OSFAN - an off-road desert adventure

It was a lazy Tuesday afternoon, second day of our one-week Eid (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eid_ul-Fitr) vacation, when I got a call from my friend June. He invited me to survey a place at the outskirt of Jeddah. Since I had nothing lined up on that day, I gladly accepted the invitation. I also brought my two photographing buddies Romy and Arnel.

We left Jeddah shortly after four o'clock to make sure that we arrive at our destination before the sun sets. Our destination - Osfan (also spelled Usfan). Around 80 kilometers from Jeddah's city center, it took us almost an hour to reach the desert village.

It was my first time to explore this side of Makkah province. Along the way, we saw a lot of picture-perfect scenes. Rocky mountains slowly appearing on the horizon, camel pastures, ruins on the rocky hills. But we were not prepared for what we saw on the side of the road - sand dunes!

I asked June if we could make a quick stop and take some photos as the setting sun was gently drawing dramatic shadows on the sand dunes, I thought we just couldn't miss it. And we did, we parked my Volkswagen Tiguan on the side of the road.

The three of us, Romy, Arnel and I were like children released in the playground. 

I decided to take my Tiguan off the road and take some photos of it - and use the sand dunes as my background. When I turned around, Romy and Arnel has already disappeared into the sand dunes - im sure by that time, they're scrambling through their camera settings and keeping their shutters busy.

We took photos and more photos until the sun waved goodbye for the day.

We really enjoyed that spot that we decided not to go through our initial plan. We just traversed a few kilometers of the main road and decided to find our way back to the city.

Enjoy the photos!

This amazing four-wheeled machine took us to this wonderful place in the middle of the desert - less than a hundred kilometers outside Jeddah.

And our photoshoot adventure would never be complete without doing the JUMP SHOT :-)

(Left to Right - Romy Israel, yours truly - the FarmBoy, Arnel Angeles)

Food Fotografy - SAMBO-PIA

In celebration of Ramadan, I present to you my homemade Sambosa with Pinoy Lumpia filling that I nicknamed - SAMBOPIA (Sambosang Lumpia).

Sambosa is a middle-eastern culinary cousin of South East Asia's Lumpia or Spring Roll. They are actually available all year round but are very popular during the holy month of Ramadan. They come in a variety of fillings: Laham (lamb meat), Jobna (white cheese), chicken meat, and mixed vegetables.

Last week, I spent more than 15 minutes queuing for the much anticipated meal of the day in front of a supermarket near our home. When I got home, I realized that I got the ones with the wrong fillings. I ordered the cheese-filled sambosa but I brought home the ones with lamb meat inside :-(

So today, I just decided to make my own and gave it a little twist by making it taste like my favorite lumpiang pinoy.

Here they are, grab a bite :-)

I even created a poster for Pepsi - my unofficial sponsor for this photoshoot ;-)

Ramadan Mubarak everyone!!!