The New Year?

Today is the first day of 2007 AD or to be areligious - 2007 CE (Common Era) as AD stands for the latin word Anno Domini - the year of our lord or as the Oxford Dictionary pointed out AD refers to 'of the Christian Era'. So, why were you singing the old Scottish song Auld Lang Syne (written by poet Robert Burns and published in 1796) to celebrate the 'new year' last night?In the middle ages, even

Selamat Hari Raya Aidil Adha

Today is Hari Raya Aidil Adha or Hari Raya Haji as we Bruneians call it. Some also called it Hari Raya Korban which is predominantly used also in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines. According to Wiki, it is Eid el-Kbir in Morocco, Egypt and Libya; Tfaska Tamoqqart (see if you can pronounce that) in the Berber language of Jerba; and Tabaski or Tobaski in some parts of Africa;

The Brunei Haj

Alhamdulillah, by the time you read this, Brunei haj pilgrims this year would have done the ukuf yesterday at the Arafah and should be in Mina today after spending the night at Muzalifah. By now, a number would have taken off their ihram as they have either completed the first throwing of the Jumratul Aqabah stone pillar at Mina or for the more adventurous one, they would have done the tawaf and

More Brunei Words

Another example of the Brunei nationality test. As usual fill in the blanks in the sentences with the words given below. Have fun.Words:a. jahat ujudb. kayu manahc. indadad. katupange. indanganf. rambatg. sulaph. kulimambangi. lampuhj. kalakatiSentences:1. Setelah diperah santan secukupnya, ................ dibuang ke dalam tong sampah.2. Dia membersihkan ............... untuk pergi menangkap

Brunei's New $500 and $10,000 Banknotes

Starting today, Brunei will have two new currency notes replacing the old $500 and $10,000 notes. When I mentioned this to some people, they laughed. Most of them have not even seen the old $10,000 note, so it does not matter whether there is a new note replacing it or not. While it is true that not many of us will be using those but should you come across one of them, you would realise that

Sabah and Sarawak

I thought I will turn my attention towards our neighbouring states, Sabah and Sarawak, favourite holiday destinations for Bruneians especially in this month of December. I have written once about Sabah in passing when I was talking about how the name Istana Manggalela in Kuala Belait came about. I was going through my collection of books in the hope of finding something to write about today. In

Bunga Telur

Someone asked what is the origin of the bunga telur - the token gift that is given to guests who come to wedding ceremonies. The giving of bunga telur was actually originally a throwback to the Hindu culture which influenced the cultures in Southeast Asia. The egg represent or symbolise a fertile union between the couple as the egg is the symbol of fertility. In some sense, by giving away eggs,

Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah the First

Merry Christmas to readers who are celebrating it out there. I remembered when I was studying in UK and USA, the Christmas/New Year holidays mean that no shops are open for about a week and that one better stock up for that week if one wants to eat something else other than Christmas puddings. For today I thought I will write something about how Christmas cards led me to discover something about

Questions to ask before saying yes

Today is Sunday. I am rushing off this entry as my wife, my little boy and I have to rush later today to Sungai Liang for my cousin's wedding. Sundays are the Brunei wedding days and with many marriages especially in December, I thought I will share an article on the New York Times entitled 'Marriage is not built on surprises'. For those thinking about marriage, you might want to ponder and see

Hooked on Credit Cards

The other day I received one of those 'if you don't pay, we will take you to court and by the way your card is now cancelled' letter from a local bank. What I did not realise was that a credit card, which I signed up more than a year ago with the bank because the MD practically shoved the application form under my nose when I was their guest of honour for launching one of their products, had an

Brunei Words

Sometimes Brunei words are so obscure or we hardly used them that other than our elders, most younger Bruneians would be stumped. My friend showed me an example of a Brunei nationality test which I thought I will reproduce here for everyone to have a look. It looks hard at first, but it isn't really. You take a look.Question (loosely translated) - use the following words to complete the sentences

Exam Day!

It's exam day for quite a number of government officers. The last time the figure exceeded more than 1,000 civil servants with the majority coming from Division 2 and a few holdovers from Division 1. For those not in the civil service yet, you must have heard about the dreaded 'exam' word that most civil servants have to undergo nowadays. What makes this one harder is that you don't have classes

The Tutong Language

Last night I was reading a 1993 Beriga - a publication of Dewan Bahasa Pustaka Brunei - which contained an article about the folks in Tutong or better known as Orang Tutong. Most Bruneians recognise that among all the various Malay groups in Brunei, Orang Melayu Tutong has an interesting language only known to Tutongians. I used to know a little bit of the language when I was staying in Tutong

The Boats of Brunei

When I was a young boy in the 1970s, my father was the District Officer in Temburong. Unlike today where you can drive easily to Bangar through Limbang, in those days, the road was not as accessible and there are two rivers that one has to cross using ferries. Today you still have to cross one of the river using a ferry but it is not as bad as the road has improved tremendously. We went back by

Wedding Costs Again

The smell of marriage is in the air. I attended a wedding for a daughter of a senior colleague yesterday at the Rizqun which must have cost a fair bit. After that I rushed off to my uncle's for my cousin's nikah and menghantar berian ceremony. The marriage ceremony will be next Sunday. And there one of my aunties told me that her daughter, another cousin, will be having a besuruh ceremony at the

December Blues

This is the month of December. Two years ago when I was the head honcho of the retirement agency fund, this is the month that would see the most number of fund members coming to see me appealing if their long term retirement fund can be taken out - if not the whole amount but just a little to cover their children's school expenses and other odds and ends. I would have to explain that their

The Colours of Brunei Money

Without looking into your wallet or your purse, tell me what are the colours of the Brunei money? We see the notes so often that sometimes we forget the colours but instinctively we know what the colours are. It's blue for $1, green for $5, red for $10, light green for $50 and I am not sure how to describe the $100. There are of course $500, $1,000 and $10,000 notes as well but of the latter,

The Brunei Haversack

Sometimes we take things for granted. Take 'takiding' which is the basket that were used to carry things in Brunei Darussalam. It is not used very much or at all nowadays but everyone knows what it looks like and what it is. It was previously used mostly in farms when farm produce or fruits are picked, they are kept in the 'takiding' carried all the time at the farmer's back.We all know that it

A Thousand Year Old Brunei Town at Limau Manis

Sometime in July when I wrote about the Antiquities and Teasure Trove (Ancient Monuments and Historical Sites) Order that listed all the protected places in Brunei, one of the places was the Limau Manis River Site. At that time, I didn't know why it was included and one Indiana Jones commented that there is a book about it. I was too busy then to look for the book but yesterday I met with the

The Traditional Kuehs of Brunei

According to my gym instructor friend, one of the questions that he had to study for the Brunei nationality exam was - 'what is the difference between the wet cakes (kueh basah) and dry cakes (kueh kering)?' - and - 'name the two types'. This former is a rather tough question to answer and to find the definitive list of Brunei kuehs without knowing where to look is also equally tough. I wrote a

The Origin of Burong Pingai

The early Bruneians used to live on the water and most Bruneians can trace their origins there. For instance, my great grandfather used to live in Kampung Saba but when he married my great grandmother, they stayed at her village in Kampung Pandai Besi. Ask many Bruneians and their story would be more or less the same. How did I get to dry land? In my case it was my grandfather who joined the

The Marathon

Just got back to work this morning and found that my in-tray is not only full but overflowing and my diary is pepppered with appointments and meetings. I am also covering for my colleague who is on leave for the next 2 weeks and with the reshuffling of our directors, I also have to cover for one of them until we find his replacement - so altogether, with mine, that's 3 persons' work that I had to

A Bruneian in Kuala Lumpur

Spend a long enough time in any one place, you will always see something interesting. One of the interesting shops I saw along Jalan Pudu (or was it the Jalan before that?) in Kuala Lumpur was this shop selling coffins. That's pretty unusual - of course when compared to Brunei - but what interest me more is not that shop but the shop next to it. It was a fastfood restaurant. My uncle was zooming

The 2006 IMF Report on Brunei

In my entry on Brunei and the IMF, I promised that I will inform readers when the 2006 IMF report on Brunei will be released - yesterday IMF has finally released the summary report and it is now available on their website on this link. The 2006 statistical data for Brunei is available on the same website on this link.I will not say much about the IMF report but suffice for readers to click on the

Airconditioning System in Government Buildings

On Monday morning at our international airport, my better half and I went to get two baggage trolleys - there were only two left - and we found out why there were these two left. There was something wrong with the braking system with both and we had great difficulty pushing the trolleys towards the check in area. These trolleys are relatively new. The older ones have been kept aside and you can

Are we in recession?

In a previous entry about Kedai Tutup, a number of commentators, especially those in the private sector argued that there is an economic problem. I argued that problems in one particular sector does not mean that the overall economy is in trouble. But then again after sitting immersed in the jacuzzi in the Times Square swimming pool, my mind starts wondering again and I have to rethink my earlier

Brunei's New Export

I read in the New Straits Times (December 5, 2006) the report of one parliamentary debate on the situation of Bukit Bintang in KL. According to the paper, last week, one Malaysian MP described the place as becoming like the infamous Patpong area in Bangkok. Yesterday, Bukit Bintang was described as a vice den. One MP said pimps ruled in Bukit Bitang and were blatantly offering p* to passers by.

Where are we heading?

A couple of people asked me to comment on John Perry's resignation. In fact I have already heard about it a couple of months back and I started composing something which I thought I may want to post one day should the announcement came. So I prepared a long entry about it and about the economy etc. Last night, I started to think - put us in his position, would we have done any better? Would we

Brunei and the International Monetary Fund

I was reading the BB (again!) about two recent articles - one appeared sometime during the week when I was away in Korea and the other one on Saturday about the IMF report. I was in the office about 20 minutes after arriving at the airport and I imed (instant messaged) my officer for not informing me about the release of the 2006 IMF report as I had left instructions for me to be informed when it

Origins of Place Names in Brunei (Part 3)

Today we look at some more place names in Brunei to look at the origin of the names of those places. The following are derived from the Brunei Museum Journal 1996/1997.Two rivers in Temburong named Sungai Nagalang and Sungai Peliunan are two place names which come under descriptive names in a Brunei toponym (toponomy is the study of place names). Both come from Murut words. Nagalang comes from

Kedai Tutup

The change in temperature from -5 celsius in Seoul at 6 am and at 3 pm, it is 35 celsius in Singapore was something I could do without. But it is something we have to go through in conducting our official businesses. Here I am typing this in sunny Singapore and by the time most of you read this, I would have been back in my office scrambling trying to finish my work as I will be away on leave

FTA - what's that?

When we got in into Seoul for the Asian Bellagio Economic Experts Meeting at about noon yesterday, I was quite surprised to see many policemen with guns, shields and anti-riot gear positioned all over the city. I didn't realise that the Korean workers are having a huge rally and demonstration arguing against the on-going negotiation for the Korean-USA FTA (free trade agreement) for three weeks

The Unfillial Son Tales

A few days ago when I wrote about the history of Istana Manggalela, a Tun Teja, a History teacher put up two very long comments about history but one in particular strike me as something I would like to pick up, namely the similarity between the three countries about the legend of a poor boy, who went abroad to better his lot in life. After many years, he achieved success, married a noblewoman

The Art of Visiting the Sick in Brunei by Pollyanna

I'm sure you've visited people in the hospital before. And I'm sure you have your own etiquettes while visiting the ill. Being around a hospital environment this last week made me see that us Bruneians sometimes have our own rules of visiting the sick. Rule #1. Visiting as soon as you have heard a loved one or friend has been admittedUs Bruneians tend to spread the news by word of mouth. I once

Toponomy - the study of placenames

The temperature was 5 celsius this morning and yet all the snow along the ski runs here in PyeongChang are artificial. There were some snow falls during the last week but it will be next month I have been told before the real heavy snow comes. PyeongChang is a poor place which made it big time - it used to be a potato farming area. It wasn't until the nearby village of YongPyeong turning itself

Lessons from the Winter Sonata City

Greetings from the City of PyeongChang, South Korea, one of three candidate cities competing to host the 2014 Winter Olympics. I arrived here yesterday evening to lead the Brunei delegation, not for the Olympics, but for an ASEAN+3 Finance meeting here. PyeongChang is a four hour drive from Incheon, Korea's International Airport. After a 7 hour flight and a 4 hour drive getting here, I am

How old is Tanjung Nangka?

Sometimes it's surprising how long some of our villages have been inhabited. We know for a fact that along Sungai Brunei, the Kota Batu areas, Bruneians have lived there for hundreds of years. But for the most parts, most of the interiors of Brunei are not habited by anyone until very recently. Of course, there are some natives which live earlier in the interior parts of Brunei. However it is

Brunei's Crocodiles

Do you remember the news story on BB about a couple of weeks back about someone finding a baby crocodile in one of the drains near the houses at Bengkurong? That baby crocodile most probably came from the nearby river. In fact that river is fairly well known for its crocodiles which the locals have sighted every so often. I read somewhere that these crocodiles if they live long enough probably

Istana Manggalela

If you live in KB, you would know that there is a guest palace there at the top end on the right of Jalan Maulana just after the roundabout heading towards Kuala Belait. The palace has tall white walls with a label that says Istana Manggalela. For those who do not know where that is, use my description to find it. But if you do find it, ask permission before taking photographs. Last December when

Ladies - Getting Married?

Today's posting is the traditional wedding dress for the Brunei bride. Most of the accessories are identical to the groom's accessories. The major difference is the headgear and accessories for the hair. I won't be describing what's identical but only the new items.For the hair, the bride has to wear the Tajok. This is placed on the head with the hair in a bun. The ornament has flowers arranged

Getting Married?

The wedding season is starting to peak - the number of wedding invitations are now mounting. Two of them will be my cousins who will be getting married this December and I have been asked to give the thank you announcement at one of them. Anyway a lot of male Malay Bruneians get married - wear their traditional ornaments but never got to know the names of what they wore. I thought we will spend a

More Origin of Place Names in Brunei

Practically all Bruneians know Jalan Gadong - it is still considered as the business and commercial centre in Brunei even though a number of other centres such as Kiulap, Telanai, Delima Satu have sprouted up to challenge it. Ever wonder where the name Gadong comes from? A number of people I asked said that because the place was green, hence gadong as that is the Brunei Malay word for green. Some

The Grave in the Middle of the City

I was speaking with my brother yesterday about a few historical research articles that he had to be added on to the library at aseantourguide.com. He gathered the articles when he was at Tourism Unit and one of the projects which he did was to gather all the information about historical sites in Bandar Seri Begawan. One of them was an article on the rather unknown but quite famous graveyard

Brunei Coins

Someone asked in the chatter box, what is that design on the Brunei 10 cent coin? Rather than answering that question in the chatter box, I thought I will spend a whole entry on Brunei coins. We all have coins and have been holding them either in our pockets, purses, the small drawer in the car etc. But we never really know much about them and we always take them for granted. Today I thought we

Postage Stamps of Brunei: Early History

Brunei surprisingly was the last among the Borneo states to have its own stamps. Sarawak had theirs in 1869, Labuan despite not being a state in 1879 and Sabah, then known as North Borneo in 1883. Brunei only had theirs in 1895 and even that was considered by stamp enthusiasts as unofficial. Prior to the 1895 issue, the postage stamps used in Brunei was a Sarawak one which was used in Muara, then

From laughter comes wisdom

My entry on the Brunei kuehs showed just how hopeless I am in certain subjects. But I enjoyed reading the comments correcting me and I hope at the same time other people read those comments too as the education does not stop just reading my entries alone. The comments are part of the education too as out of currently 700 readers a day, I am sure there are many experts on many subjects out

Pengembara: The Road Less Travelled

Sometime in April I wrote an entry about a book entitled 'Wanderer in Brunei Darussalam' written by Pengembara which is a pseudonym for CH Gallop. A number of people still remembers him as he was a very active man when he was a teacher in Brunei. For those who don't know him, he actually wrote numerous articles for Borneo Bulletin about Brunei when he was here and some of those articles were

You know you are Bruneian (Part 2)

You 'miss call' instead of calling or sending sms. You always say "kapih ku.. bila terima/keluar gaji/overtime/elaun ah?" You park your car as close as possible to your destination area. You speak Malaysia if you meet Malaysian, speak Indonesia if you meet Indonesian.. and so on. You are asked to go to a "meeting" but actually you will only be "listening". You go to someone's wedding, you give

Brunei Medicinal Plants

A few years back I had this pain when urinating and forcing the urine to flow out felt as if someone had kicked me in the groin. It was that painful. The concensus among relatives was it was either appendix but it couldn't be because I didn't have any other symptoms or it could be stones in the kidney and it's making its way down. Anyway, after a very long wait to get a referral to RIPAS for a

The Mystery of Brunei's $1 note with 2 serial numbers

Every once in a while, some BR readers out there would send me something. This I received from a reader who luckily enough reads the Miri Daily News which is in Chinese. She found this story and has very kindly translated the news article and emailed me the relevant page on Miri Daily which appeared in the 10th November 2006 edition.B$1 note with 2 different serial numbersSeria, Nov 9 – A

Sunday Ramblings on Brunei Kuehs

There are days when I get completely stumped as to what to write. Today is one of those days. Plus this morning I went to the golf course for the first time in about 4 months, so it was an extremely early morning and coupled with a very late night last night after coming back from my wife's nephew open house in Muara. Plus too yesterday was a mentally tiring day trying to find savings from

Brunei Darussalam in Colour

Our beloved country has its share of coffee table books. For those who don't what a coffee table book is - let me use an official definition by wiki - A coffee table book is a style of hardcover book designed to rest on a coffee table or similar surface in an area where guests sit and are entertained, thus inspiring conversation or alleviating boredom. They tend to be oversized and of heavy

100,000!

Sometime very late today or early tomorrow morning the counter on the number of visitors will reach the magic 100,000 mark. That means since 11th March 2006 (245 days ago), that all of you faithful and loyal readers out there have clicked on www.aseantourguide.blogspot.com for 100,000 times. This is excluding 14,000+ visitors on my predecessor blog on spaces.msn.I would just like to take this

Arachnid Bruneians

A zoologist named Joseph Koh nickanamed Mr Singapore Spiderman wrote in "A Guide to Common Singapore Spiders" about the Rolled-Leaf Comb-Footed Spider with the Latin name of Acaearanea mundulum that hides in a leaf retreat suspended in the centre of the web and that the leaf is collected by the spider and carried into the web. It is fastened with silk threads at one end to form a tubular hiding

After Birth in Brunei Society

My wife's niece gave birth to a baby girl yesterday afternoon. The baby makes us 9 time granduncle and grandaunty. I was first called nini uncle about 9 or 10 years back so by now I kinda get used to it already. Though for my sister-in-law and my biras, this makes them real grandpa and grandma rather than grandunc and grandaunt.As usual in Brunei, a visit to the hospital whenever someone is ill

Brunei's $15.9 Billion GDP Revisited

Sometime last week when I or rather my guest blogger posted an entry about the good and bad news of Brunei's B$15.9 billion GDP, someone emailed me a long question about the economy. I was quite intrigued by the question partly because there is an element of (economic) naive-ity, and there is also an element of politics in it. So I asked my guest blogger to look at the question and draft a short

Why 5 Times a Day?

Muslims in Brunei as do Muslims throughout the world pray five times a day - Subuh (Dawn Prayer), Zuhur (Noon Prayer), Asar (Afternoon Prayer), Maghrib (Sunset Prayer) and Isyak (Evening Prayer). Each prayer has different rakaats. If you are a Muslim, you would know that Nabi Muhammad SAW received the divine command for all Muslims to perform the five-time daily prayers during Israk Mikraj but

Brunei-China Historical Documents

I recently came across a book entitled "The Collection of Historical Documents Related to Bilateral Relations Between China and Brunei Darussalam" printed by the World Affairs Press, Beijing, China. The publication of the book was to mark the 15th anniversary of the establishment of modern diplomatic relations between China and Brunei. The 15th anniversary is the modern times - because if you

Brunei Citizenship

I was chatting with my gym instructor yesterday morning about his upcoming citizenship test. He showed me the course materials he is studying every evening with a tutor and I was quite taken aback by the amount of material that he has to cover. Admittedly most of them I know but then I have been living in Brunei for more than 4 decades and I live in the Malay community. Whereas my friend does not

Hari Raya Card from His Majesty

If you are searching for something interesting that I am supposed to be writing about Brunei today, I have to apologise. Today's my first day back to the gym at JPMC after about a two month layoff, so I had an early night last night and a very early morning this morning and hence did not have the luxury of time to think of something interesting to write this morning.What I do have are two Hari

Another History of Brunei: Our Neighbour's Perspective

I was trawling around Booker International during lunchtime on Monday. I really missed having a good bookshop in Brunei. I asked most of the bookshops why their selections are so poor, the answer was they don't get many buyers for even some of the books they bring in. Other than Solitude which has a very nice collection of Islamic and contemporary Arabic books and Best Eastern which has some good

Reality of Brunei Married Life?

It's been a while since I posted something humorous. Luckily someone gave me this and I think it's hillarious as a reflection of the reality of our our day to day married life here in Brunei. I believe the original must have been in English and someone somewhere modified it. So, my apologies to the real owner of this thing (email me and I will credit you) and my apologies whose lingua franca is

What did your grandad do during the World War?

Sometimes hidden treasures can be right in front of you and you don't know it. Each of us has a history of unique personal experiences that makes us who we are.Last Sunday, my wife and I visited her elderly uncle. It was our 15th Hari Raya visit there and other than fulfilling our duties, I guess we just went there to say hello, how are you and bye. We normally stay for about 15 minutes tops. My

Hari Raya Cards

I promised my sister I will talk about Hari Raya cards sometime before the end of Hari Raya. Even though theoretically speaking Hari Raya is the whole of Syawal but by next weekend, it will be practically over. So I thought this is as good a time as any to talk about it.We received two more Hari Raya cards from members of the Royal Family - this time from His Royal Highness the Crown Prince and

Brunei's $15.9 billion GDP: Good News and Bad News

The latest issue of Brunei Economic Bulletin (BEB, volume 4 issue 3 & 4, July 2006) issued by the Economic Planning and Development Department of the Prime Minister's Office, contains several interesting information about Brunei Darussalam’s economy. There are good news and bad news.Let me start with good news. The BEB wrote that the GDP statistics has been revised. Well, actually this is not new

Please forgive me

On the second day of Hari Raya, my family and I went to 15 houses of colleagues, relatives and friends. We started at about 8.30 in the morning and did not come back until about 9.30 in the evening. It was continuous visiting and we only stopped for prayers at my parents' and my mother-in-law's house. That number I was told, is average and I know of many other families which did a lot more visits

Hari Raya Tribute to the Royal Family

The Hari Raya visit to Istana Nurul Iman is probably the only one in the world where the monarch and members of the Royal Family actually stood to wait for the public to come and greet them which numbers almost 40,000 daily for three days running. Someone emailed me whether I can scan the current photo of the Royal Family which was handed to us as a gift during the first Hari Raya. I looked at

In the Name of Education by Z Junaidi

One of the first thing that intrigued me when I read the entry on Monday 23rd October 2006, was not the Hari Raya the blogger had spent all his life, but rather the loneliness he had to endure all the while. All - in the name of education. I had a rather similar upbringing. I ‘left’ my KB home before my 12th birthday to live and being educated in the so-called Science School. It was 1979. We were

Silaturrahim during Hari Raya

Sometimes we pay lip service towards one of the aims of visiting each other during Hari Raya which is to extend silaturrahim. We take that for granted as most of the time that is what we happened. We visit each other's houses and see the same family members, the same friends and so on. Nothing new in that. Very seldom do we get to see more than that. This Hari Raya, I thought the same thing will

First Day Raya at Istana Nurul Iman

I am not going to write much at all today. Yesterday morning was the first day for what RTB described as state dignitaries and diplomats to greet His Majesty and the Royal Family at the Palace. I am pretty sure that I am not in the category of a 'state dignitary', but I was there all the same. I thought I will upload some of the more interesting food scenes during that reception (I will try to

First Day of Hari Raya

SELAMAT HARI RAYA to all readers. I am not sure why you all are here this Pagi Raya browsing through blogs when you should be out visiting your parents, your elders, your relatives and your friends. So to discourage people from spending too much time reading blogs, I am just doing a very short entry today.When I posted this, it is still a couple of hours before I have to go to the mosque for the

Selamat Hari Raya to Everyone!

I know Hari Raya mood is definitely on as the number of readers to this blogsite has dropped dramatically over the last couple of days. Last Saturday, the number was 449 and yesterday it was 455. The last time it was this low, I have to go back to August. Anyway, blog reading is probably pretty way down everybody's list during Hari Raya. And blogging is also way down my list judging by the

Last Minute before Hari Raya

After the beautiful posting yesterday following the expert posting by our guest bloggers over the last few days, today's posting unfortunately will not be as beautifully worded. For those who wants to continue to subject raised by Abu Iman, Abu Iman and I have talked about it and we will be opening up another blogsite which will be catering to the needs of the ummah especially Bruneians very soon

One World, One Ummah by Abu Iman

2 days to Eid - subject to the sighting of the moon this Sunday.If it isn't sighted, we continue an extra day of fasting and abstaining ourselves from our nafs. If sighted, we will celebrate Monday as the 1st day of Syawal, the month of Victory for Muslims all over the world.Ramadhan will be over soon. I am sad to see it go for I know not if I will ever see it again. I pray Allah accepts my

The Month of Spending? By Kamal Muhammad

What is the first thing that come to our mind when it comes to Hari Raya?Is it the sound and sight of firecrackers?Or is it the green package that the youngsters get from the elders?Or is it the cakes and the new attires which we bought especially for Raya?Or is it the opportune time when we can check out and make our move to the person whom we have admired for so long? (This is also a hint for

Melayu - Origin of the Word

In the comment chatter box, I noticed that there have been a number of remarks about MIB and the citizenship, and even the relevancy of MIB in the context of the religion. If you are expecting today's topic to be about MIB, let me apologise in advance. I am not an expert to speak about the topic but I can point you to a couple of seminar papers available on the aseantourguide.com website that

A La Carte or Buffet for Sungkai? By Kamal Muhammad

Hunger, tiredness, thirstiness, all add up to one thing - a desire to end one’s salvation. I do believe breaking fast times are the most look forward to times during the Ramadhan month (apart from the Lailatul Qadar of course). It is the time when we all regain our energy and end the physical and spiritual restraint exercise.But one may wonder whether it matters how we break our fast. Do we

T'kidum

How many people in Brunei have seen this? When I first saw it on the magazine shelf at Pustaka Remaja two Sundays ago, I thought, wow! A Brunei own comic book. That's a first. It was reasonably priced at about $4.90 but I thought compared to other comics from Malaysia and especially from UK or USA, $4.90 is nothing, besides talent has to be paid for and when it's Brunei own talent, we have to

The Brunei Escargot and Other Discoveries

A lot of Bruneian Muslims on this second last Sunday of this Ramadhan took the time to visit the graves of their loved ones. There is of course next Friday and Sunday when the cars will overflow whatever limited spaces there are available at the carparks next to the cemetery. It happened to us last year when we visited our grandparents' graves in Kuala Belait. I remembered saying why was it that

A Historic Moment to Remember

About three Fridays ago, Pehin Goh launched a pictorial book entitled 'A Historic Moment to Remember’ a book that was commemorating the Chinese New Year celebrations at the ICC which was attended by His Majesty and members of the royal family earlier this year. I read in BB that I can get hold of the book for free and finally managed to get hold of it yesterday. When I looked through the

Rimba Horticulture Centre

I was out in Rimba yesterday at the Horticulture Centre. Previously I used to go there every couple of months searching for plants and flowers to add to the collection at home. Sometimes it's just simply to buy earth, fertilizers and flower pots. Over the last year, I have been too busy to do that and I noticed lately that my plants growth seemed somewhat stunted and before being accused of plant

The Fiscal and Monetary Review (Again?)

I have been neglecting my main library at aseantourguide.com to the point that visitors on a daily average there has dropped lower than at this blogsite which is a first (553 for the aseantourguide.com versus 629). The aseantourguide.com as the main library used to average around 1,000+ daily. The last time I updated anything was the royal wedding pictures and helping to host the Brunei

Sports Tourism in Brunei

I was at a meeting yesterday discussing the next Hassanal Bolkiah Asean Youth Football Tournament (HBT) to be held sometime next year. This tournament was initiated as part of His Majesty's efforts to bring the youths of ASEAN countries together through football and is the only one in the region to do so. It was meant to be a biennial affair and kicked off in August 2002. However the second HBT

How prepared are we?

Yesterday morning was spent at my wife's cousin's house attending her daughter's funeral. She passed away the night before due to lungs failure. She was not even 40 yet and she left three young daughers, the youngest barely 7 years old and the eldest in Primary 5. Her husband told me the lungs failure occurred because of complication in her diabetes.I keep on seeing the television health adverts

Old Age Pensions in Brunei

Last night's announcement during the Nuzul Al-Quran celebration by His Majesty of a 25% increase in old age and handicapped pensions marked the 8th time this pension has been increased since it was first introduced in 1955 by our 28th Sultan. When it was first announced in 1955, it was the first time that the government has enacted a government funded modern welfare system. Though last night's

'Nuzul Al-Quran'

Tomorrow is a public holiday for everyone of us here in Brunei regardless of race and religion, and in other Islam countries in the world a well. We will be celebrating Nuzul Al-Quran. There are some among us including those who will be going to the ICC later this evening who do not know what Nuzul Al-Quran is all about with some of our younger readers even asking 'apakan nuzul ani sebenarnya?'

Helping the Brunei Needy

A couple of years ago I was staying at my uncle's place in Batu Pahat, a town in Johor for my cousin's wedding. The one thing I discovered at his house was the amount of name cards and flyers at the bottom of his mail slot. When I looked at them, they were all about providing loans. These are not the normal bank loans. These are the illegal loans from loansharks. According to my uncle, he cleaned

The Much Improved RIPAS A&E

My mother had an unfortunate fall down a couple of steps the other night. It was a bad fall and her head bled profusely and that she also had bumps on her face. We rushed her to the Accident & Emergency at RIPAS. At first I was thinking whether we really should go to RIPAS as my previous experience with the A&E Unit is that you might be better off anywhere else but there.My last experience was

Hari Raya is Coming....

I received an invitation from my bank asking me whether I want to skip October's loan repayment. I wasn't sure what the promotion was, maybe Hari Raya. Though they get to charge a bit more interest for extending the loan for an extra month and probably some other administrative charges as well. They did indicate some form of charges will be required but they did not say what the rates are going

Brunei's National Library

I received an email from a Bruneian studying at Robert Gordon University yesterday asking me to write something about the library. In fact, this is not the first time I have received requests about writing about the library system in Brunei either through the email or through the comment box. My problem is that the last library I went into was during the four months executive program stint at the

Why do Brunei drivers slow down at accidents?

When you are driving to work and you noticed that the traffic slowing down, much much slower than usual, you automatically assumed a few things. One is that there is a police road block up ahead or or there is some major roadworks up ahead or there is an accident up ahead. If it's the police or roadworks, usually you would start to do a little curse something along the line, couldn't they they

Brunei Radio Stations vs London Capital FM

A couple of months back, one of my friends messaged me and asked me to write about the radio stations in Brunei especially after Kristal Radio pulled off the London Capital FM and Capital Gold stations off the air. I told him I am not so sure whether I can do that as I don't listen that much to the radio since they pulled off those two radio stations either and since I no longer drive my car to

Misconceptions about Brunei

I found this interview conducted by Devin Galaudet in the In The Know Traveller website. I thought I will retrieve it and let you all read how the Brunei tourism is sold outside Brunei and maybe invite a few comments from readers, if you were to be asked to be the Brunei spokesmen as to what you would actually say:-I must admit I had more than a few misconceptions about Brunei Darussalam before

Brunei History Books

On this Sunday, I thought I will talk about history books of Brunei. Someone mentioned the Hussainmiya book on my post on the History Centre's publication Jurnal Darussalam.Hussainmiya wrote three books so far, one is a semi-autobiography of our 28th Sultan, Sultan Haji Omarali Saifuddin published in 1995 entitled "Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddin III and Britain: The Making of Brunei Darussalam", the

Currency Gallery What? by Zaki Mohidin

Ever wonder how a B$10,000 looks like in real life? Or where our polymer notes come from? Or even what your parents/grandparents are talking about when they’re going on about Duit Pisang masa zaman Jepun?Then head down to the Currency Gallery at Brunei Currency & Monetary Board, Ministry of Finance where you can find an interesting exhibition on the history and development of Brunei currency from

Jurnal Darussalam

My good friend, the Deputy at the History Centre kindly gave me the Centre's latest publication yesterday, Jurnal Darussalam. The journal is published once or twice a year filled with articles written by historians or other writers writing about history related to Brunei. There are only two publications which I refer to whenever I write about the history of Brunei, this one and the Brunei Museum

As the Future Catches Brunei

When I first joined the agency, my PS showed me his favourite book entitled 'As the Future Catches You' written by Juan Enriquez, a Harvard Professor. It's a very interesting book, the typefonts different on every page and every few sentences and every few words, sometimes certain pages only have a few words but most importantly emphasising the important materials and points that are discussed

Fasting Month Charity Blues

I was still seething about espeed yesterday morning at the office when my secretary's assistant intercom me saying that there was someone who wanted to speak to me. She said that it's a Pengiran and he sounded as if he knows me very well. Well, one third of Bruneians are Pengirans so that's no help whatsover. Anyway, I asked her to put him through and there was this guy pretending as if he knew

espeed, faster connectivity, affordable pricing???

For those who were searching for an early posting this morning, my apologies. Or rather I shouldn't even be apologisig for someone else's problems which is espeed2 provided by our newly corporatised Syarikat Telekom Brunei Berhad or TELBRU as it wants to be popularly known. I lost the connection sometime at about 4.30 this morning when I came back after sahur trying to connect to blogger to

The Crescent Moon - the Islamic symbol?

You know, it's interesting how one symbol or icon is sufficient to represent one particular group. The Christians have the cross, the Jews have the Star of David and the Muslims have .... did you say the crescent moon and the star?It is surprising that the crescent moon and the star have become the Muslims' symbol. I remembered being taught when I was young and even now to stay away from the use

Moon Sighters versus Scientists

Nobody sighted the new moon last Friday and that's why for Brunei, the fasting starts today. Though not being able to sight the moon was known way in advance and many people already commented that we won't be able to see it. Some people ask why bother? Some countries have done without it and relying completely on what they called hisab (calculations). Some have gone halfway, using hisab but still

Surprises at the MIB Forum

The MIB forum organised by the titled persons of Brunei for His Majesty a couple of nights ago was interesting in many ways. I know many of you who were not at the UBD Chancellor's Hall think that you have already seen one MIB Conference, this one would be just like that. Surprisingly, no. There were a few things that I found very interesting despite the forum ending at about 12.10 am.The first

Happy Teacher's Day

It was Teacher's Day yesterday, a good day for some teachers, at least a holiday for all the others. My 6 year old loves the holidays. He wished everyday was a Teacher's Day. Actually it is not yet Teacher's Day, Teacher's Day is tomorrow but because later tonight we will be sighting the moon and tomorrow maybe the start of the fasting month, hence teacher's day celebrations held yesterday. But

Situation of Rice and Sugar Supply in Brunei

The 19th coup in Thailand's modern history does not seem to affect the financial market very much. I think the Baht went down by about 1%. Most of the finance people I talked to said that ever since the uncertainty of the current government, all the risk factors have already been factored in, so when the coup did come, it was more or less expected. So, why am I talking about Thailand's economy if

Cars at Kampung Ayer

I really pitied the guy who accidentally reversed his car into the river from the parking lot in front of the Bubungan Dua Belas at Jalan Residency. Luckily he managed to escape from the car and was able to swim to safety. It still took the fire and rescue people a few minutes to find the car even though they had complete diving gear. Imagine if he had been in it, those few minutes would be the

Brunei Textile Stores as Tourist Destinations

Yesterday I was invited to open and attend an Islamic finance conference organised by a Malaysian bank. During the break, I had the chance to speak to a few of the bank's executives who flew in from KL the afternoon before and had to fly out again by the afternoon of the conference. So in the short few hours that they had, the ladies executives went out shopping. I have always been proud to point

The Pope and the USA

I don't normally like to write about religion and politics. Both subjects are difficult to handle and I am not an expert in either one of them. However both do come to prominence every now and then and the last few days, the Pope and Islam has been the focus on every newspaper in the world.Pope Benedict XVI caused so much anguish in the Muslim world and at first refused to apologise after his

Can we have Food Security in Brunei?

Recently, I got engaged in a little, yet very interesting, discussion with Mr. BR about the notion of “food security” in the context of Brunei Darussalam. Interesting because of two reasons. First, food is abundant in Brunei. All you want to eat is available in this country. But Brunei imports most of its food. (Well, I guess most of us know it already). Second, food security is far from being a

Islamic Banking in Brunei

I was sitting next to someone from HSBC Amanah Bank last night during dinner. HSBC Amanah is the Islamic Bank of HSBC operating in the middle east. They have been very influential in being at the forefront of Islamic banking there which surprised me completely when I first heard it. According to this person who is currently based in Riyadh, the banking system in Saudi Arabia up to about five

Brunei Man's Best Friend?

A couple of weeks ago, there was this long debate in the media about what to do about stray dogs in this country sparked by dogs attacking a little boy incident. The debate spilled over to the comment box on this blogsite. I refrained from writing as both LSM and Maurina already did beautiful pieces about it and Unharm6187 wrote a few paragraphs worth about it in the comment box (I am surprised

Brunei's Perfect Disaster

It finally happened. I remembered writing about it way back in May about the future of Brunei water and electricity. Water and electricity supplies can fail and water supplies did fail big time last week.So, on Monday, my first day back at work, I happened to be chairing a meeting where both the head honchos of public works and electrical departments were also presentand naturally I asked about

More Origin of English Words

Continuing my series on the origin of English words for us Bruneians. Sometimes you can't imagine how certain English words came about for us to use here in Brunei. Before you think how clever I am writing today's post, I have to admit that I got this article from one of those circulating emails. So, thanks to whoever it is that wrote this. So, the next time you are washing your hands and

Post 9/11

PS. Yesterday was 9/11 and much as I wanted to write about it, I thought of all the atrocities committed in the name of fighting the war against terror since then, I decided against it. I even refused to post about it on 9/11 but preferring today 9/12 as a small but token gesture against the current military incursions as even in the fight against terrorism, the end does not justify the means.

Spoon-fed Bruneians?

In my post sometime last month entitled "Turning Brunei into a Nation of New Ideas", there were a number of very good opinions. But I thought I will just turn to three which unfortunately were all written by anonymous commentators, so I can't credit whoever it is that wrote in the comment box. But if you recognised that among these are your comments and you would like to be properly credited,

Please excuse my son from school

Yesterday for some reason (you know how it is, a fragment of your memory suddenly came), I remembered the time when I was staying at the Brunei Students Hostel in Singapore. The Hostel catered to Brunei scholarship students which stayed there studying in various Singapore schools from about 1955 to about 1983 if I am not mistaken. About 10 best Brunei male PCE students and the Arabic students

What matters most

There may be days when you get up in the morningand things aren't the way you had hoped they would be,....that's when you have to tell yourself that things will get better.There are times when people disappoint you and let you down,but those are the times when you must remind yourselfto trust your own judgments and opinions,to keep your life focused on believing in yourselfand all that you are

Why I want a Wife

While researching for one of my posts, I came across this article written by a Judy Brady who was a free-lance author during the 1960s and wrote many articles on women's movement. This piece entitled 'why I want a wife' was written by her in 1971 and became a classic of feminist satire. It's a very interesting read and this is America in the 1970s. I don't know about you but in some sense it is

Learning from Vietnam

One of the downside to blogging about Brunei when you are overseas is that you can't do it. I tried but I don't have any reference materials with me and it is not exactly cheap calling someone to confirm on certain things. Yes, there is an amount of work involved in writing a post and all these have to be ready before I write it. So, I thought I will spend a little bit of time talking about Hanoi

The Ubiquitous Press Statement of International Meetings

Greetings from Hanoi. Today's post is not about Brunei per se but just a little information guide to those who are curious as to what ministers and officials actually discussed when they go overseas attending international meetings. Attending international meetings sounded so glamorous but in reality, it is anything but. Though if you speak to my colleagues in the foreign service, they find the

18th UBD Convocation

Congratulations to all who received their degree, diploma and other certificates yesterday from His Majesty and His Royal Highness the Crown Prince. This year's crowd of 1,072 students is slightly smaller than last year's 1,103. This is UBD's 18th Convocation since it held its first convocation way back in 1989.UBD has indeed gone a long way since His Majesty first announced the establishment of

Brunei-Vietnam Relationship

Hanoi International Airport is very different compared to the one that I used before. It now has aerobridges. The last time, we had to walk down the stairs and across the tarmac. The airport building is far more modern now. This is my fourth visit to Vietnam and the third to Hanoi. The first time was sometime in 1998 when my father was the Ambassador here, the second was an official ASEAN meeting

Raison D'etre

I was asked yesterday shouldn't I be concentrating on more important things than blogging and the commentator noted that nowadays since many people carry laptops and he raised the the possibility that I was blogging during office hours when I should be working? Questions like these are defining moments. To me, it does raise a very fundamental issue as to whether I should continue this blogsite.

The Brunei International Airport

If you notice, there was this rather long comment on this site's comment box:"... i agre (sic) about the airport - something needs to be done. The area where friends and family are cut off from passengers (the check in area) is ridiculously short. Nowhere in the world have i ever been to an airport with such a silly rule; non-passengers can NOT enter the checking in area BUT they CAN check in

Paradox of Our Times

Today we have bigger houses and smaller families;More conveniences, but less time;We have more degrees, but less common sense;More knowledge, but less judgment;We have more experts, but more problems;More medicine, but less wellness.We spend too recklessly, laugh too little,drive too fast, get angry too quickly,Stay up to late, get up too tired;Read too little, watch TV too often;and Pray too

The Islamic Swimsuit

Hei, what do you know? An Islamic swimsuit. This is designed by a Turkish and was described by Western media as a throwback to the type of swimwear before the advent of the one piece of swimwear where a swimmer was actually arrested in 1907 for showing her arms, legs and neck. This Islamic swimsuit looks more like body hugging very colourful tracksuits. More than 40,000 swimsuits were sold last

More Questions Confusing Mankind

How come wrong numbers are never busy?Do people in Australia call the rest of the world "up over"?Does that screwdriver belong to Phillip?Can a stupid person be a smart-ass?Does killing time damage eternity?Why doesn't Tarzan have a beard?Why is it called lipstick if you can still move your lips?Why is it that night falls but day breaks?Why is the third hand on the watch called a second hand?Why

Scrabble in Brunei

One of the board games that we play at home is Scrabble. My six year old loved it, though he is more interested in keeping scores (we let him as it helps with his additions) and we play his tiles for him. To keep him happy keeping scores we let him win most of the time. According to my dad, he and my mom used to play it almost every evening when we were tiny little kids. In those days, remember,

English is a stupid language?

I was looking at the entry to HND requirements and it stated that you must have 1 A Level in an English related subject and 4 O Levels. I don't know about you but I have met a number of people whose A level is in a non-English or non-related subject thereby closing to them the opportunity to study either a ITB or even at the local private institutions in Brunei. Twenty years ago, these people

Are Brunei drivers incourteous?

I wrote yesterday's piece about a hypothetical Brunei driver who did not want to stop at junctions because he is convinced that statistically more accidents happen at junctions and the less time he spends there, the less likely that he will have an accident. Of course by zooming straight without waiting for the lights will likely cause him to have an accident. I didn't realise that most

Why Brunei Can't....

Someone said to me that this blogsite is getting too serious and that he can't smile anymore when he is reading the articles. I have to agree. I think the topics lately have been a little too heavy for some. But today, I thought we will have some light hearted moments laughing at ourselves. If you don't understand no.3, just stick to no.1 and no.2.1. Why Bruneians can't stop at junctions.There

Our New Solar System

I wrote the following piece and posted it on February 10th on my predecessor blogsite, spaces.msn.com (now renamed spaces.live.com) about the hooha about what constitutes a planet and at the bottom of the piece today, I included the updates from the recently concluded IAU (International Astronomical Union) meeting in Prague held last Thursday about our 'new' solar system:-Are we about to lose a

Single parent or triple parent?

I stood in for my PS yesterday as he couldn't make it to be the guest of honour at one mosque's forum on a better family life (keluarga bahagia dan diberkati). The forum itself is run of the mill with the panelists advising the audience that couples should as usual be nice to each other, respect each other etc kind of thing. But during the Q&A sessions, out of the many, two questions stood

The Muslim Calendar

For an Islamic country, surprisingly most Bruneians will have difficulty if we are asked what is the Islamic date today. I am proud to say that I can tell you what it is but then I have to confess, I check the calendar every morning so that I can put the correct dates on all the letters and memos that come my way for signature. A couple of months back I wrote two pieces on the origin of days'

Kampung Cowboy by Haryati

Rain, rain go away Come back another again,Little bebe wants to playRewind twenty years ago, when the air was less polluted & all the cars were labut by today’s standards, you might catch me singing this tune when I was stuck indoors. I was an active child running around outside my house without a care in the world except takut nampak spended! My siblings, cousins and me would play outside

What images do we want to potray?

These comments were found on virtualtourist.com about Brunei. What a big difference in 3 years:In August 2002 - Xinta wrote: Brunei's multi-million dollar playland complex with its free rides, sights and sounds. Early birds are attracted to the free rides, bathed in light and colour, which offer seats from 2 p.m. to 2 a.m. daily. Popular with the elders is the ageless carousel. They mix with the

Mushaf Nurul Iman - the Giant Brunei Quran

During the Thanksgiving Ceremony for His Majesty's Birthday last Thursday, His Majesty was presented with an extremely huge Quran weighing 225 kilograms (about 495 pounds for the metric-challenged readers). It took 6 men to carry the Quran into the Plenary Hall where the function was held and another 3 to put the Quran into the huge rihal (for keeping the Quran in place while reading it). I

Making Brunei Competitive

An anonymous post on my entry Turning Brunei into a Nation of New Ideas noted that "... The Straits Times today (Sat 19 Aug) reported on the recent IPS-NTU report ranking economies on competitiveness. Out of 15 Asian economies, Brunei is in 14th place..."Competitiveness is a word much bandied about in Brunei nowadays. That anonymous entry certainly thinks that competitiveness is something we

The Stone Age in Brunei

How long has Brunei been populated? By all reckonings Brunei's history goes as far back in time as we know it - even being mentioned in Chinese annals as far back as the 6th century. It wasn't until the 14th century when Awang Alak Betatar married a Johor Princess and became Sultan Muhammad Shah was our current sultanage lineage started and hence began the modern history of Brunei. We haven't

Turning Brunei into a Nation of New Ideas

"How can we turn Brunei into a nation of new ideas?" Dr. Saad Al-Harran, a UBD lecturer asked yesterday in the Borneo Bulletin and he continued "... As a newcomer to Brunei, I have observed that there are too many restaurants and catering services in practically every corner of the capital. Undoubtedly, restaurants provide us with delicious food to eat and enjoy, while at the same time it enables

The History of Brunei Oil

Last Sunday, I was pleasantly surprised to find this book on display at Solitude at the Mall. I remembered this book vaguely some 30 years ago when my father bought it from the publisher, Brunei Museums. I could not find the book at my parents' house anymore, someone either pinched it or we could not find it among the many things being stored at my parents' house. Sometime last week, I saw it

$42,900 GDP per capita - are Bruneians now richer?

The Economic Planning and Development Department (JPKE) finally announced last Monday the much awaited ‘new’ GDP for Brunei. The last issue of the Brunei Economic Bulletin published by JPKE was for the 2nd quarter of 2005 which was released in December last year (all the Bulletins are available on aseantourguide website. I was told then that's why the 3rd and 4th quarters as well as the 2006

The Gender Wars in Brunei (Revisited)

One Aaron Johns just recently commented on the The Gender Wars in Brunei entry which I posted a couple of weeks back. I thought his comment was very eloquent and gives a different perspective to the overall argument about the gender differences between men and women. Rather than leaving it in the comments box, I thought I will take it out and post it out here so that everyone can read this. Aaron

What is there in Tutong?

Just under 50 years ago, there was no connecting road between Tutong and Seria. Seria in the early 1950s was just over 20 years old, it was a completely made up town and existed only to serve the fledgling oil industry which was found in 1929. Brunei in the early 1950s was also struggling to recover soon after the Japanese invasion and was just taking over its administration from the Australian

I give up this Sunday

You can't take bottled water, you can't take your phone, you can't take your medications, sheesh... why the heck not. Ban everything. Not even your clothing. Think of how much savings airports will make. No more security guards and no more worries about anyone planting anything on any airplanes. The Ultimate Airline Security.I give up. The world has gotten far too crazy for me. I can't get off it

What's the weather like in Brunei?

Brunei's weather forecast for yesterday was occasional crossing of squally showers persist further offshore this morning and may spread to coastal and inland areas in early afternoon. Nevertheless, fair intervals and slightly hazy can be expected in between. For outlook to early Saturday morning, expected to remain unsettled with crossing of squally showers. The wind will be Southwesterly 10-30

The Golden Jubilee of Teacher Training in Brunei

Together with about a thousand guests at the Chancellor's Hall at UBD, we watched His Majesty signed the plaque to commemorate 50 years of teacher training in Brunei. The noble institution which started as Brunei Teacher Training Centre and today, as the Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah Institute of Education has trained so many of our teachers and with them the future of Brunei Darussalam. I have said

What happened to the Brunei Shipwreck?

If you remember, one of the most interesting discovery in recent times in Brunei was the Chinese junk wreck which sank some 40 kilometers off the shores of Brunei. This 1997 discovery of what is now known as the Brunei Shipwreck is probably one of the most important in Brunei's archaeological history. Some 13,000 artefacts recovered originated from Thailand, Vietnam and China showed just how

Brunei Darussalam Annual Report 2004

Since the early 1900s, the Brunei Government produced the Brunei Darussalam Annual Report. The report highlights the achievements of the country as well as the various happenings in Brunei during that one year. It functions as a diary of sorts as well as to provide statistics of that year. I did an entry once for the 1961-62 report when it outlined the developments before and after the

Telaga Raden Bisa - the well that heals

Continuing on my series on the interesting aspects of the places in Brunei - today I will focus on Kampung Tanjung Nangka. And for those who are Brunei-geography challenged, Kampung Tanjung Nangka is just a couple of miles further up from the Jalan Tutong junction to Jerudong which makes it around 19 kilometers from Bandar.As usual, the kampungs in Brunei either have a few names for it in the

The 15th Anniversary of the World Wide Web

Today, I will not talk about Brunei but rather I would like to post this very short piece to celebrate something which enabled all of you to be here to read this article. Something for you all to ponder.You see, yesterday, the 6th of August was the 15th Anniversary of the world wide web - the ubiquitous www.something.com finally became a part of our lives. On this day 15 years ago on 6th August

The Future of Brunei

An anonymous comment on my post yesterday on The Brunei Housemaids went like this:"... As a senior government officer, Do you think, if ever in the future, that the situation will be the other way around? i.e. bruneian going abroad to work as labours and maids ..."I will not anwer that directly but I will delve slightly further into two other comments which were posted on my post on Thankful to

The Brunei Housemaids

I am still at home. I should be in the office but I am bent almost in half everytime I try to stand up. I must have a trillion invaders in my tummy giving me the mother of all tummy aches since 3 this morning. But I am unbowed and will attempt to write today's blogs. How's that for sacrifice to fulfilling a daily blog? I must be off my head...Through the miracles of modern technology namely the

Brunei Underwater World

My sister in into scuba diving. She is taking lessons and I remembered when I last stayed at the Empire, the company running the scuba diving lessons gave free vouchers. I think we threw our vouchers away but I did see a number of other people who took advantage of it. Anyway, I started wondering what is it in Brunei Waters that's available for people to see. Boy, was I in for a

srmat bureni poelpe

Olny srmat poelpe can raed tihs. cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg.The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae.The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a

The Gender Wars in Brunei

In one of the official dinners with a mission from IDB of Jeddah helping to develop the human capacity on the financial services sector, we talked about the gender differences in Brunei.The mission was surprised to find that despite the Brunei population which has a slightly more male population and even from birth rates, slightly more male births - the male numerical dominance is not seen in the

Fishing in Brunei Waters

Looking for a new sports or hobby? Fishing may be your cup of tea. It's fast becoming a popular sport in Brunei. Every time I pass Kampong Ayer, along Jalan Kota Batu, I see some people fishing there. On my family outings to the Serasa Beach, I spotted more anglers, sitting and waiting patiently. At my workplace alone, I know four guys who are into fishing. They are the ones who have influenced

Food on a Brunei Sunday

Yesterday and Friday was the first time in about 5 months that I was not on a golf course or in the gym. This is due to my bad knee and I have been undergoing physiotherapy sessions twice a week for the last 2 weeks. My physiotherapist at JPMC described the knee problem as shock absorber rosak. I vehemently blame it on my bad golf swings because if I don't blame it on that, most people will

Brunei International Tattoo 2006

I was among the 10,000 crowd watching the first performance of the Brunei Darussalam International Tattoo 2006. Last night was an all invitation only and it was a record attendance. For the record, it is worthwhile watching though 3 1/2 hours was a tad too long and very discomforting. My wife and I were seated about 2 rows behind the royals, so we had to sit and bear the 4 hours that we sat in

The Mysterious Kampung Pancur Murai

I have written in the past about the origin of place names in Brunei Darussalam. Some place names are pretty straightforward and you can guess how the name originates. Though in my research, one place name takes the cake and win hands down the prize for the most interesting way how the place is named. The kampung is called Pancur Murai and if you have not come across it, it's located about 22

You know you are Bruneian

1. People ask where you're from and the easiest explanation is saying that it's next to Singapore.2. People are still clueless about where Brunei is and then you mention how the Sultan of Brunei was once the richest man in the world and everyone instantly remembers.3. You either hang out in Coffee Zone or Coffee Bean or have children that do.4. Your closet is full of designer gear but all you

100 Years of the Brunei National Flag

I was intrigued by someone who wrote on the cbox asking who was the creator of the Brunei's flag. After going through my resources, I found the story behind the creation of the flag of historical significance to be shared with you all. So here goes.On 3rd December 1905, Sultan Hashim Jalilul Alam Aqamaddin signed a Supplementary Agreement with the British which was significant for the

Brunei Schools' Houses by Hajah Yati

Each year, schools across Brunei organise annual sports meet among their students. The students and teachers are divided into four houses. These houses are assigned a colour and a name. The colours are usually red, blue, yellow and orange. So I guess that makes Jerudong Arabic School and MD (Maktab Duli Al-Muhtadee Billah) unusual, as they have colours other than the usual four. Whats really

Brunei's Protected Buildings and Places

Under the Antiquities and Treasure Trove Act, the Director of Museums can issue an Antiquities and Treasure Trove (Ancient Monuments and Historical Sites) Order to direct for certain buildings to be listed and these buildings will require special permission if ever you need to do something to them.I don't remember if there was any Order made prior to the 3rd May 2006 Order. So under the recent

What I discovered on Sunday

I am seriously tired. I haven't had my rest and I have been struggling to write my blogs over the last few days. I sometimes wished I could be like this kid in the photo. Just lie face down without a thought in the world.My apologies - the recent topics have been very contrived and not very flowing - I know, and yes, I am going through another bout of bloggers block. By the way, thank you to all

The SPA Interview

One of the scariest thing that young Bruneians face is the interview at the Public Service Commission or in Brunei speak known as Suruhanjaya Perkhidmatan Awam or better known as SPA. Get through the SPA interview, fortunes in the civil service awaits you. Or at least that is what's on the mind of everyone who applies for a job in the government service.It's been quite sometime since I last

Thankful to be in Brunei Darussalam

Someone asked me what the government actually subsidises in Brunei. Whoa. Major question that. Apparently this is as a result of two items in His Majesty's speech during the birthday when His Majesty noted the $176 million worth of fuel and gas subsidy and the continuation of government's welfare scheme especially in the areas of medical and health care.The major subsidies include (in order of my

Some thoughts for the young Bruneians

July is that time of the year. Some of you have to make decisions on what it is that you want to do for your future life. Some are thinking about going to UK and Ozie being the two most common destinations. Some perhaps a little bit further such as the US, Canada or New Zealand. Some nearer such as Malaysia and Singapore and some just across the borders. For some, it is finishing time - to go

Monopoly Brunei Version

Over the last couple of weeks, my family's evening activity had been to play Monopoly. The month before it was Scrabble. The Monopoly set we have is a Disney version which my 6 year old chose simply because he liked the characters. The Monopoly is the same but there are slight variations. Instead of land title deeds, you get title deeds to Disney movies. For railway stations, they are replaced by

Dirgahayu Kebawah Duli Tuan Patik

I was watching the news on RTB last night, partly because where my wife and I sat during the banquet for uniformed personnel the night before, we were smack in the direction of the camera and there was no way the camera could have missed us so I just wanted to see what I looked like on tv (not very pretty, I tell you) but partly because what I really wanted to watch was the segment where RTB news

The Celebration Continues

By late morning yesterday, some are already wondering when is it that they will be getting the wonderful gift from our benevolent Sultan. All I can tell you is that Treasury Department is working flat out to ensure that every single increments will be in your pay packet by the August salary. However this also requires inputs from all the ministries and departments and because it is a computerised

The Birthday Gift from His Majesty

The gift by His Majesty during His Majesty's 60th Birthday Celebration is one of the most memorable and most expensive in recent history. The revised salaries that everyone currently in the civil service will get in August will raise the salaries that everyone who is in service during the announcement, in division 5 cases, equivalent to working 9 years or for officers in division 2, equivalent to

Brunei Honours 2006

The Honours Award Ceremony by His Majesty during his 60th birthday was a solemn affair. By my calculation, this is the largest number of Datoship being awarded and I don't remember any previous group larger than this. The last one when more than 20 datoships were awarded was way back in 1987 when my father was one of the 22 DPMB recipients.All the Cabinet Ministers datoships have now been

Brunei Code Breakers

Da Vinci Code Breakers. Break this code - div 1: 0; div 2: 2; div 3: 3; div 4: 6; div 5: 9.

The Palace Birthday Banquet

His Majesty's 60th Birthday Celebrations started off with the usual parade at the Padang in the Capital. But his titah caught many people by surprise when he announced the accelerated increments for the current civil service, so come Monday when the circular officially comes out, everybody will know just how much they are getting, so I can't say anything until then. I will try to put up the

Happy 60th Birthday Your Majesty!

His Majesty Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Mu'izzaddin Waddaulah, the Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam, is the 29th of his line, which dates back to the fourteenth century.Being the eldest son, he became Crown Prince in 1961 and ascended the Throne on 5th October 1967 following the voluntary abdication of his father, Al-Marhum Sultan Haji Omar Ali Saifuddien Sa'adul Khairi

Brunei Honours

Tomorrow is His Majesty's 60th Birthday Celebrations. As usual, there will be a few happy people who will be getting their honours and for some of them will automatically get a title that goes with that honour. I would like to describe how it feels to be receiving an honour from His Majesty but the way things are going, I don't think I will ever know. I have only received one tiny medal which

Malay Moerphemes

I received this spam e-mail from a company advertising "Biogenous silica for Hot Metal Insulation in Ladle" and the e-mail reads "...we manufacture biogenous silica in pellets and powder form. This silica is used in steel mills for insulation of hot metal in ladle, tundish and slab caster. Please feel free to drop us a line for your requirements..." I have seen so many spam emails but this one

Pregnancy Blues in Brunei

I was one of the invited guests during the Majlis Bersiram Ceremony at Istana Nurul Iman for HRH Pengiran Isteri Azrinaz for giving birth to HRH Pengiran Muda Abdul Wakeel (click on the links for photos). It was quite painful to go through the ceremony because we had to sit for about two hours on the floor cross legged and not move about. One can only fidget and do nothing else, but those two

The 'New' Jalan Sultan

Continuing on my series of 'there are lots of things to do on a weekend in Brunei' - last Sunday afternoon, my family and I took a walk down the 'new' Jalan Sultan in Bandar Seri Begawan. For those of you who have been 'frogs under the coconut shell' (katak bawah tempurong) and have been out of touch with what's happening in Bandar Seri Begawan - the municipal authorities have finally renovated

Antah and Geleng

My previous blog on Family Titles in Brunei brought a lot of comments from readers on how family titles are used in their own families throughout Brunei. The official titles of the series of seven for uncles and aunties (tua, anjang, tangah, iring, uda, amit and bungsu) are used differently throughout the different families thus endearing and personalising the titles even more. It's so much

Brand Name Synonym Usage in Brunei

When I was little, I love to be around my Mum. And I still do, whenever I get the chance. When at home, the best bet is she’ll be in the kitchen. Back then, when my sister and I, and our own family, were still living with our parents, my mum’s kitchen was more of a family room. It was the centre of the house. Other than the regular cooking activities, the kitchen also served as a dining room, tv

Mutilation of Language (Recycled)

"TUKANG RIPEE KASUT" was a recent addition to the signboards along Jalan Tutong in the Kilanas/Sengkurong area. The first time I saw it, I had to smile. I am sure the person putting it up is not exactly the most literate Malay speaking person. Someone said that could have been a marketing gimmick and therefore deliberately trying to catch the eyes of thousands of motorists, on the other hand,

The Day After

Thank you to all for the participation in the last 2 days' blogs (615 yesterday and 468 the day before). It was heavy, it was emotional, it was sensitive, it was painful, it was joyful, it was sentimental, it was melancholy, it was all those things. My apologies to those who found it painful to be reminded of sad times. To those who are finding their feet, I offer my best wishes. To those who

Looking for a Partner in Brunei? (Part 2)

Yesterday's blog must have touched a raw nerve. By midnight, the number of pageloads was 468 which is the second highest for this blogsite which is normally around 300+. A number of readers came a few times to see whether more comments have been added throughout the day. It reminded me of one time when RTB News had this red little square as its background and many people commented about the

Looking for a Partner in Brunei?

The other day one of my junior colleagues, AA* mentioned about how difficult it was to meet someone. He complained or rather commented that it's pretty hard to meet nice girls in Brunei as we don't have the equivalent of pubs or clubs or society meeting places etc. His point was that it is difficult for a boy to meet a girl and vice versa in Brunei's society. This view coming from a young cute

Bruneian Nicknames by Hajah Yati

Today is a historic occassion, the first ever guest blog. We had read the very effervescent Hajah Yati writing a very long comment on the topic of Brunei's Time Line, I thought I will give her the opportunity to write her own blog. Here it is, presenting Hajah Yati's first ever blog and the first ever guest blog on this blogsite. Enjoy. (And I look forward to receiving more from readers out there

It happened on a Brunei Sunday

Together with about 5% of Brunei's population, I was at the Padang yesterday morning doing our 'senamrobik' before walking off to Kianggeh and up the Bukit Subok and then coming back down. I did an abridged version of the walk and came back about 20 minutes earlier than everyone else. I joined the committee to welcome His Majesty and of all people, he looked at me and actually asked me 'nda

Modern Technology and Horses' Asses (Recyled)

I posted the following piece on spaces.msn on 27th February 2006. Since someone mentioned it recently, I thought I will recycle it here. When I wrote it, I had forgotten to mention that way back when I was just beginning my career at a marine transportation agency, we ran into flak for then limiting the number of passengers that could be carried on the water boats in Brunei including the

Snooping for Information

The other day I had a diplomat pay a courtesy call on me asking me whether this aseantourguide.blogspot is mine. I didn't realise the diplomatic intel community knew of my existence but I guess it's not that hard to put two and two together. So I guess, this blogsite will get regular monitorings by the diplomatic people as well. Hmmmm... Anyway, welcome to all of you.I was looking through my

Family Titles in Brunei

On my recent blog on Brunei's Time Line, one commentator got carried away and she started to talk about events in the past before moving on to nicknames. I enjoyed what she wrote and I offered for her to write a whole blog about it and I will put it up. But up to now, I have not received anything from her. So, Hajah Yati, if you are reading, my offer still stands. And for the rest of you readers

Brunei's American Hill

I didn't realise just how close our relationship to the Americans were. By the 1860s we had a diplomatic relationship with the USA. In fact in 1865, the United States Consul to Brunei, Claude Lee Moses obtained a 10-year lease for the territory of North Borneo from Brunei in exchange of a yearly tribute of $9,500. He later sold all his rights to a Hong Kong based US trader Joseph W. Torrey.

Brunei's Time Line

I had lunch with my alumni at a restaurant called Wecan Elite - the best description for the location I can think of is it's in an apartment block behind Pizza Hut Gadong. I had a tough time searching for it, apparently it is quite popular and I must admit the food was good (that's a free plug for Wecan). There are not many of us but the few that we have are enough to keep our group alive and

Much ado about TAP

Someone asked me about a previous posting of mine which among others I said 'forget TAP' when it comes to preparing for your retirement. My former officers are asking why the sudden change of attitude since I used to be the head honcho of the agency? I thought I will take the opportunity to clarify my earlier blog. It was never my intention to advocate a total abandonment of TAP nor to insinuate

Bukit Markuching Revisited, Again

Bukit Markuching is in the news again. Quite a lot of things seemed to be happening at the place. In a way, it's typical for Brunei. New things always attract attention. We see the same thing for restaurants and other places as well. Restaurant owners have to keep reinventing themselves every few months, otherwise people will just tuned off. I remember visiting a few that was so crowded during

Brunei place names

There is one hill somewhere along Jalan Tutong, way past Tanjung Nangka which has an identity crisis - maybe not the hill, but certainly whoever it was that named it all those years ago. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera when I passed by the sign, otherwise it would have made a very good visual photo.Anyway, the hill is called Bukit Gunung Batu. For those who do not speak Malay, Bukit means

Origin of Place Names in Brunei

Sometimes the origin of place names in Brunei is a mystery. Some we can only guess - Kota Batu must have some stone fort built there somewhere in the past. Muara is fairly natural. Muara is the mouth of the river and of course that's basically where the big mouth of the river entering Brunei is - so Muara became the name.Gadong most probably comes from the word 'gedung' which means 'warehouse'

Brunei-Cambridge GCE

I read with interest the many blogs and comments on the English O level - arguments about whether it should be dumbed down and there is even talk about abandoning the O level itself. I don't want today's blog to throw the subjects open but I just merely wanted to put forward my two cents worth.This topic is admittedly not among my forte. I personally have no problem with the GCE O level itself or

$10,000?

I read a Singapore blogger posting who presumably works in a bank coming across the Brunei $10,000 note and posted the picture of the note up. I think she said something along the line that it was the largest note she has ever seen and she said that the money resembled 'hell money'. At first I wasn't quite sure what she meant by 'hell money' until I realised she was referring to the 'paper money'

Happy Father's Day, Again

Note: I wrote this blog much earlier expecting to publish it for the Father's Day and saved it in my office's laptop. But with my short break at the Empire, I did not have access to that laptop and I had to write another one for Father's Day which I didn't particularly enjoy as much as this one. Since I thought this is a much better blog than the one I published on Sunday and not to mention the

Teachers in Brunei Society

I was reading the comments about my blog on the Brunei Education System. I love the comments as one of the objectives of this blog is to bring to the attention of readers of issues in Brunei Darussalam, our beloved country. I believed passionately that we collectively can do so much better than trying to change the world alone. What is important is that we can share in this task and we have to

The Brunei Money

Whenever I am stuck on something I turn to one of a number of books on Brunei that I have in my collection. The one that caught my eye today is entitled "Brunei and Nusantara: History in Coinage" written by William L.S. Barrett published in 1988 by the Brunei History Center and printed by Percetakan Seasons Sdn Bhd. This book was published in conjunction with the official opening of the Brunei

Happy Father's Day

Today is the third Sunday of June - the American date to celebrate Father's Day which has also been taken up by many countries. It has been said that it was started by a lady who admired her father who brought her and her 5 siblings up singlehandedly. It was first celebrated in her hometown in 1910 before being celebrated nationwide. By the time RichardNixon became President in 1972, the

Bukit Markuching, Revisited

I have ruffled a few feathers on my local holiday blog this morning on Bukit Markuching (just corrected from Merkuching, thanks Hazirah, though if I am not mistaken the official signboard says Merkuching, though all the archived news says Markuching). It's good to know that the local spot has a very good following who have been quite vociferous in letting me know my mistakes through the comment

Holidaying in Brunei Darussalam

I finally managed to get a few days off starting Thursday until today. If you think that I have not been working very hard, let me tell you that this is only my second leave (3 days) since last January (5 days) and before that my last holiday was in October 2004. So in the space of 20 months, I have only taken 8 days off (and yet I am entitled to have 60 days off in a year). Do I hear any

Ghosts in Brunei

Borneo Bulletin last Sunday had a story about ghostly tales in Brunei - especially of ghosts and spirits moving into vacant houses. Tales about 'spirits wandering' at Kampung Perpindahan Lambak Kanan and in Rimba. Some of the more favoured spots - ghostly hot spots - are said to be the coastal highway road, banyan trees, fishing ponds, beaches and at a school. BB reported the usual claim to be a

Commencing your new life (Part 2)

Damon Darlin of the New York Times (yes, I know, it is my favourite reading and if it wasn't for NYT, I will be struggling for materials) wrote recently about financial planning for the young graduates. I agree with him that even though you thought you are the smartest person in the world when you graduated and you have managed to get your first job already, you need to know how to manage your

Commencing your new life

It's June. In UK, this is the graduation month for final year students. I remembered when I underwent my undergraduate graduation 19 years ago. Though this year I really have to symphatise with all Brunei students in UK. I just hope that everyone gets through with all the lecturers going on strike and all that. For those of you who somehow managed to get through all those exams and those strikes

Family

I ran into a stranger as he passed by, “Oh excuse me please" was my reply.He said, "Please excuse me too. I wasn't watching for you."We were very polite, this stranger and I. We went on our way and we said goodbye.But at home a different story is told, How we treat our loved ones, young and old.Later that day, cooking the evening meal, my son stood beside me very still. When I turned, I nearly

Brunei's Education System

At the last Friday prayer, one of the people who I always bump into every Friday but never really got to know well other than on a nod and smile basis, came over to me. He was asking me where I worked as he saw me sitting on stage at ICC when he was receiving his diploma. He was in his 30s and we chatted about why he is studying now when he already has a family to look after. He was very happy to

The Brunei Coal Mine

On Borneo Bulletin, about a month back, there was a mention about turning the old Brooketon Colliery in Muara into a heritage park. The Museums Department wanted to turn the historical 62 hectares coal mine as an open site museum to promote the country's eco tourism. It is currently already a protected site under the Antiquities and Treasure Trove Act. A number of readers must have been wondering

The house of 12 roofs

I am not generally a superstitious person but sometimes events can happen that makes us realise sometimes there is a fine line between the supernatural and the real world. One case in point I remembered was back to the time when I was involved in the preparation of the Youth Ship Program, which I blogged about a few weeks ago, was the cultural dances practices. At that time, the only place which

How round can round gets?

Quick Quiz - What is the shape of the ball used during the upcoming World Cup in Germany starting tomorrow? .... I can sense the hesitation .... You want to say round but you are afraid that this is a trick question. No, this is not a trick question. According to Adidas, the official ballmaker for the World Cup, when Germany kicks off against Costa Rica, the ball used will be 'rounder' than any

All I ask for is honesty

There was an interesting little news that I saw on Brudirect quite a while back under 'other reports' about British policemen moonlighting among others as models and masseurs. More than 1,000 of them reported that they held part time jobs in addition to being a cop, which surprisingly also include them working as florists, hypnotherapists, entertainers, plumbers and caterers. And it's not just

Malay Days

A few days ago, I blogged about how everytime we say the name of the day in English, we inadvertently pay homage to either a Roman or Germanic god of old. A reader commented I should also blog one about how the Islamic/Malay days came into being and several other commentators have come up with their own versions. Like they say in the cooking show, let's take a finished blog out of the oven as I

06/06/06

Today is 6th June 2006 which you can abbreviate to 6/6/6. Ordinarily this is just a date but very attractive numerically because of the triple 6s. But for christians, the number warrants attention is said to be connected to the Mark of the Beast. I remember this as more than 20 years back, one of my then favourite group when I was studying in England was the Iron Maiden, a heavy metal band. One

Unsung Heroes

One of the relatively unknown heroes and heroines in the civil service are the folks at the Community Development Department or Jabatan Pembangunan Masyarakat. This is the department that served the welfare needs of everyone in the nation. It used to be part of the old Department of Sports and Welfare when it split to become the Social Services Section and later the Social Affairs Unit at the

Sunday and the rest of the week

Did you know that 'Sunday' was originally a Latin word and that for everyday from Monday to Friday, you are actually honouring the Romans' and the Germanic's gods?It was speculated that the dividing of the week into 7 days goes back to the Babylonian time, even way before the Romans. Most probably this is due to the 7 planets known at that time. But it was the Romans that first adopted the

Welfare, History and National Day

When I blogged about the Brunei Annual Report 1961-1962, I was highlighting the changes in attitude of Bruneians with regard to welfare. The welfare programs were already in place then but the number of people who actually applied for welfare was very minimal, the word used in the report was 'rare'.Our lifestyle has changed, the easy availability of credit previously was one factor, some have

The Da Vinci Code

What did I do in my last night in Jakarta? I went to watch the most famous of all current movie 'The Da Vinci Code'. Yup, the movie that you all can't watch in Brunei. I wasn't going to bother watching it but L* who accompanied me to Jakarta said we should try to watch it as watching it on a pirated VCD will not beat watching it on the big screen. Besides we needed to unwind after a whole day of

Brunei, the Peaceful Nation

I was going to blog about 'Brunei Tua' or 'Old Brunei' today – Brunei's pre-Islamic Empire days but to blog about history for three days running, no matter how interesting it is, might put some people off. So I will reserve that for future blogs, so be forewarned.During yesterday's International Financial Reporting Seminar (IFRS) at the Brobudur Hotel in Jakarta, my mind started wandering. Attend

Origin of Brunei Darussalam

I did not realise that there would be a big debate on what an 'empire' is when I stated that Brunei lost its huge empire. Of course in comparison to the Roman Empire or any of the other 'Empire', the Brunei Empire was relatively small. But at its height, it is said to have covered the whole of Borneo Island and all the islands in the Southern Philippines and some have said the empire also

The Brunei's Kampong Ayer

Brunei has a very long history. In the Chinese historical records, Brunei has already existed by 518 CE (Common Era - the new replacement for AD which stands for Anno Domini - the year of the Lord, CE is supposedly neutral) and known as Poli. By the time of the Sung Dynasty in 1370 CE, Brunei was known as Puni. History suggested that when the capital of Brunei was moved from Puni to the present

Brunei Bank Debts

When I first started working in the mid 1980s, I was already fully exposed to the British banking system. I came back from England loaded with credit card debts and assumed that with my new salary as a newly appointed officer in the Brunei Government, I should be able to pay back the debts easily. I did pay it back but it wasn't as easily as I had imagined it to be. Because of that experience,

50 Years Ago

Last night, I was browsing through my library, that does sound a bit pretentious, doesn't it? Let me start again. Last night, I was browsing through my little collection of books and I come across this book which I 'borrowed' from my dad's collection of books - the "State of Brunei Annual Report 1961-1962" (printed Brunei Press, 1964). For some of today's blog readers, that could be the birthyear

The Mystery of the Brunei Missing River

Ever since I read the "Wanderer in Brunei Darussalam" which I blogged sometime last month, I was piqued with curiousity with regard to one of the stories in the book - the Sungai Katam Project. I have been asking a few people what happened to Sungai Katam? The Sungai Katam Project in the book referred to the Apartment Block at Taman Puri - that's the huge residential park along Jalan Tutong just

Brunei Road Names, Again

A lot of readers seemed to enjoy the recent blog on Brunei Road Names. I have dug out my 'Road Map and Street Index of Brunei Darussalam' published by Brunei Shell with the Brunei Surveyor General and having to relook at all the road names all over again. The book is a little bit old but still worthwhile to look at. It is the only one there is anyway. So it's not as if you have too many choices

Life and Death

How many of us are really prepared for the cost of organising weddings and the cost of a funeral? Weddings we can prepare for and we know tentatively when to hold it and in some ways we can always try to save up for it. Even if it's a shotgun wedding and totally unexpected for the other family members (if not to the bride and bridegroom) - it normally won't cost as much as a normal wedding. So

Brunei Government Gazettes

The first legislation to be approved by the new Legislative Council has been gazetted and bootleg pdf copies are available at www.aseantourguide.com. For the official and clearer copy, please pay $5 to the Brunei Government Printing Department or to the Attorney General's Office. The legislation is called the "Supply (2006/2007) Act" - the one that allows the Brunei government to spend for the

The Future of Water and Electricity in Brunei

I was in the Kiulap area last Sunday when this water truck passed by. It was very colourful and not the normal khaki/gray colour of the Public Works Department. The tank had cartoon images and slogans about saving water. Unfortunately, the truck zoomed very fast (which it shouldn't) so, I only managed to get a shot of the back of the truck. The message on the truck is for us to save water.I am

Brunei Education Debate

When I was doing my teaching practise in England (no, no, unfortunately I am not a member of that honourable profession of teaching - I took education as a subsidiary subject - my university had this policy that you must take additional subjects completely unrelated to your principal degree so that you have this more rounded education - and yes, there's only one university in England that does

Brunei Road Names

Jalan Pehin Dato Perdana Menteri Sheikh Abd Halim and Jalan Pehin Dato Perdana Menteri Sheikh Hj Abd Rahman - how many blogreaders would have any idea where these roads are? How about Jalan Dato Abas Al-Sufri? How about Jalan Maharaja Lela? Maybe you know Jalan Lintang? Jalan Simpang? How about Jalan McArthur? Jalan Cator? Still no? Jalan Sultan? Finally, a name you know. These are all roads

Brain Scram

Exercise of the brain is as important as exercise of the muscles. As we grow older, it's important that we keep mentally alert. The saying: "If you don't use it, you will lose it" also applies to the brain.Below is a very private way to gauge your loss or non-loss of intelligence. So take the following test presented here and determine if you are losing it or are still a MENSA candidate. OK,

Make a Shay Day

What would you do? You make the choice! Don't look for a punch line. There isn't one! Read it anyway. My question to all of you is: Would you have made the same choice?At a fundraising dinner for a school that serves learning disabled children, the father of one of the students delivered a speech that would never be forgotten by all who attended. After extolling the school and its dedicated staff

The buck stops where?

Someone commented that I should write something about road traffic in Brunei Darussalam. That brings back old memories. The first ministry I worked for was actually responsible for the Road Safety Council and I was in the secretariat and at a time was the officer responsible for land transport department's policies. I remembered being on radio announcing the first traffic light installed at the

The Right of Reply

For today, I will concentrate on replying and making comments on several issues being raised in this blogsite.First and foremost, my blog on "Practise makes Perfect", I have to slightly disagree with Professor Anders Ericsson that you not only need to practise and have to have the love for the subject but most importantly you got to have the skill as well. 3 months of practising playing golf and

Work Attitude

Let me share this which I received yesterday from my usual supplier, Dr M* through chain e-mails (caveat - strictly for amusement only!):From a strictly mathematical viewpoint, what makes 100%? What does it mean to give MORE than 100%? Have you ever wondered about those people who say they are giving more than 100%?!? We have all been to those meetings where someone wants you to give over 100%.

Unhealthy Bruneians?

The Minister of Health was talking about the wastage of medications last night on the news. The government spent some $27m on medication for heart diseases, $5m on kidney treatments and another $5m for cancer and about $40m on medications. That is a large sum of money for Brunei and when payment is minimal, it does create burdens for the country. However what is sad is the irresponsible behaviour

Vacancies in the Private Sector?

A couple of weeks back, I was sitting on the stage at ICC watching about 500+ young Brunei students get their vocational and technical diplomas and certificates - one of the duties of being a member of the Technical and Vocational Education Council. I did not envy the guest of honour, he had to stand the entire time. For the rest of us, it was not that easy either sitting up there looking very

I am already married

I was doing some reading and I came across this book which I bought way back sometime in 1984 entitled "Our cheque is in the post" (publisher Pan Books, 1982) that contained a myriad of humorous excuses that you can use. I came across one for calling off weddings. Since tomorrow is a Sunday - another day for weddings in Brunei - these excuses might come in handy someday to someone somewhere out

Donuts or Doughnuts?

My 6-year old son loves Supasave donuts. Supasave supermarkets sell their donuts ball-style and not the traditional ring-donut style - you know, the ones with holes in the middle. For some reason, my son likes to eat his donuts whole rather than biting into a ring-type donut. As for me, I got bitten by the donut bugs when I was studying in the States. I have to go pass this Dunkin' Donut place

The Brunei Health Situation

The Brunei Government spends around $244 million annually to provide medical and health services to the people of Brunei Darussalam. This pays for everything - all the doctors, the nurses, the free hospital care, the free surgery, the free medications, the free trip to Singapore (for the patient and the accompanying family member) - you name it, it's all there. How much does the government get

Practise Makes Perfect

Remember when you are younger, your mum or your teacher keep on telling you to practise as the more you practise you will become better at whatever it is you are doing? I did. But I also remembered that no matter how much I practised my football, I never can ever be on anybody's favourite list of players. When my mates go on choosing sides, there will be a few of us left behind and are put on '

Facts about Brunei-Singapore Currency Arrangement

2007 marks the 40th Anniversary of Brunei-Singapore Currency Board arrangements - establishing currency parity between the two countries' currencies. These two currencies are probably the most unique in the world where you do not have to change currencies when travelling to either country. Malaysia used to be part of the original tripartite but left the arrangements sometimes in 1970s. Lately

Japanese Food in Brunei

Hands up! How many of you out there eat Japanese food? For the Brunei blogreaders - how many Japanese restaurants are there in Brunei? If you shouted anything above 5, well done. But, there are a couple of things you did not know about Japanese food in Brunei but of course not being Japanese speakers, we don't know all there is to know about Japanese food.I remember in the late 1990s, the now

Brunei Wedding Practices

Today being Sunday means someone somewhere (or rather in Brunei's context) a lot of ones are getting married in a lot of wheres but what gets me is that it has to be held at the height of noon. I have mentioned this once in a previous blog on spaces.msn about why must Brunei Malays have wedding ceremonies at the height of the day when the sun is right on top of us and the temperature is at its

Ship for Southeast Asian Youth Program (SSEAYP)

I read sometime last week somewhere in BB, I think, that the next Youth Ship Program is advertising for participants. It brings back memories as I was the Brunei Group Youth Leader for the 1990 program - full title "Ship for Southeast Asian Youth Program (SSEAYP)". For those who have no idea what SSEAYP is - it is a youth program fully sponsored by the Japanese Government where they take a group

Relationship with Computers

You know it is time to reassess your relationship with your computer when.... You wake up at 4 o'clock in the morning to go to the bathroom and stop to check your email on the way back to bed. You turn off your computer and get an awful empty feeling, as if you just pulled the plug on a loved one. You decide to stay in college for an additional year or two, just for the free internet

What do you know about Rice in Brunei?

The other day, the Head Honcho of Information Technology told me that there is no way Brunei can be self sufficient in rice. Even if we cultivate the entire surface area of Brunei, we still do not have enough land to grow rice sufficient to feed the whole country. This is assuming every single inch of Brunei is cultivatable. If you were to take that there are parts of Brunei which nothing will

Unadventurous Bruneians

We Bruneians take our country for granted. We don't appreciate what we have. We have so much to savour, so much to enjoy. Many people would pay the earth to get what we have. Yet we complain about Brunei, we complain that there is nothing to see and nothing to do in Brunei.My wife and I were guests at the Japanese Ambassador last night for dinner. I won't describe the dinner but the usual

The Perils of Marrying Much Younger Women

I got these two short notes off slate.com, my favourite online magazine and I thought it's worthwhile sharing - the first is especially dedicated to my dear colleagues and fellow senior Bruneians who are contemplating something similar; and the second to younger Bruneians. Both are written by William Saletan based on actual studies conducted by scientists.Older men are more likely to produce

Nothing to do in Brunei?

Many people who do not know Brunei say there is nothing to do in Brunei which I thought was a bit shortsighted. Let me describe my Sunday yesterday which was a very hectic day. In the morning was a round of golf at the Executive Course at JPPC in Jerudong. Some derisorily called it the kindergarten course. It's not as easy as some people say though this is the first time in about 6 weeks of

Does oil come in barrels?

One of the interesting thing you find about Bruneians is that a lot of us don't know much about oil which is the lifeline of this country. Practically everything we touch in Brunei owes its existence to oil. And yet there is so much about the oil industry that we don't know. All we know now is that the world oil price is about US$70 per barrel. And yet ask this question - how do we export oil?

Questions Confusing Mankind

1. Who was the first person to look at a cow and say, "I think I'll squeeze these dangly things here, and drink whatever comes out?"2. Who was the first person to say "See that chicken there....I'm gonna eat the next thing that comes outta it's butt."3. Why do toasters always have a setting that burns the toast to a horrible crisp, which no decent human being would eat?4. Why is there a light in