Life’s So Beautiful

Posts Tagged ‘Brunei’

I have been planning to make  a trip to Brunei for quite a while now but last minute circumstances forced me to postpone my trip on two previous occasions. This morning I decided to just make the trip so my wife, my younger son Les and I left Miri for Brunei at about 8.45 am this morning.

It has been quite a few months since my last visit to Brunei. Arriving at the Malaysian side of the Sg Tujoh border, I was surprised to see the many new shophouses under construction. A lot of the existing shophouses there seem to be “white elephants”. Maybe the new shops will boost the economic activity at the border once completed. I would not be surprised to see restaurants, pubs and so-called “foot reflexology and spas” commencing operations there. These “foot reflexology and spas” are all over the places in Miri and have given rise to a lot of complaints especially from housewives whose husbands seem to be coming home late nowadays. The population of “dragon ladies” or ladies from China have shot up quite a lot in tandem with the mushrooming “foot reflexology and spas”.

We went through the Malaysian immigration and custom checkpoints without much delay but it was a different story on the Brunei side of the border. We got through the Brunei immigration checkpoint quite promptly but getting through the Brunei custom checkpoint was a test of your driving guts. They had three immigration checkpoints open but only one custom checkpoint was open. So cars from the three immigration checkpoints all converged on one custom checkpoint. You need a bit of driving guts to manoeuvre your way into the  queue. From my past experience, I was able to get my car to the checkpoint quite quickly. I was asked to fill a vehicle registration form so I had to park my car and fill the form. I guess that slowed down our journey a bit.

Cars from three immigration checkpoints converging on a single custom checkpoint

We arrived in Bandar Seri Begawan at about 10.30 am. We went to Hua Ho Supermarket in Yayasan Complex where I bought some chocolates for my ex-colleagues in Teck Guan Plaza. I went alone to the fifth floor of Teck Guan Plaza intending to give my ex-colleagues there a surprise. But instead I was in for a surprise! The boss had given them the day off today. Luckily my previous assistant Marissa was doing overtime and we had a good chat for over half an hour.

Teck Guan Plaza where I worked for 10 years in one of the offices on the top floor

After leaving Teck Guan Plaza, I went to the waterfront to take some photos of Kampong Ayer (Water Village) where people live in houses built on stilts above the river. This is one of the major tourist attractions of Brunei.

Kampong Ayer

Water taxis with the awter village and a royal palace in the distant background

A woman boarding a water taxi to go to Kampong Ayer

Proceeding on to Yayasan Complex to meet up with my family, I took some photos of Yayasan Complex and the famous Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddin Mosque. The Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddin Mosque is one of the most spectacular mosques in Asia Pacific and is one of the major tourist attraction. The mosque is constructed on an artificial lagoon near the banks of the Brunei River. There is a marble bridge connecting the mosque to a ceremonial ship-shaped structure. The main dome of the mosque is covered in pure gold! The weather was very hot and I was sweating profusely on my forehead when I finally met up with my family.

Yayasan Complex with the Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddin Mosque in the background

Another view of Yayasan Complex and the Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddin Mosque

The famous Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddin Mosque

Another view of the mosque

The Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddin Mosque and the ceremonial ship

We went to Teo Poi Hoon Restaurant in Kiulap for lunch. We opted for the set lunch for three consisting of sweet corn soup, fried broccoli, salad prawn and butter chicken plus  iced “cincau” (grass jelly) for dessert. This set lunch was very reasonably priced at B$38……we enjoyed the food.

Sweet corn soup...nice!

Brocolli fried with carrots and mushrooms

Salad prawn with papaya and winter melon.....yummy!

Butter chicken.....a bit too sweet but still not bad.

We popped in to the nearby Hua Ho Supermarket to continue shopping……ended up buying quite a bit of foodstuff and tidbits including a cheese cake and a kahlua cake.

On our way to the Gadong SupaSave, we stopped at NBT to take photos of their impressive Christmas decor. NBT Brunei has always put up very creative Christmas decor every year. And I must add that I have not seen such nice Christmas decor in Sarawak.

At Gadong SupaSave, we bought some foodstuffs and tidbits again before popping in to the Sin You Me  Restaurant to have a drink and to wait for my friend Ken. After chatting with Ken for half an hour or so, we began our journey back to Miri. We left Bandar Seri Begawan at about 4.30pm and arrived home in Miri at about 6.00pm. Because it was  a day trip and partly due to the hot weather, we were real tired on reaching home.

Buah dabai is native to Sarawak and Brunei. The skin of the oblong-shape fruits are white in colour when immature, turning blue-black when ripe. The flesh inside is white or yellow and covers a single large three angled seed. The skin is edible but some people don’t like to eat the skin so they just suck out the flesh and throw away the skin. It is good to eat the skin as it contains fibres. But don’t be alarmed if you happen to see black traces in your faeces……they are the skin of the dabai, haha!

The fruits cannot be eaten straight from the trees. They have to be  soaked in hot water (about 55 degree Celcius) until they soften (Never use boiling hot water as that would make the fruits taste weird). Then either sprinkled with a little salt or soy sauce plus sugar and shake lightly.

Softened dabai with soy sauce and sugar....yummilicious!

The inside of a dabai

Dabai seeds...they are tough and you need a chopper to break them into halves.

The kernel or nut inside the seed is also edible. You need a chopper to hack the seed into half and then just use a toothpick to pry out the kernel. Be careful when you are hacking the seeds…they may fly off like missiles! If these “missiles” hit someone’s eye or a glass window, it can cause damages, so be warned!

Two dabai seeds chopped into halves

The kernel inside the seed