Jewelle Tan Personally

It’s 4 more days before the voting for Simpur’s Best Bruneian Blog is over.

I thought I’d give those of you who are not in Brunei some info on what this is all about and share what I think about each of them.

One of the first Brunei blog I know was AnakBrunei (Best Photoblog), owned by arguably the most famous big guy in Brunei. I enjoy his people shots and it’s fun to try and spot familiar faces. Although we move in very different society, there have been some faces captured by him which I recognized - which means either one; Brunei population is really that small or he have really photographed that many people!

RanoAdidas (WildCard Blog) was the next finalist which I read since my early days of blogging. Whenever you feel like there is nothing happening in Brunei, you just head over to his place for the many public and private events and functions in the country - and the burning question for us at home for us is, does-he or does-he-not have assistants to cover all those events!

Kurapak (Best Local Content Blog) is the place where I’ve picked up a few Brunei Malay lingo - excellent place to polish or corrupt your Malay (depending on if you’re a beginner or a native speaker…) There are few pictures here but his posts are outrageously funny and original - they’re classic.

I came to know of the ArabFamilies (Best Specialty Blog) when he sponsored the first Belait district Blogger’s Meet in 2008 which I missed but from what I read, had the very intriguing session of dancing to gambus music! As his blogname indicates, he shares the many happenings in his very large and lively family.

Besides photography, yoga and scrapbooking - which I find are some of the common subjects blogged by Bruneians - fishing is also another popular activity and when it comes to a fishing blog, BruneiFishing (Best Lifestyle Blog) seems to be the most popular. I’m not a fishing fan but it’s a good place to see what kind of fish there are in our water.

Now the final blog which I want to share with you is the Spiritual Garden (Best Personal Blog).

I cannot remember when and how I found one of Brunei’s most creative and funniest teacher but I was hooked from the very first post that I read. She talks about relationship and do a lot of arts & craft and I have been inspired to try some yet it’s hard as I have none of her patience and creativity.

But it’s her ability to write very funny postings that I love about her. I like the way she sprinkles some Malay and Hokkien expressions and make her posts very very natural and hilarious.

So which is my personal choice for the Best Bruneian Blog?

I am a fan of many of these blogs and I frequent these on a daily basis. All of them are really worthy winners in their category and it is hard for me to pick ONLY ONE - the blog that has done a lot for the community or the blog that makes me laugh or the blog that taught me things?

Why don’t you (especially non-Bruneian) check out these popular Bruneian blogs and cast your votes too?

When I picked Eu up from school on Saturday, she asked me what the rest of us did earlier in the morning. I told her that we went for the Lexus Roadshow a.k.a “car show”.

Eu : “I thought you didn’t like car show?”

It’s not exactly my favorite thing to do but I was a little curious to see the latest Landcruiser LX570 - a staple car for many of the Sabahans tycoons and politicians.

Perhaps it’s because I live in Brunei that during every trip back home that I make, I noticed that one in every ten cars on any roads around Kota Kinabalu on most days will be a LandCruiser.

Our fascination with this car was to the extent that it even has a special name. Calling it by its proper name will not register much among the average Sabahans - but say the magic name and eyes will light up : “Ninja King“.

Those who can (or think they can) afford one will spill their plans on buying this RM200-400K cars while those who can’t (even in their wildest dreams) will have a story or two about those who drives one.

If Sabah is “Land Below The Wind” then Kota Kinabalu can comfortably be called the “City Of The Ninja Kings”.

And this is the latest “Ninja King”.

Personally, exterior look wise, I much prefer the previous model. I find that it’s too low but my husband said, it’s probably the setting of the suspensions. The interior however was something else and you can see the finer details at Jan Shim’s.

An interesting description about this car that I heard from Brunei folks when it comes to it’s $150K price tag.

“You can buy a house!”

Dollar for a dollar, at RM150K you can only get a Hyundai Tucson or similar cars. And at RM150K, don’t dream of getting a decent double storey in Kota Kinabalu - correct me if I’m wrong Sabahans.

Anyway, our local reporter was enthralled with the LS460L - which comes with a massage facilities for the back seats.

If asked to choose, I am slightly more interested in the GS300 and that is only because it comes in this deep red colour which caught my attention when it was once featured at their Gadong showroom. It’s too bad they didn’t bring that particular model - not that it will make any sales on their part from us.