CNY Trip

Thursday - 7 Feb

Woke up early to finish packing for my Brunei Trip to attend a relative's wedding. Me and family used two cars for the (almost) whole family. I was so lucky that I didn't get to be the designated driver as I was a passenger in my dad's car. I don't think I can't quite bear the 6 hours journey, plus looong journey is such a good time to sleep :) We started our journey from Papar around 9 in the morning, and finally reached Brunei around 3-4pm. I can't quite tell the journey stories as I was sleeping most of the time. Heheh...

In front of our hotel

When we got there, we went straight to the groom's house and filled our tummy :P The camps were all set-up, and I can hear the gambus player setting up their equipments. Since they wanted a traditional wedding, gambus players were imported from sabah. I also took the time to check out the McMansion next to the groom's house. Heheh...

After cleaning up at our hotel, me and family went to the Malam Berbedak which was held at the groom's house. I have no idea what Malam Berbedak represents, basically it's groom/bride sitting on the pelamin and having the people 'merenjis' or so-called blessing the groom/bride. Usually people who being asked are married people, and they would be given a gift for doing the merenjis thing. My mom was lucky to be among the first ones, and got a Soga Glass Bowl. Talk about expensive taste huh... Usually in sabah, they would only be given a kain sarong. Hehehe. Of course the other guests were given some knick knacks (so-called campuran) as well.

Left: Our goodies for the night, Right: Mom's gift for merenjis

After the whole merenjis thing was over, all the guests were invited to dinner. Also, the gambus players started playing their songs, followed with some makcik and pakcik joget in front of the others. heheh. I guess they were such sport when it comes to dancing. I could barely move my body (talk about 0 body movement). While the veterans were dancing, I took the chance to to rest in a super-cold aircond inside.

check out where i rested, it was a room full with door-gifts (even the gifts need aircond!)

Went back to the hotel around 11 to rest.

*****

Friday - 8 Feb


Had an early start today to explore some shops in Brunei. Went to few places to check out what they have, but most of the stuff are more pricy than KK. So say goodbye to shopping in Brunei. However, I did get myself two tops which I thought a real bargain :) They are shirt-dress (very gossip-girl like) which supposed to hit my mid-knee but it reached my knees. I might have to send them for alteration, and finally I can pretend I'm in gossip girl (I wish!).

The fuel price in Brunei is cheaper than msia, however they do limit fuel purchase from non-Bruneian cars. The bad thing is that they limit to BD6.00 for diesel and BD10.00 per day for SELECTED petrol station. I think that's absurd, how can you encourage tourists to come and enjoy the rest of the city if there's limitation on how far can you go.

We had to cut the shop-seeing short since there's a nikah ceremony that afternoon. The nikah ceremony was short and I got another knick knack (Butter Cookies in tin) to add in my bag! I love free goodies :) I found the nikah ceremony was a bit odd since it was held at the groom's house which usually being held at the bride's house (or mosque), PLUS the bride wasn't even there!!! How did they get the bride's agreement and signature??? 3G? Wedding teleconference???

After the nikah, went back to hotel to change and spend the night exploring parts of Brunei. I realized few of Brunei town names have those -ong ends. Let's see, there's Jerudong, Tutong, Sengkurong, Gadong, and probably there are few others that I haven't heard yet.

******

Saturday - 9 Feb

Check out from the hotel and went to relative's house for our last night's in Brunei. I tell you, most of Brunei homes have this immaculate neatness in their house that I envy. Maybe they have this anal-retentiveness that I don't have. Heheh.



After dinner, me and others decided to check out the old dead Jerudong Park. I remembered going there in high school and awe-ing it. It was like Brunei has its own Universal Studio and back then it was free entrance! But went we reached there this time, it was sooo dead. They started charging for entrance (with non-existant rides even!).

For sight-seeing, it's BD1.00, rides charge for kids BD3.00, and rides charge for adult BD5.00. It was so sad walking in the park, most of the rides were gone (most likely being sold), and they only had few rides left (5 specifically). I guess they didn't have a lot of visitors over the year, thus forcing the owner to sell some of the rides. I think it's too bad for Brunei since it probably one of the attractions that Brunei has.

From wikipedia, it mentioned that the cost for Jerudong Park was $1 billion and was built and funded by the rich Brunei government. It also mentions about the size of the park which is larger than phase one HK Disneyland. I remembered those days, it took us hours to finish touring the park. They had celebrities such as Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston performed in the park's Ampitheatre. Good news: In the future, they plan to invest in new rides after selling off all the old rides. I'm crossing my fingers on that one :) Read more about Jerudong Park here.


While the rest of the family spent our time in Jerudong Park, my mom and my sister went to the groom's house for the Berinai ceremony (There are too many ceremonies, I know!!!). They had lucky draw (even tv!) and some karaoke I guess, but too bad neither my sis nor my mom won anything. I already wished they won the tv and I can finally have tv in my room :(

*****

Sunday - 10 Feb

Went to wedding which looked like a big wedding with big invite list. My cousin told me there were 27 camps! Hmmmm, too many I supposed. They even had a group of motorcycles escorting the groom's car. Not only the wedding is big, but I've got a fancy door gift from the groom's family. Combined door gifts for my family, we've got 9 of these! I guess we'll be using these for Raya this year :)

We left Brunei after the wedding, but was stuck at Limbang/Temburong since the water level at the river was high and we couldn't cross it. Stayed in Limbang for the night, it was a quiet city as most of the shops closed before 8pm. I guess we needed the rest for our morning journey.

Door gift from the groom's family

****

Monday - 11 Feb

My dad woke us up at 5.30 am! We started our journey at 6.30am, and thank God we got to cross the river. Reached home around 1pm, and how glad I was to finally be home.

**will post pictures soon