Official Banquet for Lao Prime Minister

Last night, I was at the banquet hall of the Palace - Istana Nurul Iman – for the Official Banquet given by His Majesty in honour of Bouasone Bouphavanh, the Prime Minister of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic. The previous banquet for a visiting head was almost a year ago when it was a State Banquet for the visiting Indonesian President.I thought the food wasn’t as lavish as the last one as

Collection of Jong Sarat

I spent the whole day at Rizqun yesterday at the Mall in Gadong. No, I am not on leave. I was attending an executive forum on central banks’ reserve management. The speakers were from the World Bank Treasury. It was full of phrases like ‘strategic asset allocation’, ‘standard deviation of volatility’, ‘asset classes’ and ‘efficient frontiers’ – sounds interesting? Ya, if you are into it. Reminds

Kampung Sungai Bunga

There are three modern Kampung Ayer resettlement villages - Kampung Sungai Bunga, Kampung Bolkiah A and Kampung Bolkiah B. These three resettlement villages are the ideal (by today's standards at least) of what the houses should look like. No doubt, aesthetically there is much to be desired as the houses each looking like the other becomes rather characterless and aesthetically challenged but at

A Tutong Wedding

I was in Kampung Penanjong, Tutong for the wedding ceremony of a relative yesterday afternoon. I haven't attended a wedding in Tutong for quite sometime, so this time round I was watching the ceremony closely. The first thing I noticed was that after the usual 'pusing naga' (the three circles) the groom had to break a couple of bamboo pieces at the entrance of the house before going in to sit at

Old Main Roads of Brunei

For today, not much words are necessary. I thought I will post photographs of the beginning of the various main roads in the main city and towns of Brunei. The first one is obviously Jalan Sultan in the capital. I am not sure what year this is but the Customs Building at the end of the road has been built. Though all the shophouses remain intact as compared to the shophouses of today.This is

Short History of Brunei Aviation

According to observers, the first airplane to fly over Brunei was a seaplane spotted over Tutong in 1922. Prior to the second world war, there was no airfield in Brunei. The first runaway was built by the Japanese during the second world war at the current Old Airport Government Complex. After the end of the war, that runaway was improved upon and a proper airport was built. The first commercial

Glimpses of Authority

Once in a while, I run out of ideas of what to write. Not that there is nothing to write about - there are just too many things about Brunei that no blogs in the world can cover it. So for today I thought I will share with you the views from my office. I took the title of the posting from the links of a recently started blog about the Maktab Sains Class of 1979 which labelled The Daily BR -

Origin of Kampung Keriam

The first school I attended was the Sekolah Melayu Muda Hashim at Bukit Bendera in Tutong. It was on top of a hill and in those days I can see monkeys and squirrels swinging by on the trees behind the school. Most of the students spoke Tutong and I think I caught a few words here and there. After Primary 1, my family moved to Bandar, otherwise I would have been a fluent Tutong speaker. So Tutong

Brunei's Diehard Football Fans

I am not a diehard football fan. The world does not end when my team doesn't win but I guess when you support teams that are not expected to win most of the time, any win is a bonus but losses are not painful. I supported a couple of fairly unsuccessful teams which I mentioned a couple of posting ago but I didn't realise the extent of English football support in Brunei currently.When I was on the

Brunei's Street Lamps in 1960

Out of the blue, I received the following email from a Mike in London who wrote that:-"Although I have yet to visit Brunei, and I have friends there, thanks for posting the old photos of Brunei - it's a strange world, but I have recently being doing some research into old British streetlights - I told you it was strange - and there on those 1950s/60s photos are some old UK style concrete lamp

Made-up Words in Brunei

I was watcing Juara Lagu on TV3 last night when the presenter reminded that the word 'kugiran' is actually a made up word - kumpulan gitar rancak thus the first syllables of the three words making up kugiran. That reminded me when I first heard of the word many years ago about the days of the Beatles who spearheaded the boys band and in the Malay world, we had many other 'kugirans' following suit

5 Things Meme

If you are expecting something about Brunei today, I am sorry. I was tagged by Ms Maurina to do a 5 things meme(?). At first I am not sure what a meme is. I thought of reading the wiki entry on it but when I saw the mile long entry, I thought to myself - hei, I got better things to do than that. So I thought I will just read what everyone's meme is all about. Apparently the idea is to get to know

The National Football Scene

I got an email from the webmaster of Brunei's Manchester United Football Club wishing to exchange links. I checked out their website and found that the club is active and has just recently recruited its 100th member. That does indicate something. At least MU is a winning team and has its fair share of supporters in Brunei. I was wondering whether to reciprocate the link as MU is not exactly my

Maal Hijrah 1428

Tomorrow or rather this evening will be the beginning of the New Islamic Year, the Hijra of 1428. This evening, the celebration will be held at the Jame Asr Hassanil Bolkiah where the doa for the end of the year and the beginning of the new year will be read. I think there is also a presentation that will be done - the Hijra awards to the Tokoh Ugama - those who have contributed the most to the

Ahuta Sar Mata Seri Buhana

When I raided my dad's collection of books last weekend, I found one which I think should be read by those who are very interested in Brunei culture and which I really really hope that Dewan Bahasa will reproduce or reprint or whatever but at least make it available to the public again.The book is entitled "Ikhtisar Budaya" which was first published by DBP in 1976 and have been reprinted in 1982

Managing Natural Disasters in Brunei

Yesterday was another long drive to get to the office. The landslide at Tasek Meradun is not that far from where I live and we found that the road in front of the house is deserted as the police has closed the road heading towards Tasek Meradun from both ends. The driver decided that rather than be caught at the Jalan Gadong jam, we should to go through Sengkurong, Jerudong and the highway and

Old Muara Revisited

Does anyone remember the old Jin Tong's filling station at the end of the shophouses in Muara? It's no longer there as the Port has expanded right up to the edge of the shophouses. My better half told me that the late Jin Tong used to have another shop in front of Customs in Bandar. Anyway, I received an e-mail from a Muara resident or to be exact a Serasa resident when I posted the picture of

Old Brunei Coins

I think a number of postings had been made about Brunei money on this site as well as promoting the Brunei Currency and Monetary Board Gallery where visitors can come and see for themselves Brunei's currency throughout the ages where among others in the past, Bruneians were using miniature cannons and metal strips as forms of currencies. The cannons were not too bad as there are many other

Smart Girls Finish Last?

Yesterday, I only managed a cursory glance at the Bulletin and because of that, a string of articles which I thought was ironic caught my eye. Somehow I found them related to each other and in some sense can make one fairly caught in a bind as to which one we should follow.The first was an article by our infamous Ignatius entitled thought yesterday's Weekend Bulletin Smart Girls Finish Last.

Main Mosques in Brunei through the Ages

Brunei has been a Muslim country for about 500 years now. You would have thought that there would be lots of old mosques in Brunei. But the oldest I think are no more than 50 years old and most of the older ones have been demolished. Even then the older ones are not much older than say 80 or 90 years old. This is because practically all our older mosques are constructed out of timber so none has

Brunei's Churchill Museum and Stamps

I wanted to write about the Churchill Museum today and searched for a photo of the museum. That's when I discovered I don't have a single photo of the museum. I will have to ask my dad later on today if he has one in his collection. But what I do have are three Brunei first day covers depicting Churchill. The authorities clearly adored him in those days - the first first day cover was issued in

The Golf Spirit at the Empire

What I am about to narrate here is something that if it happened to someone else, I would have dismissed it and probably said that that person's brain needs a bit of a check up. I have heard many stories at the Empire and the RBGCC in Jerudong and have smiled everytime I hear those stories. But this time you read and decide.I am writing this immediately after I just got back from the Empire

57 Reasons Why I Like Living in Brunei

I found this interesting list entitled "57 Reasons Why I Like Living in Brunei" on the internet written by who I gather to be an American by the name of Steve Ryan. It was written 10 years ago in 1997 and some references are slightly out of date. It gave a different perspective to Brunei Darussalam:-1. Everybody drives on the wrong side of the road but head-on collisions are very rare.2. If you

Gadong Wet Market by Bruneian

The Gadong Wet Market is situated near the famous Mall Gadong. It is a one stop shopping center for chefs and the likes. Loads and loads of raw material for them here, waiting to be processed. Anakbrunei, zadm and I went there on Sunday to do a 50mm outing. It's a perfect place for it.The fish mongers were a little bit shy at first. We can hear them shouting "nah kana gambar tia, ada mukamu arah

Kampung Ayer: Heritage of Brunei Darussalam

I was going through a number of books in my collection searching for old Brunei photographs over the last few days. I have been scanning a number of them and to date I have about a 100 or more of them. I have made a small selection available in my previous postings. The oldest of them is as usual - that of Kampung Ayer. I did not realise that one of the earliest photographs of Brunei was that of

Old Bandar Seri Begawan

Jewelle commented that she loved to see old photographs and a few others commented the same. So I thought I will share some of my old Brunei photographs with you all today.On the left is a photo of a procession along Jalan Sultan. I don't know when this was taken. I am guessing around late 1940s or early 1950s. You can see the old HSBC building in the background. Use that as a focal point and you

Origin of You Know You Are Bruneian When...

I found the following piece about 'you know you are Canadian when...' and read an almost familiar piece about the peculiarities of Canadians similar to the 'you know you are Bruneian' postings. The postings that I di in July and November about 'you know you are Bruneian' attracted many comments from both sides - those who agreed and those who didn't. I came across a couple blogs which flamed me

The Jalan Tutong Jam

I saw a frustrated motorist commenting on HYS entitled "Tahniah Polis" - "Biskita telah membuat kerja yang baik sadaya upaya kan melancarkan perjalanan kereta di sapanjang jalan kilanas, tasek meradun bunut HARI INI. TAPI TIDAK BERJAYA BAIK PULANG KAMI PAKAI LAMPU SAJA. HARI ADALAH HARI PALING JEM BERMULA DARI KILANAS. SELALUNYA BERMULA HANYA DARI TASEK MERADUN TAPI HARI ANI POLIS ADA BERTUGAS

Old Brunei

I thought I will share some more photographs today of the old Brunei and one painting based on one scenery of Bandar Seri Begawan which is no longer there.If anyone remembers, the painting was the Jalan Sultan Lama (?), if I am not mistaken. It has been ages ago since I last saw it. That particular scene is where the current Portview Restaurant is. The Kampung Ayer used to go up right to the

Old Muara

I was at Muara at my brother-in-law's yesterday where we had our Hari Raya Haji gathering. As usual when siblings and in-laws get together, the talk turned towards history - what happened to who and how did this come about etc. My brother-in-law took out several photos - really really old photos - being the self-appointed keeper of all these stuffs and it was guessing time as to who was that 2

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New Year Reading

It's a pretty wet beginning to 2007. Yesterday it rained practically the whole day. Luckily the only time it didn't rain was when my wife and I walked back to our car at JPMC carpark after attending a wedding ceremony for my colleague's daughter at JPPC. It's funny that I felt a bit tired yet that's exactly the same route and distance I had to walk for hole #1 and hole #2 when playing golf there