Brunei - Kingdom of Unexpected Treasures (Part I)

A big HELLO to everybody from me, KdotA, and a big THANK YOU to Mizz Kitty and Medulla for inviting me to guest on Talk Is Cheap. Optimistically I call this Part I, in case I am invited to guest again.


Photoblog competition

Sadly, Mizz Kitty and Medulla (did anyone see that film A Room With a View in which a young Rupert Graves plays a medical student who at some point plays the piano and sings a song about the medulla oblongata? Merchant Ivory production, 1986) did not win the prize awarded earlier this month for Brunei's Best Photo Blog. Even sadder is that Talk Is Cheap did not make it into the top five. (More details here). Ho hum, the prize was deservedly won by AnakBrunei, and never mind lah, Talk Is Cheap is not really a PhotoBlog site.

Here is my contribution to the next photoblog competition. It is taken from the suspension bridge at Ulu Temburong at the bifurcation of sungai temburong and sungai belalong (where?!). Um, that is somewhere up in the jungle; it is one of Brunei's unexpected treasures, known only to tourists and expats.


A visitor

Now, Mizz Kitty shut your eyes, I want to share with everyone a photo of a visitor I had recently at home. Apologies for the poor quality, but he did not linger long.


You can open your eyes now, Mizz Kitty!

2007 Lah

The year 2007 has been fascinating, full of exciting adventures and voyages of personal discovery - more of this another time. One of the most important events was finding that I was saying "lah" without even thinking! OMG, I have been here too long! A friend now says she will fine me 1 BND for every occurrence.

Tasek Merimbun

On a less important note, does anyone remember the hype surrounding the Donnavventura team, eh? Those leggy blonde Italian ladies who zipped through Brunei one day in September.

Visit: here if you need reminding.

By a strange quirk of fate, in one of those happy accidents, I and a friend were visiting Tasek Merimbun when these bini-bini Italian were due to drop by. It was a great day, we introduced ourselves to the Dusun community there and were fascinated as we discovered one of Brunei's unexpected treasures once more.

Pak Cik was rehearsing his gulangtangan and even let me have a go on his priceless instrument, more than 100 years old.











There were other muscial instruments and handcrafted artefacts on display as well as local fruit (cempedak, membangan and something red).










After waiting, waiting and waiting some more, Team Donnavventura arrived, and kept everyone waiting yet more while they fixed their appearances and did a photoshoot on the lake. After a simple but delightful Dusun lunch (ikan, ayam kampung, nasi biasa) the lovely lasses were treated to traditional dances performed by the Dusun community.






My companion and I were enchanted by the magic unfolding before our eyes, which is more than can be said of the gorgeous girls, who departed swiftly.











A big thank you to you Jungle Dave, and my companion, for making the waiting tolerable.


Out-of-State

On one of my trips Out-of-State, I found myself somewhere outside Kota Kinabalu, on the road toward Rannau (where the best durian kampung come from). Sorry, I cannot remember the name of the place, but it was a Sunday morning and they had the equivalent of an English village fete. For those of you who do not know, at a typical English village fete there will be, amongst other activities, competitions for vegetables, flowers and fruit. For fruit and veg usually biggest is best, but sometimes quality is taken into account. These competitions are taken very seriously, and the keenest will guard their marrow patch by night lest a desperate rival trashes their crop.

Anyways, imagine my surpprise at finding the same thing in this quaint little kampung, with competitions for the best mangga, rambutan, durian, cempedak, jagung, betek, kelapa and more, even oil palm fruit and blocks of rubber lah! Yakah!


Another of Brunei's unexpected treasures...
Ku merindu lai!









KdotA