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