A Battle in Brunei

I was reading this interesting book entitled "THE EXPEDITION TO BORNEO OF H.M.S. DIDO FOR THE SUPPRESSION OF PIRACY: WITH EXTRACTS FROM THE JOURNAL OF JAMES BROOKE, ESQ., OF SARAWAK" written by Captain Keppel and published in 1846. There were many mentions of Brunei (Bruni or Borneo Proper as mentioned in the book). One was especially about the British and James Brooke wanting to keep Pengiran

Old Airport Road

I was furious the other day for not being able to win this photograph on ebay. I was wondering who else is out there trying to win old photographs of Brunei. I hope that collector is a Brunei and would one day be able to share with us his collection of photographs.This particular photograph is of the old Brunei Airport. If you don't know where that is, I suggest you walk over to the Government

Brunei's First Letter

This is what the first letter posted from Brunei using Brunei's stamps looked like. This was posted in July 1895 to London. In those days, Brunei was not a member of the Universal Postal Union, so the letter could only be posted to Labuan. Labuan was part of the British Straits Settlement and could post letters anywhere in the world. So if you look at the stamps, there is one Labuan stamp on the

Kuih Keria and Changes

We stopped by at my parents' and my mother in law yesterday and got loaded with lots of food. No matter how old you are, parents still dote on you and make sure you get enough to eat, though in my case, clearly way too much. Anyway, one of the delicacies we got was an old favourite of mine, Kuih Keria.Kuih Keria is both a Brunei and a Malaysian dish. There was a time when I tried to write the

Oil and Islam

This is normally how many international journalists wanted to depict Brunei. Oil and Islam. And the easiest way to get it is to use a photograph of the oil donkey with the Seria Mosque in the background. Watch videos or productions about Brunei, inevitably this scene will come out, taken from many different angles. I have watched so many that the show will surprise me if it does not have this

Kuala Belait 1970s

One of my hobbies is collecting postcards. The other day I managed to acquire the above postcard. This postcard is a used one. It was sent by someone in Kuala Belait to someone in Gronigen, Holland and was postmarked sometime June 1981 about 28 years ago. Apparently he had just arrived three days in Kuala Belait and would be in Brunei for only about two more days. The card also says he does not

Management Lessons

Monday's Non Sequitir cartoon had us in stitches yesterday. We have too many that sometimes we just moved from one committee meeting to another committee meeting. Committees solved problems if used rightly. But it is also a place some used for distributing blame and to slow down decisions. Used wrongly as the above cartoon can doom an organisation. Management Lesson number 1 - committees must be

Sooka chetha

Lately I have been reading a lot of materials about the origins of the Malays. This is very interesting but unfortunately most of the materials do not cover us here in Brunei except in passing. Though it is interesting to note where was the centre of the Malay centre - some writers argue that it was the west of Borneo (code name for Brunei) and some say it was Malacca and some say it was

40 years of Bandar Seri Begawan

I posted this earlier. This is Bandar Seri Begawan or Brunei Town from the air around end of 1960s and early 1970s.40 years later. This is Bandar Seri Begawan as it is today. Many more buildings in the background.This photograph is courtesy of my adventurer friend. Thank you Tuan Sheikh.

Brunei $25 1992

Every now and then, I come across this $25 paper money. Recently my sister managed to get a few pieces for me. I had a few but my stocks dwindled down when I left MOF one and a half year ago. It is legal tender. However whenever this note turned up, many recipients would keep it as a souvenir. So it is disappearing. A few Hari Raya ago, I used the notes to give to some of my close family. It's

Selamat Berpuasa

Selamat Berpuasa kepada Semua Pembaca Daily BR!

New Moon Sighting 2009

Last year I was at the Bukit Shahbandar Moon Sighting Tower. This year I could not make it but I was also warned in advance that the chances of sighting the hilal was, not to put a finer word, next to impossible. The moonset occurs before the sunset. So the new moon was below the horizon at the time of the sighting. According to moonsighting.com which produced the chart above, there were only a

Houses for the Needy

Yesterday together with my colleague, the PS at PMO, we visited the sites and progress of 19 houses that are currently under construction under the Fakir/Daif Housing Assistance Scheme financed by the Brunei Islamic Council and built by PWD. My colleague visited 9 houses in Brunei/Muara and Temburong Districts. I covered 10 houses in Tutong and Belait Districts. Altogether there are 38 houses

Makkah Tower

TradeArabia News Service in Manama, Bahrain reported the following news yesterday:+++++Al Salam, Brunei Bank JV to manage Makkah towerManama: Tue, 18 Aug 2009 Nabeel Ebrahim Al Tattan Bahrain-based Al Salam Bank, a leading Shari’ah compliant institution and Perbadanan Tabung Amanah Islam Brunei (TAIB), a leading Islamic financial institution, have entered into a strategic partnership on Burj

Houses, Houses and More Houses

It was a late night again last night. The night before was MOD 5 MCYS 0. Last night was making sure the seating arrangements and all other arrangements are okay for today's ceremony. Just in case there is any last minute thing.This morning, His Majesty will be handing 70 lucky land owners with their own land titles and 38 people the plaque to their own houses at the Parit Community hall. The 70

MOD 5 MCYS 0

We need goals alright. The Minister and I were at the Track and Field Stadium last night watching our MOD team beat the MCYS team at the inter-ministry football final. The scoreline was a very flattering 5-0 in our favour!The MOD team played well as a team and we were especially proud of a number of players who were unselfish and worked hard as individuals winning balls and not giving up. Not to

Brunei's Water Supply

The Minister and us went round again yesterday to see the water supplies as part of our regular inspection. Because of the shift in wind directions, we have been quite lucky to receive the rains instead of the rain dropping out at sea. We have been lucky too that with the winds blowing the other directions, we don't get the smog from the end of the Borneo Island. However once the winds shitt

Which is correct? Brunei or Berunai?

Someone asked on the comment box which I copied Nazri: kn betanya, kenapa nama ejaan Brunei B.R.U.N.E.I? Sedangkan sebutannya BRUNAI? nda pernah ku tejumpa mana-mana ejaan yang berakhir dengan E.I disebut "ai".Nazri brought up an interesting point. When did 'Brunei' became Brunei?I will ignore the old Chinese reports which used various names such as Poli and Poni and concentrates on the word

Brunei-Philippines Rice Cooperation

You don't often find our beloved Sultan's image or even Brunei's images on other countries' stamps. The ones that I have come across so far are 4 - the image of our Sultan on a Korean stamp to commemorate Brunei-Korea relationship, the image of the dome of SOAS Mosque on a Japanese stamp to commemorate the ASEAN-Japan relationship, the image of the State Secretariat building on the other 9 ASEAN

The Haze according to Cuboiart

Every now and then when I read the Borneo Bulletin, I would be smiling and there are times when I would be chuckling and if it is really hillarious, laughing out loud. If I do that, that would mean that I have come across cartoons written or rather drawn or created by Cuboiart, Brunei's finest satirical cartoonist.These two cartoons are about the haze that we are facing at the moment especially

BRIDEX 2009

I was at the opening ceremony of BRIDEX's conference yesterday and listened to General Ul Haqq of Pakistan giving the keynote address. I have not been to BRIDEX before and neither have I been to the new exhibition centre. My comments? I was very impressed with the organisation of the conference and the exhibition halls and no doubt this will be a much better site to hold exhibitions and other

Issues in The Golden Warisan Volume 2

Today I thought I will spend a bit of time answering Tun Teja who raised these issues with my new book, The Golden Warisan Volume 2 (which is available for sale now):-Q1. loving ur new book mr BR. i have some qs though, how come sultan muhammad ali in ur makam d luba article ada haji to his name but in ur civil war artcle, nada.. im curious raja dulu2 ada naik haji? n how? ..i tot raja yg baru2

My Sunday

I have a confession to make. I did not go to a single wedding invitation yesterday. My apologies to the 5 families who invited us. My son wanted to go visit the museum and I thought why not. We have not gone out for a while and when my son expressed interest in museums, I am not one to disappoint. I try to visit Brunei's museums every so often even if there is nothing new to see. I always managed

The Brunei Time Line

[Note: My article below was published in Brunei Times about a month ago and was actually based on my blog entry about 2 years ago.][This sketch of Kampong Ayer was published in the Illustrated London News on 27 June 1857.]Prior to the 1960s, Bruneians have their own concept of time. A number of our elderly Bruneians, when you asked them do not know exactly when they were born. Sometime some do

Water is precious

The haze did it. We have been having El Nino for a couple of months now. Not many of us in Brunei realised it because we have been blessed with rains occasionally falling on us. But over the past few days, the haze has been getting visible or rather has made things not so visible that we now realised, aha, we have dry weather.We visited all the water dams yesterday to see for ourselves for their

Laila Rice Cookbook

When I attended the Padi Laila harvesting ceremony the other day, every guest was given a souvenir bag. Inside the bag, among other things, were an apron with the Padi Laila stitched to it and a recipe book entitled "Hidangan Beras Laila - Dishes from Beras Laila".The book contains recipes and I have to admit, beautiful photographs for 30 of Brunei's delicacies:-Nasi Ayam Laila BersambalNasi

Brunei Memories

Yesterday, the printers called and told me to collect the second batch of books and everything else will be in the remaining third batch. So today, I will be spending my after office hours getting 500 copies of my book entitled "The Golden Warisan Volume 2" into the bookshops. I have to send the books to the bookshops' store rooms. Since my first book, nowadays I know where Best Eastern and Bismi

Harvesting Laila

Information Department's photograph of His Majesty harvesting Laila padi yesterday.This is a very nice photograph from the Brunei Times of His Majesty harvesting Laila padi yesterday with a very delighted Minister of Industry and Primary Resources.A picture is worth a thousand word. Two pictures, much more. I was speaking to a former army commander who now runs a 30 acre padi plantation in Labi

Brunei Halal

Everyone was queuing to get a nice reusable bag with this Brunei Halal logo yesterday including my better half and me. At first we did not want to queue but the entire ICC was full with people with green bag with this logo, we did it too. The most important thing is that the Brunei Halal logo is up and running. I really hope that our local food producers can use this logo branding and exploit it

The Golden Legacy Vol.2

This is the backcover of the book. Not much different from the first one if you remember. My artistic sister says that since I have named the first book volume 1, I had to follow the same design for volume 2. I am beginning to regret naming the first book volume 1 but I gues it is the contents that matter.I was hoping that the printers would be able to print all the books but unfortunately no.