Hidden Treasure

When asked where could this photo been taken, most likely the answer would be somewhere in Malaysia or Thailand. This is in fact in Bumi Bertuah.

We recently had a look at this place, already quite renowned by most people by now, the Mangrove Resort.

I saw a few friends were checking in, the idea of spending and relaxing in our country may be a new thing but that concept is definitely catching up. From here there are quite a number of activities that could be done such as taking a boat ride to watch the proboscis monkeys living in their mangrove environment or simply going fishing.

Dining in the Sky

These past week and month, I had the chance to dine at two of the highest restaurants in our neighbouring countries.

The first was the Equinox located on the 70th floor of The Stamford in Singapore. From the top, one has a good view of the city, dotted with new and old sky scrapper buildings. The whole place seems to be well organised and vibrant. It is a place that I know well having lived here for four years during my student days.

The second restaurant was at the Petroleum Club on the 42nd floor of the Twin Tower in KL. This was my second time here. The dinner started with an interestingly talk on how the whole concept of investing in a project of such mammoth proportion has changed the mentality of a nation. After dinner was followed by a walk across the sky bridge, which was actually the most difficult part of the whole constructions. The sky bridge is actually not directly bolted to the main structure, but is instead designed to slide in and out of the two towers.

Earning a Living

We spent sometimes just looking at the water taxis in Kampung Ayer and observing how these people are earning their living by waiting for passengers in an agreed formative position before cruising out to the horizon. It is a tough job, at the mercy of the elements, rain and sunshine, sweating to earn a modest living.

The school holiday is back again. With the changing in expectation, everyone are more prepared of what to do during this period. When traditionally people only travel on holiday at the end of the year, nowadays people seems to be traveling at every opportunity that awaits. It is a good sign but opportunity lost as most people would travel overseas. The least I would expect is a strong promotion of our KNK or Kenali Negera Kitani or some extraordinary exhibitions going on at the Museum for instance.

I read the comments made by visiting tourists of what impresses them whilst visiting this country - one thing that always sprung out was the strong family way of life here. Strong family ties are quite typical of our Asian culture. But with the modern living, when both parents are working, when there are endless official and family functions to attend in the evenings and weekends, when children are being chauffeured to schools by drivers and pampered by amah at home, that strong family ties are slowly eroding. So when officials suggest that parents should keep a closer eyes on their kids because of the rising problems seen in the country, it seems to me that if we reduce all those endless pompous events and commitments that are dragging parents away from their kids, that would already be a big step towards countering such problems.

Restaurant with a View

Today we saw a panoramic view of Brunei River and Kampung Ayer. This was from Terindak Restaurant located at the Handicraft Centre. I don't know how long this restaurant has been in business but it is definitely quite classy and different. And the view was just amazing.

Today is also when our youngest is coming out of age. He is 13 years old.
In the midst of his reading the satirical Animal Farm book from school, he wanted to read something different. So there he was sitting down reading a slightly more serious book written by Martin Meredith called The State of Africa.

It's a far cry from Animal Farm but similar characters like Napolean, boxer and so on and the doctrine that all animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others are to be found in real life in the State of Africa.

The fact is in the rush of independence and desire for nationhood, similar selfish and self enriching characters plague the continent and have brought most of the countries battered, begging and kneeling on their knees today. It took me months to read this book, but our boy is already deep reading the early days of Rhodesia of what nowadays is called Zimbabwe.

Our Little Book Corner

It has been quiet on this blog over the past two months. That is a sign of how little spare time there is in this busy and demanding modern living.

Workloads have been relentless lately but also the need to do a lot of exercises have moved blogging down in the priority list.

There were also a few other things that needed to be sorted out in the house. One of these things and that took a lot of time was setting up bookshelves and arranging books from our old library. And now finally

the books are in-place in a cosy corner in the house, over a thousand of them collected over the years.

5th March 1978

On 5th March 1978, a group of nine 12-year old met and came to know each other for the first time. They were on a flight to Singapore to study in a couple of schools and became close friends for a number of years before going separate ways to further pursue their studies elsewhere and focusing on their career and family life. So tonight exactly 32 years later, we saw each other again as a group together with our other halves for dinner. Three at least have not met each other for as long as 28 years! Even then we were still missing three who were either overseas or not able to come.

During dinner, amazingly the little detail in those years could be recalled. Good memories are easy to remember - a sign that we enjoyed and cherished those moments.

Everyones have married, got kids and pursuing own jobs in both the public and private sectors.

Some Numbers to Ponder

The school opened for new term last week. I was astounded to read in the paper that there are now about 110,000 students attending schools from the age of 3 to 18 years old. Beyond that age, a few more thousands are studying at HND or university level.

Here are some more scary numbers to ponder. What that means on average they will be about 5,000 school leavers entering the job market every year. With people retiring from our large public sector which I guesstimate to be about 100,000 strong, it would be presumed that around 3,000 jobs are made available to the job seekers every year. The rest are probably supplied by private sectors or new industries or businesses.

Now with the recent extension of retirement age by 5 year, I fear that the annual supply of jobs from both public and private sectors through retirement is all gone. So for the next 5 years, somebody need to find serious alternatives to replace the 25,000 jobs which would have been made available to the job seekers.

Another Statistics on the Road

Yesterday on my way back from Bandar, I saw a couple of vehicular self-accidents along the highway. It was raining heavily. I dreaded to see those lovely cars ending up severely damaged. Normally in accidents like these when people are asked what had happened, the common answer is that the road was slippery and dangerous. One would hardly hear anybody admitting that they were driving too fast on a rainy day in a road that is known to have puddles and slippery spots. There is nothing we can do about the road, so best thing is for everybody to take care of themselves and their cars and to drive even more carefully.

The other thing is the bad habit of not switching on headlamp during heavy rains. The same thing also applies when it is getting dark during dawn or early dusk. Some people reckoned that by switching on their car's headlamp it wasted their car battery life. Some even claim that they have a pair of sharp eyes and don't see the need to switch on the car's lights to see ahead of them. Well, they might have a pair of hawk's eyes, but most other road users do not. Please help them to see your cars before they accidentally hit you.

Trying to be Fit

Early morning running as usual today. But this time I skipped the Bukit Shahbandar as the morning looked a bit gloomy and yesterday it rained heavily half way whilst running at that place. Somehow there is a big difference in the weather between Tutong and Bandar as if these two places are countries apart.

As of today I now almost reached my normal fitness again, managed to run twenty rounds on the track near our home. The track was busy filled by the regular runners who have been doing that over many years. The non-runners perhaps were still slumbering in their sleep. But then we are not renowned for being a sporting nation.

If one were to drive around during late afternoon, one would hardly see people playing football any more. For whatever playing fields in the local schools that were available before, they have now been fenced off to protect the new running track and mini grandstand that were added recently. So the only facilities available to the public are few and far. No doubt facilities are getting better, but our grass roots, our kids, somehow find it difficult to cultivate or pick up any sports. So for a small nation like us, it means only a very small fraction takes up sport. So little wonder when we participate in any international sport event we struggle to win many medals. We only got a gold medal in the last SEA game.

The level of obesity is also on the rise. Most people nowadays do not take any sports at all. If one were to see the doctors, they would always advise that we do some exercise, at least three times a week. Otherwise we will not realise the silence killer lurking in ourselves - that we become weaker, less resistance and get easily fatigue as we aged.

Shaping the Future

It's already three days into the new year and only now I have time to blog. We didn't do any celebration or BBQ on new year's eve. We had a prayer and tahlil function though at the family's home, I thought that was the best and most meaningful event to usher in the new year.

So what will 2010 going to be like. My real wish is that .....we all stop living in borrowed times and start to do the real things for Bumi Bertuah so there will still be real hope for the future for our kids and children when the oil dries out. Too many people are still living in a dream and only thinking of what is the next thing they want to get for themselves.

For yours truly, I hope I could make a real difference for Bumi Bertuah. Insyallah. All the rezeki only comes from God the Almighty. We as human could only do as best as we could.

End of the Year

It's the last day of the year. The year 2009 has been a memorable year for our family. The year when we say good bye to Holland and moved back to Bumi Bertuah to start another chapter in our life.

The final year in Holland was about travelling to places where we have not been before as a family. First was the Catalan city of Barcelona, then the Viking land of Iceland, followed by the homeland of the Umayyad Empire (Damascus) and finally the city of the future (Dubai). Now that we are in Bumi Bertuah, it is a time for deep reflection, settling down in my new job and trying to finish the renovation on our house. The work has been ongoing for nine months. Just now a few crates of new stuff for the kitchen had just arrived. The house is definitely a major construction site with constant noises from drills and hammers echoing the whole house. Hopefully the end of the tunnel is near and the kitchen is the final piece on the renovation work.

Canopy Walk

After about 15 minutes riding on the longboat, we reached a spot by the riverbank where the real hard work would began. From there we walked up along a slippery jungle track, climbing slowly up the hill until we reached a point where wooden steps have been built to help the climb. From there on, the guide mentioned it would a mega climb - a total of 630 steps to climb. Wow!

Once we reached the top, it was an appropriate moment to recover our breath, took a good break before ascending the tall scaffolding structure to experience a canopy view from top of the trees. This time it was something like another 150 steps to climb. Once at the top, it was quite scary as the structure felt to be swaying a bit. Nonetheless the view was amazing.

It was good to see the kids took the challenge and enjoyed the whole experience.

Our National Park

From Bangar, a bus picked us up to to Batang Duri where the road ended. At Batang Duri we went on a ride on a longboat going further upstream. This is the most exciting part of the journey. The Temburong river is no doubt the most amazing river in Bumi Bertuah. This is the only river that has very fast water flow, that is laced with rocky beds and has lots of rapids. The quick change in the overall elevation also makes the water cold and refreshing.

This is my third time here. Previous trips were to the UBD research centre further upstream and to the waterfall or the wasai location. This time around we went for the canopy walkway.

There I met a chap who also works as a tour guide but for another company. He said that this park is no doubt a real beauty and that many foreign tourists were thrilled by the trip and the jungle experience. However he said unfortunately there are hardly many locals who wanted to go here. It seems that the locals twinge on the idea that they have to pay a small amount to visit their own national park. Like today there must have only been about 30 locals who visited the park.

When everything are free in the country - education, health, land, housing, Ramadan dates and an endless list of other things, the idea of paying when in-country is really something hard to swallow. It is as if everyone are expecting that a trip to our own National Park is also to be made free as well.

And the chap said that surprisingly these very people will not even blink an eye when they have to pay for entrance fee to national parks outside the country. At this moment, someone was saying that about 20,000 of our countrymen are holidaying in Sabah, visiting all sort of places. That number is really hard to believe but imagine that right now every hotels and apartments are full and that the "B" licence plates are causing traffic jams over there.

Our Journey on the Boat

I really felt obliged to help with the KNK or Kenali Negara Kita programme. So today I brought the kids and their cousins on a package tour to the last bastion of pristine jungle in Bumi Bertuah or for that matter Borneo! It is so ironic that the kids have been to variety of places during our travel but never to our own backyard - Temburong.

I could recall that the first 'Visit Brunei' campaign programme was back in 2001 and was expecting a lot has been done especially with Temburong being the jewel of the eco-tourism. I am happy to say that a lot has been done although they should also look at those little details as well. For example, the jetty and waiting area for the boat to Temburong were quite basic. The ticket booths look like cardboard boxes and the waiting area was small. And there were no information sign showing the boat schedule or the price. This might be acceptable for the locals but would be quite an inconvenient for tourists who need to be guided by easily visible information.

The outward trip was on the standard speed boat which took 45 minutes to reach Bangar. That was fun. Although the return trip was much better, on a bigger and faster boat. That one only took 30 minutes. I asked the driver what was his maximum speed. I could hardly believe it when he showed me the speedometer - 42 km/hr.

For those like us who seldom go on a boat, the river scenery was breathtaking. First was when passing through the brackish water territory and seeing a never ending sight of mangrove trees lining up the river banks. Then as soon as the tidal influence reached its limit further up the Temburong river, we could see the mangrove trees started to disappear and to be dominated by normal trees.

Foot Therapy

Today is what they called boxing day. It's do with Christmas. The only thing I always associate it with is football - one of the key date in the English Premiership schedule where the half point of the season is reached. It is a public holiday for most here but amazingly all banks were opened for business today. I really pity all those bank workers, they don't really have many days off.

For start of the day today we went to Bukit Shahbandar. The place was not at its busiest. Brought the girls for their first outing there and left them to decide how many hills they wanted to do. At the end they did seven hills in total. Amazing.

At the entrance of the park there is a stretch of walkway containing nicely arranged pebbles. I always wonder what are they for until someone walked through it barefoot. It was a walkway for foot therapy. Of course.

Walking on it was actually quite painful especially if you have soft foot - such is part of modern living where we all now hardly ever walk barefoot.

The Old Village

After Friday prayer yesterday, there was a doa gathering at grandma's house at the old village by the river. This is always a place of many fond memories. Things hardly changed here. Except for the people. Everyone of course are getting older and aging

Sometimes in the busy and bustle of our work life and modern living, being in places like this does take us back to real senses. Life can be quite simple.

We always consider modern living is equal to a high quality of life and standard of living. But, with the entrapment of modern living and increasing work responsibility, we now spend a huge part of our life in the sterile place called the office. Once we are at home, we need to be soothed by all sort of modern gadgets and a never ending variety of food to stay entertained and pacified.

If these are what we considered as high quality of life, then they do not jive with the high cases of health problems that 'modern' people face nowadays. Reading the news a few days back, I was quite surprised that about 2000 people amongst our small population require regular chemo-therapy treatment. Thousands more are suffering from all sort of health problems. These are all probably inevitable as we live in a competitive and pampered world. So going back and spending times in the simple old village is really refreshing, that life after all can be simple, not much stress and pressure around you.

Going to the Mountain

I just heard that a good friend of mine, a mountaineer, had recently made a trip to Nepal and reached the Everest base camp. I really envy his trip. Imagine what it would be like up there on the roof of the world, even if not properly scaling any of the mountains. That would be my dream - to go to Nepal to see the Everest or the Swat Valley in Pakistan to be on the foot of K2. Nowadays however, the Swat Valley is a no go area. It recently fell under the Taliban hands.

Being in the mountain is a real humbling experience. It does bring to the reality of how insignificant we all are. Whilst trolling my old photos, I saw this photo I took showing the picture of a mountain range whilst the plane was taking off from Salt Lake City. Those were the days of travelling easy. Pity that Bumi Bertuah hasn't got a proper mountain. The nearest is KK. That's where currently thousands of fellow citizens are camping, filling every single apartments and hotel rooms available. If one is to go out and about in Bumi Bertuah at this momment, it is eerily very quiet. It seems most people have left the country for holiday.

Tranquility by the River

Such calmness, peacefulness and serenity. The photoshot of the Belait river I took just after sunrise. Our land, Bumi Bertuah, actually has a lot to offer in terms of recreation, tourism and activities along its many unique and unspoilt rivers. But alas, we are still very far from realizing the river's true potentials.

Melangkah KeTahun Baru

A tad late on New Year greeting. Every man has his own price and standing. Whilst thousands, in their best attire and frame of mind were invited to the Hijrah New Year celebration at the Jame' Mosque, yours truly went on a simpler celebration at our local mosque. Rather than a night that is nowadays becoming unfortunately more of a ceremonial ocassion, the function at our mosque consisted of a more down-to-earth lecture on what awaits us all - death.

Every day is a ticking clock. We don't know when the calling will be. Our age is increasing and each day can only be ever closer to the moment when we are finally being called. So things like these always make ones to think of own current priorities and destiny.

One Dollar World

Saw this one in the shop, VCDs selling at $1! The other day we wanted to buy an original PS game and surprisingly the only shop selling that is at the Mall by the cinema. All the others were selling only the 'pirate' types and they cost $2 each! For that cost one only had to buy an adapter costing about 40 dollar to enjoy the latest games out there in the market.

One would say.....the big companies and the artists are already mega rich any where and they can't be that bothered to dig the pockets of poor souls in this far flung country.

This is one of life's dilemmas. The good and bad things are separated by a thin line. In most cases emotions or bias reasoning dictate the decision. In other cases it is already ingrained in our everyday actions. In this case it is clearly a case of stealing the proprietary rights of a company or a person. There are also many instances we see in our daily life for the decisions as who gets what such as jobs, privileges and so on. Indeed the separating line is easily clouded, ever so thinner and difficult to see. At the end everyone is responsible for their own actions.

Not on Holiday

The school holiday is on. The roads and towns are noticeably a lot quieter and the office has also started to be deserted. Most people are already on holiday either heading to KK or KL. So everyone seems to deserve a break. It seems. For us we are staying put. Your truly is not even taking a day off.

Nonetheless it is quite ironic that if we think about it actually our country 'Bumi Bertuah' has a lot to offer in terms of places to visit or for relaxation. There are so many unique locations and sights across the land but in most cases are poorly developed or promoted. So it is really sad to see that everyday large crowd of people are queueing for hours heading to the nearest towns across the border and hoarding what ever they could get their wallets on.

Dangerous Business

There has been maintenance works going on along the highway for sometimes now. This is good as the highway is in real need of some serious repairs. There are many spots with potholes or too bumpy. Some notorious spots are easily transformed into water puddles during rain period. And they have caused many accidents especially to those who were not aware of such spots.

With the road work though, one constant issue that have been highlighted again and again including in the local newspaper is the lack of safety awareness of the contractors. It is as if there is no system at all in terms of supervision or standard. One constant danger faced by road users is the lack of ample warning signs when half of the road is closed.

We took these photos this morning. The first sign says danger 500 m ahead which actually was less than 200m. Then the road suddenly turned into one lane!

Busy Sunday

Today was a day for attending four functions - a wedding, a doa kesyukuran, a hajj welcoming and a tahlil.

First was the wedding at noon. It was at Lambak Kanan and from the look of the signboards at the main junction there must have been five weddings going on in that very place.

There I met one of my former mentor in my workplace who have retired and I have not seen for some five years now. It was good to re-connect again.

Didn't eat much though as the next function would be serving lamb grill. That was for a doa kesyukuran for a close relative who was honoured with an exemplary award during the recent national teacher day celebration. There I was asked to join the dikir, it has been a while since I used my vocal chord for that purpose!

Then the lamb grill. It is becoming a trend now to order lamb grill either for barbecue or family function. Nowadays there are a number of restaurants offering that service but apparently the cheapest one is from Mulaut Abattoir.

Jogging at Tasek

An early start to the morning as we headed to Bukit Shahbandar but alas the place was closed for a major running event. Cars were parked along the highway and the police were not really interested to let mere mortals like us to enter the place. So we went straight to Tasek in Bandar.

It was our first time there and we were quite impressed with how the place has been developed. Apparently the place has some important clients to appease.

Today was quite crowded. Saw a few friends and relatives. Most people we saw were in heavy attire (it can't be that cold) and were just walking.

We challenged ourselves to run through the scenic trail passing the waterfall before running on the hill top track passing the water reservoir. Then we did it again running up towards the water reservoir.

Tasek is definitely a unique place especially to have a beautiful waterfall just a walk away from the heart of the capital town. Indeed one does not need to go deep into the jungle to marvel one of nature's gift.

Suffering in Silence

Sungai Liang Roadblock Irks Motorists

Written by Liza Mohd Friday, 04 December 2009 07:52

Kuala Belait - A police roadblock mounted at Sungai Liang road from 6am to 6pm for the past two days has caused major traffic jams with commuters complaining of being stuck in the snarl for over two hours.

A traffic police noted that the routine roadblock aimed to reduce the rate of accidents in view of the school holidays. However, some people said the roadblock had caused unnecessary traffic congestion and expressed anger and frustration at being stuck in the traffic jam for such a long time.

A big increase in the number of commuters on the road has been recorded in the past two days since the return of Haj pilgrims to the country.

A motorist who drove to the airport to fetch her parents returning from the Haj expressed her anger and frustration as she was caught in the traffic for over two hours and was not able to reach the airport on time to officially welcome them.
Another commuter said the journey from home to his work place usually takes about 40 minutes but now has turned into a two-hour ordeal which was frustrating.

"It is depressing because you are helpless and sitting in the car when you can be doing something productive elsewhere," said a frustrated commuter.

Police noted that the routine roadblock is scheduled to take place for a week.-- Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin