Ploomer, The Popular Playmate

Ploomer has visited my playground for a few days. It is really an honour to have him around. He has travelled to many unpopular places on this planet that has made him popular. He has done so many awesome things that I wish I could have done in my life. He spent about 7 months travelling on a bike in the Indonesian archipelago. He went to Nepal twice and did bunjee jumping near the Tibet border. He blended well with the crowd of dark brown people in Bangladesh and the pale yellow people in Indochina. He flirted with the gorillas in Uganda, tried to track an elusive tiger in Sumatra, swam with a manatee and the list goes on. How I wish I have his freedom. Check out his cool blog, here.

One fine day when I was off duty, we drove to Al Ain to visit the oasis, museum and the breathtaking Jebel Hafeet. This is my second visit to the green grassland of Al Ain. We reached Jebel Hafeet about an hour before sunset. We parked Lucky on an elevated flat parking space, that's the furthest for things with wheels. We hiked further up to perch on the rocks which seem to be the highest accessible peak. Up there, I felt awesome. Looking up at the sky, I had my peaceful moment staring at some buzzards gliding majestically above us, while Ploomer was busy toying with his camera very skillfully and mimicking Borat aloud. Indeed, he is one great guy to travel with and quite entertaining too. He has taught me about living life for now,  enjoying every minute of it, travelling light in the passage of life, leaving the counter-productive bags of worries behind. When I came down from Jebel Hafeet, I felt anew. I can now imagine why people keep on climbing up from one mountain to another, though such activity may seem silly, dangerous and gruelsome. Indeed, when one is up there, everything else is so small and this perspective makes us realize what really matters in our lives.  

That's Ploomer, posing like a pro while photographing the rocks. I'll feign the same pose some day on top of Kili

Can you take me high enough? An old song that played in my mind seeing the mountains

Lucky looked like a tiny stuck up snail down there...

The sunset was gloomy instead of golden on the day we were up there

Ploomer has left Dubai and now wondering the less travelled place called Azerbaijan. He will continue his travel until one day when he decides to grow up. He thanked me well for my hospitality in hosting him and helping him out. What he may not realize is, how thankful I am for his presence that has sparked new determination in me to see the world as a big unlimited playground for those who dare to come out and play. He made me realize the things I have missed all this while. But hey, I still have time to catch up.

A few days after he left, I walked into a mall and brought home a new toy. It's a Nikon D90, to be tamed from now so that I can play with it later in my next climb up to Kilimanjaro in July. At this writing, I have no idea, who I will go there with, when exactly and how. Nevertheless, I have reserved 8 days from the my 30 days of holidays this year, to make it happen even if I have to scale it all by myself.

Hola! A new toy