After 1 hour and 15 minutes drive from Bandar, we finally arrived to KB at 1215 pm. No, I will not talk here about the giant teapot and its four cups at the first roundabout we saw as we turned right towards KB, simply because I don’t think the landmark is that spectacular and I struggled to make sense of the explanation as to why a big teapot and not just a giant replica of the nodding donkey instead, KB being the oil district of the country and all. Just saying…

We didn’t have much time to waste as the pottery workshop closes at 4, so we skipped checking out the KB Sentral Shopping Centre and went straight to the town centre for our lunch which we had pre-decided to be at the Beanery & Co. Cafe. The cafe was easy to find, its green facade made it pop out from the rest. Despite it being lunchtime, there were just two diners at the time when we came inside, a caucasian couple who were just about done with their meals. Next-door was a different story. One side of the cafe’s wall is all glass, so we could see the people doing laundry inside the laundromat overlooking it. It was quite distracting.

After the couple left, there were just me and my niece inside. We started goofing around, switching tables, taking pictures, moving chairs and rearranging the things on the tables for our photos. I got it then why people recommended not to miss the restaurant when visiting KB. The interior was cozy and homely feeling. Before we knew it, it was already close to 2pm. We needed to make a move.

Since the pottery workshop is just about 5 minutes drive away, I thought we still got time to check out the nearby shops, not enough time to stroll down the blocks though. We saw some cute cacti and succulents at one of the shops. Im not a plant person, but I do have a weakness for cute things. So after admiring and fondling them, I decided to bring back two of them with me to Bandar. Yes, they are sold in Bandar too, but Ive not seen one that looks like a mini tree. Come on, just look at how cute they are.

My niece also grabbed 3 pots of them. The seller neatly packed the plants in a carton, placed crumpled newspapers in between the pots as buffers.

As we paid, the lady seller explained about the strict watering ritual. “This one every two days, this one once a week” she said pointing to each pot. “Don’t overwater”, she reminded. What?? These are real?? I joked, then I said ok ok and gave a thumbs up, but being notoriously forgetful as I am, the moment we exited the shop I was already asking my niece, “which one is which and every how many days again?”

Mindful not to damage the fragile plants, my niece cradled the carton in her arms. There was one more shop I wanted to check out which caught my attention from the car earlier when we just arrived. Turned out that it is a shop selling party supplies and other cute stuff. I must say, this shop puts all the party shops in Bandar to shame, choices and cost-wise. It was like a party store on steroid. From the ground floor to the first floor, it got everything under the sun for parties. Me and my niece were like kids in a candy shop. Especially with our family block party at the end of the month, the find could not have come in a better time. We grabbed lots of stuff even with my niece still holding the carton, we managed. If I ever got a reason to come back to KB, it will be this shop.

We joyously went back to the car, happy with our shopping. The time was 2.45pm. We needed to get going. Three roundabouts later, we finally got to the pottery workshop. The building bearing the address looked like an ordinary house. By its side is a large golden gate. There was no one around. We thought that the workshop closed early or something. We refused to accept that we have failed our mission to KB. My niece went out of the car to look for some sign of life. Finally, a pick up pulled in. They were the employees of the workshop. They said just honk, so we did. The golden gate opened. The workshop is actually behind the gate. At last!

We were excited to see the racks of ceramic works. Behind the racks we saw the same employees we spoke to earlier. I told them about my intention to buy some unpainted potteries for the pottery painting competition that I am organising. They told me to speak to the management. I looked around and saw a door labeled “Administration”, knocked on the door and inquire inside. Which organisation are you from? the lady inside asked me. I said none. It has become apparent at that point that they are not used to getting walk-in individual shopper. I also found out that they don’t sell the potteries off the shelf, and that I have to place an order and that they need at  least 3 weeks to a month to produce them. What a bummer!

What a sad ending to our KB adventure. But wait! One of the employees was thoughtful to mention that they have some extra stock of pottery tea cups. Although what I wanted were flower vases, I thought tea cups would be good enough. So I bought 20 of them at $3 each. I suppose the price was a bit outrageous for such a tiny thing, but I was too tired to dwell  on it.

Two full tummies, 5 pots of plants, lots of party stuff and 20 tea cups later, we were ready to head back to Bandar. But before that, as recommended by my niece, we must stop by Naafi convenience store at the British Brunei Garrison in Seria. I have known about Naafi but never been there. People, even from the other districts, go there to get foodstuff that are not sold in other stores here, like fancy instant food, cookies, candies and ice-cream. I think its not much about how the food tastes, but more of just wanting to walk down memory lane, reminiscing on the time they spent in Europe. True enough, as we walked in, the smell of costa coffee which filled the store, brought me back to UK. I let my niece rummaged the store while I just paced from shelf to shelf, not looking for anything specific. After paying, I went and waited in the car while my niece was enjoying the Cadbury flake ice-cream that she bought, having her own memory lane moment.