My Daughter Art Gallery

Gallery for paintings made by my 12 years old daughter: virasart.com. Few were made when she was 10. A father couldn't be more proud!

Just Switched to iPhone

Just switched from BlackBerry to iPhone. It's about time, I guess :)

And you know what, I'm not really missing much from BB. Well, except the international BB roaming paid by the company. I used BBM to communicate only with my wife, and she's on Whatsapp now.

So goodbye Messenger.
Welcome ipod, Instagram, Myquran, Angry bird, Camera+ and all other useful apps!

Btw, my wife asked me to sell my car. So I made this app for that ;)

This Time for Africa

I'm currently in Dubai. For only few days before going back to Hungary.

I've just had my first Telepresence meeting with my new team. This is my 6th team since I joined Cisco Systems about 5 years ago. As part of the re-organization within Cisco now I'm with the Service Provider team that focuses on customers in Africa.

Last time I checked, I haven't put any pin in Africa countries yet. I did some project for Bostwana Telecom, but it was done remotely.

So it's time for Africa.

But I need to finish my current work in Europe first.

Rise Above 1

2.30 am Vienna time. Can't sleep. Too excited to fly back to Dubai this afternoon, I guess. Then found this cool song.

At the same time I'm testing posting video from youtube using the new blogger editor. Looks good.

Shopping in Europe

One benefit of shopping in Europe is the tax refund for tourist. It means for the good with the same price in Dubai, will be cheaper due to the refund. In Austria I can get around 12% back from my purchase.

I usually don't do shopping when travel. But it seems like I have to buy some nice thing for my wife who's been left for more than 2 weeks to handle my kids alone.

I've been having fun in Hungary with EVC, pseudowire, xconnect, bridge domain, VFI, VPLS AD etc on ASR9K and ME3800-X with the new software release. And spending weekend in Vienna to make photos with my Leica M6 film camera and BlackBerry.

It's time to share the happiness with the family.

(Un) Healthy Schedule

3.30 am Fasting day starts
7.00 am Walk to customer's office
1.00 pm Continue working when customer have lunch
6.00 pm Walk back to the hotel
6.10 pm Continue working from the hotel
8.20 pm Walk to restaurant to break the fasting
8.30 pm Fasting day over, start the dinner
10.00 pm Finish dinner with nice Gelato
10.30 pm Back to hotel
11.00 pm Write blog, browse Internet, watch TV while drink lots of water
12.00 pm Go to bed

Fasting in Europe

Spent whole day with a very nice Hungarian family. But it was tiring too at the same time. So I slept early and woke up to realize it's already pass midnight and I missed dinner.

And tomorrow is the first day of Ramadan, the fasting month.

Found this from the hotel's fridge. It's good enough for Suhoor (pre-dawn meal), I think. 

It will be interesting to explain to the customer tomorrow why I can't join lunch as usual.

And in Hungary, fasting day is from 3.30 am until 8.30 pm.

Ramadan Kareem.

6 Days without Internet

Due to the Eid holiday in Dubai last week I had a chance to be completely off from the Internet for 6 days. So yes people, it's possible to live for a week without Facebook, email, IM and so on. I only sent a tweet per day from my Blackberry to record what I did, and here they are:

Day 1: snowboarding with the kids. Then went shopping for Eid
Day 2: eat, pray, sleep. Eid celebration and BBQ at a friend's house
Day 3: spent the whole day at the park
Day 4: in the middle of zillion teenagers, watching Jonas Brothers concert at Yas Island. Thing you must do when you have 12 years old girl!
Day 5: splashing and sun bathing at waterpark, then dining at chinese restaurant
Day 6: desert driving, flying in vertical wind tunnel and now watching Harry Potter 7. That's the end of 6 days without facebook, email, IM!

It was 6 days full of activities from snowboarding, desert driving, indoor sky diving, splashing at waterpark, to shopping, hanging out with friends and BBQ, and watching movie and the concert. Who said life without Internet would be a mistake?

I should do the same exercise with longer period someday.

Targets: Quick Update

Let's start with the first subject: cars.

My friend once said car is a mean of transportation to move from point A to point B. I agree. But in Dubai, point A to point B can be through construction sites, high way where some people really put the maximum speed limit in their cars to test, diverted road because of the constructions, desert and sand dune, gravel road due to constructions going on (man, there are just too many constructions here!), and not to forget due to the lack of parking space the cars must pass, and park, on the sand. So that's the reason why I believe SUV and 4WD cars are the most suitable vehicle for this city.

The thing is, I must had watched the last few James Bond movies too many times so when I moved back to Dubai at the end of 2008 I made a wrong decision by buying a Range Rover. This British SUV is a very good car indeed, but not the best 4WD to be used. It comes with big wheels and fancy low-profile tires, which means I can't deflate the tires to get more traction to drive on the sand. The awesome Terrain Response System becomes useless because I was too afraid to damage the expensive wheels or tires during offroading so finally I decided to sell it and get Toyota Land Cruiser, with 8-seat as family car, and FJ Cruiser for me to drifting around in the desert. I sold my Range Rover to get two Toyota cars, and still got small change from the deal :)

The FJ really gave me a chance to learn about the desert driving skills as you can see on my last few posts. This is inline with my first target in life. And since my current project in Dubai makes me go to the customer office that is only 10 minutes away from the desert, I was able to practice the skill almost every week. I call my activity as "Dune Every Week", I can do the desert offroading either during the weekend or right after the meeting at customer office.

My next target is snowboarding. Since I got the Gout Attack! on my left foot it has become difficult for me to wear the tight snowboarding shoes so I haven't had any chance to practice this skill (this is not the case with desert offroading, remember to drive my FJ I don't need to use my left foot since it has the automatic transmission). So now my kid is more skillful than me since she practices in the indoor snow park at least twice a month. She's much faster and can do the turn really quick, so I must try to catch up once I can wear the snowboarding shoes again.

For photography, I sold my Canon EOS 5D along with all the lens. I found that DLSR is not suitable with the style that I like. I like a camera that I can have full control and can use the manual mode just like the SLR indeed. But it has to be small so I can carry it anywhere. It must have "full frame" just like the 35 mm film. And I'm not into sport photography so I rarely used telephoto lens. Once I find my ideal camera I will post it here.

My kid has started taking the guitar lesson. So I guess one day she can be the lead guitarist for my band. Meanwhile I was thinking to get the "Guitar Hero" or "Rock Band" on Wii so at least I can simulate the jam session together with her because practicing the drum alone is not that fun I can tell you.

It's been a while since I travel due to my current project in Dubai. It's a blessing in disguise because it makes me able to learn the other skills like the desert driving above. And I'm already planning to travel this summer so let's see.

Now let's talk about the boring part: work related.

I've been busy with my current project to converge the core network of one mobile provider here in Dubai. The project makes me spend many nights working onsite at customer site. In fact, I'm writing this post in the middle of my night activity! I don't want to complain, but working at night means I have to sleep during the day and won't be able to do my targets. As I mentioned yes it's true the project meeting in the day at customer site allow me to go to the desert right after. But I still hope the project will end soon and my vampire life will end too. I'm planning to write down my experience btw, even I may or may not be able to share it here.

Regarding the certification, yes I failed my CCDE attempt on December. Again it took about 3 months to get the result, and the result report doesn't help at all to prepare for the next attempt. And again I have already known why I fail: during the exam I still think too detail. The CCDE is a very high level design exam so thinking in detail just as what I do for my daily work won't make me pass the exam. The good news is, I've got approval to attend a CCDE bootcamp by ProNet Expert here in Dubai. This bootcamp is claimed as the only CCDE bootcamp available today, due to the very less number of CCDEs to become the instructor, and will happen on 2nd week of May. At least the instructor who has passed the CCDE exam can tell me the way of thinking to answer the questions. So I may take another CCDE attempt on July in London (and this is a good reason to support my traveling target too!)

That's all for now.

Say goodbye to Mr. Bull

Last night I spent 3 hours in Emergency Room. It started with some paint in my left foot while walking in front of Atlantis hotel to enjoy the sunset 2 days ago. Then I was driving yesterday when suddenly I had a very painful experience ever from the same feet, it became red and swollen, and felt like burning. It's so painful I needed someone to drove me to the E.R. After the painkiller injection, blood test, sitting on the wheelchair waiting for couple of hours for the lab result, the doctor said it was the Gout attack caused by high uric acid level.

So say hello to Mr. Uric Acid. Say goodbye to Mr. Red Bull, Mr. Lamb Chop, Ms. Seafood, Mr. Mandi Rice, and I will miss Ms. Junk Food too.

My biggest lost is if I have to stop drinking Red Bull. Mr. Bull has been the closest friend of mine, and the source of my energy for all the night work that I have to do. It's like the sun for Superman. Or the byte of the spider for Spiderman. (Batman is not counted since he can be one because he's rich!) Without Red Bull it will be difficult for me to stay awake for the whole night.

This morning, even I still can't wear my shoes and can barely walk, I have to stand before my customer to present the migration plan that we will be executing in the next few weeks. The execution means long and consecutive sleepless nights await.

I have to find a new source of energy, I guess.

In This Part Of The World

In this part of the world, people may gain respect not because of what they know, their reputation or what they have done. But probably because of what they own, what they drive, how they look, what they wear, what family name they have, even to silly thing such as what passport they hold.

But respect is not the reason why I bought my latest toy.

When I got it, what I had in mind was just to have fun. I made a list of 10-things I want to do in life and one is related to skill and ability to ride different type of vehicle in all kind of terrains. Another reason is probably because I also want to tease my buddy who kept telling me I don’t deserve a British car >:)

In case you were wondering, nope, it’s not an Aston Martin. It was in Quantum of Solace movie too indeed, but it has 4WD, more doors and a bit lower BHP.



In this part of the world, all we need to do is slowing our pace a bit, lowering down our expectation, and everything will be alright.

The name is Bond. James Bond.
No, wait.
The name is Bourne. Jason Bourne.
Nah, never mind.

Stop whining. Start living. And live like you mean it.
Sand dunes, here I come.

A Good Day

Today I'm really happy. Early morning CET time I watched Valentino Rossi clinched his sixth MotoGP world championship (eight including 250cc and 125cc) with victory in the Japanese Grand Prix at Motegi.


Then in the afternoon I watched Fernando Alonso scored a surprise success in one of the most eagerly anticipated Grand Prix in Formula One history, under the lights of Singapore.


I know, there is the first Formula One night race in history happening in Singapore but I'm here in Prague, Czech Republic. But still I'm so happy with the achievement from both guys.

This must be a good day for me. It's been amazing two weeks in Prague. I'm going out to walk now to enjoy the city.

Never Make a Promise

Never make a promise that you can’t keep.
I know, you must have heard those words before. Perhaps for so many times. But it’s true. It’s really true. At least that is what happening with me now.

Earlier this year I made a promise that I would pass my CCIE Service Provider lab within 4 months. Today is already end of May, and I’m nowhere in my CCIE journey.
During this period I have seen two of my team members passed the CCIE SP and made them Triple and Double CCIEs. They both passed in the first attempt. And how about me? Still zero.

Who’s to blame? Nobody. Most probably it’s because of me.
I really enjoyed my new role in Cisco AS, really enjoyed the new life style as frequent flyer, and I guess that makes me forget my original purpose. Forget my own promise.

But it’s a good life style, though.
I keep traveling from one country to another, most of the time working from the hotel room and the airport, visiting places that I always wanted to visit.
I had a chance to cruise along Bangkok’s Chao Phraya River, ride a coaster in Hongkong Disneyland, and wet my feet in the pond behind Malaysia’s Twin Towers building. And don’t forget the Formula 1 in Sepang where Fernando Alonso beat those Ferraris!

So no complaint for my past, but I’ve better got back to my focus. Taking photos in new places with my Canon EOS 5D is an exciting experience, but I really want to do that as a Triple CCIE. Even some people tell me certification is not important anymore. They say CCIE is not counted anymore when you join Cisco. But I just want to do it.

Cisco pay for my first three lab attempts. Not bad at all. They also provide all training required, any CCIE bootcamp or internal trainings, and any material available for all Cisco employees (except the real CCIE lab question!).
But my biggest challenge is time. Especially since I have to travel and work (and play and take photos for sure) at the same time.

So I don’t think I can’t attend any training within my timeframe. I have already booked the lab sometime in August, so I have about 2 months to prepare.
My weakness points are IS-IS and Multicast. Fear not, I have the Internetwork Expert’s Advanced Technology video-on-demand for CCIE SP. It’s a very good material even I also have a problem to finish watching them all. Within a week or two I need to start practicing the workbook that I have from both IE Mentor and Internetwork Expert. If I can do this for the next 2 months, I believe I have a chance to pass.

Okay, time has been defined, course has been set. It’s time to sail again. But before that, I hope you don’t mind if I share my picture sitting in front of Snow White Castle :)

Learn to Listen, Learn not to Speak

Many have asked me the reason why I didn’t update my blog for a while.
Well, my first reason is because currently I’m still learning about how to listen. It sounds easy but really hard to do. I’m a kind of guy who likes to talk about myself, about my past, my job, my experience and projects and so on. I bet you will hate me if you have a chance to meet me in person.

So here I am, with my new job in Cisco, realizing that I’m just an ordinary person here. My co-workers are much better than me technically. They have done more interesting stuff. They know more people. They have more CCIEs.
I have nothing to be proud of. Then I start realizing that this is a good time for me to listen. To learn from anyone who has more experience and exposure in the past.

The second reason is: I’m also learning not to speak. I mean, there are many fascinating stuff and new things that I learn since I joined Cisco, but some of them are confidential information that I can’t just share to public. It was easier when I was outside the system, I could write about anything. But now since I’m part of Cisco I need to make sure that what I write doesn’t reflect about my opinion as Cisco’s employee.

Do I have a problem with my integrity?
Not sure. That’s another thing that I have to learn too.

End of the Rainbow

Every time someone asks me why I decided to leave Dubai and join Cisco based in Singapore, my answer is always: because Middle East is the end of the rainbow. What is the end of the rainbow? When I was young, I always heard people say about the pot of gold laid at the end of the rainbow. They say: If you want to become very rich, just follow the rainbow until you find the end.
There you will find your gold.
Well, I might be small and naïve that time so I wasn’t brave enough to follow the suggestion. Right call, I guess.

I believe Middle East is the end of the rainbow that many people used to tell me about. You can get a very high salary, without tax, so if you make 100 you will bring 100 home. Car price is cheap and everyone can afford to buy car. And the good thing about being networkers in Middle East is the infrastructure is still under heavy development so many technologies that have already had mature in other country may be considered new to many people there. It means if you know a bit more compare to the others than it’s very easy to set yourself apart. The competition is relatively low to reach the top, so if you are able to do so then you will find yourself alone. With lots of $$$ for sure.

So what’s wrong with all of that? Well, if you want to make lots of money and get retired quickly then you should work in Middle East. But if you are like me, who feels like being rich is not enough and always tries to get new challenges all the time then you may not want to go there at all. At least until you get tired with whatever you are doing in life and finally start thinking to chase the money.

Then one friend strikes me with his ultimate question: so what do you expect to see at the end of the rainbow? What would you like to end up?

As per today, my answer is: I don’t know.
I used to think that working for Cisco in Silicon Valley is my ultimate goal. I used to dream about it. Hoping someday I can be one of the guys who build and test the product. And finally, after more than 10 months waiting, I got my H1b visa approved. Now I have a chance to fly to San Jose and try my luck. But I’m not sure if I’m ready for that.

The thing is, I’m already with Cisco now. Even it’s the Advanced Services team and not the business unit who develops product, but it’s still Cisco. And my current skill is fit as part of Advanced Services. I mean I used to do consulting work, make a design, lead the project implementation, allocate resources, discuss with customer and make a plan etc and I’m doing all of those now with Cisco AS.

So I may be best with whatever I’m doing right now.
But if I move to SV, I need to start from beginning since the skill set required is most likely very deep in one particular technology plus I need to know how to automate the process to test the product.

The question is not whether I’m going to survive in SV. But the real question that’s killing my mind now is whether I’m going to like what I will do there. Even if I’m able to join Cisco in SV.

Maybe I’m good with whatever I’m doing now so I should just continue doing it. And actually I really like whatever I'm doing. Or I may just need to work hard and ask for internal transfer one day. That will be the day I have made my decision to switch from Advanced Services to the business unit.

And perhaps you should start asking yourself too: what do you expect to find at the end of your rainbow?

Living My Dream

It all started with a dream. A dream to work in a place where I would be judged by nothing but my skills. A dream to be in a place where there is no limit for my career as technical person. A dream to be a part of true multi-national team. A dream to work in the most influental company in networking world, Cisco Systems.

It has been two weeks since I officially joined Cisco and I still can’t believe it. I still can’t believe that I’m part of Cisco Advanced Services now, a team that I used to dream to join at any cost. Every day is an exciting day. Everybody is so talented. I can really feel to be a part of the team. I can understand the true meaning of team work. Be in touch with any other team members around the globe without boundaries.

So this is the company that has a vision to change the way we live, work, play and learn. Now the question is: how can I contribute?
Joining Cisco is not the end of the journey, it's just the beginning.
It is time to start living my dream.

A Life Without Debt

In my last day in UAE, I was "forced" to close my main account in one of local bank in Dubai. Unfortunately, closing this bank account means I have to close all my credit cards as well! And it also means I have to pay all the balance left in all my credit cards with most of my money in hand. I have been using credit cards since ten years ago and I never bothered to pay my debt completely. It was only several hours before my flight to Singapore so I didn't have a choice. I left the country that day without any credit cards and only some amount of cash in my pocket.

How can I live without credit cards?

So far it's been good. It's almost a week now I have been surviving in the new country without any credit cards. Everything has to be paid with cash. And we live in an era where people carry less and less money in their wallet. Strangely enough, most of places now prefer credit card more than cash. Take my hotel as example. When I informed them that I would like to pay in cash, I had to pay the whole amount of the room rate plus security deposit. If I paid with card, I didn't have to pay the deposit. So I guess people trust me more if I had my credit card.

Actually I was planning to use cash only for emergency purpose but now I don't have any options. This situation makes me plan more carefully in my daily spending. At least until I receive my first month salary :)

From the other point of view, actually this time is the first time in my life since ten years ago that I don't have any debt at all to any credit card companies or the banks. Live freely without any obligation to pay some fees every month. A life without debt.

Leaving Dubai

I’m leaving Dubai in the next couple of hours to join Cisco Systems Advanced Services – Asia Pacific team based in Singapore. I’m so happy and grateful that finally I can get in into the circle, but due to my hectic days until the last minute, I still can’t feel the excitement for now.

In my last moment in Dubai, I have been trying to remember all the good things that happened to me in the past. Things that I like the most about Dubai:

- No-tax, yes if you make 1000 it means you bring 1000 home!
- Safe and Secure environment, crime rate is low
- Anything that you would like to see in the world, may probably exist here: pyramid, indoor ski, white beaches, rock mountain, opera house-like in Sydney, twin towers, 7-star hotel, world's biggest shopping mall and tallest tower will come soon, and they are planning to build something like Great Wall in China.
- Cars price is cheap, even low-skilled labor like me can drive BMW :)
- Girls are pretty, well they may not be available but it's good to see yourself surrounded by pretty girls
- Peaceful Moslem environment, there are so many mosques and I have seen some people even prayed next to the road because they are so keen to pray exactly at prayer time. I'm a moslem so having moslem environment is important for me

On the other hand, things that I hate the most about Dubai:

- Summer time, can reach up to 50 degrees celcius! Even the official never admits it since 50 degrees means public holiday
- Traffic jam, anyone can afford to buy car and there are so many new construction sites in Dubai and most of them disturb the traffic so it’s always jam and unpredictable not only during busy hours
- Apartment Rent is ridiculously high, Dubai is no.25 in the most expensive City in the world and frankly speaking I don't think Dubai deserves it
- To many hypes: for example in my opinion apartment rent price should not go up because there is no big changes in number of people living in Dubai, when the first time UAE stock market was opened the price went very high but now it reaches the bottom of the barrel, etc

Anyway, I really enjoy my time and I may come up with some other like/hate things later on. I have been in Dubai for almost 5 years so even I will go to my dream job but I still can feel that something is missing. Will continue later.

Officially Jobless

Yesterday was my last day in my current company. So I woke up this morning as a jobless person. It's official now.

Well, actually it's not that bad. I have several offering letters in my hand from different types of company. The first one is from a local company who wants me to work with them in multi-million dollar projects with UAE goverment. The second offer comes from my own company. Well, after 3 months acting like they don't need me anymore suddenly in the last day they came and really gave me a good offer. The third offer is from one multi-national and Cisco Gold partner company that unfortunately doesn't put Cisco as its main business. And the last but not least, I received an offer from one consulting company who makes lots of money only from consultancy services.

I haven't decided which one to go so until I make my decision I will stay jobless. But fear not, I still have enough saving to allow me to play snowboarding even I have to start eating ramen noodles. And I was able to add several TV show series into my collection: Scrubs season 1 to 5, Prison Break season 1, and Lost season 1 and 2. So it looks like I will be able to enjoy my unemployment time with style.
Jobless with style.

I'm Regular

In Snowboarding, if you put your left foot in the front of the board, then you are regular. But if you put your right foot in the front, then you are goofy. Which one is better? Most people ride regular buat it's really a matter of preference. And that's the funny part within my 3-weeks experience learning snowboarding in Ski Dubai that I would like to share here.

After taking 5 lessons and fell down miserably last week, and got small bruise and scar in my face, I started questioning my decision to ride goofy from the 1st lesson. At that time my instructor told me to put the strong foot in the front, and for me it means my right foot, hence I became goofy. But just like in CCIE, it looks like you can't trust a single source. I read The Snowboard Book from Lowell Hart, and he mentioned clearly that "Snowboarding is, literally, life on the edge". Any snowboarders should be able to balance both edges from heel to toe. When I ride goofy, I can stop with my heel edge very well, but I can't do the same using my toe.

So after 1 week forensic investigation to examine why I fell, I figure out that with my left foot in the back, it's so weak and not helpful to control the board. I can make a right turn easily, when facing downhill, because my right foot in the front can turn the board around. But everytime I try to make a left turn, my left foot can't provide support to turn the board and I can lose control easily. I believe this is the reason why I fell. Case closed.

Yesterday I decided to ride regular for the first time. That's quite funny. After spending 3 weeks I still can't figure out which ride is better, goofy or regular. But I believe that's one of the lessons from this story: always evaluate yourself. And the second lesson: Trust no one, even Agent Mulder. Always try to get different resources for comparison.

And the result for my first regular riding experience? Not bad.
I fell down only about dozen times, and that's because I was trying to ride my board over the rail, one of the freestyle tricks. I was able to link the turn to make multiple S patterns. With my right foot in the back, I can use it to get more control to the board. When facing downhill and make a right turn, I can use my right foot to bring the board to toe edge position. And when facing uphill and make a left turn, I can use my right foot to bring the board to heel edge position.

So I'm regular, and I have decided to stick with 150 board.
I'm regular just like most people.

It sounds so familiar, doesn't it? I'm a regular person. Even I have two CCIE but I'm not an expert. It's difficult for me to distinguish myself.
So it looks like I have to do something about it.
I'm thinking about my CCIE Service Provider plan.
Snowboarding and CCIE. It may works.