Perhaps one of the most unique culture in Brunei during Hari Raya Aidilfitri is the open house tradition by the Royal Family.

Every year for 3 full days, His Majesty the Sultan of Brunei together with his wives, children and siblings will open their main residence, Istana Nurul Iman for everyone to come and greet the ruler and his family.

I joined the group of well wishers which numbered up to 40,000 persons per day a few years ago when a couple of my friends visited us in Brunei during Hari Raya.

However, it was my husband and a select few of his friends who rarely missed this annual pilgrimage and this year, he was able to take some decent pictures after much persuasion from me.

Because the number of visitors are unbelievably large (20,000 persons in morning sessions – imagine!), visitors with vehicle would be allocated a special parking area a little away from the Palace from where they would board a bus that will take them to the entrance.

This year, visitors were required to fill up an information form to be exchanged with a box of goodies at the end of the session.

The first thing that visitors do when they entered the Palace is to help themselves to the buffet spread. I was told that it seemed to be the norm for many of the visitors to pile their plate so high with food and then to simply leave them uneaten.

In short, greedy and wasteful.

Eating has to be done quickly as they then had to queue up towards the hall where the respective Royal Family will be waiting.

Male visitors will get to greet the male Royal Family and female visitors will greet the female Royal Family in two separate halls.

The wait can be long and this morning, the men waited for 2 hours from the time they finished their meal until the time they finally shook hands with His Majesty and his family.

Once this is over, visitors will get a goodies box filled with biscuits, chocolates, chips and drink – much to kids’ delight (who will also get a packet of money).

This year, the goodies were packed in a bag-like cardboard box unlike previous years when it used to be a plastic container.

From my personal experience, I find it amazing that despite having to stand for several hours shaking the hands of tens of thousands of visitors, Her Majesty the Queen was still able to smile and once in a while ask short questions.

Now what other country rulers do this for 3 whole days greeting a total of 100,000 visitors!

Not only did the men came back with loads of pictures of the Singapore F1 Grand Prix 2008 and Singapore Motor Show 2008, they also made Singapore a little bit richer with some goodies.

There were apparently many stalls that sells official merchandises and keepsake items which were thronged by all those who attended the race.

First of all, there were these Survival Kit which consists of a pair of ear plug – a must have when you are by the circuit (F1 cars are reportedly as loud as a jumbo jet taking off!) – and a poncho which fortunately was left unused.

These Kits were sold at a minimum of $2 per pack and because it’s for charity, folks were encouraged to give more.

Then there were the tee shirts.

Official team shirts cost from $45 and upwards with the Ferrari shirts being the most expensive.

However, not even the glamour of wearing an official Ferrari shirt can make lukewarm fans fork out $100+ when it’s country of production was, to put it mildly not worth the price.

So instead, the men decided to go for a relatively cheaper (a little less than $100) team shirts that was at least made in China. And their choice was the McLaren Mercedes.

Not content with that, keepsake shirts were also happily purchased to make sure that they and everyone else remember that they attended the first ever Singapore F1 Grand Prix.

After all, that’s the point of spending on over-priced shirts with nothing extra special except those little wordings and labels right?

I wonder how much revenue did Singapore made from the sale of merchandise alone.