Mysterious Grave in the City Centre

[Note: An edited version of this article was published in The Golden Legacy column in Brunei's national newspaper, The Brunei Times dated 7th April 2007.]Many people have walked past the walled small roof structure opposite the General Post Office Building in the car park yard of the TAIB Building in Bandar Seri Begawan. Many have in fact parked their cars next to it. However, not many have

The Tale of the Unfilial Son

[Note: An edited version of this article was published in The Golden Legacy column in Brunei's national newspaper, The Brunei Times dated 31st March 2007.]There was this tale of a local boy, who went away to better his and his family’s lot in life. After many years, he achieved success and wealth, married a a noblewoman and became the owner of a huge ship, forgetting his humble roots in the

World War II in Brunei

Nothing much for my final posting. Just the final set of photographs depicting scenes of destruction in Brunei during the Second World War as I promised about a week ago. The first photograph is the scene of destruction in the Seria Oilfields. The others are scenes from Brunei Town and Brunei District. These are just to remind us just how much progress we have made since then. Thank you to

Circumcision in Old Brunei

In Brunei and in Indonesia, circumcision is known as bersunat but in Malaysia, berkhatan. In the earlier days, bersunat is considered as the mark of a true Muslim. Immediately just before the circumcision, the boy would be asked to recite the ‘kalimah sahadat’ which is the recitation every Muslims or would be Muslims undertake to declare themselves as Muslims – thus by saying it just before the

Brunei in the 2nd World War

I didn't realise there was a lot of interest in the WWII photographs I posted recently. I have a number of articles about the war and the invasion of Brunei. The one I found interesting was in the Time Magazine issue of June 25th, 1945, where an article entitled "Walkover on Borneo" described how the Allied Forces liberated the island of Borneo from the Japanese. The most interesting bit is the

The Brunei Fort at Kinarut, Sabah

I was in Kuala Belait yesterday, and my brother-in-law who used to be the Chairman of KB/Seria Municipal Council told me that there is a road called Jalan Dakula in Seria. Dakula is the name of Sultan Hakkul Abdul Mubin's son who was raised by the Suluks in the Philippines/Sabah when his expecting mother was captured during the battle at Pulau Cermin. A grown up Datu Dakula came back to Brunei

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

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

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

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

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

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

Old Brunei Palaces

It would be quite impossible to find anybody in Brunei who don't know where Istana Nurul Iman is. The degree of knowledge obviously tapers off as you go down the list of Istanas or palaces in Brunei. Istana Nurul Izzah in Jerudong, Istana Darul Hana in Jalan Tutong, the guest palace Istana Edinburgh in Jalan Menteri Besar, Istana Darussalam in Kampung Sumbiling, Istana Manggalela in Belait and

Defining Moments in Brunei in Books

I thought I will share two books with you on the day of our 23rd National Day celebrations. These two are written in Malay and and one is written partly by our own Brunei historians. Both are published by Dewan Bahasa Pustaka Malaysia and both surprisingly published in 1995, though one of them has been republished in 2001. The two books entitled “Sejarah Brunei Menjelang Kemerdekaan” written by

Makam di Luba

If you drive along Jalan Tutong, immediately past the Shell Filling Station at Kampung Bunut, you will see a simpang entering into Kampung Bunut with a sign that says "MAKAM DI LUBA". For the non-Malays, Makam means a grave normally associated with royalties or great men and women. I like many countless others have passed by that road sign so many times ever since we build a house further up

Visit Brunei Year 2008

My little boy, my better half and I spent our public holiday yesterday visiting some of our more touristy places. It was partly for fun as it has been ages since we last went there; partly for my 7 year old, a new interest in museums after watching ‘A Night at the Museum’ and partly for me, it was duty as these areas fall under my purview for funding and with the upcoming VBY2008, I have to be

Unusual Brunei Transportations

Today I thought I will share some very old photographs of unusual transportation in Brunei which for some reason did not catch on until today. If they were still around, it would be fun to see them.Both of these were operated by Brunei Shell about 40 to 50 years ago. The first is more common in other countries. But unfortunately in Brunei, there were used in only two places - one was in Brooketon

Cinema Memories in Brunei

In the 1960s and 1970s I remembered going to the padang in Muara watching movies being played there. There will be lots and lots of people there – all watching black and white movies. I don’t think the movies were in colour then. I remembered my dad used to own one of those home movie projectors and every time we stayed at my auntie’s place in Seria, he would play one of those silent movies and

Chuchill Memorial Again

It took me a while but I finally got it - the elusive photograph of the Winston Churchill statute. It's here. The photo is from the back of the statute but at least for Bruneians who have never seen it, this is what it looks like. The statute was taken down sometime in 1991, almost 15 years ago. If you are aged 20 and below, you would not remember it even if you did see it in those days.I found

National Flag and National Anthem of Brunei Darussalam

I was reading the program book that came together yesterday while attending the raising of the giant Brunei flag to mark the start of the 23rd National Day celebration. It contained a lot of information about our national flag and our national anthem. I thought I will share the information with everyone.I have touched on the information about our national flag in my post about the flag in July