Tuesday, January 20, 2015

نڬارا بروني دارالسلام

This is my first time to Brunei and I came with an open mind... I did some research of my own. Brunei felt like Batam, clean like Spore and spending power like Msia (iloike). Brunei is a huge country (7x bigger than spore but their population is less than 500k Singapore is 7x smaller and our population is 6M? How crazy is that😳) So in future if you need your space, Brunei is an awesome place. I didn't know that Malay has many kinds, in Brunei there's 7 kinds of Malay ...ouuuuhhh ... Most of them are English speaking erm ... Their Malay is abit different from us... Hee Hee here are some of the words I learnt during my trip.
Pusu - ikan bilis
Lauk - ikan
Awda - Awang Dan Dayang
Inda - Tidak
Bah - is something like lah and is also a Yes 

Here are some of the food and places we went I don't put up all thou I love to but it will bore the audience heeh! 
1st stop night market its 5 mins walk from Radisson Hotel: Jalan Tasek 2203, Bandar Seri Begawan BS8211, Brunei.

A generous serving of fried rice with fried chicken wing cost B$2 ... It's yummy and tasty. 
This was Papa John B$2.50 and I realize the shops around Brunei are all mother, father .... 
This shop is Mann & Marr's Tamu Selara Seafood (we did not manage to try the seafood due to time constraint... Sad lah)
at Kiulap while waiting for Rahim to fetch us ... We sat in front of Mister Softee Machine (you can no longer find Mister Softee in SG) and people watch and we realised people came out of the supermarket (it feels like sheng siong) without plastic bags, some brought recycle bags but most just hand carry ... interesting .... understand from Aliamat, its a no plastic bag day from Friday to Sunday which I think they really did a great job.  In SG they tried but its not working cos the people find that it's ok to pay for plastic bags ... sigh.
We went to the Kg Kianggeh Open Air market on Day 2 and it felt like old geylang serai.

Some of the fresh items at the market ...

Squirrels, I thought they were pets but noooo ... They are remedy for asthma ... I shall not go into details how to prepare it 😖.
This is called Kembayau. It's a fruit. It's black and you have to scrap it off and it shows the yellow skin then you soak it in warm water for awhile and after that you can dip it in salt and sugar and eat. Nope I have not try 😜
Here are all the different kinds of woods and herbs for any kind of sickness
Ehem ... 😏
I so wanted to eat these ... and they are only B$0.50  
Handcrafts and Woodworks... 
There's a lot of cute animals ... The bunny on top of the cage was soooo "friendly" it lets strangers touch it ... Bunnies are known for their timidness, I was quite surprised it didn't hopped away ...
We went to the Istana but the Sultan was not in ... hahhahah ok I'm kidding ... actually Sultan come out of his palace everyday at 4pm and come back at 5pm.  So if you want to catch a glimpse of the Sultan be at the gate by 4 or 5 ... lol ... He don't mind selfies too ...
These are bamboo forks called a chandas, by rolling the ambuyat around the prongs and then dipping it into a sauce, of which there are many varieties. (I am not so smart but I took this info from wiki)

This was what we were waiting for!!!!! Scared and excited to try... 
Ambuyat is a dish derived from the interior trunk of the sago palm. It is a starchy bland substance, similar to tapioca starch. Ambuyat is a national dish of Brunei,[1][2] and become a local delicacy in the Malaysian states of Sarawak and Sabah and also the federal territory of Labuan where it is sometimes known as linut. -wiki
It's was surprisingly good! The problem was we need to swallow it and not chew just swallow. That was quite a challenge hahhaha
The spread ... I LOVE everything on the table including Esa's food 😜 nice Leh the daging but I don't think he took photo of his food lah

Esa show you how to eat the ambuyat .... hahaha 



So grand so so grand sooooooo grand this is the empire hotel ... http://m.theempirehotel.com ... its a 5-star hotel but not a 5-star pricing... the view was gorgeous and so peaceful... most importantly no crowd... We manage to take nice photos and videos

This yellow buns were from Babu's Kitchen: Jalan Pretty, Brunei Muara 
Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei Darussalam 
It's like Yakun or Wangs ... But this bun after its toasted, it still maintain its softness which I like very much ... and here I went crazy with the Milo Ping (SG: Iced Milo or Milo Peng) cos it's sooo good and it reminds me of the old days

Floating Mosque in Brunei (Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque) it looked so majestic 😍😍

Across the road from the mosque there's a pop-up cart and here I ordered my Milo Ping ... I think I drank a total of 7 Milo Ping ... but this shop one not so nice cos she did not use condense milk but sugar

Nasi Katok!!!!!!!!! 
Kampong Ayer: They've gone through changes ... on the right are all the old atap houses with wooden bridges on the left are huge 2 storey brick houses. Understand from Mr Aliamat that brought us sight-seeing Bruniean likes to live together in a huge homes with all the generations there ... Sadly my flat can only fit less than 10 people 😕
Boat ride to Kampong Ayer and Museum ... They have crafts, batik, songket, wood cravings ... Our guide for the day Mr Aliamat ...  
These badass were behind the Kg Kianggeh Open Air Market 


This is my best buy from the trip!!!! lol Tudung Saji! We walked to the open market after our breakfast (btw .... bruneian they don't walk they drive ... ouh yes ... cos petrol cost B$0.50 per litre!!!!!!!) We also saw a few bikes but not on the road... there are so many cars on the road but the roads are not congested and they don't need ERP ... 

Will I be back? ... Yes! I like the vibe here ... It's not over crowded, It's not noisy, the road is so clear and nobody honks ... Drivers patiently wait ... for SG we are constantly rushing constantly honking ... but chill ok theres more to life then honking ...

I also like the forestry area so it does not feel so hot on sunny days... I would love to jog or cycle around my hotel area... Key word love to but I'm too lazy 😅
Food: the comfort food here were so satisfying.  You paid so little for good food but you cannot say the same for SG
Sight-Seeing: I love handcrafted stuff as long as its not made in China ... and Museum where you learn about the history for the country..
Shopping: not so much cos I don't see the need to visit another shopping mall ... but we went to airport mall for Brunei Kendama event and there's Gongcha!!!!! woot woot... so drama ... I can survive lah without bubble tea ... but not too long ...
till the next trip ...

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