May 4rd
Today marks the 3rd day being back in the country after my "round the world" trip from Asia. I'm just a little jet lagged. Just a little.
The first day back in the country we were up until 3am talking and telling stories, doing that kind of reunion when you've been away from your wife for so long. The sleep was restful but at the same time short.
My eyes shot open like a spring at 5am. Shit. I thought it might be a little different coming this way as I didn't get as much sleep on the plane. Then again, it is my body we are talking about. I got up and walked around the apartment looking for something to do, but couldn't really find much to do that didn't involve making lots of noise, like unpacking and watching a movie.
That day we went shopping to get me some shirts as I realized on my trip that I have a very limited amount of short-sleeved shirts for the summer. Which kind of sucks for the summer as I'm a very warm person anyways. While we were at the mall we inquired about the possibility of getting a phone that I could possibly take with me some other time that I/we go travelling outside of North America so that we can stay in contact.
The only thing that I could find in a worldphone is a Blackberry, I tried a few different providers and Aliant/Bell in Canada are Bastards. The package of theirs that I could afford was $100 and didn't include much in the way of anything maybe 50 MB of Data a month. I walked down the hall in the mall to Telus and found out that they had an unlimited Data package for their blackberry for $88. So cheap.
If we can get out of our Aliant contracts I'm walking over to Telus and getting a Blackberry. Fuck Bell.
After we went to the mall we walked downtown to see the Flooding that has been going on in Fredericton. It had been progressively worse in the downtown area as most of the back property has been flooded, the little highway, the on ramp to the bridge. Everything was flooded, it was hard to find an area that wasn't covered in water.
The previous day most of the downtown core had been shutdown, there were 30 roads along the river that had been completely shut down as well.
You can see some of the pictures that I've taken on my website
The next night was just as bad, I was up until 12 or 1 and then up at 6am. I went to bed again at 8 and slept until 11, which wasn't bad, but it was too much sleep and felt like crap the rest of the day.
We did something we haven't done in a while, we rented a movie. We rented Cloverfield and Sharkwater.
Sharkwater has to be the most touching documentary that I've every seen. Its something thats going on right now that isn't discussed and that most people don't know about. Its scary to think that so many people will pay so much money for a piece of tasteless meat.
This morning is even worse, we were in bed at 10pm because I was so exhausted and then I was awoken at 4am. Things this morning was different, when I awoke I found out that there as a Godzilla movie on CBC. Sweet.
Sunday, May 4, 2008
Brunei, Day 15, May
May 1st, 2008
I'm officially on my way HOME! I can't believe that its actually been 15 days since I've entered Brunei. Its crazy to think that so much time has passed and that I was able to see and do SOO much. It really was the trip of a lifetime because I honestly don't know when I'll have the opportunity to come back again. Although, if work sends me I'd try to find a way for my wife to come too! I think she'd LOVE it.
I work up this morning and pressed snooze on my make-shift alarm clock until a little past 7:30 and then went downstairs to get myself ready to start the day. When I got downstairs I ran into a few of the guys from Malaysia who were here to do some business with my sponsor. I met them last week when we were participating in the launch of the software application.
We went to the office for a few minutes to do a few things and to let my sponsor get some work done before we went to the airport. I said a few goodbyes to some of the people that I have been working with and then went to the airport where I was scared the I would have to pay extra for my luggage as it was heavy. I brought my things to the counter and put it on the scale.... 22.3 kg. I'm allowed 20 kg and then I started to panic because I saw a sign that told of the different charges that I would have to pay if I was over, and Hong Kong was something ridiculous like $65 a kg. The lady didn't say anything and then proceeded to check my luggage to Toronto (because it is a domestic flight after that I have to move the baggage myself.) I was talking to my sponsor afterwards and he told me they only make you start paying when you get to 25 kg. Phew!
Once I got my ticket I had to get out of the security area to cash in some Brunei dollars that I had, I still have a $100 bill that I needed to get ride of. The $5's and $1's I can give away as souvenirs to friends and family. I received $70 Canadian and $30 Brunei because he couldn't give me anything smaller.
I said my goodbye to the sponsor and went back through the checkpoint, then in through immigration. The guy took my passport, scanned me and then said “Who's your favourite player? Ronaldo?” In reference to the Manchester United jersey that I was wearing. We have a nice little talk about it before I left. What a way to start a trip! Normally Customs/Immigration people are very cranky, well they are in Canada. But I guess, if you're a fan of football, you can get along anywhere in the world. :-)
I walked around the Departures area to have a look at the sights. I walked into a souvenir shop and saw a little elephant statue for sale that I thought would be a fantastic little souvenir for myself as I didn't buy my statue..... listed price.... $89.00. F*ck that! (Though I didn't ask if it was listed in Brunie dollars or Malaysian ringits which are 15-1 for BND.)
They had a pretty cool little salt-water aquarium with a Dory and Nemo in it. It was nice to stand there and watch them swim around. It got a little weird after a few minutes when a couple of British fellows walked up to the aquarium and said, “This is cool, we saw these on the reef.”
Bastards.
I wen to find my Gate so that I knew where to go at 11 when they started boarding when I cam across a peculiar sight. There was a good dozen people sitting on the floor infront of a television. I could tell immediately they were from the UK:
1.They were white.
2.They were watching a replay of the Chelsea v Liverpool game from the night before.
I was there for Chelsea's third goal (They won 3-2) and not a single person cheered. They all seemed to take great offense to this particular goal. Stupid Chelsea.
The flight should be in Hong Kong on time, giving me about 2 hours in the airport to navigate my way around to find where I will be going. Maybe I'll have time to buy something? Think they'll take Canadian dollars?
A few minutes before take off one of the stewards on the flight, yes all of the staff on the flight are gusy and not the really cool dressed girls, comes up to me as I'm crammed into my seat with an elderly chinese woman and her son, both of whom are holding Canadian passports. He asks me, “Are you travelling together.” I say No.
He then says, would you like to sit up front? My mind immediately jumps to FIRST CLASS. As if he can read my mind, he begins to tell me that there is an empty row beside one of the emergency exits over the wind and he wants to know if I will occupy it. I agree and walk down the corridor to my new seat.
As we're taking off I realize that it was good deal, I looked to the window and managed to take a few aerial shots of the water village thats in the capital city, there are few of them in the area, but this is the biggest.
Did you know that 12-15% of the population of Brunei live in these villages? They're essentially homes on stilts in the water, a pretty cool idea, though dangerous. I was told that a few years ago there was a fire in one of them and because the houses are so close together the fire's spread easily. Such a shame.
I'm beginning to not like my seat any more. There is a really cool vertical cloud formation just out side to the left that I wanted to take a picture of but the flippin' wing was in the way so I couldn't get a full shot... maybe I can see out out the window behind me in a few moment.
2:30pm
I have arrived in HONG KONG. I'm a little disappointed in everything though. As we were flying in it was very overcast/cloudy/smoggy which isn't that good for taking pictures off the cool ass land marks in the city. Though I did try my best to take what I could some of them will need some editing to try and clear up the blueish tint of the pictures while the rest are hopeless. But it was still fun to try though.
Coming into the airport and looking at the different airlines that fly here is amazing. I saw planes for: South African, Turkish Airways, Qatar, Jordaian Airlines, Air Asia, Vietnamese Airlines. Its crazy because we're so limited in our choices in Canada that we only see less than a dozen, maybe closer to 10 or 12 when you get into a place like Toronto.
When I got off the plane there was a few people standing at the bottom of the runway with a sign, one of them had my name. It was just a friendly reminder that I need to go to transfer area E2 to get to the Cathay Pacific Counter. I knew that, but if I didn't E2 is across the hallway from E1 so it wouldn't be too hard to find.
I made my way through security without any problems, the only problem I had was putting my watch in the bucket for the scanner, it just wouldn't leave my hand. After making my way upstairs I really found out how cool this air port is. It has EVERYTING. A Ralph Lauren store, a Svardovski (watch place) all the really expensive high priced fashion outlets are here! How cool is that!?
I told Amanda that if I had time I would wander my way around the airport and see if I could find us any souvenis, I found some, and after spending $100 HK, which I think works out to be about $15 Canadian on two Key Chains, I think we'll both be happy.
After leaving the shop with the expensive key chains I wandered around to see if I could find something else that would catch my eye. Turns out I was very easily swayed. I saw a wireless rechargeable mouse in one of the electronic stores in the airport, it looked really promising. But it was $425 HK, I went to the currency exchange to find out how much that would be Canadian, and it looked like it was about ... wow my math was really wrong when I was thinking about this... it was $50! What the hell? Hong Kong is expensive.... but then again, when is the next time that I'm actually going to be here? Probably close to never. It was worth it. (Though it means that I might not be able to get a new pair of shoes... hahaha... )
I went back to my gate to see if I could find a seat since I had gone around the entire air port in a little more than 23 minutes and went to find a seat, you'd think that the seats wouldn't go that fast, but man they flew! I was lucky to find a seat on the end of an aisle looking out the window.
For shits and giggles I turned on the wireless component of my laptop to see if I could get anykind of a signal. I could... there were TWO unsecured wireless.
I tried the first one labeled “Free Wireless” after 3 minutes of trying to load a webpage... nothing.
Tried the other one labelled “PCCW”, when I tried to load a page it brought me to a login screen where I could enter in information and pay for Internet. Whats the point of having unsecured wireless if you have to pay to use it?
So, its 3:35pm and my flight is boarding in 30 minutes. Shit, do I ever hate waiting for stuff! Thanks Amanda for sharing your impatience with me! Hahahahaha
I just can't wait to get home to Canada! I could spend the night in the airport in Toronto and I wouldn't care, just as long as I'm in Canada!
5:15pm (Hong Kong)
I'm on the flight! Making my way back towards Canada, so very exciting. I can't believe that its come to this. I was very scared getting on the flight because I didn't want to be smooshed into the window next to two people and not be able to get out to go pee or anything. Turns out I lucked out BOTH trips, on the way to Hong Kong on the 15th I had a really nice kick-boxing gentleman sitting next to me and we chatted our way through the sky.
This time I have a very lovely English lady (living in Toronto) sitting next to me who's oh so very nice to talk tto. She told me all about her trip to Brisbane and some of the things that they did in Hong Kong, such a pleasant lady.
Asian people can be, not to sound like an asshole, demanding and pushy. I was in line to get on the plane when this little fellow, not much older than me walked right past me, looked at me and then stood in line. How rude!
On the take off I still didn't have much luck seeing Hong Kong, there were some aspects that I could see: little bits of civilization in and around the volcanic mountains, very nice. But it was still too cloudy too see what was past or around those mountains. I think I'd like to come back this way and do a little tour of Asia. Visit Hong Kong, Tokyo, Kuala Lumpur, and then head down to Austalia where I can get lost in the out back and never come back.....
The nice lady also told me a bit about the news lately, apparently Beijing made an announcement that for the next 100 days leading up to the Olympics the entire city is going to be a smoke free zone. Organizers are worries about the quality of the air in Beijing and figured that doing this would help with the pollution. How about if they stop building oil guzzling factories? That would help. Better yet shut down all of the Coal Fueled Power stations in the country, they're probably responsible for about 45% of the pollution. It sucks that they're advancing so far behind the rest of the world and encountering the problems that we've worked around 20 years ago.
Shit, that got a little political, sorry about that.
There's a lot of turbulence on this flight right now and they also made an announcement that some of the in flight services/entertainment are all messed up due to “technical” problems. Here's what I think happened: someone pushed the “reset” button on their system, and if it functions like anything else I've seen lately, resetting it won't help. Or the other cause could have been that some schmuck (me) turned on his laptop and left the wireless Internet turned on. Now that I think about it, I bought a new wireless mouse in the airport and I can't use it because its a “wireless” device. Dammit. I wanted to play!
Again, I digress and end up bitching about something that doesn't need to be discussed here.
I tried to use the power plug thats in the seat in front of me but when I plugged in my laptop cord the little green light on my transformer didn't light up to indicate that there was power. I mentioned it to one of the stewardess' (yes there are women on this flight) that it wasn't working while she was handing out drinks and she told me she'd find out as soon as she was done with the drinks. She walked back and forth a few times; I began to worry that she' forgotten about what I asked her.
On her third trip by my seat she stopped to tell me that there was a problem with the fuse and they were trying to reset it. Within 30 seconds of her leaving the little green light came on to indicated that there was power going to the outlet. YAY! Now I can turn up the brightness on my monitor and work until my hearts content. If I had a disk I'd take this opportunity to reformat my computer...
If I wanted to fill it with crap I'd put Vista on it.... nah.
We're only 4 and a half hours from Toronto, and I'm surprised we made it this far to be honest. Shortly after takeoff we hit the absolute worst turbulence I've ever experienced In my life. I was honestly terrified that we were going to drop out of the air.
At one point I raised out of my seat because the plane dropped about 10-15 feet and then rose again with the turbulence. I thought we were going to end up crash landing into downtown Tokyo! I looked at our moving map and at that point we still had 11 hours to go. Side to side turbulence I can handle, but that was terrible.
I'm glad that I got to sit next the lady from Toronto, she was very kind during the bad turbulence, offering me Gravol and checking to see if I was alright. I was like flying with my mom. Kind of weird, but refreshing at the same time.
We were in and out of normal turbulence for the entire rest of the journey. Hitting little bits here and there.
I did what I normally do in those type of situations.... I slept. I closed my eyes and imagined I was anywhere but on a plane. I pictured myself sitting on the couch at home with my wife, but then a plane crash landed into our television.
Every time I pick up the laptop to do some work we end up hitting turbulence and making the journey rougher and making it every harder to concentrate.
Currently we're flying over top of Whitehorse and I opened the window, after nearly going blind by the sheer volume of light coming in the window, I was absolutely mesmerized by the landscape. I managed to take a few pictures of the outside before our crappy lady ordered me “politely” to shut the window before she broke my face.
Ok, I added in that part.
I'm officially on my way HOME! I can't believe that its actually been 15 days since I've entered Brunei. Its crazy to think that so much time has passed and that I was able to see and do SOO much. It really was the trip of a lifetime because I honestly don't know when I'll have the opportunity to come back again. Although, if work sends me I'd try to find a way for my wife to come too! I think she'd LOVE it.
I work up this morning and pressed snooze on my make-shift alarm clock until a little past 7:30 and then went downstairs to get myself ready to start the day. When I got downstairs I ran into a few of the guys from Malaysia who were here to do some business with my sponsor. I met them last week when we were participating in the launch of the software application.
We went to the office for a few minutes to do a few things and to let my sponsor get some work done before we went to the airport. I said a few goodbyes to some of the people that I have been working with and then went to the airport where I was scared the I would have to pay extra for my luggage as it was heavy. I brought my things to the counter and put it on the scale.... 22.3 kg. I'm allowed 20 kg and then I started to panic because I saw a sign that told of the different charges that I would have to pay if I was over, and Hong Kong was something ridiculous like $65 a kg. The lady didn't say anything and then proceeded to check my luggage to Toronto (because it is a domestic flight after that I have to move the baggage myself.) I was talking to my sponsor afterwards and he told me they only make you start paying when you get to 25 kg. Phew!
Once I got my ticket I had to get out of the security area to cash in some Brunei dollars that I had, I still have a $100 bill that I needed to get ride of. The $5's and $1's I can give away as souvenirs to friends and family. I received $70 Canadian and $30 Brunei because he couldn't give me anything smaller.
I said my goodbye to the sponsor and went back through the checkpoint, then in through immigration. The guy took my passport, scanned me and then said “Who's your favourite player? Ronaldo?” In reference to the Manchester United jersey that I was wearing. We have a nice little talk about it before I left. What a way to start a trip! Normally Customs/Immigration people are very cranky, well they are in Canada. But I guess, if you're a fan of football, you can get along anywhere in the world. :-)
I walked around the Departures area to have a look at the sights. I walked into a souvenir shop and saw a little elephant statue for sale that I thought would be a fantastic little souvenir for myself as I didn't buy my statue..... listed price.... $89.00. F*ck that! (Though I didn't ask if it was listed in Brunie dollars or Malaysian ringits which are 15-1 for BND.)
They had a pretty cool little salt-water aquarium with a Dory and Nemo in it. It was nice to stand there and watch them swim around. It got a little weird after a few minutes when a couple of British fellows walked up to the aquarium and said, “This is cool, we saw these on the reef.”
Bastards.
I wen to find my Gate so that I knew where to go at 11 when they started boarding when I cam across a peculiar sight. There was a good dozen people sitting on the floor infront of a television. I could tell immediately they were from the UK:
1.They were white.
2.They were watching a replay of the Chelsea v Liverpool game from the night before.
I was there for Chelsea's third goal (They won 3-2) and not a single person cheered. They all seemed to take great offense to this particular goal. Stupid Chelsea.
The flight should be in Hong Kong on time, giving me about 2 hours in the airport to navigate my way around to find where I will be going. Maybe I'll have time to buy something? Think they'll take Canadian dollars?
A few minutes before take off one of the stewards on the flight, yes all of the staff on the flight are gusy and not the really cool dressed girls, comes up to me as I'm crammed into my seat with an elderly chinese woman and her son, both of whom are holding Canadian passports. He asks me, “Are you travelling together.” I say No.
He then says, would you like to sit up front? My mind immediately jumps to FIRST CLASS. As if he can read my mind, he begins to tell me that there is an empty row beside one of the emergency exits over the wind and he wants to know if I will occupy it. I agree and walk down the corridor to my new seat.
As we're taking off I realize that it was good deal, I looked to the window and managed to take a few aerial shots of the water village thats in the capital city, there are few of them in the area, but this is the biggest.
Did you know that 12-15% of the population of Brunei live in these villages? They're essentially homes on stilts in the water, a pretty cool idea, though dangerous. I was told that a few years ago there was a fire in one of them and because the houses are so close together the fire's spread easily. Such a shame.
I'm beginning to not like my seat any more. There is a really cool vertical cloud formation just out side to the left that I wanted to take a picture of but the flippin' wing was in the way so I couldn't get a full shot... maybe I can see out out the window behind me in a few moment.
2:30pm
I have arrived in HONG KONG. I'm a little disappointed in everything though. As we were flying in it was very overcast/cloudy/smoggy which isn't that good for taking pictures off the cool ass land marks in the city. Though I did try my best to take what I could some of them will need some editing to try and clear up the blueish tint of the pictures while the rest are hopeless. But it was still fun to try though.
Coming into the airport and looking at the different airlines that fly here is amazing. I saw planes for: South African, Turkish Airways, Qatar, Jordaian Airlines, Air Asia, Vietnamese Airlines. Its crazy because we're so limited in our choices in Canada that we only see less than a dozen, maybe closer to 10 or 12 when you get into a place like Toronto.
When I got off the plane there was a few people standing at the bottom of the runway with a sign, one of them had my name. It was just a friendly reminder that I need to go to transfer area E2 to get to the Cathay Pacific Counter. I knew that, but if I didn't E2 is across the hallway from E1 so it wouldn't be too hard to find.
I made my way through security without any problems, the only problem I had was putting my watch in the bucket for the scanner, it just wouldn't leave my hand. After making my way upstairs I really found out how cool this air port is. It has EVERYTING. A Ralph Lauren store, a Svardovski (watch place) all the really expensive high priced fashion outlets are here! How cool is that!?
I told Amanda that if I had time I would wander my way around the airport and see if I could find us any souvenis, I found some, and after spending $100 HK, which I think works out to be about $15 Canadian on two Key Chains, I think we'll both be happy.
After leaving the shop with the expensive key chains I wandered around to see if I could find something else that would catch my eye. Turns out I was very easily swayed. I saw a wireless rechargeable mouse in one of the electronic stores in the airport, it looked really promising. But it was $425 HK, I went to the currency exchange to find out how much that would be Canadian, and it looked like it was about ... wow my math was really wrong when I was thinking about this... it was $50! What the hell? Hong Kong is expensive.... but then again, when is the next time that I'm actually going to be here? Probably close to never. It was worth it. (Though it means that I might not be able to get a new pair of shoes... hahaha... )
I went back to my gate to see if I could find a seat since I had gone around the entire air port in a little more than 23 minutes and went to find a seat, you'd think that the seats wouldn't go that fast, but man they flew! I was lucky to find a seat on the end of an aisle looking out the window.
For shits and giggles I turned on the wireless component of my laptop to see if I could get anykind of a signal. I could... there were TWO unsecured wireless.
I tried the first one labeled “Free Wireless” after 3 minutes of trying to load a webpage... nothing.
Tried the other one labelled “PCCW”, when I tried to load a page it brought me to a login screen where I could enter in information and pay for Internet. Whats the point of having unsecured wireless if you have to pay to use it?
So, its 3:35pm and my flight is boarding in 30 minutes. Shit, do I ever hate waiting for stuff! Thanks Amanda for sharing your impatience with me! Hahahahaha
I just can't wait to get home to Canada! I could spend the night in the airport in Toronto and I wouldn't care, just as long as I'm in Canada!
5:15pm (Hong Kong)
I'm on the flight! Making my way back towards Canada, so very exciting. I can't believe that its come to this. I was very scared getting on the flight because I didn't want to be smooshed into the window next to two people and not be able to get out to go pee or anything. Turns out I lucked out BOTH trips, on the way to Hong Kong on the 15th I had a really nice kick-boxing gentleman sitting next to me and we chatted our way through the sky.
This time I have a very lovely English lady (living in Toronto) sitting next to me who's oh so very nice to talk tto. She told me all about her trip to Brisbane and some of the things that they did in Hong Kong, such a pleasant lady.
Asian people can be, not to sound like an asshole, demanding and pushy. I was in line to get on the plane when this little fellow, not much older than me walked right past me, looked at me and then stood in line. How rude!
On the take off I still didn't have much luck seeing Hong Kong, there were some aspects that I could see: little bits of civilization in and around the volcanic mountains, very nice. But it was still too cloudy too see what was past or around those mountains. I think I'd like to come back this way and do a little tour of Asia. Visit Hong Kong, Tokyo, Kuala Lumpur, and then head down to Austalia where I can get lost in the out back and never come back.....
The nice lady also told me a bit about the news lately, apparently Beijing made an announcement that for the next 100 days leading up to the Olympics the entire city is going to be a smoke free zone. Organizers are worries about the quality of the air in Beijing and figured that doing this would help with the pollution. How about if they stop building oil guzzling factories? That would help. Better yet shut down all of the Coal Fueled Power stations in the country, they're probably responsible for about 45% of the pollution. It sucks that they're advancing so far behind the rest of the world and encountering the problems that we've worked around 20 years ago.
Shit, that got a little political, sorry about that.
There's a lot of turbulence on this flight right now and they also made an announcement that some of the in flight services/entertainment are all messed up due to “technical” problems. Here's what I think happened: someone pushed the “reset” button on their system, and if it functions like anything else I've seen lately, resetting it won't help. Or the other cause could have been that some schmuck (me) turned on his laptop and left the wireless Internet turned on. Now that I think about it, I bought a new wireless mouse in the airport and I can't use it because its a “wireless” device. Dammit. I wanted to play!
Again, I digress and end up bitching about something that doesn't need to be discussed here.
I tried to use the power plug thats in the seat in front of me but when I plugged in my laptop cord the little green light on my transformer didn't light up to indicate that there was power. I mentioned it to one of the stewardess' (yes there are women on this flight) that it wasn't working while she was handing out drinks and she told me she'd find out as soon as she was done with the drinks. She walked back and forth a few times; I began to worry that she' forgotten about what I asked her.
On her third trip by my seat she stopped to tell me that there was a problem with the fuse and they were trying to reset it. Within 30 seconds of her leaving the little green light came on to indicated that there was power going to the outlet. YAY! Now I can turn up the brightness on my monitor and work until my hearts content. If I had a disk I'd take this opportunity to reformat my computer...
If I wanted to fill it with crap I'd put Vista on it.... nah.
We're only 4 and a half hours from Toronto, and I'm surprised we made it this far to be honest. Shortly after takeoff we hit the absolute worst turbulence I've ever experienced In my life. I was honestly terrified that we were going to drop out of the air.
At one point I raised out of my seat because the plane dropped about 10-15 feet and then rose again with the turbulence. I thought we were going to end up crash landing into downtown Tokyo! I looked at our moving map and at that point we still had 11 hours to go. Side to side turbulence I can handle, but that was terrible.
I'm glad that I got to sit next the lady from Toronto, she was very kind during the bad turbulence, offering me Gravol and checking to see if I was alright. I was like flying with my mom. Kind of weird, but refreshing at the same time.
We were in and out of normal turbulence for the entire rest of the journey. Hitting little bits here and there.
I did what I normally do in those type of situations.... I slept. I closed my eyes and imagined I was anywhere but on a plane. I pictured myself sitting on the couch at home with my wife, but then a plane crash landed into our television.
Every time I pick up the laptop to do some work we end up hitting turbulence and making the journey rougher and making it every harder to concentrate.
Currently we're flying over top of Whitehorse and I opened the window, after nearly going blind by the sheer volume of light coming in the window, I was absolutely mesmerized by the landscape. I managed to take a few pictures of the outside before our crappy lady ordered me “politely” to shut the window before she broke my face.
Ok, I added in that part.
Saturday, May 3, 2008
Brunei, Day 13, April 29
April 29th, 2008
Just finished day two of the training I am giving on the Web Mapping Software that our company added for the project. The training, in my opinion is going well, although I wouldn't know that as the people attending the training sit quietly and watch when they have missed what I had done in the previous step. After two days I've almost become a mind reader and master of observation to figure out when he people are not really paying attention or are completely lost.
The thing that I'm finding most disturbing/hard regarding Asian culture is that when I am talking and giving my presentation as part of the training I can always hear one person somewhere in the room talking to someone else. I'm going to assume that what they are saying is related to the course, but they're speaking Malay so I'm unsure as to the exact content of their discussion.
I am having lots of fun with the training though, the training room that the company here in Brunei setup has an Interactive Smartboard. This means I can jump around the room and click the pen on the board to show people exactly where to click. I'm actually thinking they're having a hard time seeing the board.
I handed in my expenses today to the company who is sponsoring my visit. Staying here for 2 weeks: this includes, room & board, meals, chauffeured driving service (Tommy), and full maid services for a grand total of $500 (Brunei). I spent 4 days in Halifax and the hotel alone cost me $900 Canadian. For a state of reference $500 in Brunei converts to $372 Canadian.
But thats the way things are here, everything is cheap. There is a place we go to breakfast just past work, and for 3 people to eat we get change back from $10 BND (Brunei Dollars). I managed to find, on Sunday, a jersey for an English football club for $20 BND, I bought my other jersey in Toronto a few years back, on sale, for $100 CDN.
When I leave here on Thursday, I'm actually going to miss it. I enjoy the people that I work with and the people who are hosting me (though Asian morales I could do without). Its going to be different going back to Canada, having to cook, having to drive and having to pay full price for everything.
The strangest thing that I found was this: nowhere, I repeat, nowhere in this country can you find a non-pirated movie or DVD. Everything in this country is pirated. You can buy a brand new movie for $5, one of the people that I work with bought Pirates of the Caribbean 3 for $1.50, we're still paying over $22 for it in Canada.
After work sat around outside with a few of the guys and had a beer or two. Listening to their stories slip in and out of English is highly entertaining. They're talking about trying to bring me out to see the night life in Brunei, which consists of illegal pubs and illegal karaoke which are both surrounded by Asian “back workers” (my way of saying prostitute).
Just finished day two of the training I am giving on the Web Mapping Software that our company added for the project. The training, in my opinion is going well, although I wouldn't know that as the people attending the training sit quietly and watch when they have missed what I had done in the previous step. After two days I've almost become a mind reader and master of observation to figure out when he people are not really paying attention or are completely lost.
The thing that I'm finding most disturbing/hard regarding Asian culture is that when I am talking and giving my presentation as part of the training I can always hear one person somewhere in the room talking to someone else. I'm going to assume that what they are saying is related to the course, but they're speaking Malay so I'm unsure as to the exact content of their discussion.
I am having lots of fun with the training though, the training room that the company here in Brunei setup has an Interactive Smartboard. This means I can jump around the room and click the pen on the board to show people exactly where to click. I'm actually thinking they're having a hard time seeing the board.
I handed in my expenses today to the company who is sponsoring my visit. Staying here for 2 weeks: this includes, room & board, meals, chauffeured driving service (Tommy), and full maid services for a grand total of $500 (Brunei). I spent 4 days in Halifax and the hotel alone cost me $900 Canadian. For a state of reference $500 in Brunei converts to $372 Canadian.
But thats the way things are here, everything is cheap. There is a place we go to breakfast just past work, and for 3 people to eat we get change back from $10 BND (Brunei Dollars). I managed to find, on Sunday, a jersey for an English football club for $20 BND, I bought my other jersey in Toronto a few years back, on sale, for $100 CDN.
When I leave here on Thursday, I'm actually going to miss it. I enjoy the people that I work with and the people who are hosting me (though Asian morales I could do without). Its going to be different going back to Canada, having to cook, having to drive and having to pay full price for everything.
The strangest thing that I found was this: nowhere, I repeat, nowhere in this country can you find a non-pirated movie or DVD. Everything in this country is pirated. You can buy a brand new movie for $5, one of the people that I work with bought Pirates of the Caribbean 3 for $1.50, we're still paying over $22 for it in Canada.
After work sat around outside with a few of the guys and had a beer or two. Listening to their stories slip in and out of English is highly entertaining. They're talking about trying to bring me out to see the night life in Brunei, which consists of illegal pubs and illegal karaoke which are both surrounded by Asian “back workers” (my way of saying prostitute).
Brunei, Day 12, April 27
April 27, 2008
I actually managed to go shopping today. Puah went and took me to town because I wanted to buy a Football jersey that I had seen on my first day in the country. I was expecting to start the bidding at $40 and knock them down to $25 or $30, but all of the good bartering shops didn't have a single Manchester United jersey in the store.
Actually, I couldn't find a store that sold jerseys anywhere in Gadong.
After hitting up 7 stores looking for jerseys we finally decided to go to “The Mall”, thats the name of the mall in town. Seriously.
We walked around the mall and found on the 3rd level a little sports store in the back corner. They actually had a jersey, it was XL. Which I frowned up as it appeared to be too large when I thought about it, I tried it on and it fit great.
I proceeded to walk around the store a bit to get my bargaining face on, she took the shirt from my hands and said in her Chinese accent, “Twenty dollars.” I'm thinking, “You're shitting me!? Sold!”
The rest of my night was spent in front of the computer working on the notes for my training session that starts tomorrow. I really dislike doing training sessions, I'm much more of an
I actually managed to go shopping today. Puah went and took me to town because I wanted to buy a Football jersey that I had seen on my first day in the country. I was expecting to start the bidding at $40 and knock them down to $25 or $30, but all of the good bartering shops didn't have a single Manchester United jersey in the store.
Actually, I couldn't find a store that sold jerseys anywhere in Gadong.
After hitting up 7 stores looking for jerseys we finally decided to go to “The Mall”, thats the name of the mall in town. Seriously.
We walked around the mall and found on the 3rd level a little sports store in the back corner. They actually had a jersey, it was XL. Which I frowned up as it appeared to be too large when I thought about it, I tried it on and it fit great.
I proceeded to walk around the store a bit to get my bargaining face on, she took the shirt from my hands and said in her Chinese accent, “Twenty dollars.” I'm thinking, “You're shitting me!? Sold!”
The rest of my night was spent in front of the computer working on the notes for my training session that starts tomorrow. I really dislike doing training sessions, I'm much more of an
Friday, May 2, 2008
Brunei, Day 10, April 26
April 26th , 2008
Today began by dropping RN off at the airport at the proper time to catch his flight to Hong Kong. He left and then we went back to the office to do some work. I went and began preparing extra training material to cover the things that are not going to get done during the run of the three day training session.
I notified the staff at SPC that training about run from 9-4 every day that would give 3 hours in the morning and 3 in the afternoon. I was then informed by SPC staff that we'd have 3 hours in the morning and 2 in the afternoon because people in Brunei enjoy talking 2 hours for lunch.
I may need to modify the training sessions to run from 9 until 5 to get a full 6 hours in.
At about 4 pm the power at the office went out, in actual fact the power was out for ½ of the country. Just before 5 we pile into Puah's car because we can no longer take the heat and they go looking for a place with air conditioning. They say that we're going to Sharelle's girlfriends business, she owns a “beauty parlor”.
“Beauty parlour” is apparently code for something else.
We walk in the door and are greated by girls and Sharelle. I kind of look around funny at the room its setup like a parlor where you would get a hair cut, but it lacking anything to cut your hair. The girls introduce themselves and I sit down in a chair in the corner.
A girl walks up to me and from across the table says, “Would you like a shampoo? Ear cleaning? Massage?” I shake my head No.
In my mind I'm thinking, “What the f*ck is going on here. Where did they bring me? Ear cleaning? Who the f*ck goes to a slutty place to get wax cleaned out of their ears? Asians are fricken' weird.”
The guys are chatting and within 5 minutes we leave to go get some coffee. Partly because of the odd look on my face the entire time we were there, or the fact that all the guys I was with shoved girls off of them. When we got there Sharelle was getting a shampoo in the chair, when we left the coffee shop 35 minutes later he was still upstairs getting a shampoo. Boy must have been dirty.
Now, I know why I picked the single chair to sit in...
After arriving back at the house we discover that the power is still out, but the street lights are on and the houses 6 doors down still have power. It really sucks to be at the end of a power grid when you can see lights on outside.
The benefits of having no power in 25 degree night: sitting on the front step drinking a cold beer. That beer had to have been the best beer that I have ever tasted. Period.
Today began by dropping RN off at the airport at the proper time to catch his flight to Hong Kong. He left and then we went back to the office to do some work. I went and began preparing extra training material to cover the things that are not going to get done during the run of the three day training session.
I notified the staff at SPC that training about run from 9-4 every day that would give 3 hours in the morning and 3 in the afternoon. I was then informed by SPC staff that we'd have 3 hours in the morning and 2 in the afternoon because people in Brunei enjoy talking 2 hours for lunch.
I may need to modify the training sessions to run from 9 until 5 to get a full 6 hours in.
At about 4 pm the power at the office went out, in actual fact the power was out for ½ of the country. Just before 5 we pile into Puah's car because we can no longer take the heat and they go looking for a place with air conditioning. They say that we're going to Sharelle's girlfriends business, she owns a “beauty parlor”.
“Beauty parlour” is apparently code for something else.
We walk in the door and are greated by girls and Sharelle. I kind of look around funny at the room its setup like a parlor where you would get a hair cut, but it lacking anything to cut your hair. The girls introduce themselves and I sit down in a chair in the corner.
A girl walks up to me and from across the table says, “Would you like a shampoo? Ear cleaning? Massage?” I shake my head No.
In my mind I'm thinking, “What the f*ck is going on here. Where did they bring me? Ear cleaning? Who the f*ck goes to a slutty place to get wax cleaned out of their ears? Asians are fricken' weird.”
The guys are chatting and within 5 minutes we leave to go get some coffee. Partly because of the odd look on my face the entire time we were there, or the fact that all the guys I was with shoved girls off of them. When we got there Sharelle was getting a shampoo in the chair, when we left the coffee shop 35 minutes later he was still upstairs getting a shampoo. Boy must have been dirty.
Now, I know why I picked the single chair to sit in...
After arriving back at the house we discover that the power is still out, but the street lights are on and the houses 6 doors down still have power. It really sucks to be at the end of a power grid when you can see lights on outside.
The benefits of having no power in 25 degree night: sitting on the front step drinking a cold beer. That beer had to have been the best beer that I have ever tasted. Period.
Brunei, Day 9, April 25
April 25th, 2008
Call me old fashioned but sometimes I just don't like the way that people treat women. Let me explain...
Today was RN's last day in Brunei, he was catching a flight back to Fredericton on the 4:30 flight, or so he thought. We arrived at the airport at 3pm so that he could check himself in and then we could go get ready to go to Malaysia. After we dropped him off at security we went and walked around a moment, we turned around and discovered RN walking towards us.
My flight out of the country is at 11:30am, when he mentioned that his was at 4:30pm I didn't think anything of what he said and just continued on my way working. He missed his flight, it was at 11:30am. Whoops.
We run drive across town to our sponsor's travel agent in hopes to make arrangements for rescheduling flights. It was no problem to rebook the flights from Hong Kong and then from Toronto, the only difficult part was booking the one out of Brunei. It was booked through a travel agent / ticket broker and the airline refused to reschedule the flight because of this and the broker refused to arrange a new flight and forced him to buy a new ticket.
There is a rule in the country of Brunei, that you are only allowed to enter the country for a period of 14 days before you have to leave and enter again. RN and I were in the situation where we were going to be in the country for 15 days so we had to go to Malaysia for supper. Oh darn.
We walk across the border and get stamped to enter the country, on the way in we gather a customs card to bring beer back into the country. Since its a dry country non-Muslims are allowed to bring back 12 cans of beer (8 bottles) and 2 litres of spirits. We were being used as Mules to gather beer for everyone else.
We go to a little shanty town called Cowboy Town, but when the locals pronounce it “Cabo Town”. Basically its a group of places the cook chicken of various forms (deep frying, skewering, etc) and a giant tent for people to get drunk on $1 beer. What!? Did you just say $1 a bottle. Yes, $1 Brunei dollars, which is $0.75 a bottle in Canadian dollars!
I was informed the next that that we drank, between 9 people, 72-80 beer. All of which was paid for by our sponsor.
We got drunk. We then went home.
We walked back across the border because its easier and quicker to walk than to take a car because people to go Malaysia and either switch their engines or have it stolen. Plus its illegal to modify the crap out of your car like you can do in Canada.
It was then I discovered that our host had disappeared with his driver to find some food.
And if by “food” you mean Chinese prostitutes, then you'd be correct.
Thats right, I saw my first official Chinese prostitute. One of them was so fresh off the boat that she didn't speak a lick of English and she wasn't here for more than 15 minutes before she shot gunned a bottle of our illegal beer, and took one of the boys to the room for some quick action. (He was back within 3 minutes and bragging. Asians are wierd about that.)
Within the next 5 minutes she went back up the stairs with one of his friends. Why would you share a prostitute with your friend? Gross.
The night progressed and I began drinking water to rehydrate myself, I spent a good portion of the night on the front step talking to Tommy about traffic, weather, family, etc. to escape the pulsating techno music and random bursts of Metallica vidoes. (Malaysians, Chinese, etc are OBSESSED with Metallica for some reason....)
For some background, Tommy is a colleague of our sponsor and an ex-sharpshooter for the Brunei police force. A fantastic guy.
Shortly after 1am, the Chinese girls disappear into a cloud of v.d.
Call me old fashioned but sometimes I just don't like the way that people treat women. Let me explain...
Today was RN's last day in Brunei, he was catching a flight back to Fredericton on the 4:30 flight, or so he thought. We arrived at the airport at 3pm so that he could check himself in and then we could go get ready to go to Malaysia. After we dropped him off at security we went and walked around a moment, we turned around and discovered RN walking towards us.
My flight out of the country is at 11:30am, when he mentioned that his was at 4:30pm I didn't think anything of what he said and just continued on my way working. He missed his flight, it was at 11:30am. Whoops.
We run drive across town to our sponsor's travel agent in hopes to make arrangements for rescheduling flights. It was no problem to rebook the flights from Hong Kong and then from Toronto, the only difficult part was booking the one out of Brunei. It was booked through a travel agent / ticket broker and the airline refused to reschedule the flight because of this and the broker refused to arrange a new flight and forced him to buy a new ticket.
There is a rule in the country of Brunei, that you are only allowed to enter the country for a period of 14 days before you have to leave and enter again. RN and I were in the situation where we were going to be in the country for 15 days so we had to go to Malaysia for supper. Oh darn.
We walk across the border and get stamped to enter the country, on the way in we gather a customs card to bring beer back into the country. Since its a dry country non-Muslims are allowed to bring back 12 cans of beer (8 bottles) and 2 litres of spirits. We were being used as Mules to gather beer for everyone else.
We go to a little shanty town called Cowboy Town, but when the locals pronounce it “Cabo Town”. Basically its a group of places the cook chicken of various forms (deep frying, skewering, etc) and a giant tent for people to get drunk on $1 beer. What!? Did you just say $1 a bottle. Yes, $1 Brunei dollars, which is $0.75 a bottle in Canadian dollars!
I was informed the next that that we drank, between 9 people, 72-80 beer. All of which was paid for by our sponsor.
We got drunk. We then went home.
We walked back across the border because its easier and quicker to walk than to take a car because people to go Malaysia and either switch their engines or have it stolen. Plus its illegal to modify the crap out of your car like you can do in Canada.
It was then I discovered that our host had disappeared with his driver to find some food.
And if by “food” you mean Chinese prostitutes, then you'd be correct.
Thats right, I saw my first official Chinese prostitute. One of them was so fresh off the boat that she didn't speak a lick of English and she wasn't here for more than 15 minutes before she shot gunned a bottle of our illegal beer, and took one of the boys to the room for some quick action. (He was back within 3 minutes and bragging. Asians are wierd about that.)
Within the next 5 minutes she went back up the stairs with one of his friends. Why would you share a prostitute with your friend? Gross.
The night progressed and I began drinking water to rehydrate myself, I spent a good portion of the night on the front step talking to Tommy about traffic, weather, family, etc. to escape the pulsating techno music and random bursts of Metallica vidoes. (Malaysians, Chinese, etc are OBSESSED with Metallica for some reason....)
For some background, Tommy is a colleague of our sponsor and an ex-sharpshooter for the Brunei police force. A fantastic guy.
Shortly after 1am, the Chinese girls disappear into a cloud of v.d.
Brunei, Day 7, April 23
April 23, 2008
Today was the day of the offical launch of the application and website, which I have been helping to install for the past 7 days. It was a public event surrounded by speeches, a press release and visits by local dignitaries. They made such a big deal with the launch of this that when the Minister of Development finished his speech, he walked across the stage and literally pressed a button to make the launch official. The Canadian High Counceillor to Brunei was in attendance as well.
We had three booths setup in the main foyer for people to walk around and see the different things that we were offering. I was talking with a colleague next to me when I was tapped on the shoulder and one of the Department heads asked me to explain this system to the Minister of Development. I was taken a little by surprise but proceeded to explain the 3-D system to him. After a moment we moved on to the other two kiosks, of which I'd normally handle as well, but Jenny was there to help, plus it was at that particular point in time when I was introduced to the Canadian High Counceillor.
The 2nd or 3rd day that I was in Brunei, RN and I had lunch with his assistant Celice, mostly because he was out of the country doing some diplomatic things, or else we would have been having lunch with us. At this lunch she had mentioned to me that the day of the launch she would make introductions.
So, while Jenny was sinking with the ship trying to explain the other two items I was talking to the High Counciellor about the East Coast and the local cuisine. It was a pretty cool experience.
Today was the day of the offical launch of the application and website, which I have been helping to install for the past 7 days. It was a public event surrounded by speeches, a press release and visits by local dignitaries. They made such a big deal with the launch of this that when the Minister of Development finished his speech, he walked across the stage and literally pressed a button to make the launch official. The Canadian High Counceillor to Brunei was in attendance as well.
We had three booths setup in the main foyer for people to walk around and see the different things that we were offering. I was talking with a colleague next to me when I was tapped on the shoulder and one of the Department heads asked me to explain this system to the Minister of Development. I was taken a little by surprise but proceeded to explain the 3-D system to him. After a moment we moved on to the other two kiosks, of which I'd normally handle as well, but Jenny was there to help, plus it was at that particular point in time when I was introduced to the Canadian High Counceillor.
The 2nd or 3rd day that I was in Brunei, RN and I had lunch with his assistant Celice, mostly because he was out of the country doing some diplomatic things, or else we would have been having lunch with us. At this lunch she had mentioned to me that the day of the launch she would make introductions.
So, while Jenny was sinking with the ship trying to explain the other two items I was talking to the High Counciellor about the East Coast and the local cuisine. It was a pretty cool experience.
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