Travelling The Emerald Green Road

Honestly speaking ... there's not much to do around in the old Belait town. Okay, well there probably is but nothing that sparks my interests much.

However, I was keen on getting reaquainted with the abundant nature that is dominantly the most available form of distraction the district has to offer. (Despite the fact I haven't stepped on a hiking trail since my mom dragged my sorry arse through hill and hell at Shah Bandar.)

I went to Sungai Liang with my family for my dad's 60th brithday.

It was a picnic celebration and I know my dad hasn't done much hiking eventhough he loves nature. I think it's because he rather have some company while he hikes. I remember well enough he use to bring me to the Sungai Liang forest reserve all the thime when I was kid. My brother as well but I don't know if he still remembers though. After every hike, my father would end the trip with a break at a kopi shop where he, my brother and I would always order roti.

I remember often enough there were often birds singing to one another in the forests. I once brought out my recorder just for kicks to see if I can get any reaction and I DID get one! It was amazing for me, a 15yr old, to be playing a recorder in the middle of the rainforest and have a bird replying back! Dad was impressed which was saying something cuz he can also make birds reply by picking up a leaf and making all sorts of whistles out of it.

Last trip we went, he picked up a different kind of leaf and make monkey shrieks. I tot it was for real! Cuz dad was ahead of us and I didn't see what he was doing. I tot there were real monkeys ahead! Dad thought it was a real hoot and continued making the noise all the way until we saw a real monkey, sitting on top of a rotting trunk some 10 meters away from us. I was scared it would try to attack us for food.

Some tourists and hikers leave food for the monkeys and think its' a real hoot but I consider this as a bad habit cuz then wild monkeys would associate humans with food and one day might become more aggrassive in search of it. Once at shah bandar I saw this 5 yr old tossing bits of food at the monkeys and having fun until one of the bigger monkeys dashed up to her and snatched the whole bag out of her hands. Totally shocked her. I just thank God the others didn't follow suit and search the kid for more food. So, remember, don't feed any wild animals.

Moving on...

I forgot how beautiful our rainforests are. It's like being in an entirely different world. Granted the Sungai Liang forest reserve is pretty tame compared to some of the bigger forests reserves in Labi and Temburong but at least they leave most of the wild alone.

Tall majestic trees surrounds the path which is concrete but because it's ben there so long, it's turned into a pretty emerald colour which suits the surrounds (however kind of dangerous if wet). The canopy overhead gave us a pretty good shelter from the fierce sun and felt like we were travelling through a kingdom of unfathomable complexity because there is something of interest in almost every 5 meters or so.

I dunno why but I was delighted to find the many wild fruits growing there such as durian, rambutan, jackfruit and bread fruit.

Hiking there is relatively easy, so easy that even I can go for one round and still be able to enjoy my surroundings without suffering too much. Haha. I managed to take some pretty nice pics too. Was so glad I decided to take my Lumix with me.

There were a lot of people there as well, some swimming (yuck!) in the pool filled with the natural water, bbq-ing on the side and hiking about. I didn't realise there would be so many people into the park these days. I guess it's because Bruneians are becoming more health conscious now and are taking full advantage of their natural surroundings.

Still, I rather enjoy a slow pace and lovely scenery than trying to work my butt off climbing a steep thing only to be passed by an ah pek hiking up the trail like some shirvelled up mountain goat on speed. Jialat.

Anyhoo...I've really enjoyed taking pictures while hiking and got some really nice pics! Hope you like them as much I do. ^_^ I think some are just fantastic!

Just In Time

I must admit that lately I've been neglecting many things.

*not because I was all the time fishing*

Even stuff that I'm most fond of. Reading, drawing, gaming, Chou Sing Tze movies...

Admittedly everything isn't peaches and cream but eventually it will be. I'll let you know why.

Beacause I'm on a break now. A lovely, relaxing, 10 days of blissful NOTHING.

*This is how I look napping, with no make up, on a fishing trip with my family, deal with it.* ***Takes mental note to kill sister who took this picture while I was asleep.***

That's right, since I don't have the time (mostly) to do what I want, then I take the time to devote myself solely in the spoiling of, yes you guessed it, MYSELF.

Although I must say, what time I did have during the weekends are well spent with my family and the occasionally weekend work demands but the rewards are far greater with grateful work colleagues and even more importantly, my relationship with my family.

Sad to say the 6 years I spent living on my own in Bandar made me rather blind to the changes that has happened in my family. Or perhaps it is I that have changed. Perhaps I have matured enough to see.

Whatever the case maybe, I felt it was a good move for me to live back and relate again with my family despite whatever moanings and groanings you might have heard from me. My itchy scratchy relationship with my mother is as static as ever however, we've grown accustomed to it and has even evolved to a sort of comfortable, abliet slightly bitter, banter between mother and daughter.

My father is more or less the same fella, although now he's growing more like those old men you see in the movies who likes to sit around, day dream a bit with a cig in hand and a cold beer on the table. He is now doing more gradening, a new hobby he's picked up over the last couple of years which I'm happy to see. Granted fishing is fun but I feel more secure to know he's at home instead of out in some cold wet spot, exposed to bugs and snakes and God knows what else. Not that he can't take care of himself, dad is a regular trooper when it comes to the outdoors, but he's not getting any younger and I rather he be close by.

My brother has grown more annoying than I could possibly imagine. I believe it's my mother's way of compensating for the amount of intelligence I have when she gave birth to me. Somewhere in her, tiny motherly cells were telling her to hold off on the IQ department when she was suffering from the smart mouth of her 4yr old first born. Therefore she has made her next born, my brother, more brawny than brainy. Although, she does have the tendacy to over do things a little bit. (Like too much grapefruit in the cheesecake she was making the other day.) I swear to you, my brother is an entirely new species of fruit altogether. Still, he is good at heart and his morals are straight eventhough not all the lights are on upstairs. He doesn't do drugs, steal or cheat, gamble or drink excessively. That much I am thankful for.

My adorable baby sisters are now young teens before I can say 'whoopsie daisy'.

The older one is in the midst of getting ready for her graduation night which is something of a high school musical (there will be a performance which she is part of) and a prom.

For the past two weeks or so, she has been talking about the 'graduation night', wondering what to wear, how to wear it and where to get it. Why just last saturday I took the girls out to the capital and we did nothing but shop for her shoes, shawl (for when it gets cold), bag and accessories. Her shoes alone took us one whole day! It's too high, too low, too expensive, too cheap, too ugly, too stylish, too colourful, too plain, yada yada yada. We shopped from Gadong, to Bandar and finally to Tutong where we eventually found the perfect pair. By that time I was thoroughly exhausted, sitting there like a melting blob, munching on waffles from the nearby Hua Ho.

The younger one is turning out to be an airhead wannabe. She's got a brain under that hood of hers but is just too lazy to use it. She loves the material and superficial things most teens her age loves. Absolutely addicted to facebook and her mobile, of course. Really a little delicate picky princess, from doing her own hair every morning before school to picking out her own choice of clothes. Ok, perhaps I'm expecting too much from her. She's got the right to do her own thing. But you know the best thing about her? She's absolutely lovable.

And I think that's important, especially to my mother cuz I must admit, mom doesn't get a lot of love from her other kids. Oh, we love her, of course we do but we just have a difficult time showing it. I don't know why. Nature perhaps.

Aaaaanyway, to wrap this up, I'm gonna say I don't regret moving back at all. Yes, it's a small town. Yes, I do get tired of all the uncles and aunties saying, "Aiyah! Ah Fah! Your eldest ka? Wah big girl now oh? Where she is working now? Ah? There ah? Oh, I know, I know. That's good right? My girl? Oh she is now with her husband in KANADA liao lor! Ya lo!...."

*sigh*

Where was I? Oh yeah, about how happy I am that I'm back in KB. Ya me.



lol. Seriously though. I am. Although I admit I miss my friends and the life I had in the capital, but time moves on, and I feel that now I'm in the right place on exactly the right time.