A "no experience" experience

To be honest, I was quite excited about my Friday night, because I've been invited to visit an local Emirati's house, to learn about the Ramadan and local culture, and to have the Iftar meal together with the local family.

So I was telling Steve and colleagues about it, and really looking forward to it. Besides learning about the culture and eating together, I was also keen to see the interior design and decorations of a local emirati family (because much has been said about the golden, arabic-styled home designs).

So you can imagine that I worked hard the whole day, telling myself that I would be in for a wonderful treat (literally) in the night!

And... it turned out to be a "no-experience" experience. :-o

Well, some background first - I got invited by Su Fen to join in this cultural exchange because she knew of this local programme that invites the foreigners into a local's home to have the iftar meal together. And she's been to 1 already - and thought I would enjoy it. Naturally, I was happy to say yes!

And when I hopped into Su Fen's car, she told me the host has changed the venue of the iftar dinner. Instead of his house, it would be in his yatch. Haha - my first response was - oh wow, would still be good, but I would prefer to see go to a real residence. And... his whole family would be in a yatch?

Well, we finally did meet up with the man, and went to his yatch, and it was actually not a family, but just with him. Conversations were okay, the food was reasonable, the yatch looks expensive and cosy, and we learnt about his family having a farm, him having yatches and a little about the culture.

Su Fen said it was a totally different experience from her first, and I would think so. :-D

My "no-experience" experience morphed into a good Friday night thereafter. Got to know another Singaporean, Yu Kim, who works at the Warner Brothers here doing costume design. It's such a niche area of work, and we continued the night chatting at the nearby sports bar. So it was still good though!


At the Yas Mall Marina - to go to the host's yatch. This is such a beautiful stretch. Reminds me of our marina yatch stretch in Singapore. :)) Sunset was beautiful too.


Inside his yatch - must say it is cosy and well-adorned. We just sat around the table and chatted a little.


And a wefie before we ended our short experience. :-]