Brunei and the Empire

It's a long weekend and I needed something to fill in the daily entries. I browsed the internet looking for something on Brunei from others' point of view. I found many entries (non-Bruneian ones) and I kept some of them. I realised later that I could not find the original sites for me to link to. I will not make the comments on the writings, that I leave up to you. Here are some of their

Mauludin Rasul in Brunei Darussalam

I was watching television last night when there was someone from the Religious Affairs Ministry talking about the history of Maulud Nabi or as we now call it Maulidin Rasul - the ceremony to commemorate the birthday of Prophet Muhammad SAW. I was quite intrigued as he was talking about how grand the first celebration was which was surprisingly a few hundred years after the death of the Prophet.It

Brunei - the Proper Borneo

One of my father's old friends asked us when we arrived in Tutong for a Tahlil the other night "hujan di Brunei?" loosely translated "did it rain in Brunei?" When I was much younger, the first time I heard that I was taken aback. We were in Tutong - it's as if Tutong is in a different country.A wise guy would be tempted to say something along that line. But I refrain from doing so as I discovered

'Smoking' in Brunei by Awang Sihat

Do you know that RIPAS hospital is now officially a “No Smoking Zone”. There are billboards placed at every major entrance to RIPAS Hospital to remind people of this fact. This is one of many initiatives of the Ministry of Health in promoting a healthier lifestyle in our country, one of which is staying tobacco free.Unfortunately there are still many people smoking in the hospital especially

Brunei's New Definitive Stamps

On the Friday (23rd February) just before the 23rd National Day celebrations this year, the Postal Services Department released the new Brunei definitive stamps. Not many people seemed to have realised it but then in the era of the internet and skype, not that many Bruneians used the traditional communication methods anymore such as letter writing. As for me, other than for sending out Hari Raya

Brunei's Tasek Dam

I read on the internet about the recent World Water Day and the ceremony that was held at Brunei's oldest dam - the Tasek Dam. The Tasek Dam located in the heart of the capital, completed in 1964 marked a major milestone in the history of water supply in Brunei. Until then, there was no major water supply but with the Tasek Dam, it was the first main source of water supply to Pekan Brunei. The

Begawan Sultans of Brunei

Most people by now would have known our capital, Pekan Brunei was renamed Bandar Seri Begawan in honour of Al-Marhum Sultan Haji Omar Ali Saiffuddien Sa'adul Khairi Waddien the Third, the 28th Sultan. If not, then you can read it at this post here. The name Seri Begawan Sultan was used by His Majesty when he abdicated or stepped down from the throne in 1967 thus installing His Majesty Sultan Haji

Indian Roads Experience

You know, a lot of people are still finding the Kiulap Roundabout to be difficult to go through. After spending four days on the Indian road, we discovered that they have a fool proof method when going through roundabout. If you are entering into a roundabout, you have the right of way, so you can ignore all the cars going around the roundabout - they have to stop for you coming in! The first

The Taj Mahal - More Photoshoots

Just arrived in Brunei yesterday afternoon. I haven't had the time to do a proper post yet, so I am uploading some of the photoshoots I took of the Taj Mahal and its surrounding areas. Note that the Taj Mahal itself is made out of white marble which was shipped in from about 300 km away but the rest of the buildings in the complex are made out of red stones available around the area. Hope you

No FRIDAY Posting

Just in case there is anyone out there searching for the Friday, 23rd March 2007 posting - there will be none. I have not figured out a way of how to post when I am 40,000 feet up in the sky just yet.

The Taj Mahal - A Wonder of the World

Yesterday we had some spare time, while waiting for our counterpart to prepare the text and go through the final process of cleaning up the languages, grammar etc for our signing later today, we thought why not go somewhere. And we did.We went to Agra to visit one of the World's seventh wonders - the Taj Mahal. The Taj Mahal was built about 400 years ago and took 22 years and 20,000 people to

A Bruneian in a Foreign City

Nothing on Brunei at all today, so if you are looking for one, read next week's entries when I am back in Brunei. For today, I am a photoblogger.Yesterday we had an interesting day. We spent the whole morning negotiating for the treaty and then spent the late afternoon and evening walking along the streets, using rickshaws and state of the art metro system opened just a few months ago and then

Brunei Wedding Tourism

For the next few days, I have to turn to writing about general observations about Brunei or turn into a tourist blog depending on whichever material I happened to have handy. It's a bit harder writing about Brunei when I am about a couple of thousand miles away from my library. While waiting for my car, I managed to snap a photograph of the local police car and their control post (complete with

200,000! And What I did on Sunday

After slightly more than a year on blogspot.com, I started on 11th March 2006 here, sometime today, the counter should read the above. There is not much for me to say but to thank everyone again for making the Daily BR your daily reading and hope that you all enjoyed the little snippets about Brunei. It's the little things that make us Bruneians Bruneians, you know what I mean.Yesterday, I took a

Brunei Cartoons by Lat

In 1981 or 1982, I remembered reading in the Singapore Straits Times, Datuk Mohammad Nor Khalid or better known as Lat, the famous Malaysian cartoonist went to Brunei and published a few drawings on his visit to Brunei. The Brunei series was published for around a week with about 6 drawings from that visit. At that time I was a student in Singapore and all the Brunei students in the hostel that

Origin of Tasek Merimbun

Tasek Merimbun is probably one of the more internationally known park in Brunei. It is the only one in the country to be declared an ASEAN National Heritage Site way back in 1984. The park has a total area of about 8,000 hectares. Two rivers flowed through to the lake named Sungai Meluncur and Sungai Bang Oncom. If you have ever been to Tasek Merimbun, the waters from the two rivers are fairly

Investment Treaties with Brunei

I have just been told that approval has been granted for me to lead a team from Brunei for an investment treaty negotiation with an Asian country. Negotiations will start Tuesday and I have to fly there on Monday with officers from the investment, legal and tax agencies for the third round of negotiations. It will be my second time leading the team. About a couple of weeks ago, a country from the

Will the Brunei Economy Grow in 2007?

I don't normally like putting my economist hat on. I do that in my day job and I like to go home and think, read and write about other things - and that's why I look at history and other things. However with the budget debate just over, sometimes I get people asking me what I think will happen to the Brunei's economy this year now that the budget has been passed especially given that that some of

Hidden Treasures - The Sungai Liang Park

The Sungai Liang Forestry Recreation Park is the first of two forestry recreation parks which you will find on the way to Labi. The other is the Luagan Lalak Forestry Recreation Park. Though this one is very much nearer to the main Tutong-Kuala Belait road, barely a two minute drive from the junction. Not many people know that this is the first of the Forestry Department's jungle recreation parks

Jalan Sultan

A very late night last night watching the Thailand-Myanmar Final. So I don't have time to do a proper write up for today. To make amends, today will just be a pictorial journey of Jalan Sultan from the 1940s to 1960s. These old four photographs are rarely seen. You can see the progress from the old kajang shops complete with kajang roofs towards concrete buildings. The fourth one was taken just

Serban Turban Lessons

If you have ever been on the haj, one of the things you would learn if you are a male, is how to tie the turban or better known in Brunei as serbans. Tying the turbans or as the Bruneians call it is to 'menambat serban'. Serban is that traditional headgear worn by Arabs but has more or less been accepted as an Islamic head dress. Wearing a turban usually signifies that the person has been on the

Legislative Council 2007 Sessions

Someone mentioned to me that some of the people he spoke to think that the Legislative Council is just a rubber stamp and that all the legislations have already been approved - indirectly, saying that this is a waste of time.I wrote about the Legislative Council process almost a year ago which I am sure not many people have read. Click on it, so that I won't have to bother to describe the

Support Our Andaman Youths

I received an invitation to the opening of a restaurant in Beribi. I told my secretary that I won't be coming. However I did not realise the persistence of the organisers. They called me up again and sweet talked me into attending it. I was wondering who these people were. But you know what? I am glad I attended because I think this is the group of people that we need for the future of Brunei -

Muhibah March/April 2007

I was quite surprised to see a photo of me in the Pelita Brunei behind the Royal Family when Brunei scored against Cambodia in the first game of the Hassanal Bolkiah Trophy. Luckily it was taken a few seconds after my colleagues and I had literally jumped out of our seats to celebrate that goal. Unfortunately it was all downhill from there and I was saddened to hear that we did not make it to the

Labi - Brunei's Beautiful Interior

Last Sunday, I visited Labi together with my parents. For my father, it was a nostalgic trip. The last time he visited Labi was in the 1960s when he was an Officer at the Belait District Office and for my mother, like me, it was our first ever trip down the Labi Road. We have often passed by the turnoff going into Labi everytime we go to KB or Seria but Sunday was the first time, we deliberately

Padians of Brunei's Kampung Ayer

I was having a chat with my mother the other day talking about our visit to the floating market in Thailand when my father was in the diplomatic service. My mother told me that the floating market is strictly more for the tourists coming to Thailand. She said that usually by about 11 when all the tourists have left, the floating market traders would disappear too. There was hardly any local which

Travelling in Time

Whenever I drive down the Tutong-Kuala Belait highway (albeit the highway stops just before Telisai), I realised that the road linking Kuala Belait and Bandar Seri Begawan was built in my life time. It did not exist before 1961. If the road was not built, we would still be travelling from Kuala Belait to Pekan Brunei or Brunei Town via the beach.During the years before the road was built, cars

Hidden Treasure - Luagan Lalak Forestry Recreation Park

If you talk about Labi, you talk about the famous Labi oranges. For the diehard naturalist amongst us, they would talk about some of the more famous off the main roads beautiful nature spots. Unfortunately some of them may take a bit of an effort to get to such as Wasai Wong Kadir in Labi which is a 45 minute walk from the main Labi Road. For those who enjoy walking up and down jungle treks

The Third Hassanal Bolkiah Trophy

Brunei 2 Cambodia 2 was the final score last night. Brunei could have gone 3-0 up in the first 25 minutes but the missed penalty was a chance that we rued. Brunei's second goal by no.10 Mohd Najib probably was one of the best I have ever seen at the stadium. He was easily the man of the match. But the lethal combination of Cambodia's no.8, 9 and 10 is probably something that the Brunei defence

Tales of a Village

Imagine about a hundred years back when 'padians' were still selling wares among the houses in the water village. Among the goods and wares that the padians would be selling would be food and fruits. With Bruneians living on the water, someone somewhere would have to plant the food and fruits and someone would have to get them from somewhere. This was the job of 'pengalu' and not 'padians'.

The Local Brunei Writing Scene

I find it ironic that for Brunei Malays or Brunei Chinese that we are proud of whatever race we belong to, we speak the languages but surprisingly if I was to ask the Malays - do you read Malay books and the Chinese - do you read Chinese books - the answer I get is often the negative. Not many of us read books in our native languages yet we all race to the next best selling English novels. Some