....My Weekend Trip...

Last weekend I was away from the country. Just need a break before my work taking over my leisure time! I will blog my journey to that place later.... For now, here is a clue where I have been...

Trip To Sydney from 12-17 April 2008

Compare to the past 3 trips to Sydney that I had, I enjoyed this trip the most cos I managed to go for a proper tour rather than walking around at the city centre.

I went to Sydney with a colleague of mine for our Negotiating Training! Feel kinda insulted when they wanted me to go for this course. Negotiating...who doesn't know how to negotiate! We are asian..we are good at it...hehe...

But after the training..YES I AM REALLY BAD IN NEGOTIATING! hehe...


Arrived Sydney on 12 April 2008 at about 10am Sydney time. Check in to Urban St. Leonard Hotel and rested for awhile. At about 2pm, we decide to go for the city tour using the Hop On & Hop Off Bus. It cost us A$30 which include Bondi Tour and City Tour. We can hop on to the tour bus at any time within the 24 hrs. It was a nice sunny day although the breeze is a bit cold. First, we took the City Tour Bus. We passes by few interesting places which you can see from the pictures I snap. The tour lasted for over 1 hr. Then we hop on to the Bondi Tour. This is the most interesting tour. They bring us around most entertainment area like the casino, sydney opera house and also Bondi Beach. After passing by Bondi Beach, my colleague and I decide to go there tomorrow and spend few hours at the beach.

The weather looks fine on Sunday morning. We took the 10am Hop On & Hop Off Bus to Bondi beach. Along the trip there, the weather started to change. The sky turn dark! Suddenly I see lightning everywhere. What make it worst is that, the bus that I am on is an open top bus! The rain just keep pouring and all of us have to go down to the ground floor to take shelter! Imagine the temperature of the rain! We were really pissed off with this!


So me and colleague decide to spend our time at the Casino, Sky City!! Spend the whole afternoon and part of the evening gambling..hehe..quite fun though. I didn't even realise the time after enjoying myself wasting money on the slot machine! Lost A$20 though.

Monday till Wednesday is basically training training training and finish quite late. By the end of the day, I was drained!

I flew back to Brunei on Thursday. You can see the pictures I took during my trip in sydney here

Tired ... Tired .... Tired ....

Gosh...i'm so tired lah..... don't think I can type any furtherrrrrrrrr...... later saja...

Water Village Tour

I had a wonderful water village tour last Saturday with our company guest from Melbourne. I always thought to myself, is there any interesting place in Brunei that I can bring my visitor to visit.

I only realise that Brunei have so many wonderful places to visit ever since I brought one of my friends from Kuching who have never step foot in Brunei. First thing came to my mine, where can I bring him? I suddenly thought of the Royal Regalia which I have not visited for over 10 years now. We went there and was so amazed of the collection and history of the Royal Families. Then later, i brought him to Brunei Museum in Kota Batu. That was a disappointment. Went there and the air conditioner wasn't working. Apparently, the air-con have not been working for few months! We didn't stay long there cos it was too hot. Then drove him along Jalan kota Batu and then later stop at one of the malay restaurant in Kiulap to try Ambuyat! I was surprised that he really enjoy it... hehe...That was in December 2007.

Last Saturday, I did the same thing to my Melbourne guest (Lisa). Brought her for lunch at Portview and later walk to the Royal Regalia. I have become a tourist in my own country and also her tour guide for that day..nice isn't it?! It was kinda embarrassing though when I mistaken the Secretariat Office as the post office..hehe..

After the Royal Regalia, we walk back to Portview where we catch the boat that we have booked for our water village tour. The tour guide was just a teenager and he can answer the questions that Lisa asked about the water village and wild life. While Lisa busy asking questions to the tour guide, I was busy snapping photos. It was nice to see a closer view of the Istana, although it was just the roof and dome.

The boat driver then brought us to a place where most of the wildlife can be seen. The tour guide will point to us if he see any wild life. The first wildlife we saw was the Proboscis monkey! Good thing I brought my Canon SLR camera with Canon EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6 III USM. I managed to catch quite a close up of the monkey. I totally forgot to bring my binocular otherwise Lisa could have seen the monkey easily. We stayed there for few minutes and we were told that the Proboscis monkey have a shy character unlike those common monkey where it will attack us! hehe... We then move on with the boat ride and we saw monitor lizards and snakes. I was hoping to see the crocodiles but it never appear. Lisa wasn't that excited about crocodiles though.

Towards the end of our wild life tour, we managed to see the Proboscis monkey in a closer view. They were in fact wondering outside someone backyard. We went down from the boat and I managed to snap some close up of the monkey. I always wanted to see a Proboscis monkey and finally saw one and also manage to snap some picture of it.

After we had enough of the monkey, we then head back to the water village and we were brought to the tour guide's house to have a look of a typical water village house. Lisa was really amazed with the house and wondering how they managed to keep the house so clean. The tour guide showed us around the house and also their 'Garage'. Think about it, how can a water village have a garage? Apparently, the garage is just below the house. There is a small door on the floor and lead us to where they park their boat :)

Just before we visited one of the most favourite part of the house, there were about a dozen of tourist from Korea and Japan touring the house. So being curious, I asked the tour guide if their house always been visited by tourist. He told us that, their house have been visited by tourist for the past 9 years and recently they were on the local news. The most tourist they get in a day is 700 people! Imagine how tiring that can be!

Lisa being Lisa, she mingle around with the Japanese and Korean tourist. They are a bit cheeky and humourous by saying they are still single and wonder if Lisa want to marry them! We just laughed. After the tourist left, we head to the last place of the house where Lisa really can't wait to have a look at it! Look at the picture ^_^

I told her that if she is lucky, she will be able to see the human waste product eaten by the fish "Bedukang".

The ride took us about 2 hours. It was really an amazing ride and really enjoyed it. If anyone of you thinking of bringing your visitors for a boat ride, you can contact Hj. Tarsat at +6738874405.

Click here to see more photos

Safety On The Road

One of the major causes of self accident is due to tyre puncture or in Brunei Malay they will say "Tayar pancit!" This video is good for educating us on how to tackle when our tyre pancit. It can safe life!

Ching Ming or Grave Sweeping Day

I'm sure some of you might not know what Ching Ming is all about. Here is a brief history of Ching Ming that I picked from here.

Ching Ming Festival is one of the 24 segments in the Chinese Calendar. It normally falls on the 4^th or 5^th of April because it's depended on the Cold Food Day (105 days after previous year's winter solstice). In the old days, Ching Ming was celebrated 3 days after the Cold Food Day but Cold Food Day was shorted to one day and then abandoned. So nowadays, Ching Ming and Cold Food Day fall on the same day although no one celebrate Cold Food Day any more. Ching Ming is also known as "Remembrance of Ancestors Day" or 'Grave Sweeping Day'. This year it falls on 4^th April.

The date is indicated on the Chinese calendar with the two characters: ching, meaning pure or clean, and ming, meaning brightness. The Ching Ming observance may have had its beginnings as the original religion in China. Ancestor worship is the only native religion to China. All others, including, Buddhism, Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, were imported from outside of China. Confucianism and Taoism originated in China but are philosophies rather than religions. In the philosophy of Confucianism, a form of ancestor worship is incorporated with the virtue of filial piety.

We actually went to clean the graveyard last Sunday as it was the best time for most of us and it's our off day from work. I went there with my parents at around 7ish am! Don't want to go there quite late cos it can get really really hot! As we arrived, there already many people there! Look at the cars that are parked!

Just like every other year, my uncles and aunties will be there too. In this modern day, there is not much needs to weed the area as most of it is made of concrete. Other than that, we do clean the headstone, and replacing the wilted flowers with fresh ones, and also the lighting of incense and burning of imitation paper money.

The burning of the imitation money is for the deceased to use in the afterlife. And also not forgetting burning imitation cigarette, Versace shirt, shoes and even a house ^_^

In addition, food is laid out in front of the headstone as an offering to the spirits of the deceased. The food that we offer are a steamed whole chicken (including the head, which is later twisted off), cut roast pork with crunchy skin attached, and some other food that you can see in the picture. In addition, three Chinese wine cups are arranged above the food.

The head of the household usually begins by bowing three times with the wine cup in hand, then pouring the wine on the ground just in front of the headstone. This procedure is usually repeated three times. Each member of the family comes in front of the headstone pray with the joss sticks. I did see some families eat the food together there at the grave site, similar to having a picnic with their deceased relatives. It is said to bring good luck to eat the food that was offered to the deceased.

Position (Feng Shui) of the grave is really important for the decease so they can have a good view from where they are buried. Seriously, the view from the here is really beautiful. Too bad I didn't bring my proper camera..hehe

After we finish, we went to Teo Chew Restaurant to have our breakfast. And it's nice to gather around with my uncle, aunties and cousins since we rarely meet.

His vs Her Diary

Gosh..I have been so lazy in updating my blog! I guess there isn't much happening for the past few days. Here is a story to share with you why your boyfriend react in a awkward way during football season....

HIS vs HER DIARY

HER DIARY

Tonight, I thought he was acting weird. We had made plans to meet at a bar to have a drink. I was shopping with my friends all day long, so I thought he was upset at the fact that I was a bit late, but he made no comment. Conversation wasn't flowing so I suggested that we go somewhere quiet so we could talk, he agreed but kept quiet and absent. I asked him what was wrong - he said, "Nothing." I asked him if it was my fault that he was upset. He said it had nothing to do with me and not to worry.

On the way home I told him that I loved him, he simply smiled and kept driving. I can't explain his behavior; I don't know why he didn't say, "I love you, too." When we got home I felt as if I had lost him, as if he wanted nothing to do with me anymore. He just sat there and watched T.V.; he seemed distant and absent.

Finally I decided to go to bed. About 10 minutes later he came to bed and to my surprise he responded to my caress and we made love, but I still felt that he was distracted and his thoughts were somewhere else. I decided that I could not take it anymore, so I wanted to confront him with the situation but he had fallen asleep. I started crying and cried until I too fell asleep. I don't know what to do. I'm almost sure that his thoughts are with someone else. My life is a disaster.

HIS DIARY

Liverpool lost 2-0 to Manchester, but at least I got laid.