Archive for the “Travel” category
Jarir Bookstore is Saudi Arabia’s largest bookstore chain whose patrons flock the outlets more for consumer electronics rather than school and office supplies and paperback novels. If my calculations are correct, their store inventory has a book and gadget ratio of 3:7. Consumer electronics win!
I went to a branch nearby to buy a very specific gadget I’ve been eyeing for months only to find out that it finally got phased out and the units that went on sale the previous months were actually the last ones in existence. So instead of going home empty-handed, I went for what people are really supposed to be looking for in a bookstore – books. There were lots of books on sale and I was tempted to get cookbooks and travelogues but finally settled on the LOTR boxed set.
At the cashier, my purchase earned a lot of curious looks. Old school?
Then I realized if I were to buy SR150 worth of books each month then in one year, I would have bought books amounting to about SR2,000 which is just a little less than the prize of a Samsung Galaxy S II which according to reviews, is very much capable of running the Amazon Kindle Android application.
Is it time to go digital?
This gadget-looking LOTR box set from Harper Collins Publishing doesn’t really look good on my wall-mounted bookshelf I bought from a local DIY shop.
Joe Marie Ballon, an X-ray Technologist, haven’t been home for five years because his father got sick so instead of spending for a plane ticket home, he’d rather send the money for medicine.
Leonie Villanueva, a Caregiver, can’t go home for nine years no matter how much she want to because she have bills to pay every month and all her children are depending on her.
Joey Doble, a Baby Sitter, left when his son is only a year old and still haven’t seen him after 11 years.
More than 11 million Filipinos have left their families to find better opportunities abroad. This year, Coca-Cola gave them what they want most this Christmas. Watch the video below.
Coca-Cola Where Will Happiness Strike Next: The OFW Project
Despite being in the desert, I can still experience cold mornings and nights and from what I was told, some regions here in KSA actually experience winter. Yes, with actual snows so I no longer needed to be confused why we continue manufacturing air conditioners with built-in heater function. Some of the locals stores are even selling winter apparels.
Natives of tropical countries love to experience winter and snow and I am no exception. Despite the seemingly endless mornings when I would have to force myself to wake up and take a shower, I really do miss winter. Though I hope winters would only last for a month each year, anything beyond that becomes unbearable. And there must be snow. The lack of snow just couldn’t give justice to a sub-zero weather.
And there must be winter clothes, gloves and scarves.
The photo above was taken by my Chinese friend during the disastrous heavy snowfall in Jiangsu, China in 2008. On that day, we called ourselves the Snow Bandits.
When I was in China, there is only one place I’d wanted to visit during winter seasons — the Harbin Ice and Snow Festival in Heilongjiang. I hope that I’d be able to witness their colorful ice structures until I still can. Here’s a few photo taken by random bloggers during the Harbin Snow and Ice Festival 2011.
Harbin Ice and Snow Festival photos from Cute and Weird, My Life, What Humans Do and The Thirsty Pig
