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

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

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'.

Is Bukit Beruang (Bears' Hills) full of Bears?

I was at Bukit Beruang yesterday to attend another wedding. For those who sort of vaguely remember seeing the name - it's a resettlement area on the way from Tutong to Kuala Belait. Bukit Beruang was originally a small village until they turned the nearby area into another perpindahan or resettlement area. It's populated mostly by Tutong people and a few other non-Tutongians who applied to get a

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

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