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Chinese New Year Celebration in Dubai

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This is our second year residing in Dubai and Chinese New Year is not a public holiday in the UAE. This year we decided to stay in Dubai as there is no school holiday that coincides with the Chinese New Year period. There is a few celebrations going on as there is quite a number of Chinese in UAE. There is lion dance competition at Dubai Park and Resort, lion/dragon dance parade at City Walk and some celebrations at Jumeirah Lake Towers. Many Chinese restaurants offer reunion dinner package (at a premium price of course) and some renowned hotels offer buffets with Chinese new year theme.  One week before the celebration, I started making some Chinese new year cookies/snacks to get into the mood. My favourite is the pineapple tarts to symbolise wealth. I even attempted to make the fillings from scratch but I have to admit it is a lot of work for 36 tarts that I make. I also make a couple of others easier snacks such as seaweed crisp, cornflakes cookies and pe
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Jewel @ Changi Airport, Singapore

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Jewel is the latest addition to Changi Airport and one of its kind. It has the world tallest indoor waterfall and the complex is amazing with a great variety of retail shop, restaurant and a sky garden. Of course on our trip home this winter, we had to go and check it out. We decided to stay two nights at Crowne Plaza Changi Airport before our outbound flight back to Dubai so that we could experience what Jewel has to offer. It is easily assess from all terminals at Changi, one could walk through the linkway or take the train to Terminal 1 which has direct assess to Jewel. The waterfall is the centrepiece and we get different views from different point. If you would like to experience it while sitting in the sky train, take the train that goes from Terminal 3 to Terminal 2 and you can pass by the waterfall literally just next to you. From the sky garden, the waterfall looks great and head to basement 2 and you could see the bottom of the waterfall through a glass. Its amazing
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Family friendly resort @ Double Tree by Hilton Resort and Spa Marjan Island

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We spend a two days one night at Double Tree by Hilton Marjan Island over the kids half term break in October and I am very impressed with how family friendly the place is. We have been in the UAE for one and a half year now and we did staycation every now and then at different Emirates and this is by far my favourite. View from our room The resort is huge and there is a long stretch of private beach dedicated for its guest. Although there are many people, I do not feel too overwhelmed. There is plenty of restaurants to choose from and most of them are on Entertainer which is a plus for us as we get buy one free one on its main course.  Excited and well prepared for staycation The girls team We arrived at 12pm and since the room is not ready, we went for lunch first. The food at Vespa is nice. We even double back and had dinner there as well.  Love the food at Vespa After lunch, the rooms are ready and we are also ready for the water slides and beach.
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Finally...our first camping experience! @Jebel Sham, Oman.

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We had zero experience in camping and despite attempting to camp since couple of months ago, we have not succeeded. Either the campsite was too windy and deserted, or it rains on the day we wanted to camp. The closest thing we did was to camp in our backyard in December when the weather is really cooling.  It is summer now and summer in Dubai is not mild so to speak. Daytime temperature can go up to 48 degree celcius and the sun is scorching hot! I was not expecting to camp in summer but we chanced upon a few blogs sharing their experiences camping on Jebel Sham and we checked the weather. It's 18-24 degree celcius up there and sounds like a good option to escape the heat in Dubai. The drive from Dubai to Jebel Sham takes about 4.5 hours via Mezyad Border Crossing near Al Ain. We made a mistake driving via Hatta Border and it took us 7.5 hours to reach Jebel Sham, do not make the same mistake as us if you are driving from Dubai.  Another thing to note is that th
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