Old Brunei
I thought I will share some more photographs today of the old Brunei and one painting based on one scenery of Bandar Seri Begawan which is no longer there.If anyone remembers, the painting was the Jalan Sultan Lama (?), if I am not mistaken. It has been ages ago since I last saw it. That particular scene is where the current Portview Restaurant is. The Kampung Ayer used to go up right to the roadside and there used to be lots of shophouses there. I cannot quite remember what happened whether there was a fire or everyone eventually moved out because of the construction of the Yayasan Building. The BSB Muncipal Council is currently preparing for the 100th anniversary of Bandar Seri Begawan moving to dry land and I heard there will be a book. So I do hope that the book will contain all these old scenes of Bandar.
The second photo is interesting. I have no idea where this is. I found it in the old album that my brother in law showed me and I have been staring at it for the last couple of days. It would have been easier if I could just asked but I thought I will stretch my brain a little bit and ponder hard enough I would know where that is.
I am hoping readers out there would look at it and send me the answer via the comment box. It would be interesting to know what happened to the monument in the middle of the road in that photo.
The third one is easier. Someone wrote the name of the place in jawi on top of the photo. Though this one still takes a bit of imagination to know where this is. If you can read jawi, it says 'Jembatan Seria'. For those working or rather used to work in BSP and used the old Seria road would know where this is. This is the bridge immediately before reaching Seria. I haven't used that road for quite sometime now, my next question would be is this old bridge still there?
Comments
At first, the small shops near the road heading to the SOAS mosque moved out to the new buildings.
And the whole kampong was wiped by the huge fire.
I miss home.
The area used to be a 'shopping centre' whenever we came down from KB. There were shops along the riverside that were connected by wooden footbrigde. The shops sold biscuits in tins and some kiddies' games, e.g. tikaman. At the end of the footbridge one would find a cul-de-sac where fishermen would sell their catch of the day from their boats, which later evolved into a proper fish market. I am saddened to see the demise of these unique feature of Brunei and now we've lost the old passenger terminal to over-zealous city planning. Lets now keep the old customs building.
I can't seem to recognise the place in the second place. What significant about the place was the presence of that monument, a war memorial perhaps? I do not think there are any monuments of that sort in Brunei. It looked like the many cenopath that one would find in former British colonies. Melayu Islam Beraja probably removed it? (Remember that Churchill statue? Where is it now?)...
I have in my computer some old pictures of Seria including some aerial shots. If I'm not mistaken there were some pictures of Bandar Brunei as well. I'm willing to share if anyone can tell me where I could dump them in.
2nd pix looked like pekan Bangar way back then ....