Brunei Beach, BBQ and burn

Had a lovely trip to the beach near Tutong yesterday which is much more scenic than the area around us. Golden sand, clear waters and a clean tide line. We jumped in the waves, built sand castles, buried children (temporarily) and Big Man had his manhood tested through repeated application of a large weight!

When we had had our fill of the beach we had a BBQ and a game of rounders with our friends, returning home with sand in our hair and pink stripes all over our bodies!

Gong Xi Fa Cai

This time of year in south east Asia you cannot fail to notice the red and gold lanterns springing up around houses and shops and a lot of red items and oranges for sale (more on those in a moment). This is of course Chinese New Year and with a decent size Chinese population in Brunei we were pleasantly surprised to be invited to two parties to help celebrate! One part of the tradition is to take oranges to your host as symbols of luck and wealth.

Part of the ritual is a family dinner on New Year's Eve, explained one taxi driver last Saturday evening, where all the family congregate and have a great feast.

At any time of the day or night family members can drop by and leave sweets or baked goods, another person with Chinese relatives explained.

Then on Sunday or Monday the main activity was a lion or dragon dance to bring good luck and acting as a show of strength to ward away evil spirits. This dragon dance was taking place in Miri on stilts. Photos by my good friend Lizzie Morris.

We also got to see a lion dance where the children fed some money to the lions. The money was given in red envelopes also known as angpau.

This celebration included the loudest firecrackers I have ever heard, my ears were ringing for another hour afterwards!

Naturally we were also fed loads of delicious food and party snacks and headed home most serene if a little hard of hearing.