At the Yacht Club

After our tour around the Kampung Ayer and the little stroll in Bandar (the capital), we went up to the Yacht Club to have lunch, relax and have a swim.
The kids wanted to go down to the beach because the tide was low, so we could look for the little crabs and collect sea shells.





It wasn't too hot today since it was overcast. Perfect day at the Yacht Club, especially for the visiting Swedes not used to the heat...

A beautiful photo

The other day, driving around Bandar showing my parents a bit of the capital, I managed to capture this shot out of the window of the rolling car.
I'm really proud of it, although if I wouldn't have been in the car I would have had time to zoom in on the mosque and the two rainbows a bit more.

Still - it's one beautful photo!

A new Blogger feature

Mia made me aware today of a new feature they have added here on Blogger, an easy way to follow the blogs you like.

If you click on the link in the right column (under Fans of 'Life in Brunei'), you will get notified in your dashboard every time I write a new post.
You can follow anonymously if you wish, or as yourself of course!

You can read more about it here.

Kids Hash October

On Sunday it was time for the kids hash again. I thought that would be about the right amount of jungle walking for my parents so we all went along!
Unfortunately this time, the toddler trail wasn't really a proper one. Actually, it wasn't even in the jungle but out over an open field - just out and back the same way, for 20 minutes. So, not only did they miss out on the proper hashing experience, but it was also really hot since we were in plain sun. Ah well.

We got some nice views though, over Bandar City, the main mosque and even the palace (you can spot it to the left in this photo):





Walking along, in the heat:



Here is Lucas and Nathan, who had done the longer run, coming down from the big hill at Subok:



This hill:



Lucas and Nathan coming back:



After the run, eating hot dogs and having a rest:

Our cute Pippi Långstrump

One of the presents Linnea got was a full dress-up costume with wig and shoes and everything, to look like Pippi Långstrump (=Pippi Longstocking).



She wasn't too impressed, and has only worn it once so far, for these photos. I'm sure it will come to good use eventually though, the kids love to dress up. (It was mostly the Mummy who wanted it for her...) Maybe there will be a Halloween party, or else she will wear it for International Day at school this year! She looks so very cute though! Especially in this 2nd photo, just like Pippi with big steps on her way somewhere!

Miri mini break

We have been away for a few days, in Malaysia. We thought we better show my parents something else than just Brunei, so we took them to Miri in Malaysia, a 2 1/2h car drive south. Miri town is located just on the other side of the border.


We stayed for two nights at the Marriott Resort in Miri, quite nice. A lot of the kids' friends from school were down there too, so they had plenty of play mates in the pool. (Miri is the perfect "get-away-a-bit-from-Brunei"-place, just a few hours away, especially for the teachers who doesn't get the privileged travel we do).







The restaurant served excellent food, so we had most of our meals there - apart from the first night when we ventured out and had some chinese in town.

While in Miri we went to see a Crocodile Park, just outside town. It was like a mini zoo, with a huge amount of different salt- and fresh water crocodile species, monkeys, sun bears, bats, snakes and other tropical animals. It was quite impressive to see that many crocs in the same place, apparently over a thousand (some just held back by chicken wire, yikes!) - but rather disheartening to see the appalling living conditions they had...

Hm, wasn't going to anyway but glad they cleared that up!



Overviewing the nesting pit:



Crocs:



Checking out the crocs:



Group photo (except Mormor):



Flying foxes:



Sun bears:

Niah Caves

On Tuesday we did a long drive (109 km) even further south in Sarawak, to go and see the Niah Caves. These caves are located within a National Park, some 3 km's walk along a wooden plank walk, straight into the jungle.
The main claim to fame of these caves is their role as one of the birthplaces of civilisation in the region. The oldest modern human remains discovered in Southeast Asia were found here at Niah, making this park one of the most important archaeological sites in the world.

We took off along the plank walk into the jungle, the kids actually walked most of it themselves! We didn't spot any exciting animals, apart from a lizard or two, and some colourful caterpillars; but we could hear the monkeys in the far and we were admiring all the huge trees, and funny shaped branches:







It took us a little over an hour to reach the West Mouth of the Great Cave, where we stopped and the kids had some noodles (that we had brought in the backpack..!) for lunch.



At over 60m high and 250m wide, it's one of the world's most spectacular cave entrances, leading to an even larger chamber within. It wasn't hard to see how this cave deserve it's name.
In the cave, we could see the tall constructions used by the locals to harvest the bird nests. These are the nests used for the Chinese bird nest soup, a delicacy for which the Chinese pay a lot of money. Another thing they earn money off, is to collect the bat and swiftlet dung (guano) which is sold as fertilizer.

We decided not to go any further in than this, for two reasons; one because to go further into the cave system, you would have needed a torch each as it gets completely dark (we could have gone and seen the "Painted Cave" with intact cave paintings rendered in red hematite that date back at least 1,000 years!) and it was too far to go for the kids, two - because I fell over and rolled my ankle quite badly...





It also started to rain pretty heavily at this point, so we turned and went back instead, or in my case, limped back. We really looked like we had been on a huge trek by the time we had made our way back to the car, soaking wet and super dirty all of us...



Even though we didn't get the full experience, it was still very impressive and spectacular - and the jungle walk was really exciting too!

Cry of the Wild

We went to see this dance concert yesterday night, at the big Jerudong Amphitheater (where Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston once have performed, among others). It was Studio scene, a dance school here in Brunei that put on the show. The theme of the concert seeked to raise awareness among people to appreciate the world we live in and to respect the environment and animals around us.
A lot of the kid's little friends were performing in it so it was nice to come along and support them. They have been practising so hard the last many weeks, and put a lot of time and effort into the preparations for this show.

It was really great! The kids performed various dances based on animal themes - their costumes had been specially made depicting lions, penguins, fish, panthers, cats, swans, Kung-Fu pandas (!) and many more.

Linnea was eagerly awaiting some elephants (that never showed up), so she was a bit disappointed. She then fell asleep in the end; it got very late for the little ones, especially after having celebrated birthday all day.



Lucas liked the "Nemo"-, the "Kung-Fu panda" and the "Madagascar"-number best - and we all were very impressed by the hip-hoppers, they were so cool!

I'm considering signing Lucas and Linnea up for joining the dance school, I think they would enjoy that a lot!

Thank you!

After her nap, Linnea was ready to open her birthday presents. There was so many of them, she hardly knew where to start - but once she got going, there was no stopping her!
Lucas opened the cards, Daddy read them and Linnea ripped open the presents!



She got so many lovely things; everything from books and hair accessories to Barbie dolls and games, and much, much more!
A big Thank you to everybody for the wonderful presents, and for coming and making her birthday so great!

Linnea 3 years

Since we will be away for Linnea's birthday, and we were having her party today for all her little friends, we decided to do the whole celebration today, from early morning on.

Linnea slept in our bed last night (well, like every night...), but this morning we told her to go in and "sleep" in her own bed for a little while. We then sang for her, and she got to open all her presents in bed, just like tradition.



She got lots of lovely presents, both from Mormor and Morfar who are here at the moment and from us of course - but she also had packets to open that had been sent all the way from NZ (Grandma & Granddad) and Oz (the cousins) and even Denmark (the Godmother).



"Lucas" had bought her a scooter:



We then got ready for the party, decorated the house and put balloons up everywhere, it got very festive; the main piece was the new birthday banner that Mormor had made:





We had also booked a bouncy-water-slide, which was really popular!



The lunch was popular too, our amah had done a fab job! We had pasta salad, vegetable noodles, really tasty home made spring rolls, cheese sausages, Swedish meatballs and of course fresh fruit and snacks. Mmm!





Again, we had ordered a box of individual cupcakes instead of a cake, from Kitchen of Jasmine (super yum, reasonably priced, nice people) - and they looked amazing! They spelled out: "Linnea 3 years"





Everybody got to choose one, some even got two! ;)





All our guests made the morning into a great party and the birthday girl was very happy, but worn out in the end... She went to have a rest on the sofa (with her party bag, of course!) and fell asleep before the last guests had even left... bless...

Happy Birthday in school

Yesterday was the last day before the midterm holiday, so we promised Linnea she could bring a cake in to celebrate with all her little friends at school - since her birthday will happen during the holidays.
We all went in a few minutes before pick-up, and they all sat down to get some cake. We had ordered beautiful cupcakes from two sisters who run a home based business here (Kitchen of Jasmine), so all the kids got one each, after Linnea had blown out the candles of course!



They had also made her a birthday crown, so she was really happy and pleased to be the center of attention!