Bangar December 1962 Memorial

December 1962 was a sad period of Brunei's modern history. If I can quote His Royal Highness Prince Mohamed in his book 'Remember, Remember, the 8th of December' who said "bad things happened. Very bad things." People were killed and the only memorial of that event is this memorial at Bangar, Temburong. Eight names are inscribed, those of government servants killed during the period.In my recent

Brunei Town's Old Wharf

I was trawling through my photographs collection in my hard disk when I came across this photograph. This photograph was taken in the 1950s showing the two buildings on the wharf facing Kampong Ayer. The one with the red circle was the first Chinese temple, which I wrote about a few days ago. The building next to it was the Government Rest House. The temple was demolished and rebuilt a few blocks

In Kandila, we will meet

Yesterday was a busy day but today will be busier. I will be in Mentiri, Lambak and Rimba accompanying HM visiting all three housing estates after the key giving ceremony in Mentiri. That's not too bad. On Wednesday I was in Belalong in Temburong to check on the renovations to the UBD centre there, on Thursday I was in Lumut for the Belait District Masterplan presentation and on Saturday, I was

The Brunei Law Enforcers

Note: My article on the Royal Brunei Police Force was published on the Golden Legacy column, Brunei Times on 2nd March 2008. The accompanying photograph was that of my grandfather and his policemen friends. My grandfather retired in 1970s as a Sergeant Major.THE Royal Brunei Police Force counts among the oldest government agencies in this country. It certainly is the oldest paramilitary

Past Maulidur Rasul

I did an article on Maulidur Rasul in my Golden Legacy column yesterday on Brunei Times, about a month behind the actual Maulidur Rasul celebrations. This time my editor was accomodating and put up about 5 of the 6 photographs which I gave him. Normally I get only about 1 photo per article. BT does pay for each photograph and the more BT publishes the more they have to pay. Though to accomodate

Trains in Brunei

To the faithful readers of this blogsite who came in the last couple of days and finding nothing new can thank the providers of espeed for the absence of my postings. I don't know about your espeed but my espeed has decided that it is better off going AWOL so that I can rethink my options of continuing with espeed or go to the other provider. I didn't know that part of espeed's strategy was to go

Brunei's First Chinese Temple

The Chinese Temple at Jalan Kianggeh attracted a lot of Brunei photobloggers during its annual Chinese New Year celebrations. It has been there for so long that not many remembered that there is an older one in the city centre.I remembered looking at an old photograph of the wharf and seeing an old temple there. When I asked around, most elderly Kampong Ayer folks remember that until about 1960,