Blogs from Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei, Asia - page 11

My very first business trip in Asia took place in the last few weeks. It was a whirwind of meetings, cities, countries. I managed to visit sometimes a little bit here and there.. * Brunei: Unfortunately only flew there for the night, and stayed in an amazing hotel which was half full of business people, half full of holiday makers who probably flew in for the long week end from somewhere near. Brunei is a Muslim country and it's interesting to see how it's part of life. On the plane over a prayer took place before take off. Women wear the head scarf. I was curious about what Finnish-Russian-French business women should do when visiting, should was also cover our head? Given that men and women have no contact, should I shale hands with people in ... read more

Where the heck is Brunei? Grab your atlas and find Borneo. It is a small country attached to Borneo. As it turns out that when traveling in Asia all roads more than likely lead to Kuala Lumpur which is in Malaysia. This is because it is a major airport hub in Southeast Asia, kind of like Atlanta in the U.S. We left Singapore for a 50 minute flight to Kuala Lumpur with a short lay over and then a 2 hour and 20 minute flight to Brunei. It’s all about perspective because the flight actually seemed short after our last one and we barely had time for a nap! The main reason we are in Brunei is because of a news story done a few years back on 60 minutes. We were intrigued by this tiny ... read more

**Dec14..I realized that I never finished this journal entry off. It was basically done, but I forgot a few things and forgot to post it up. So I woke up thinking “wow…this is my last full day in Brunei.” So I woke up to roosters in Sungai Teraban. Bapa (what I call my grandpa has a bird farm on his land. So roosters were making nosies, chickens were running around, the turkey was interesting and the ducks minded their own business far away. So lastday lastday. I didn’t plan anything big. I was suppose to hang out with safforo, but instead I chose to eat lunch with uncle yonghuat. In the morning, I had breakfast at Bapa’s with aira and her 3 kids. The three kids are funny ahha. Two of them were wearing spiderman outfits ... read more

Didi let me sleep in this morning. I haven’t slept in for a longgg time so sleeping in till 11am felt good. I woke up to having lunch with Woody (didi's husband which is my cousin) and the family. After that, didi and I just went over to soon lee where she bought my parents and I a few shirts which was really nice of her. In the evening, Auntie Quilan and her family took me out for dinner along with bapa, nana and uncle yunghuat. We went to the boathouse and MMmMm it was yummy. Stuffed myself with loads of seafood including fish, shrimp, squid and prawns. It was a great dinner; they made a toast of my grandfather, grandmother and I as we're all leaving to Vancouver soon. I was supposed to visit Emie ... read more

Today, Auntie Alice and uncle george took me alllllllllll the way to Bandar (capital city about 1hr and 15mins away). Our first pit stop was the Brunei museum where I met a Gurkha (Nepalese soldier) guard. Apparently, he knew my father. What a small country ahha. The museum was nice. It wasn’t the most exciting thing in the world, but its something everyone should at least experience once. After the museum, we headed over to Kampung Ayer (Water village). It’s basically a village that is built on water. Unfortunately, I didn’t have enough time to go on a tour of kampong ayer, so I just stood on land while taking photos of the village and the gazillion water taxis. Met up with cico for lunch and headed off to the Yayasan complex (or w/e its called). ... read more