To Atlantis on a Bus

mr. khairul's mckk super-senior (20 years difference!) came down from abu dhabi with his wife and son, and their good friend uncle leong. bro spice's wife and son (who still stay in malaysia) only visit him once a month, and he's leaving the uae for good next week, so it's the last kopek punya jalan-jalan la ni for the whole family. uncle leong had only been to dubai once, so there's still a lot to be seen!

they've never been to the man-made island the palm jumeirah and it was their first visit to dubai marina, so we took them jalan-jalan, took pictures and brought them to the beautiful atlantis on the palm.

never heard of atlantis? pak lah stayed at the royal suit at the altantis, and also the current pm's wife - read about my atlantis experience here.


there's never any parking spot on the road along the opposite of atlantis, and you'd be really lucky to get any. so this time mr. khairul drove all the way to the end of the road where there's a huge parking area. we parked our car, took out kahfi's stroller and the necessary nappy bags and such.

at a corner, a few white shuttle busses were waiting to be filled up, before taking the visitors right to the entrance of atlantis, free of charge.


the boys had a great time sitting on a bus, especially kahfi who was more than happy not to be sitting on my lap, and right on the chair next to his big brother! khaleef - well, he just enjoys being on the road, looking out into the hustle and bustle of life - bicycle, cars, busses, his atuk's motorbike and yes, the aeroplane - you name it!

nways before we knew it, we have arrived! the bus ride was barely 5 minutes!


khaleef's favorite thing to do - where there's animals, sea creatures, living organism - khaleef would be there looking with deep interest and joy. there's a huge aquarium in atlantis made to look like the deep underwater world of the lost city of atlantis - complete with worn down city steps, and mouldy throne-like stones.

interestingly enough, we came at a time where the divers were busy cleaning the tank. wait, now how do you clean an aquarium tank? yes, yes - take out all your fishes, turtles or sea-horses; dry up the tank ie. take out all the water and then clean it - right?

i call the 'cleaners' divers because they dived in and wiped the glass tank with water all around them and fishes swimming without a care that there were 3-4 human beings inside their living area with hand towels and washing liquid!

some of these 'cleaner-diver' even scraped the makeshift mouldy-floor from sand, and swept them away. man, these guys were thorough!

after that interesting discovery of how they clean the tank, we went to get some ice-cream at one of our many favorite ice-cream spots; the cold stone creamery - where the staff handles balls of ice-cream like baseball, and the cone cups like gloves! go to one branch and you'll see what i mean. geram pasal tak dapat-dapat amik video diorang baling-baling ice-cream tu!

thanks bro spice belanja ice-cream!

we then waited for the shuttle bus at the same drop-off point and in no time there was one coming.

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divers who are actually cleaners, balls of ice-cream thrown in the air and keeping good relation with a fellow school alumni. kinda like life, eh? about interesting discoveries, little sweet indulgence and friendship. all in a simple day out!