Dr. Myriam- The Dental Aesthetic Clinic

Category: Travel

  • Coffee Art ” Petra” it has to be seen to be believed

    Samples of my paintings..all in Coffee medium ,inspired by my trip in Petra, Jordan.

    coffee art-11a
    The siq
    the end of the siq
    the end of the siq
    Petra (rocks)
    Petra (rocks)
    the gate
    the gate
    coffee art-9a
    The ruins
    en route
    en route
    passage
    passage
    mystery
    mystery
    to see is to believe
    to see is to believe
    awesome
    awesome
    the chair
    the chair
    beauty is everywhere
    beauty is everywhere
    alone
    alone
    it is not the cloth that oppresses women, it is the illiterate mind
    it is not the cloth that oppresses women, it is the illiterate mind

    © Copy rights protected

  • Weekly photo Challenge – GREEN

    I see with my big eyes something that begins with a letter G…green

    green grass in Zurich Switzerland
    green at chapel bridge
    green at lake Luzern
    green at chapel bridge
    green chair at Luzern park
    green at Lucern Switzerland
    green at shifa cave
    green at al shifa
    green at Madain Saleh
    green at Madain Saleh

     

     

     

    ©Copy rights protected

  • MOVE OVER – American tourist in Zurich

    classic tour in Zurich

    Hence, I am flying early back home; I decided to travel a day ahead to Zurich. Travelling alone with a big luggage in tow is a hassle on train but I manage to find my seat. I put my luggage in front besides an empty seat hoping no other passenger will need to sit on it. After a few stops, a smiling couple sits beside me and I am so apologetic about my luggage. They smile, nod their head and shrugged their shoulder off signaling they are not bothered at all. Thank goodness!

    Arriving at the Zurich airport on time, I went straight to a waiting hotel shuttle bus. Looking at my watch, I still have the afternoon to see the central town of Zurich. Great!

    subway i got to enter to get into the other side of the train station in Kloten

    I hurriedly put my things in my room and walk to the train station. The trip took around 20 min and I only have 5 minutes to reach the bus station to where the city tour begins.

    inside the subway

    It seems the bus is already full when I reach the place but the conductor waves signaling there’s another seat unoccupied.

    So I hop in and found the only seat available with a guy sitting with his legs wide open, I politely excused myself to

    get into the window seat but he didn’t move at all.

    He said, “This seat is too small for two” so I went at the back of the bus trying to find a place and looking to all the passengers, huh! Every seat has two passengers whether fat or thin, big or small, I look again to this guy and he was also thin and definitely I’m not fat! So what’s the problem?

    I look at the driver/conductor and with my eyes wide open and arms open, an attitude of “come ‘on do something, where I gonna sit? He got up and with German accent , he talk to the guy whose legs are still widely open, He argues but the driver speaks in German language trying to tell him, this seat is for two understand!

    I excused myself again, went to the window seat and the lady (his companion) next to our seat said to him “go to the window so you can see better” so while we are switching I commented, “you know we all paid for this tour, everyone should have a fair share”!

    i missed all the nice view

    If only I have enough time, I would love to go down from the bus and refund my fare but I remained seated, half of my butt on the seat and half is out (with my eyes rolling , I told myself this is gonna be my day!) The bus started to move, I put my feet firmly on the floor trying to balance so I won’t fall and positioned my camera to take pictures, I want to get his face but I hesitated, not to fuel the fire more than to burst, we are after all in a foreign land. Who needs trouble?

    After 20 minutes, he started a conversation, his legs still wide open and half of my butt still out, rolling my eyes again, ah what now?

    He asked, from where are you?

    Me: from Philippines (my reply is as stiff as my neck, trying to get a good picture of the scenery)

    the best i can get (fuming)

    He: Oh! a lot of Filipinos in America ( I know you are trying to tell me you are an American)

    Me: yeah, of course everywhere there’s a lot of Filipino tourist, here in Europe and in America! Everywhere! (keeping my eyebrow down)

    He: I mean Filipina nurses working in a hospital. (His voice more relax so as his legs, my butt still out!)

    Me: So you are working as what? (I didn’t roll my eyes, but one eyebrow a little up; I wonder what he is up to)

    He: I am a medical doctor.

    Me: oh I see, and what specialty? (Professional and an American Doctor, where is your etiquette? Or just simply be a gentlemen!)

    He: Neurology (Oh my! And you are acting like that? Have you look around and see all the passengers in two’s seating comfortably) Yesterday, we were on the tour also and it wasn’t like this, the seat are wider.

    Me: this is a classic bus, so  what do you expect? I was in Boston last year and they have the same seat, it was fun! (unlike now, thanks to you…)

    He: Oh you been to Boston? (This time his legs a bit closing)

    this is a memorable picture (really with my butt out)

    Me: Yes, I am a Dentist; I did my post grad in Aesthetic Dentistry in University of Minnesota. And now my youngest son is in his first year in Cesar Ritz College of Switzerland. You should visit the Alps, the chocolate factory in Gruyère, Geneva, we had great time last year…(in short, mr. american tourist, I am professional and I’ve been to many places in the world but I don’t act like you, we are all tourist after all!)

    I felt he moves his butt and closed his legs a bit but I remained seated as before, No way, I won’t move closer to you Mr. American tourist in Zurich!

    Just a small note for you: Please the next time you are on tour be kind and be gentlemen!

    Good Manners are universal!

    MOVE over !

    ©Copy rights protected

  • Weekly photo challenge – renewal

    Renewal –  state of being made new,fresh or strong again. One  rainy day, birds under the trees, waiting for the rain to stop. Strolling along the street, I can’t help but stop and took this shot. I was inspired to walk more, instead of just going back to bed and hid under my blanket i decided to take more photos.

    ©Copy rights protected

  • Road trip to food trip: MANDI, who needs a decent food in the desert?

    wondering whats cooking?

    I need a decent food!!! Shout out of the day during our trip to Madaín Saleh. Decent? Civilized? Is there such a thing as civilized food? Knock me out three times but our group defines decent food as no fat, no cholesterol, and no salt, in short a “healthy food”.

    We wanted to have fun so no restrictions! Diet was not in our vocab for the three days and two nights were on the trip. Carbonated drinks, chocolates, chips, nuts, hotdog, hamburger, candies, bring it on!

    When we were looking for a place to stay, we came across a restaurant that  prepares “Kabsa”-an Arabic dish made of rice mixed with traditional spices, either with chicken, camel, goat or lamb.

    kabsa …mandi

    A popular way of preparing meat is called mandi. This is an ancient technique, whereby meat is barbecued in a deep hole in the ground that is covered while the meat cooks. Another way of preparing and serving meat for kabsa is mathbi, where seasoned meat is grilled on flat stones that are placed on top of burning embers. A third technique, madghūt, involves cooking the meat in a pressure cooker.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kabsar

    On our first night, we went to the place but they were too busy preparing for a big gathering, we were not able to buy the kabsa , we opted for a chicken instead of Lamb.

    BIG? HUGE!
    indoor picnic

    The salon of the rented apartment has a flat cushions sofa, the usual way of eating Kabsa ( i heard ) is by placing the big plate   on the floor and everyone shares, so  basically we had a picnic  inside the apartment.

    happy together
    the on-lookers, the man is putting spices to basmati rice (long grain)

    The following night, everyone agrees, we are not going back to Jeddah without trying the “Kabsa” so we went back again to the same shop and they welcome us with an open arms.The big plate with 4 kilos meat (lamb) cost Sr 500, wow! we are not big eaters! We got the medium plate with 2 kilos of meat and one whole chicken for Sr 250.

    boiling meat
    flame under

    They boiled the meat before putting it into the deep hole with a flame underneath.

    ready meat for barbecue
    o la la wanna have some Camel?
    boiled meat
    two men, putting the rice into a boiling spiced meat stock
    wow heavy!just goofing around!

    Did we survive? of course we did! A well satisfied palate and a belly of happiness. Cheers!

    © Copy rights protected

  • Al Ula mud-brick houses in black and white

    October 30,2012 -After a spectacular sunset at the top of Al Ula plateau , the following morning we decided to visit the ruins of mud brick houses of Al Ula. Its so sad to think that this houses were not protected or secluded to keep its history.

    Mostly of the houses are already crumbled and ready to fall.

    ©Copy rights protected

  • Slow down Camel crossing…Road trip to Madaín Saleh

    Slow down Camel crossing… Road trip to Madaín Saleh

    We left Jeddah at 5óclock in the morning of October 28, 2012, same month when I visited the Nabatean capital of the north –PETRA in Jordan last year. Madaín Saleh is about 800 km from Jeddah. We filled our cooler with cold drinks, foods, chips, chocolates and nuts. Hence, we couldn’t find a booking on 28thwe also packed our camping gear and gadgets.

    Al ULA ARAC Hotel

    Arac Al Ula Hotel arranged the permit for us. We only e-mailed our names and iqama numbers and presto! Permit is free of charge. As the sun rises up, we stop for a while for breakfast. We are 10 adults and 4 children in 3 cars. My two brothers are with me and a very good friend of mine who also packed his sense of humor which made the trip more enjoyable.

    The road was straight with a little curvature at times, surrounded with Rock Mountains; we had our second stop for lunch, a picnic under the shaded trees.As we get nearer to the place, more curvatures are evident on the road with has the road sign “slow down, camel crossing” wow!  As if were passing “School zone, children crossing”. This is good, because I heard a lot of accidents happened at night when suddenly camel cross the road and bumps the car.

    salt bed

    Our third stop is the salt pans (salt bed),

    oasis

    I wonder if this is the Al hasa salt pans, so excited to get down to see the place which looks like snow in the summer, and I was not able to notice the name of the area. We filled our KIA van with gasoline twice, and I can’t help not to mention that our friend’s car is Hyundai Matrix which I didn’t see him filling it, so I said “let’s buy that kind of car tomorrow immediately “joke!

    We started from Jeddah to Rabigh to Thuwal to Yanbu to Al Ula then to Madaín Saleh. Ten hours driving with 3 stops and still full of energy. Al Ula is a small town which is about 22 km away to Madaín Saleh. It‘s beautiful place surrounded by valleys, plateau, green palm trees and sandy mountains.

    dates

    We were advised not to camp to avoid being in trouble. So we spent a night in a furnished 3 bedroom apartment (SR600) not bad for 12 persons. The following morning we went early to Arac Hotel to get our permit, unfortunately the man –in-charged was not yet there and so we enjoyed the beautiful scenery surrounding Al Ula, blue skies, overlap valleys, red sandy mountains (red-rocks too!) with beautiful high energy friends, (am I being redundant?) huh! can’t help it, what a beautiful day!

    After taking photos of the surroundings, we got our permit and arrived in Madaín Saleh only to find out there’s a big line of cars waiting outside the gate. The gate opens at 10 in the morning and closes at 6 in the evening. Those visitors who doesn’t have permit were not allowed to enter the gate.

    Alas! We were able to get in, amidst of excitement and happiness, we’re all packed with high energy. Madaín Saleh featured 131 monumental rock-cut tombs spread out over a vast area (I’m not sure how big it is) we only noticed the numbers when we started taking pictures. There was no brochure or map to guide us where to start. I think they should open the gate a bit earlier for the guest to look around and appreciate the place more.

    A replica of the Hijaz Railway station is a beautiful site to begin with. Followed by the Nabatean well and a different kinds of tomb.

    I noticed that the outer forms are finer and decorative than the inside. We left the place around 4 pm and went to checked – in to Arac Hotel. This time we were in a hurry to catch the sunset at the biggest and highest plateau in Al Ula. The road to Al Ula plateau is narrow and soaring high, so we decided to be all together in one big car. It was a thrilling experience to chase the sun which stunningly shines reflecting the golden sandy mountains.

    at the top of the plateau overlooking the town of Al ULa

    To be continued….

    This slideshow requires JavaScript.

    © Copy rights protected

  • Weekly Photo Challenge – Geometry

    natural rock formation made a guitar silhouette

    The siq at  Madain Saleh, a ruins of Nabatean village about 800 Km from Jeddah Saudi Arabia.

    door at the ruins of mud house in Al Ula town

    © Copy rights protected

  • Sand Dune bonding time

    October 26, 2012, Eid Al adha, We celebrated our holiday at sand dune . It was a breakfast in style ! We met at 5:30 am, surprisingly everyone came on time, eager to catch the sunrise on top. Our leader maintained a speed of 100 kph almost (joke, he wanted to go fast, as the sun rises fast ahead of us) Anyway, what matters most, we did reach safely and had a  great time!

    Continued until Al shifa stone cave and off again on sunset. Hopefully we can continue to go abha or even madain saleh (joke again) we have to cool off and end the night. Cheers!

    ©Copy rights protected

  • My Switzerland Escapades 2012 -Lucerne (Luzern) part 1

    Lucerne is referred to as “City of Lights”,centrally located at the heart of Europe. It was raining when I arrived with my son who will be  studying at Cesar Ritz College of Switzerland taking up BS in Culinary Arts.

    Lucerne is also know as the ” Tourist Capital”  of Switzerland. 

    The first thing that caught my eyes when we were walking was “the Chapel bridge” built in 1333, it features a number of gable paintings. Along the side is an octagonal water tower also built-in 13th century.The bridge are lined with flowers , ducks and swans floats around the water.

    Samples of paintings

    at night

    worker in action

    me-walking

    a view from the bridge in black and white

    ©Copy rights protected