JEWELLE TAN

The landscape of Kuala Belait has changed so much in the last couple of years.

Driving around this town these days is quite exciting – new multi-storey residential blocks everywhere!

With so many expats in this oil and gas town and very little housing options due to the restrictive land policy, it is only fair that those with money are allowed to build apartments – for those who has no money to build or even buy their own.

Now there are comparatively more housing choices at more decent rental rates – and those expats whose housing allowances are not $5000 and above will no longer have to contend with renting some backyard-house-extension or above-shoplot-units.

These expats may still not be able to display their modern outdoor furniture but at least coming home to their rented apartments will be much nicer (maintained compound) and easier (no need to compete for parking with shop-goers).

Just the other day, my husband suggested that we display all the cameras we have had over the years.

You must think we make it a hobby to collect cameras?

We do have around four to five digital cameras (and maybe two camcorders until the last one broke a few years ago and never replaced) and most of them still work I am sure. It is just that, once we upgraded to a DSLR (still only one), the others were quickly forgotten and now left lying somewhere, gathering dusts.

I mean, how can I not love the (still one) DSLR that we have, no matter how basic it is now compared to all the new ones in the market, when its “sports mode” suits my style (read : shooting while in a car) nicely?

In fact, many of my favorite photos are those I took when we are driving around.

So much so that I am sometimes at lost at what to shoot when I am in not in a compose-and-press-the-shutter-now mode!

There are family members who are on their way to 11°C Taiwan and 1°C Canada.

Yes, just one operative word : COLD!

I have not been anywhere below 20°C for ten years (and I don’t count artificially-freezing Singapore’s Snow City).

Fortunately we are able to enjoy a little (natural) dip in temperature when we go to highlands like Kundasang (gateway to Mount Kinabalu) and Patau (gateway to the cold-straight-from-Crocker-Range Mahua Waterfall) back in Sabah.

We have not been to Kundasang for a few years though, as the whole place is becoming expensive, crowded and no longer as cold as it was many years back when putting on socks to bed is a MUST.

We went to Patau recently for a short getaway and although it is also no longer a must to sleep with socks, this quiet kampung has its own special charm.

Simple houses with rustic furniture, the friendly natives with their singsong dialect, the green paddy field right in front and blue hills and mountain beyond.

And the most important factor for me – no big buses of crowd that drown out the sound of nature.