Meracana Stadium, Brazil

One of the sights of Rio that nobody wants to miss is the home shrine of the famous Brazil National Football team which is the Meracana Stadium. The stadium has a much longer name. It is actually called the Estádio Jornalista Mário Filho but shortened to Estádio do Maracanã ("Maracanã Stadium").The stadium is owned by the Rio de Janeiro State Government and it is named after the Maracanã

Another View from Rio

One of the famous views of Rio de Janeiro, rather obvious as you can't miss it is what is called the Sugarloaf Mountain (in Portuguese, Pão de Açúcar). It is a peak situated in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, at the mouth of Guanabara Bay on a peninsula that sticks out into the Atlantic Ocean. Rising 396 metres (1,299 ft) above the harbor, its name is said to refer to its resemblance to the traditional

Farewell from Rio de Janeiro

Farewell greetings from Rio de Janeiro!By the time you read this, I would hopefully be on the Air France flight from Rio to Paris. The flight coming in was not comfortable and I am dreading the flight back. But it was the only flight available to us. The other one I wanted to use was British Airways to London but the strikes forced us to use the alternative Air France flight. It is a 12 hour

Affordable Housing

Greetings from the 5th World Urban Forum here in Rio de Janeiro.I was attending a talk on Affordable Housing when the Panel invited a representative of an NGO to present the NGO's views. I was quite intrigued as many of the NGO's representatives are all over the conference venues. The members were wearing green tee shirts which say 'Shack/Slum Dwellers International'. This group apparentlty even

The 5th World Urban Forum

Greetings from Brazil especially from the City of Rio de Janeiro, the January River. I guess not many knew that or bothered to know that. Apparently Guanabara Bay where the river flows to was found on 1st January 1502 by the Portuguese and hence the river was named January River and in Portuguese Rio de Janeiro.One thing I can tell you is that the city is a totally European city in the middle of

Bruneian Postgraduate Symposium 2010

Greetings from the Copa Cabana Palace Hotel, Rio De Janeiro. But I am not going to write about that. I will write about last Saturday. Remember, last Saturday, I was here at this symposium.Right here at the Brunei Gallery at London University's School of Oriental and African Studies. This is the view of the main entrance of the building.The unflattering sideview of the Brunei Gallery which

A Day in London

We arrived yesterday at about 8 in the morning. I didn't sleep much on the plane and I know the whole day will just be one groggy day suffering from jet lag. I never liked long distance travel, luckily nowadays I only have to do the occasional odd one per year. But since we were in London, and my next appointment was with a British Library curator and the Organising committee, we decided to fit

London Greetings

Greetings from London!What am I doing here? Just arrived this morning and the first thing was to unpack my laptop and check all the emails. Actually first thing was to find the cable which the hotel has cleverly hidden and with the help of the porter we searched the entire room only to find that my little room has another little room with a small study table with the internet connection.I must

A New Book?!

Last May when I brought out my book 'The Golden Warisan Volume 1', it was one of the defining achievements of my life. I have often wanted to have a book and to really have one with your name written on it, man.... You can't imagine the satisfaction. Volume 2 came out a couple of months later and I was as proud of it as I was with Volume 1, the satisfaction was not the same.The reality was

The Legislative Council - A Story

[Note: This short piece is extracted from my much longer article to be published in my column, The Golden Legacy in The Brunei Times this coming Monday about the history of the Brunei Legislative Council]The magnificent blue domed building overlooking down a hill situated at Jalan Kebangsaan in Berakas is certainly a sight to behold in Brunei Darussalam. The huge Legislative Council Building

Is everybody really fine?

On the flight to Brisbane, I was sitting with my colleague. RBA was playing a movie starring Robert De Niro but since I didn't put headphone jacks into those little holes in the arm rest, I didn't know what the movice was about. I saw Drew Barrymore as well as Sam Rockwell and Kate Beckinsale. I didn't give it much thought. On the flight back, that same movie was on. I decided with that many well

Australia's TRS

For those who had been to Australia - have you heard of the TRS? As for me, I have been to Australia a few times in the past. Let me see, there was the 2007 APEC Finance Miinisters, 2005 Executive Development Program and the 2004 Stopover to Auckland. But not one of these times, have I heard the term TRS.Yesterday, we managed to stop by a small store specialising in animal skins called the Skin

The Cliff Hangers of Brisbane

My last day in Queensland and flying out tomorrow. We spent the whole day checking out the way planning is done for the various cities and towns of Queensland before returning just after 6. Anyway, after dinner, our driver took us to see an interesting sight over on the other side of Brisbane across the river called the Kangaroo Point. From there, one can see all the tall buildings in Brisbane

Have you not been updating aseantourguide blog?

I was asked what have I been doing when I was at Gold Coast City Council yesterday. A strange question that given that it was an Australian asking me. I have to admit that the last three months have been fairly hectic. This month March is the worst. I still have not bought a new PC ever since my motherboard gave up on me. So I am using my tiny Sony VAIO which a few years ago was what I thought a