The Lost World Of Brunei – Part 3

18th January 2010. Woke up late for a change. Had lunch at the Japanese restaurant. πŸ™‚

Then we went to Yappy for a while to see Yanti, she was going to leave for Japan today! Incidentally, Orange and Adi were going to leave for Malaysia too. πŸ˜›

MissM, Red Parade (Amni) and I went to the Royal Regalia. Too bad we cannot take any photos inside the premise but I tell you, the museum rocks! I really liked the Bruneian uniforms, especially those of the black soldiers. Very stylish πŸ™‚

Bought some souvenirs for my family and friends back while I was here.

Then off to the airport to see Yanti off first, then Orange and Adi.

Later that night, there was an SRDC preview. I had to check it out and see how the Bruneians did theirs, so I could borrow elements of improvement for ourselves back in Malaysia. πŸ™‚

Met with UpperCrust too – was in touch with her on Twitter until I met her in person! Too bad she wasn’t feeling well (hope it’s because of not me! :-P) Nah, mere coincidence. πŸ™‚

Met Meiji too… and funny thing about Muizz…

Encountered Muizz 5 times today!

1. At the Japanese restaurant (he so happened to be there)

2. At Yappy (he was also seeing Yanti off)

3. At the airport (followed us!)

4. At the SRDC preview (taking photographs as the cameraman)

5. Followed us to McDonald’s and MissM’s house for Smart Money game later!

No wonder his ORI nick is “watchme”! πŸ™‚

Speaking of McDonald’s you might be wondering why I took this pic. It’s special really. Because this is the one and only McD’s in Brunei! πŸ™‚

We were at MissM’s house playing Smart Money until the wee hours of the morning, 4AM!

Was funny. There was one part of the game I had NO CASH AT HAND and I drew an Expense Card: it was a dinner annivessary with my loved one and it cost $15. Clifford had to loan me to pay that off, HAHAHAHA! I called him “Uncle Clifford” ever since πŸ˜‰

Though I finished the games with the least cash at hand, but hey I got out of the Rut… YAY YAY! πŸ˜‰

19th January.

Aww… time really flies when you’re having too much fun. Heart felt heavy and wished I’d stay at least one more day.

Here I said bye bye to Muizz and MissM…

Thanks for showing me around Brunei and thanks for your generosity too! πŸ™‚ I look forward to see you all again back in Malaysia soon… and hopefully when we come to Brunei again – as a group! :-))

The Lost World Of Brunei – Part 2

17th January 2010. Yuli & Yassin’s wedding. πŸ™‚ If not for the wedding I wouldn’t have been invited let alone be in Brunei!

Weddings are big thing here. It’s normal to have 600 – 2,000 people attending a wedding… and there are like, 5-6 weddings on the same weekend!

After the wedding, MissM, Natasha, Clifford, and I went to the Serasa Beach. Only 30-45 minutes from the Kiulap Hotel. πŸ™‚

My first time riding the ATV!

Haha, MissM found a rock of shells and insisted on taking it home. Clifford had to help carry it back and load it on his 4×4!

Later that night, a bigger group of people joined us and we went to the Jerudong Park!

Had fun with the bumper cars (9 of us banging each other haha!), threading on water, the pirate ship, and we actually finished the last 4 rides on… the merry-go-round. πŸ™‚

(to be concluded…)

The Lost World Of Brunei – Part 1

16th January 2010.

After flying back from Jakarta, Indonesia, I spent less than a day in Malaysia before I would fly again to… this time… Brunei!

Many of my friends have never been to Brunei before, even though it’s in the Borneo (and that’s near!)

I wouldn’t have thought of visiting Brunei if not for Motorkross‘ wedding πŸ™‚

It was a short notice but heck, I wanted to make up for my unfulfilled resolution last year, which is to visit 5 countries in a year (not counting Singapore LOL)

Also, a lot of Forex traders in the community are from Brunei, where it all started. So I would expect to meet plenty of familiar faces. πŸ™‚

MissM600 aka Amal Jahairi had been very, very, very kind and nice to me – helped me book a hotel with Internet connection, brought me to some cool places in Brunei, hooked me up with the rest of the friends there. Thanks… “power lah you!” πŸ™‚

I didn’t know what to expect of Brunei at first. Seriously. Many told me that they either don’t know what’s there, and some bluntly said “exactly, because there’s NOTHING there” LOL

Brunei is a rich country, so I was half expecting their airport to be made of gold (my running gag about Brunei, haha!) only to learn how humble their airport and people are as a whole. πŸ™‚

And hey, look who was expecting me at the airport – Clifford Chin (rocco) and Muizz (watchme)!

(Oh don’t forget MissM yea, she’s not in many of the pics because she was the one taking all the pics… but you’ll see more of her soon!) πŸ™‚

First place we went to. Yayasan.

It was funny. There were inscriptions of Jawi on a tablet and I asked MissM to help translate for me. Only to find out she and Muizz are actually ‘bananas’ version of Brunei, HAHAHAHAHA! πŸ˜›

Then we went to Kampung Air (literally translated to “Water Village”). Interestingly, this is where Orange Roshan was born in.

Reminds me of Chao Praya in Thailand.

This is the Nahkoda Manis, said to be of folklore origin. I remember watching one of P Ramlee’s shows – it was about a son who forgotten his mom and went off to married a beautiful woman and lived life forgetting his mom. His mom became incredibly upset that she cursed her son, his wife and everyone else on the ship to turn into stone.

Well… this is the one.

More of Kampung Air – it’s practically a floating village with facilities like school, shops, etc.

Back on land, we met up with Orange Roshan and the rest of the gang – and I was treated to their local delicacy called the Ambuyat!

Unlike conventional food, the ambuyat is a starchy dough that is to be dipped into the cacah (a spice) before swallowing, no chewing!

Had 3 ‘reversals’. Haha, only the traders will get it. πŸ˜‰

Later we went to Dunes cafe. It’s another favorite hangout for the gang, besides Yappy Kopitiam. πŸ™‚

I learned a few new things about them. No wonder they are always ‘on Facebook’ – they bring their iPhones and hook on the net all around the clock! And because it drains more battery, they carry their chargers around too!

Brunei is very, very small – a population of no more than 350,000 people. And since only 20% of the land is urbanized, it’s common to run into familiar faces in a day. And practically almost everyone is connected to each other – distant cousins, uncles, aunties! Oh man, I wonder how they are gonna date! ;-P

With MissM and Tangerine (Wana H Salim). πŸ™‚

YEAAAAAAH

Yanti Ismail thinks she’s ‘hot’ πŸ˜›

Orange promoting Nokia?

Muizz selling off iPhones? πŸ™‚

(to be continued…)

Jakarta: Re-entry

13th – 15th January 2010. It was just more than a week before that I launched my first non-Internet Marketing website ever, PIPsician.com – to attract people who are interested in the opportunities of making money from Foreign Exchange (Forex).

Even though targeted at only Malaysians, surprisingly, many who signed up to my mailing list are from… Indonesia! πŸ™‚

If not for my friend, Dee Ferdinand, I wouldn’t have thought let alone come again to Jakarta, Indonesia. This would be my second time here.

Prospecting the opportunities of opening a new market in a new country. Why not? That’s what I was here for!

So I bought my plane ticket and flew down to Jakarta, Indonesia to conduct a preview on Forex the SRDC way.

Marcus Chang helped provided the Powerpoint slides just a few hours shy before I left for Jakarta. πŸ™‚

15 people showed up for the preview, all of them Dee’s friends and contacts. Was able to close 6 of them to come down to Malaysia for the 23rd January USU class. yay YAY yay! πŸ˜›

Wrapped up the last night here with a trip to one of the malls in Jakarta, ate at the food court with the group. πŸ™‚

Btw, Warong “Buntut” LOL spotted this. In Bahasa Indonesia “buntut” means “tail” but in Malay it means “ass” Haha!

I know I’ll have to be back here in Jakarta again! πŸ™‚

(to be continued in the next post…)