Brunei beasties

As promised in a post a while ago here are few of the critters we have encountered - and managed to photograph - on our adventure so far. Being a tropical country with a reasonable amount of forest cover remaining, and a low population, wildlife is abundant.

Big Man has been lucky enough to see otters on his way to work, which I assume are the asian short-clawed variety but I have not had the pleasure yet. So no photo. Can't leave here til this is done!

Long-tailed macaques Macaca fascicularis A troop of macaques are often seen on the grassy verge near the road or scavenging from bins at a nearby nature park.

Monitor lizard Varanus sp. Not sure whether this really captures the scale of these often massive beasts!

Oriental pied hornbill Anthraceros albirostris. My birds of Borneo book has this as 'widespread and locally common' but I believe we are incredibly lucky to see these rather large, clumsy and bizarre-looking birds almost every day.

Snakes alive!

Actually the snakes were dead. But the skins, skeletons and head parts were found IN OUR GARDEN last week, striking fear in our hearts. The remains were found on a pipe halfway up the back wall causing us to wonder what they were doing up there and if they could get in the nearby air conditioning vent. Then as I relayed the story to a friend (or so I had assumed!), she asked how big the snakes were. Not big I replied. Why?

Well... it turns out she knew the person who lived in our house before us and they had a small snake living in their loft space! This person didn't think she should tell me as I had mentioned my fear of snakes. Aaaargh!

Apparently the small loft-dwelling snake had been examined by the appropriate authorities and determined to be non-venomous. I still don't tread in a room until the light is turned on though!

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.

Background on Brunei

Just returned home from a weekend over the border in Miri, Sarawak, which is part of Malaysian Borneo. Ashamed to say that six weeks into our South East Asian adventure and we are already looking further afield than Brunei for our entertainment! For while Brunei is modern and functional, it is a small country with not a great number of diversions. So I thought this an opportune moment to give some more information for those who have not heard much about the place without need for geographical embarrassment on anybody's part. The text below has been adapted from Wikipedia for your convenience.

Geography

Brunei, officially the Nation of Brunei, the Abode of Peace (Malay: Negara Brunei Darussalam, is a sovereign state located on the north coast of the island of Borneo. Apart from the coastline with the South China Sea, Brunei is completely surrounded by Malaysia and Malay is the most commonly spoken tongue, although English is prevalent and Nepali and various Chinese dialects are common too.

History

Brunei became a British protectorate in 1888, receiving a resident in 1906. In the years after the Japanese wartime occupation during World War II, it formalised a constitution and fought an armed rebellion. Brunei regained independence from the United Kingdom on 1 January 1984. Economic growth during the 1970s and 1990s, averaging 56% from 1999 to 2008, has transformed Brunei Darussalam into a newly industrialised country. Brunei has a constitutional sultanate. It has a legal system based on English common law, although Islamic shariah law supersedes this in some cases.

Ecology

Most of Brunei is within the Borneo lowland rain forests eco-region that covers most of the island but there are areas of mountain rain forests inland. Coconut palms and travellers trees grow frequently along the coastline, recently the palms in our road were harvested to prevent any inadvertent injury when the coconuts ripen! Fauna of note around the base includes long-tailed macaques, a variety of birds including the rather striking hornbills, snakes such as cobras, monitor lizards, chit chats, frogs, and loads of insects such as dragonflies and damselflies.

Metereology

The climate of Brunei is tropical equatorial. The average annual temperature is 26 °C (79 °F), with the April–May average of 24 °C (76 °F) and the October–December average of 23 °C (74 °F).

Economy

Crude oil and natural gas production account for about 90% of the GDP. About 167,000 barrels of oil are produced every day, making Brunei the fourth largest producer of oil in South-east Asia. It also produces approximately 895 million cubic feet of liquified natural gas per day, making Brunei the ninth-largest exporter of the substance in the world. Around the garrison area 'nodding donkeys' can be seen in the grasslands, pumping oil to the required location. Brunei depends heavily on imports e.g. rice, food products, livestock, motorcars and electrical products from other countries. Things that seem to be produced locally i.e. are cheap and abundant are watermelons, sweetcorn, durian fruits, cucumbers and rambutans.

One month in...

So we have been in Brunei as a family for one month now and we are getting slowly settled. At times it does feel more foreign than the Falklands, with cultural & language differences and what with being a whopping 8 hours ahead of the UK. But we are fortunate to have mostly sunny weather and some very good amenities to occupy our time whilst we are here.

On Sunday morning we drove to the beach, got drinks and snacks at a coffee shop and had a picnic under an umbrella beside the sand. Felt like cheating after all the hiking and the like involved in getting to the sea at the last place!

We then sat on the beach while Woozles built sand castles and paddled, then we spotted a jellyfish so we hastened out of the water and off for a jaunt down the sand.

At school last week W was involved in Tijar celebrations (as part of the Hindu faith observed by the Gurkha children) and we visited a temple to see Ganesh the elephant and other statues. She was amused to have to take her sandals off and wash her feet before entering the temple. Back at school W had a henna tattoo and made some chocolate and coconut treats as well as salt dough candle holders which seem to have the primary function of distributing glitter around the house.

Driving back from school today we saw the troop of monkeys (long-tailed macaques) grazing on the grass verge. They seem well adapted to the built-up environment, even able to cross the road safely in very busy traffic! Will try and get some photos of the monkeys, hornbills, and maybe even a monitor lizard (huge!) in the near future.

On the home front, we have bought a few knick knacks to make the place homely but the real settling in will hopefully occur later on this week or next, once our boxes arrive. Come on people, hurry up and find our container - the ship is in!!!

Wheels of steel

Took ownership of our new car today; a slate metallic grey Mazda saloon. 'When in Rome...' and all that. So once we adjust to the indicator being on the opposite side of the wheel and stop wiping the windscreen furiously at every junction, we will be sorted!

On the subject of wheels, it was decided between Woozles and myself that she is not ready for the school bus yet. I had thought 3 was a bit young but the minibus does cater for pre-school children (we live approx. 5 miles away from the site). She seemed keen to go on it and dashed on board with her chums and her backpack, but when the doors closed and the wheels started turning I could see her lip start to wobble and tears flowing. So I will be taking her for the school run, at least til the end of this term when we can review it.

We have had two quite severe storms since we arrived, with thunder, fork lightning and torrential rain. When we woke up on Sunday morning (I hadn't slept a wink anyway but miraculously Woozles had not even stirred) the road was covered with water, the drains were full and it had stopped just shy of our patio (phew). So maybe the next requirement for transport will be a dinghy!