Our 23rd National Day Celebrations

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Flag Raising Ceremony

These are pictures from the National Day 2007 Flag Raising Ceremony where a giant flag is raised to mark the beginning of the celebrations.

Photographs and Video Slide Show by Aku

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A visit to the 'Taman Warisan Tasek Merimbun'

Original post by nakalai.

thanks to my grandma for being my (tourist)guide this afternoon..huhu

The purpose of my visit today was to get few shots of Tasek Merimbun. The scenery was simply breathtaking, as usual. Have a look on them here. or here for more shots. So yes, I dont do reviews but you can always read from either of these sites: (they are good btw. quite accurate i would say..huhu)

Sultanate - Tasek Merimbun
Asiatour.com
Brunei Travel Information
Kayaking in Tasek Merimbun (besides walking along the wooden walkways or having picnic, you can go for kayaking too!)
Dom, Becca & Ellie in Tasek Merimbun

Honestly, at the moment i dont think Tasek Merimbun is ready to be visited by anyone (esp the tourists). the wooden walkways are being removed at the moment so you cant actually go across to the 'Pulau Labi-labi' (more on this turtle-shaped island in the next post). Ahhh well... i'm guessing they are getting new planks and hopefully the walkways will be back soon, since next year will be the Visit Brunei 2008. N/theless, Tasek Merimbun is still a must-go-and-see heritage park when you come to visit Brunei/Tutong. (=

nahh enjoyy the pictures. as usual, click 'em to enlarge. and appreciate..huhu

cheers everyone, Salam.

Nakalai~

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Jerudong Park...

An original video by Borgkingkong, a young, talented, up-and-coming Bruneian filmographer

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Tsukiji in small doses...

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The Youth of Brunei

ASEAN DAY MESSAGE FROM HRH PRINCE MOHAMED BOLKIAH, MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS AND TRADE OF BRUNEI DARUSSALAM

‘ASEAN AND YOUNG PEOPLE’

The Founding of ASEAN nearly forty years ago set a remarkable challenge for Southeast Asia’s future generations. It encouraged them to live together in peace and understanding in a region that had long been in fearful turmoil.

The first of these generations is now able to look back on its efforts to meet that challenge. Its members have already become the leaders of our region in all walks of life and they have brought it greater respect than ever before in international affairs. The second generation is in the process of inheriting their work and building on that of their predecessors.

We are now looking at our third ASEAN generation.

They are the theme of this year’s ASEAN Day.

“ASEAN and Young People”.

It is a theme that should give us all great pleasure and pride. Our young people are the embodiment of ASEAN’s Vision.

In all ASEAN countries, they have now been given greater opportunities than any previous generation.

They can expect to live longer, have a better standard of living, be better cared for, be more knowledgeable, be more confident about the future and be far more able to develop their talents both at home and in the world outside their country.

In Brunei Darussalam, we regard this as our children’s and grand children’s birthright. It is a gift handed on to them by their own forefathers and by those who founded ASEAN. We hope they will value it, respect it and strengthen it so that they, too, will pass it on to their own children and grandchildren.

I have every confidence that they will. The evidence I see and hear every day from our young people in Brunei Darussalam makes me proud of the way they are meeting the extremely difficult and very complex challenges that they are being asked to face in today’s society.

I trust their judgement. I believe it will always be based, as my own generation’s life and work have been, on the collective wisdom of those who want before us.

I thank them for the excellent contribution they have always made to our country and its development.

As they themselves begin to meet the challenge set by ASEAN’s founding fathers, I wish them great success and all the joys of anticipations, pleasure and simple fun that are the special right of young people everywhere.

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Our Little India

Originally posted by Ucingitam.

While waiting for my photos to be printed, I decided to take a little walk at Serusop shopping area or unofficially known as Brunei's Little India. This area is a major attraction for budget shopping and boasts an increasing number of shops, restaurants and sidewalk vendors.

Varieties of freshly fried fritters known as cucur, banana, yam, sweet tapioca cuts coated with flour and then deep fried. Also available curry puffs, spring rolls and other light snacks... you can't resist!

The camera shy street fruit mongers moved away when they saw me approaching with my camera. So I had my sweet time taking photos of their merchandise as much as I could.

Check out some of the exotic fruits of Brunei. The Membangan (Mangifera panjang), a seasonal fruit from the mango family. The tough outer skin can be removed by making longitudinal cuts, revealing a yellow or orange delightful mango fragrance. Pleasantly sweet and juicy, the flesh is smooth but fibrous.

The Kembayau (Canarium odontophyllum), is another unique fruit of Brunei. Quality breeds have oily yellowish appearance while the outer black-purple skin is removed. The edible portion is the mesocarp which is softened by soaking the whole fruit 5-10 minutes in hot water. Eaten with sugar, it has a fine flavour, crunchy with a rich creamy taste.

Another native fruit of South East Asia and Brunei, the Rambutan (Nephelium lappaceum), has red (sometimes yellow) hairy skin, hence the name rambutan, derived from the Malay word rambut which means hairs. The white fruit flesh is tranlucent, with a sweet, mildly acidic flavour.

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Brunei Weddings

This original piece on Brunei Malay Weddings was posted by SirTambak. Nice one!

Many have written their own versions and understanding of Brunei Malay weddings. Writing from experience of being involved in the whole wedding process or from a guest's point of view or the Bride or Groom's point of view.

Weddings are huge events in Brunei. A Sunday without a wedding somewhere in this country would be like no internet connection for 12 hours. Last year I attended some weddings of distant relatives and also my close friends.

Back in college, my gang and me, we called ourselves 'Barang Dapur' would figure out who would get married the first and the last. I was the youngest in my gang, so I was definitley the last to get married and that prediction is true.

All my friends in 'Barang dapur' have gotten hitched and three of them, 'Sudu', 'Sambal' and 'Sinduk' are now proud father's. Everytime I see them for 'Teh Tarik' or just bumping into them at a shop somewhere, the question would pop up. 'Bah Bila??'

My Fiance and myself have encountered this alot and we have come up with different answers all the time. Practice makes perfect.

Possible answers:-

'Ada tah tu' - 'We'll see'
'Tunggu saja' - 'Just wait'
'Alum ku puas bujang' - 'I still want to enjoy bachelorhood'
'Jan tah ingar' - 'You don't have to worry' (No exact word in English to describe 'ingar')
'Lau ku kawin ada ku manggil' - 'when I get married, I will invite you to my wedding'
'Malas ku kawin! Mahal' - 'I don't want to get married! Its too expensive'
'Ko mau sponsor?' - 'You want to sponsor me?'
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So many things to consider and so many things to plan. The 'Antar Berian' ceremony, The 'Nikah' ceremony, The 'Berbedak' Ceremony and the grand finale - The 'Bersanding' Ceremony.

2007 will be a major year for myself as I will go through these various traditional Malay wedding ceremonies for my wedding. So I revisited MR BR's posts about weddings and he has quite a collection :-

Male Wedding costume - link here
Wedding cost again - link here
Brunei Wedding practices - link here
Questions to ask before saying yes - link here
Bunga Telur - link here

I think I am missing a few so I hope Mr BR could fill me in on some more wedding related articles if I missed any. My big day, insyallah will be in June.

We decided on the date last year in November and we have settled some major things for the wedding and it did not struck me that I was really going to go through with this until last night.

I was pouring a glass of cold milk when my father asked me what colour would I like to have for the family. The usual Brunei wedding is that the close family will be wearing the same colour 'baju cara melayu' and 'baju kurung' or better know as 'Sekayu'. I asked him why was it my decision and my father said 'Well this is 'Your' wedding'.

BAMM!!

As if my head my hit by a 9 degree Stiff flex shaft Titleist driver. I am getting married this year and we had a 'Father Son' talk about how my preparations have gone so far. We still ahve som many things to do but at this rate, I figure we are doing a reasonable job at planning our wedding.

So I will start counting down the sunsets before I am binded lawfully and rightfully to my Fiance that one afternoon in June 2007.

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More of Gadong Wet Market

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A morning spent @ Gadong Wet Market

This is an excellent piece by Bruneian on the Gadong Wet Market which gives us an insight into the everyday life of a market seller in Brunei. More pictures here, here, and here.

Located near the famous Mall gadong. It is one stop shopping center for chefs and alike. Loads and loads of raw materials for them here, waiting to be processed. Anakbrunei, zadm and I went there yesterday (Sunday, Jan 8th) to do 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 pelita ni” to the ones we took pictures. Translation: Your pictures will be published at Pelita Brunei (weekly local newspaper published by the government).

Everytime we took a snap, they always asked where we are from, “Dari Media permata kah?” (Are you from Media Permata?). Another local daily published malay newspaper. Anakbrunei told them “inda, dari Majalah Juran” (no, I am not, I am from Juran magazine), a magazine published by our neighboring country specializing on fishing. I just smile and chuckle every time Anakbrunei tell them that.

As we ventured out deeper into the market, things are getting more welcoming. They offered to post for us. After a while, we become friends to them. They started to waved to us and asked us to take pictures of their counterparts, stalls and fishes.

I stumbled upon familiar faces, in fact lots of them, as most of them came from Kampong Ayer. We used to go to the same school together. Some lived nearby my father's house at Kampong Ayer. It’s been ages. Good to talk to them again.

After 40 minutes or so we mingled with those friendly fish mongers, we started to move upstairs. Now, this is different sceneries. Oh, I forgot to mention that there are 2 stories. The ground floor is where all the fishes, meat, chickens and sort are sold. The first floor is where the fresh vegetables, fruits and daily consumables like eggs are sold.

I was surprised. Why is this different? I thought it should be full of people as the ground floor but it is almost empty. Not many people are venturing to the first floor. I wonder why. We could see all sort of vegetables and fruits available there but yet, the floor is almost empty.

They also enquire where we are from and hoping that we are from the local media. They would like for us to write article about how bad their businesses over there are. Some even told us that they can’t even a single dollar in a day. Now, that is really bad. We were day on Sunday, and it’s supposed to be the busiest day for them but yet, we hardly see any customer on the first floor. There are lots of them ground floor thou.

I wonder why they don’t go and venture upstairs. Perhaps they don’t like to climb up the stairs? They don’t know the existence? Or they prefer to go to Tamu Kianggeh to buy vegetables? I also realize that there are no “advertisement signage” pointing to the first floor something like “Sayur dan buah-buahan segar di tingkat atas” Trans: Fresh vegetables and fruits available upstairs. Perhaps not enough advertisement or coverage for them?

We stumbled upon something interesting. An office! Right next to the stalls at the back-end. I convinced Anakbrunei to take a picture of the office together with the stall next to it. Couldn’t get a good angle, since this is strictly a 50mm only outing. We need wider angle lens! But, promise is still promise…

The guy told us that this is the bandaran office (municipal office). Well not their main branch but this office is for administer the market. All those admin works specifically for the wet market. He told us that this is just a temporary office since their original one is taken over by the relocated fish mongers from Kianggeh floating market. I read it on the newspaper where all those floating boats at Kianggeh is now relocated to the Gadong wet market. They are not allowed to sell there anymore.

Wait a minute, a thought strike. My father still lives in Kampong Ayer and he does not have a car. He only shops at the nearby Bandar Seri Begawan. A friend of mine that has a stall on the ground floor told me that they could use the public transport, the bus. Now, that’s one thing that is alien to us. My father hates public transport. He rather walks from gadong. Simply because he does not feel safe, he told me. Well, he don’t have to. That’s what a son is for. I am just a call away from the wet market .. hehehe The market is also accessible using water taxi, which is if it’s a high tide. It was a low tide yesterday.

We end the trip by having iced milo and kasturi ping kosong. There is a restaurant on the first floor. This is where the fishmongers fill their hungry stomach after a hard morning trying to sell their stocks. Interestingly enough, some of them brought their own fresh fish there and asked the ladies to cook their favorite dish for them. Now, that’s something out of ordinary. Bring your own fish and we cook them for you.

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Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddin III Mosque

This is probably the most photographed mosque in Brunei. The Masjid Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddin III. It is located in the heart of the state capital, Bandar Seri Begawan. In my opinion, it's the most beautiful mosque in Brunei.

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Welcome - Selamat Datang!

Welcome to VB2008! This site is created in the run-up to Visit Brunei Year 2008 to provide as much "informal" information to those who will be interested to visit Brunei Darussalam, the Land of Hidden Treasures, in 2008.

The format of this blog will be simple and informal. The authors comprise of the members of Brunei Darussalam's blogosphere who have kindly agreed to contribute their thoughts in words and images, all in the name of promoting Brunei Darussalam as a must-go destination in 2008!

Hope you enjoy visiting this site as much as I'm certain we will enjoy contributing to it!!

Cheers
AnakBrunei

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