Niraku : 24 Hours is Not Enough!

my bestfriend niraku is here. well, was here. we sent her back to the airport last night for her to catch a flight back to malaysia. at the time of writing, i think her nephew poor little baby aatif has to endure his aunty nira's pinches, stiffling hugs and kisses!

...and aunty nira did not forget her 'just10 nephews' in dubai as well! she got 'em lotsa goodies from london!

"thanks aunty nira for the super cool t's from imperial college, london! good luck in your phd!"

~ khaleef and kahfi

* * *

she arrived at my place around 5.30am, and from then on we borak-borak, chit chat, hoo-ha-ing, golek-golek and reminisce till 11 in the morning. well, we haven't seen each other for more than a year!

then she has had enough of me and wanted to sleep off her 6-hour flight from london and the coming 6-hour flight to malaysia. haha. and it doesn't help that khaleef and kahfi kept going in and out of the guest room!

of course, with the little time we had, we took niraku jalan-jalan dubai. special thanks to mr. khairul for being the designated driver and tour-guide! *hugs*

• took her picture at the only 7 star hotel in the world - the burj al-arab. read about it here.
• strolled along dubai creek, with the view of docking dhows (arab boats). click here to see more pictures of the creek when my sisters were here.
• took her to dubai mall, the biggest mall in the world
• took our picture in front of burj khalifa, the tallest building in the world. read about my take on the opening of the tall sky-scrapper here.
• visited the dubai aquarium, the biggest aquarium in the world (eh, ye ke?)

and of course, where else did we have lunch?

i'm a mandi rice freak (read about it here!), and niraku is turning to my dark side of juicy mandi chicken with soft beads of rice accompanied with mild-spicy sambal and a plate of fresh salad! muahaha!

where else but our favorite mandi haunt, al-tawasol!

she had mandi rice the last time she was here, and naturally craved for a plate even this time around. we had mandi rice with chicken, lamb and fish. it was a kenduri mandi!

* * *

it was a friday, and happened to be the final day for bazaar malaysia - sob! sob! so we just took a detour towards the consul general's home to look for nasi tomato and laksa.

ala, minggu ni takde nasi tomato!

it was not as festive as the last time i went, because there seemed to be much less stall open, and much less crowd - but i was still very glad to introduce niraku to member dubai sekepala fida and fairus. (fairus, thanks for the rare hard-to-get-in-dubai tau foo fah and to fida for the sweet, succulent kuih cara! rezeki baby boy!)

niraku bought a yummy laksam (kelantanese-style laksa) from eiyda's stall, and i bought kak sarah's doughnut for khaleef.

we went back home to eat the food, rest, and borak some more before going out for dinner.

* * *

we took her to one of our favorite chinese restaurants, where niraku had laksa (despite the fact that she can make one better, and also going back to malaysia where laksa is in abundant!)

me & my buddy

it was a very short visit, but better than just a 3-4 hour transit. seeing her again brought both of us back to our giddy, giggly schoolgirl days. it was a priceless moment reminiscing about the past, while pondering on the future - gossiping about our other buddies and sharing stories of our family.

for a brief moment, i actually get to have a 'girl talk' in a house full of boys!

with me in dubai, and she in london, without this transit i don't think it's as easy to see each other because we go back to malaysia at different time of the year. i am grateful and will miss her very very much.

perhaps a trip to london, honey? (see you soon, buddy!)