How Small We Are

This ia an amazing view of the sun that captures a huge fireball on its surface that is so big that it can wrap up 100 Earths in it. The fact is the size of the sun is so mind-boggling, it is so huge that it is equivalent to 1,300,000 Earth.

In an article in Daily Mails recently here's what it quotes.

"Forget Iceland's volcano. If you want to see a really big eruption, you need to head to the Sun. This astonishing image - captured by a new Nasa space telescope - shows a ferocious solar flare looping out the Sun with the power of 100 hydrogen bombs. The ring of fire, heated to tens of millions of degrees, stretches out tens of thousands of miles - and is so big it could contain more than 100 Earths."

So next time when you have a problem, just look at the bigger picture. We are very small and so insignificant.

Cloud of Ash

The effect of the volcanic eruption in Iceland is unprecedented and has caused a huge impact on human mobility and economy. This is not only a European problem but a global one as for example banana and fruit growers from Central America to Africa are losing millions of dollars in income everyday as they cannot supply fresh products to their European customers.

It also impacted yours truly as a planned travel yesterday had to be cancelled. Indeed when looking at the statistic on how much the volcanic ash has interrupted flights, the numbers are mind-boggling. Literally thousands of flights have been cancelled, over a million people are still stranded and the end of the chaos is difficult to predict.

But this is mother nature trying to release the strains due to the movement of the earth. Iceland is right at the mid-continental rift known to possess many volcanoes. It is an amazing country to visit but in that calmness and amazing countryside scenery lies a real ticking bomb where the many volcanoes could come alive at anytime.

With the recent mega earthquake in Chile, it is a sign that the earth is trying to release the build-up strains and tensions that have been building massively over the years or decades.

It is not surprising to see that this year we already saw many large earthquakes such as in Haiti, Sumatra and just last week in China. Along with that some volcanoes also became alive. It will not be surprising if some other volcanoes will become active again. Time will tell.

Dying Heart Beat

It's a nice view of the Capital. It went through a fast development in the 80's before coming to a sudden halt. Now, everybody seems to be in a planning mood, a Master Plan is in the making.

Obviously with recent experiences with most new things some superior beings called 'consultants' had to be engaged. It would be interesting what would come out but my hunch says that there will not going to be many surprises but the obvious stuff.

It would be nice if the focus of the country's commercial and business activities are back to where it used to be - in the capital. But with the continuous explosion of other commercial centres that are dotted everywhere, BSB has became a ghost town and is losing its heart beat.

I Dream a Dream

The sports world is hotting up right now. We are in the middle of the Golf Master and the much awaited reappearance of Tiger has not been a disappointment so far. Tiger is prowling with a vengeance. Then the F1 is well underway and a good mix of unexpected results so far are definitely going to make the season more interesting than the recent past. Football is also heading towards end of its season where clubs are scrambling to stay in contention for cups and titles. The most amazing match was the 4-1 trashing of Arsenal by Barcelona, must be an amazing feeling for the Catalans supporters to be at their stadium to witness Messi's brilliance in that game.

Bumi Bertuah seems to be in a doldrum when it comes to sports recently. I remember how it was like when thousands thronged the national stadium when the national football team was doing well in the Malaysia cup. Everyone really wanted to be there at the stadium for every home match. The culmination was winning the Malaysia Cup in KL, yours truly together with more than 10,000 people made the journey there.

No doubt glory in sport or even the staging of a major sport event does have a strong positive impact on population's mood and the nation. It acts as a springboard to aspire and cultivate the 'can do' mentality. A lot of countries invest quite a lot on this. Two of our neighbours are hosting F1 race every year. Not that I am hoping that we host an F1 race here but at least get our football team back into the international fold.

Limping on Sore Legs

Two days after the big climb our legs are still hurting. Going up and down the staircase or simply walking are no longer trivial things. We wondered what if we have not done our fitness programme before the climb, it could have even been worse.

We met quite a lot of people when climbing the mountain. One guy told us he just came back from spending a week in Pokhara in Nepal. That interested me a lot and we ended up having a long conversation on the subject. It is one of the ambition I want to fulfill to trek among the highest mountains in the world and experience the unique culture of Nepal. My kids always teased me that I must be going through a mid-life crisis. I told them all these new things are to stop life from becoming too predictable. Back to this guy, he said it was actually quiet affordable and some treks are relatively easy compare to climbing Mount Kinabalu. Accommodations along the treks are a plenty ranging from US$5 to US$100 a night. Pokhara is always described as one of the most beautiful place in the world! I am not sure if Everest could be seen from there although it is only about a hundred kilometres away. Kathmandu is actually closer to Everest and a short flight is required from Kathmandu to reach Pokhara.

Ok ... back down to Earth now, there was a lot of news on car recalls nowadays. One company in particular is in the spotlight - Toyota. It has announced a major recall programme on a number of its models. One of the big issues is the sudden acceleration of one or two of their new models. It culminated with the news in the US that a police patrol car has to assist in stopping a runaway Pruis. But the whole incident now turned out be doubtful but was enough to put a serious dent on Toyota's reputation. It seemed that in a society where suing and legal proceeding is a norm, people in the US are more likely to come up with all sort of means and excuses to sue. Ironically I had similar experience with a Toyota brand 10 years ago. The car had just came out from its first servicing when after a kilometre away from the dealer's garage, the car suddenly accelerated. Luckily it has a manual gear, I managed to put it into neutral and parked on the side road. The car continued to revved up until the engine gave way. In the end I managed to get a new car replacement (was told that was the first time that was ever done to a customer here!) and thought until recently that was an isolated incident. Things have moved on. We don't have a Toyota in our garage anymore.

4 km above Sea Level

It was something that we have been thinking about since last year and we just made the final go on it last week by booking the package. But physically we have been training for it every weekend for the last 4 months.

The last time I climbed the mountain was 20 years ago. I could not remember how hard it was. Now that I did it again, I found it was grueling, tiring and very cold up there.

There are porter services available to ease one's climb but then I thought of doing the hard way by carrying a 10 kg backpack. But this was nothing compare to what the porters were carrying. A group of lady porters were carrying 20 kg of restaurant supplies each and they were paid RM100 for that. They could be earning RM3000 per month if they do it everyday - not bad. The male porters are normally for tourists. They charge from RM8 to RM10 per kilo. I saw one was carrying 38 Kg. That's a good RM300 worth of work.

We followed a guide but left him and the group behind as we were eager to climb on our own pace. We managed to overtake lots of porters and climbers and yet it still took us 5 hours and 15 minutes to reach the staging camp which is called Laban Rata before the final climb.

At times we climbed an endless trail of wooden and rocky steps for an hour before taking a rest at the resting huts dotted along the trail. The air was getting thinner as the elevation increases and most people do get slight headache because of that. So a good rest and sleep is required to acclimatised before the final climb.

The Laban Rata could accommodate up to 140 climbers and is normally full. One has to book months in advance if not to be disappointed. The whole place is now run by Sutera Habour and has became very expensive. Facilities are still pretty basic though.

We woke up at 1.30 a.m. in the morning and started the final ascend, some one km vertically up the summit. The final climb has to be done in darkness, albeit aided only with a touch light, as the climb is more daunting. There are no longer any vegetation and everything are just barren rocks. From the top, one could see countless small lights from the villages below, a sight one normally see when flying at night.

Faris was the only kid amongst the 140 climbers. Children are more vulnerable to the thin air. And it was hard for him. Most people climbed the final leg at their own pace and talking enough rest. Some people like us just did it slowly, taking regular rest and so on. The weather was very cold and windy.

Finally after 3 hours and 40 minutes we reached the 4000 m mark at the foot of the final pile of rocks. It was just another 80 m. Faris could not do it and he was just too tired. But he has done enough. I could not imagine I would have done similar feat at that age. For most kids nowadays, pampered by their parents and most of the time staying indoor and in front of their computer, we tried our best to give our kids a taste of the real outdoor. Altogether it took us 9 hours from the base to reach the summit. The feeling up there was amazing. The scenery looks unreal. We could see the other mountain ranges and the green lowlands below.

Going down was actually the more difficult part because of the slippery condition and the constant hard impact on the foot and knee. It took us 5.5 hours from the summit to the entrance gate. All in all it was a very tiring trip but more importantly our 13 year old made it. Faris really enjoyed the experience.

A Turmoil World

Trolling the book store today, we found a couple of interesting books to read. One is regarding a person's own account on what are happening inside the many madrasahs in Asia and the different and usually totally opposite perceptions that we and western world have on them.

The other book is written by a well known figure by the name of Chris Patten sharing his thoughts on what awaits us in a new world of the twenty-first century, where the challenges we face will be complex, from energy security to environment to financial and so on. Indeed the past few years have been not only a turmoil period in the financial world but also pretty unpredictable in many aspects.

As we conduct our life, between maintaining our spiritual consciousness and gathering material gains, most of the times it is difficult to balance between the two. On one side, a minority group of people would completely abandoned material gains and throw themselves completely into religious life with uncompromising zeal. That's what the first book talked about. Another group of people, if not the majority, would happily gone into a rat race to satisfy self hunger and desire for everything worth going for to elevate one's standing in the society. These are indeed difficult things to balance. We just all hope and pray that we are given the righteous path as we spend our short life in this world.

Paradise on Earth

It's a bright start to the day. The heavy rains over the last two nights have at least cleared up the air from the recent hazy situation. We took a short flight last night to a place where we have not been for the last seven years. For most people back home, this place is so familiar, it is their annual holiday destination. For us we will be spending a few days at a family's house, away from the hustle and bustle of a hotel and where our kids can meet up with their cousins.

Our first impression of this place has been good. Indeed the whole place is so well developed. One would wonder why Bumi Bertuah cannot be like this. There seemed to be no straight answers.

We made a short hop to one of the island. The water was cold even when snorkeling in the middle of the day. One could easily get sun-burned if not careful. But the kids kept reminding us that it is really a good thing as the sun is a source for generating vitamin D in the skin!

Turun nya Rahmat

After what has been a long dry spell, finally it was raining heavily last night. The earth must have been longing for this for some times. The morning after was really amazing, it was cold, wet and a bit overcast. We saw the rain still drizzled lightly but I guess nobody would mind that. It was such a welcomed change. Hopefully the burned forest will start regenerating again and the brownish scenery will start becoming more green. The outlook is that more afternoon and evening thundershowers can be expected for the next few days. A late season cold surge has brought about increased convective activity over the country.

Most schools start today after the mid-term break. The same goes with most office workers, coming from a break is not easy and psychologically Monday could be quite a challenging day to face with. Luckily I don't have to face the same Monday blue as I am on leave!

Time Off

It's the first day on leave. So far managed to keep self busy, running 12 km and done a few errands at the government offices and shops. But one would not missed from the media that today is Earth Day - it seems to be the order of the day. As like every good teenagers around the world, our kids switched off the lights at home at 8.30 pm for an hour. Nowadays everybody seems to be eco warriors and having global mindset. It is as if everything that we do has to be tied in to some global initiatives. Even sometimes I feel irritated that there are so much global news on television and hardly any local ones. At times I get to know car accidents in some corners of the world but ironically the recent road accident that killed three people back home hardly get reported. At other times I get to watch bush fires in Australia or California but hardly see any coverage of bush fires that are becoming rampant down the road here. Not that I am against having a global mindset but lets not forget our roots as well.

Dry Season

The weather has been dry and hot lately. On my way home yesterday, I passed 5 bush fires. Only one was attended by the Fire Brigade while the rest were left to spread on their own. I guess the Bomba were working overtime and could not handle all the locations. Perhaps this is the time to activate the national management disaster team.

Nowadays we are all measured as to how green we are. Countries are now compared to how many tons of CO2 they produced per capita. Some countries although are big polluters counteract that they still preserved a lot of green belts and pristine forests.

We in Bumi Bertuah are blessed, a large tract of our country still remains fairly undisturbed. Nonetheless the same cannot be said for many commercial areas that are dotted across the country. Most of them lack any planted trees or 'green' initiative in the area development. It seems that the easiest way to develop such areas is to flattened the whole land and uproot all the trees. Once the buildings were completed, next was to pour ton of cements all around them. How sad!

Bumi Bertuah - My Country

The photo was courtesy of a good friend of mine, who took it after watching the national parade. Thanks.

The national flag has now been hoisted down in our front gate. It has been almost a month now that we celebrated the 26th National Day. Time really flies. Back then when I was finishing my high school, the country became independent. Now I am in the midst of my career, perpetually moving beyond my comfort zones to face new challenges everyday.

It was of great interest to read an article from our neighbouring country recently. It begins by saying "regardless how perfect a race car is, it will be inadequate after 20 years. In order to win the first place, the engine must be replaced. It has been 40 years since the New Economic Policy (NEP) was introduced in 1970."

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.