Bumi Bertuah Bumi Berkat

It was interesting to hear the old history of Bumi Bertuah being reminded again around a coffee table on a Friday afternoon after what has been a long and busy week in the office. That Sultan Sharif Ali, the third Sultan was a descendant from our Prophet through his grandsons Sayydinia Hassan or Sayydinia Hussin. Not long after he arrived in Brunei from Taif in the Arabian Peninsular, he was married to a daughter of the second Sultan, Sultan Ahmad. He became the third sultan on the death of Sultan Ahmad in 1425.

The 15th century was a period of contrast between the seat of Islamic civilisation i.e. the Middle East and South East Asia. Middle East was in upheaval with competing dynasties such the Ottoman and the Mamluk. South East Asia however saw a rapid propagation of Islam and kingdoms after another became Islamic sultanates. With the arrival of Sharif Ali, Bumi Bertuah also became officially an Islamic sultanate. Sharif Ali was famous for inheriting Pedang si-Bongkok, believe to indicate that he was formerly an Emir of Mecca. Because of his piousness, he was known as Sultan Berkat (meaning 'blessed'). He was the first to call Brunei as Darussalam. He constructed the first mosque. May the Berkat last forever to make this Bumi Bertuah as Bumi Berkat.

Island of Hope

A fly-pass through this island still showed that it is still a piece of barren land. The raised hope, over a decade now, for a mega port is still very much a hope. In those ten years, many other ports have been expanded and countless contracts and partnerships have been signed, honoured and blooming. Here as I was looking out from the plane, a feeling of despair and hopelessness crept in. The diversification drive is not happening fast enough. The country's GDP is shrinking, quoted at -1.9% in 2009, -1.9% in 2008 and 0.2% in 2007. It does not matter whether these are accurate numbers or not, there is no question that we are lagging behind other countries let alone to compete with booming economies the like of China and India. A lot really need to happen if we are to aspire to achieve the Vision 2035.

Entrusted

Exactly two years ago, I was wondering where most of the guys that I shared the same dormitory in Singapore over 30 years ago have gone. Two years ago there were only a handful of them up there. But how things have changed. And just now when looking at the list of medal receipients from His Majesty and also looking at those who are now filling key positions -amazing - there are now ten who are either permanent secretaries or deputy PS, and two are deputy ministers. Indeed these are key positions entrusted upon them and I am sure that they will do their utmost for the good of the nation.

Above the Clouds

It's like deja vu, we were here 3 months ago and here we are going through our paces climbing up the same mountain again. This time I have managed to convince my eldest and Noruen to join. It was also an opportune time to take the mind off from work and made full use of two public holidays during the week. We flew on Monday and came back today.

The 85 km taxi ride from the coast up to the mountain on Monday was accompanied by a torrential rain, roads were flooded and driving uphill under such condition was quite hazardous and not good for the faint heart. It was also enough to make us wary that our foot climb the next day might never happen.

But lo and behold, it was sunshine and clear sky when we reached our hotel - the Kinabalu Pine Resort. The place wasn't something that I had expected, internet could give quite deceiving impression, but overall the location was fantastic with the summit of the mountain in full view.

Fizah was a bit awed looking at the peak and was probably thinking what has she been taken into.

We started off at 8 am in the morning, much earlier than the previous trip. We had a petite lady guide, who

immediately offered to carry my heavy ruck sack that weighed 12kg. I was a bit apprehensive to let her do it but then she told us that she is used to carrying heavy load and that's part of her job to earn a living.

Later we found out that she is actually a very able lady, was overall 6th in the ladies ranking amongst Malaysian in the famous Kinabalu mountain race. She was able to run to the summit in 2 hrs and 22 minutes.

Her best time going up and down and running a further 5 km to the finishing line at the Kinabalu Park headquarter, a total distance of 24 km, was 3 hrs and 45 minutes. I found that

mind boggling. She has climbed the mountain over a thousand times!

Our climb up was slow. We let the two girls made their own paces. We finally reached Laban Rata at 3270 m height in just short of 6 hours. Everyones were tired. Apart from me, the kids didn't take the pre-trip preparation too seriously. Add to the misery were a few burst of cold rains while climbing into the clouds. But overall we were lucky as there were no such torrential rains like the day before.

At around 2.30 am in the morning, we started our final ascend. Faris stayed

back as he was again hit by attitude sickness, but mainly because he had done it before and didn't want to go through the ordeal again. Noruen turned back after 1.5 hours as she too wasn't feeling well. That left me and Fizah to wade our way to the summit.

We were told not to take too many stops and just take small steps to go up. We did that and reached the crowded summit well before 6 am. People seemed to be waiting for the sunrise before heading down. Imagine how it looked like when something like one hundred climbers were just squatting and sitting on the rocks up there. There was nowhere to go apart from just waiting near the top. In the end we managed to take our obligatory photos at the summit.

We made our way down. From Laban Rata it took over four hours to reach the gate. The taxi trip to our hotel in KK was again constantly interrupted by torrential rain. The taxi driver (the same one again) was saying that the rains were a sign of good prosperity!

That was my fourth climbs to the mountain, admittedly still a long way to beat my father who has scaled the Mount Kinabalu seven times before. I hope to accomplish the same feat. But for now I have set my sight to another mountain.

Kids in the Wild

Kids were back. They have been away for 8 days, travelling on foot, bus, boat and AirAsia!

They have been hopping from one place to another. One of the location they stayed overnight was like a long house deep in the wild and onlyreachable by boat. That was the location where they could see Orang Utan, elephants and so on.

Apart from the many walks, they have also been doing lots of physical activities, so much so they were aching and tired when they reached home. But I told them they won't have many days to rest as they will join me to another endurance trip

in a couple of days time!

Dumping Ground

While looking for car tyres, I saw this pile of used tyres being sold at incredibly low prices. They are as low as $15 a piece. Some are clearly worn out, imported from neighbouring countries without any set standard, to fill a growing niche market for people who cannot afford to buy new. Not only do they pose unknown but serious danger to the new users, but also create an unhealthy industry for the country - dumping ground for used material from 1st World countries.

These are not the only things. One could get used car parts, engines and even car body chasis. And then there is another iniquitous industry - the widespread sale of non-genuine car parts which are almost difficult to differentiate from the original parts. Somebody need to stand up on this.

Angelic Beach Spot

Yesterday our niece had a birthday do on a beach spot known as the Angel Beach somewhere along Seri Kenangan beach in Tutong, a place that is gaining popularity amongst the public.

The spot is a bit secluded, available for rental, and for that you get a few sheds, BBQ hut, shower and toilet facilities and so on. And you don't have worry about annoying youngsters or noisy bikers or fighting for space on the beach.

We are not regular beach goers which is a bit sad considering that there are so many gorgeous beaches in the country. I guess that when things are a plenty, we tend not to appreciate and do not make full use of the gifts given to this land.

What is even more sad is that when people go to the beach, they have complete disregard for cleanliness and often left behind plenty of thrash. Nonetheless it is good to know that there are also plenty of Samaritans in the country who go out during every weekend just to pick up those thrash or other people's undoing.

A Group of Friends

The house is a bit quiet this week, Faris and Fizah are on a week long school trip to a place formally known as Jesselton, heading eastwards to Sandakan and so on. They will be spending time going back to nature, seeing Orang Utan, into the mangrove, the national parks, the mountains and the beaches. Will be pretty exciting.

But most of all we will be quite curious to know how they survive a week without laptop, without access to FaceBook or other social cyber network. Kids nowadays are just blessed with so many things in life, every now and then it's good to let them out and appreciate mother nature.