The Daily Brunei Resources

This is a close up of yesterday's post about HSBC Brunei HQ. This is an older photo of that same building.

HSBC was kind enough to give me this photograph of the the scene around HSBC Building in the mid 1970s. HSBC was and is still at the corner of Jalan Sultan and Jalan Chevalier (now renamed Jalan Pemancha). If you look closely, the HSBC Building was still the old two storey HSBC Building compare to the 5 storey (is it 5?) building which they have at the moment. The interesting thing I did not realise is just how near was this old HSBC Building was to the old Civil Building now currently the TAIB Building. I did not realise that the RBA Plaza now built in the middle between the two buildings is actually built on a small piece of land. Someone who was around at that time would have to tell me what happened in this photograph? Something was happening and at the time of writing this, I am clueless.

This made the round recently via e-mail. I thought this is nice to be shared with everyone:- ++++++ There was a blind girl who hated herself because she was blind. She hated everyone, except her loving boyfriend. He was always there for her. She told her boyfriend, 'If I could only see the world, I will marry you.' One day, someone donated a pair of eyes to her. When the bandages came off, she was able to see everything, including her boyfriend. He asked her,'Now that you can see the world, will you marry me?' The girl looked at her boyfriend and saw that he was blind. The sight of his closed eyelids shocked her. She hadn't expected that. The thought of looking at them the rest of her life led her to refuse to marry him. Her boyfriend left in tears and days later wrote a note to her saying: 'Take good care of your eyes, my dear, for before they were yours, they were mine.' This is how the human brain often works when our status changes. Only a very few r...

Last saturday, I attended a talk given by the Tourism Department at MIPR. That day was our ministry's turn to be given the tourism talk about what's available in Brunei. I was quite reluctant to go but I went so as to support the initiative. BUT I have to admit I was pleasantly surprised by the talks and very much enjoyed it in the end. At first I was expecting it to be one of those dreary types of presentation. The department has more or less got it right now. There is a focus on the 10 things of what it can focus on. And the companies that were there which gave the talks as well were very good in doing their presentations. We had Sheraton, Empire, the Yacht boat company and Sunshine. I did not realise the extent of the products which these companies had and the promotions that go with them. Sheraton's passport is a good loyalty program. The yacht offered many pacakages and Sunshine, I did not know before, apparently offers many products from the Uluulu Resort in Temburong...

Many have forgotten when Brunei International Airport was first completed, it did not have today's aerobridges which allow passengers to walk in directly to the planes. In the early days, even when the International Airport was completed, passengers still walk down to the tarmac through the two walkways and then up the stairs to the aeroplanes. I thought Brunei was quite behind in this aerobridge thing. When I first landed in Geneva around 1990, I remembered walking down the stairs and walking across the airport. There was no aerobridge either there. There are many airports around the world which still does that. Surabaya is one which I recently used. Tehran was another.

I have not been able to keep up with Cuboiart, Brunei's finest cartoonist. Over the last week, I think I remembered glancing through Borneo Bulletin and finding his cartoons but I have not had time to appreciate them. The one he did for the zakat queue was hillarious but he focused more on the floods. Understandable. This cartoon was last week's and I remembered he had another one recently. On to serious business. Last night I received a couple of sms from PWD informing me about the latest situation here in Brunei especially on the flooding. I gather that the Gadong area is again affected last night plus nearby my area in Sengkurong especially around Tanjung Bunut, Sungai Tampoi and Selayun. I know our people are out there helping to ensure that we do not have a repeat of last week. The bomba people are working flat out and I pray that everyone is safe.

Yesterday was World Customs Day. I was watching my PMO colleague launched the World Customs Day on television last night. This event surprisingly will hold a special place in my memories. Exactly a year ago, I was appointed to my current post and the first thing I had to do was inspect the Customs Officers parade and launched the 2008 Customs Day. What is Customs Day? It is the day when Customs organisations worldwide celebrate International Customs Day each year on 26 January. This marks the day of the first official meeting of the Customs Co-operation Council, now known as the World Customs Organization, which has 169 member states. Our own Brunei Royal Customs and Excise Department became the 140th member of WCO in 1996 and has been celebrating the event since 2001. Last year the theme for 2008 International Customs Day is the focus on illegal trafficking of illicit drugs and psychotropic substances. The theme for 2009 event is "Customs and the Environment — Protecting our Natu...