Today, I drove all the way to Seria, at the far west of Bandar Seri Begawan, to visit the town and also a Malaysia friend, Vincent who has been working and staying there since 3 years ago. He graduated from MMU too and got to know him from my gf’s sis.

It took me about an hour before I reached Seria at about 2.30pm, due to heavy rain half-way. I parked the car at a market in the town before Vincent reached 15 minutes later. We hopped into his brand new Toyota Vios, which according to him, only worth B$21K. Cheap and affordable, isn’t it?

Seria is a small and peaceful oil town. According to him, Seria was being leased to Shell and almost 80% of the town is occupied by Shell properties, including staff accomodations. Only if you’re a Brunei-an, then only you’ll stand a chance to be recruited by Shell. Once you’re part of Shell, the basic salary is in the range of B$3,500 to B$4,000 (for a fresh starter). Then, you’re going to have a very decent life, with the least spending way, really.

The first scene that attracted me is the so-called “nodding-donkey oild well” which are still functioning, distributed everywhere. Then, we came to crude oil processing plants and refinery plants. That’s where His Majesty the Sultan’s wealth lies. Anyhow, it’s too bad that the Oil and Gas Discovery Centre (OGDC) was close to public. :-(

Then, we proceeded to Kuala Belait town, which is larger in term of size and population compared to Seria. It’s the last town of Brunei before we go over to Miri, Sarawak. DVD shops and goldsmiths are popular here. We had our so-called Konloo Mee in an old coffee shop and I had two. Too hungry? Too delicious? I’m not sure, either one, maybe.

Probably locals here have nowhere to spend, there is a so-called Disneyland style residential area. All-pervasive of bungalows with extravagant designs can be found here. It’s like Beverly Hills, name it and see it, eyes-opening experience. But, bear in mind that, not everyone Brunei-an are rich. A walking distance from Vincent’s office, there is a village in a very poor condition. Such a contradiction …

We left Kuala Belait at around 5pm when the sky was getting dark. Half-way back, it rainned again. Argghh, that stopped me from visiting Jerudong, where Jerudong Park is situated. No worry, there must be chance sometimes in coming trips.

Next mission? Miri, most probably.

I have been here for 4 days and I can conclude that, here, everything is being carried out in a very slow pace.

Traffic is so smooth until I forgot that I was already in the town. Zebra crossing lanes are so much respected by citizens here to an extend that, drivers stop to allow pedestrians to cross over, even they were only to be seen standing by the roadside. I didn’t realise it until a guy stared at me with his absolutely shocking expression when I sped by him.

Since then, I pretended to be a Brunei-an by waving someone from trunk to slot ahead of me. I hope with this little "act", I might discipline myself while I’m driving here. Or maybe, to save my arse from getting summon with the name of "not allowing pedestrian to cross-over zebra lane". This, I believe will cause a big joke if it’s to be made known among the KL communities.

Not only that, there is so many parking spaces allocated, everywhere anywhere. And again, the part worth mentioning is that, it’s FREE. It’s kind of a "luxury" which is no-where to be found in KL.

Come to this point, you must make yourself understand that, it’s not that I’m undermining myself as a Malaysian, but really, I see some real good values here, which I hope every Malaysian must practise. You have the choice to oblige yourself by giving away good excuses that "Brunei is a small country lah", "Brunei-an not competitive enough lah" and etc etc. But you can never deny the fact that, we lose good value that we’re suppose to preserve.

This, is definitely a heavy opportunity price to pay for.

Since my last trip here, I have fallen in love with this place.

The project is already in full force now, I’ll be on-and-off site starting from this week. Due to the request made to our partner, I have been re-located to Grand City Hotel at Gadong city area. The part worth mentioning is that, we’re provided with a Renault car, which I over-heard was being rented at B$700 per week, not bad though.

There’s many restaurants here, which I felt really glad about. It’s not really that expensive, more or less similar to what I can have in KL too. There’s plenty of varieties, even though it’s to decide on what to order at times. Anyhow, I felt satisfy.

As for work, it’s progressing well, another milestone achieved. I hope by the time we leave next Friday, everything would fall in place, which is vital for the project progression.

I have a lot to share about employment opportunities here, which is pretty good if compared to Malaysia. I’ll share more about this very soon, probably during the weekends.

Meanwhile, I had a chit-chat with a Singaporean on a business trip here, sharing about everything from hell to heaven, a pleasant chat on current affairs between Malaysia and Singapore. I would say it’s pretty enlightening, especially on military issues since he is an ex-navy.

By the way, nearly had a crash after dinner moments ago. Thank god, everything is fine. I must be extremely becareful next time as colleauges are with me too.

Quite tired now, going to sleep very soon. There’s still a lot to discuss with client tomorrow, better keep myself fresh and awake.

Good night.

——————————————————————————-

SK: Wholeheartedly, thanks to Kai Sheng for pointing out all of my grammar mistakes. I’ll make sure that I’m fully alert of this in the future. :-)

On Sunday, Abdul Razak Ahmad of NST, wrote about the unemployable graduates by examining the reasons lying beneath.

As usual, whenever there was any so-called “interesting” issue raised by the media, I can’t help but to observe that, many contacts on my Yahoo Messenger start to put those related links as status, while some would be busy forwarding those links to the group, as a way they think that can “contribute consciousness” to their communities.

While some start to blame on the inefficiences of authority in concern, some will pinpoint to hell lot of reasons and excuses, condeming this and that.

However, very unfortunately that, no one actually mirrorring themselves and ask what they had actually done for the past few years during their university years.

The fact is that, Malaysians should feel lucky enough that we’re being provided with near-free education. No matter how suck the education system is also, government must not be the only culprit to bear the real blame too.

Why?

Just take a look at a few examples shared in the article. It’s simple enough to make you realise that, if you’re incompetitive enough and remain incompatible to this society, it’s very sorry to say that, society will have to exclude you.

Come on, we’re talking about globalisation nowadays, we’re talking about K-Economy nowadays and you still expect government to spoon-feed you until the day you say goodbye to this world?

No way ….

So, the solution is, equip urself well, be prepared to enroll yourself into this society. There’s nothing wrong to know more than what you’re suppose to know, by becoming a super genius in memorising theory, pull out with a super four-flat won’t guarantee your future career path. It’s much much more than that, really.

Meanwhile, I remember a reader of this blog mentioned that, “if you’re not proactive, you’re reactive”. So, for those who like to complain fish from hell till heaven, give it a thought, whether your words are justifying your action?

Talk is always cheap. After all, what you have actually done to IMPROVE the current situation?

I hope this will serve a good reminder to every typical Chinese, especially those that I had known.

And wholeheartedly, no offence, IF you’re one.

In order to relieve the labour shortage, Government has authorised the recruitment of 100,000 Pakistanis, which was being offered by the Pakistan government.

Probably due to its urgency, Home Minister Datuk Azmi Khalid wanted them to come as soon as possible, even resort to waive the induction course. Quote:

"We need the workers urgently. So to speed up the (recruitment) process we will exempt them from taking the course. But the medical check-up is a must."

I thought he understood the purpose of induction course at first place, and to exempt new workers taking the course won’t do any good for the country, most probably the same illegal immigrants issue would take place again in the future.

By coming out with this ruling, does this mean that, induction course is "not that important"? If so, might as well scrap it, after all, it’s all about tax-payers money, isn’t it?

Chinese proverb has a says: "Don’t slap your own mouth".

What you think?

Germany has Mercedes-Benz and BMW; Italy has Ferrari, Maserati, Lamborghini; UK has Bentley and Malaysia is not losing out too.

Esna Venere, Malaysia’s first sports car which will be launched in 2006, being priced between MYR500,000 ($131,579) and MYR800,000

Esnasports Adviser Esmail Naziadin said that only 150 units of the Venere sports car will be produced and confirmed order had been received from 20 buyers.

What’s more interesting is that, it was being speculated that Proton may launch its own of local made sports car too, fast-forwardly forgotten past failure in Lotus.

I’m speechless getting to know this.

I realise the fact that as a Malaysian, I should have felt proud with this.

But, should I? Let’s see …

The Force of Nature Concert for Tsunami Aid, is a voluntary effort initiated by the Force of Nature Aid Foundation.

It has a prestigious committee made up of the “who’s who” in business and entertainment including Harvey Weinstein, chairman of Miramax; Rupert Murdoch, chairman of Newscorp and Datuk Dr Munir Majid, chairman of Malaysia Airlines while the goodwill ambassadors for the foundation are Jackie Chan and Michelle Yeoh, who are committed to providing funds and building global awareness for the many people whose lives have been devastated by natural disasters.

Those who are going to perform will be pop faces Black Eyed Peas, Backstreet Boys, Boyz II Men, soul singer Lauryn Hill and Wyclef Jean on the bill. Top local singers such as Sheila Majid and Anuar Zain will also be performing too.

Not only that, one popular story going around is that American Idol judge Paula Abdul and media tycoon Rupert Murdoch might be coming, but no one is confirming this talk.

Even Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi now wears an orange rubber wristband in support of the Force of Nature concert for Tsunami Aid and has even directed his Cabinet members to wear the wristbands at the show.

I still can’t confirm my participation yet, depends on my ad-hoc flying schedule. Most probably, I’ll attend as a mean of charity, if I’m permitted to do so.

This concert will take place on March 18 at 7pm at Putra Stadium, Bukit Jalil in Kuala Lumpur. Tickets range RM82, RM182, RM242, RM352 and RM552 or book them through Axcess.

Barely a year after infamous indonesian maid abuse which is still under trial, we’re once again awaken by another fresh abuse.

This time, the unlucky one is an Indian national.

Sonia Sharma, 19, alleged to be beaten with a stick, being punched in the face and burnt with cigarette after being accussed of stealing RM40,000 from her ex-employer. Worst, she was deprived of food and water. She managed to sneak away, lodged a police report and the suspect was detained.

I thought society should change for a betterment. But, still, some people never learn from past, even though the trial is not concluded yet.

The punishment meted out must be severe enough to those who defy the rules and laws. No one can be shielded or ran away from that.

Don’t because of a black dot, everyone of us are being label as worse than third world mentality people, again.

Not fair at all.