Labi - Brunei's Beautiful Interior

Last Sunday, I visited Labi together with my parents. For my father, it was a nostalgic trip. The last time he visited Labi was in the 1960s when he was an Officer at the Belait District Office and for my mother, like me, it was our first ever trip down the Labi Road. We have often passed by the turnoff going into Labi everytime we go to KB or Seria but Sunday was the first time, we deliberately

Padians of Brunei's Kampung Ayer

I was having a chat with my mother the other day talking about our visit to the floating market in Thailand when my father was in the diplomatic service. My mother told me that the floating market is strictly more for the tourists coming to Thailand. She said that usually by about 11 when all the tourists have left, the floating market traders would disappear too. There was hardly any local which

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

Hidden Treasure - Luagan Lalak Forestry Recreation Park

If you talk about Labi, you talk about the famous Labi oranges. For the diehard naturalist amongst us, they would talk about some of the more famous off the main roads beautiful nature spots. Unfortunately some of them may take a bit of an effort to get to such as Wasai Wong Kadir in Labi which is a 45 minute walk from the main Labi Road. For those who enjoy walking up and down jungle treks

The Third Hassanal Bolkiah Trophy

Brunei 2 Cambodia 2 was the final score last night. Brunei could have gone 3-0 up in the first 25 minutes but the missed penalty was a chance that we rued. Brunei's second goal by no.10 Mohd Najib probably was one of the best I have ever seen at the stadium. He was easily the man of the match. But the lethal combination of Cambodia's no.8, 9 and 10 is probably something that the Brunei defence

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'.

The Local Brunei Writing Scene

I find it ironic that for Brunei Malays or Brunei Chinese that we are proud of whatever race we belong to, we speak the languages but surprisingly if I was to ask the Malays - do you read Malay books and the Chinese - do you read Chinese books - the answer I get is often the negative. Not many of us read books in our native languages yet we all race to the next best selling English novels. Some