The Yoga Barn ('it's just down the street'), they told me about a the Kafe where 'everyone hangs out' that's 'just up the street'. So I figured I'd find the Yoga Barn first, then go to Kafe for some much needed rest.

After about another half an hour of walking, I still couldn't find it! I made a turn onto another street and asked a shop owner where it was; she told me I'd passed it already (WHERE?!?!) and I had to go back. She also gave me a more detailed map of the area to help. Balinese are just the nicest people!

It turns out that The Yoga Barn is down a tiny alley before this thai-cuisine restaurant, Siam Sally; you'd think they would write that on the website or someone would mention it on Trip Advisor. I made my way down the alley and finally signed up for 5 yoga classes, at The Yoga Barn, starting Monday (19 Sep). Phew!

Img_2544

I still had some time before the hotel shuttle bus (silver mini-van, to be more accurate. All the hotels and tour guides had them! Suzuki and Toyota are doing very well here) arrived, so I walked back up Hanoman street to Kafe for a late lunch/early dinner and some reading. Then I walked all the way back to the main street to catch the Shuttle bus back to the hotel. By then it was 8pm, but it was really dark. The only lights on the street are from the shops that were open.

 

So that was day one in Ubud! In hindsight, I should've probably done the Kinamani tour later on...my legs were so sore...more on that in the next post!

Getting to Bali

I can't believe I've been in Bali for 4 days already! I haven't done much, which is kind of the point really...

In my last post I mentioned that booking the flight and all that was a whole other story...

Getting a decent route from Dubai to Bali was a bit tricky. I checked Emirates, Malaysian airlines, Singapore airlines, and Qatar airways. Emirates flights were over 8000dhs, a total rip off in my opinion considering the ridiculous stopovers; flights to Melbourne didn't cost that much! Sinagpore and Malaysian airlines were slightly cheapers, but like Emirates all of them had overnight stopovers, which meant I would lose a good couple of days out of my vacation. Yea, I wasn't going to let that happen. Qatar airways had the more reasonable options with reasonable prices too, but I'm a Skywards member, so I really wanted to fly Emirates to get more miles and maintain my tier level. 
I decided to head over to Travelocity, Expedia, and Joob to check out what they had- maybe there's a route I'd missed. Joob had an interesting flight route that didn't show up anywhere else, and it was at a really good price too. The departure and arrival times were exactly what I was looking for, and the stop over was in Jakarta (which made perfect sense to me). I ran a check on Emirates for that same route, but it wasn't there. So I decided to call Joob to double-check. The lady was very nice and helpful, but told me that the flight I'm looking at on their site isn't showing up in their system. I decided not to take the risk and avoid booking it. Then I figured I'd go back to Emirates.com and try out the 'multiple cities' option and manually enter the stopovers. And sure enough, the route I saw on Joob was there! I called Emirates' customer service to check if it's considered a connecting flight or would I have to get out of the airport with my luggage and come back in again, or I'd go straight to the transfer desk; the first guy had no idea what I was talking about, but on the second try the guy that answered my call was very helpful and told me it was a connecting flight so there should be no issues.

And that's how I got the route I wanted, with the price I wanted, on Emirates.

Fast forward to departure day....you read the post before I was about to jet off....

8 hours later- and probably the most pleasant flight I've ever had in my life (Indonesians are the nicest people! There were 2 old ladies, sisters, sitting next to me, telling me about their trip to Europe together visiting all their relatives. I hope my sisters and I can go on trips like that when we're old. Oh, also, they too were surprised that I'm traveling to Bali alone...I don't get it, am I missing something here?)- I landed in Jakarta. When I was booking my flight to Bali, I'd wondered why Dubai-Jakarta-Bali wasn't one of the routes that automatically showed in the search results. Now I knew why. The airport was crazy busy- it took 2 hours of standing in line to get the visit visa (tip: make sure you've got exactly $25 on you with the forms filled out. Thank you Lonely Planet for that save!), and- surprise surprise- I then had to collect my luggage and go to the the domestic flights desk to check-in to the flight to Bali on Garuda Indonesia. I'm so glad I had 4 hours transit and packed light, or I would've missed the flight! Another thing I didn't count on was all the people in the airport talking to me in their local language- they thought I was Indonesian! I had to keep explaining that I wasn't, and they kept apologizing...

On the flight from Jakarta to Bali, I sat next to yet another nice old lady, who thought I was 'brave' to go to Bali on my own (yea, I still don't get it). Straight forward flight of just under 2 hours. By the time I landed in Bali, it was past 10pm and I was exhausted. It took another hour's drive to get to Ubud, where I was planning to spend most of my vacation. By the time I got to the hotel it was nearly midnight. 

Ubud was completely dark and quite; it really caught me by surprise...

In the next post, I'll be writing about what I've been upto in the past few days, with pictures too! Right now, I have to get going to my yoga class. Later!

Time out

So I'm writing this standing up waiting to board my flight to Bali. People I have old have first expressed shock that I'm going to this island, followed by pity that I'm going on my own. I don't get it- what's wrong with traveling solo? It's not like I had much choice; and I'm not going to put off a much needed vacation because I have no one to go with.

Bali wasn't on the cards at all- and no, I didn't get 'inspired' by Eat Pray Love (I only got halfway through the India bit). Initially I was planning to go to Canadia to visit family, and make a trip to NYC and Montreal too, but no one was able to take enough time off so I decided not to spend 30 hours flying followed by a fortnight of doing pretty much nothing.

So I started looking up trips to China. I've always been interested in their history and culture- I even took up learning Mandarin for a year at one point (it's so hard!). I was also thinking about Europe; I've always wanted to go and travel by train to all the different countries to see the sights. After meeting up with my very good friend and human travel guide, @calltheromans, and sharing these plans I was looking into, I left that evening dead set on going to Europe- he made it sound so exciting!

So I then went on to check out contiki trips to Europe. A friend of mine went on one a few years ago and had loads of fun, but advised that it more fun to go with someone on that trip. I also found the whole thing way over my budget (read: I'd be eating 2-minute noodles for all 3 meals for a very long time) and started thinking 'do I really want to spend two weeks running around like a headless chicken, packing and unpacking every few days?'

I then remembered a friend of mine (@Siddhi_D) who went to this retreat for cleansing and meditation, and thought 'hmmm, my life's been a little crazy lately. I could use a really relaxing vacation like that'.
See, this year was the first time that my car's registration was overdue by 2 months. It was also the first time I had Saliks of well over 1200dhs because I kept forgetting to top it up. It was the first time I postponed a dentist appointment by 8 months, and took my car to servicing 15000km later instead of the usual 5k. It's never been so hectic before; so yea I definitely needed to get away and get it together.

I asked Siddhi where she went. She told me it was a retreat in Phuket, Thailand. So I started looking it up, along with similar searches on Emirates Holidays, Trip Advisor and Expedia. And that's when Bali popped up. I decided to ask another friend of mine who is also a travel guru, @derrickpereira, about Bali vs Phuket for this retreat idea. He said the weather now is better in Bali...

And that's how it all came about. Booking stuff is a whole other story, and maybe I'll write about it later. Right now I'm about to board my flight! Later!

P.S. Forgive any typos or grammar mistakes- I wrote this whole thing on my iPhone!