Soto Pabo. Any Bruneian who has not heard of it must be living in a cave. It is a restaurant at Kg Pintu Malim in the capital. We all know how Bruneians like to eat out. Well, this restaurant is one of those eateries in the country that have quite significant number of patrons all the way throughout their operating hours in any day of the month. Restaurants in this league are like the Amanah Harith, KK Koya, Nasi Katok Mama, Soto Haji Tuah and Soto Haji Saban. These restaurants need not to worry about survival, unlike most of the other restaurants in the country which have to compete for the attention of the country’s tiny population and had to experience dry spells during the days when wallets are thin.

Back to Soto Pabo. It is not located at any commercial area. So people who went there must have heard about the restaurant and made efforts to go there either by car or boat. The first time I laid eyes on the restaurant was back in 2016 when I was out chasing pokemons. The pokemap brought me out there at Kg Pintu Malim. I parked my car at the Pintu Malim mosque compound. By the corner of the parking area, there is a raised wooden walkway above water. I didn’t know where it led to but I had to go that direction to get to the pokemon I wanted. As I walked along the walkway, I glanced down below, it was low tide, I was taken aback, the view was yucky, poop-coloured mud riddled with rubbish. I was squirming in disgust. I was trying to shake the image off my head, then I passed by this wooden house, part on land and part on water, with many people could be seen inside through the windows. When I realised that it is a restaurant, are you kidding me, a restaurant here? I said to myself. The sign read “Sato Pabo”. The food must be so nice to attract that many customers despite the distasteful view, I theorised. But, no thanks for me.

There you go. In a way, my introduction to Soto Pabo started on the wrong footing. But I cannot unsee what I saw, so Soto Pabo is not a restaurant that I want to go to for meals. Nope, not on my list. But, ya know, fate has a funny way of putting the things that you are avoiding right in your path.

Fast forward to 2019, my colleague and I were just getting off from work, and we decided to go for some teh tarik. He said, “tell you what, you just drive home and ill pick you up, I want to bring you to this cool restaurant at Bandar”.  As he drove towards this “cool” restaurant, it became clear that we were going to Soto Pabo. At that point, I was in no position to resist, I didn’t want to hurt his feelings, so I relented. Just don’t look down, I said to myself.

As my colleague parked his car, there it was, the dreadful wooden walkway. I couldn’t not look down though, how else would I know what I would be stepping on. I looked down just enough to see my path and blurred out the view further down.

The restaurant does not look anything like it was back in 2016. The walls and windows of the part which is on water were all gone, becoming a wide roofed deck over water. Stepping into the deck, we were greeted with big smiles by the restaurant workers, about 5 of them. Scanning around, the floors looked clean, the tables and chairs were neatly arranged. Good start. One long table was occupied by a group of elderly people, which explained a minibus that I saw earlier at the parking area. At another table, a caucasian man dining alone, pestered by one of the workers. A backpacker, I thought to myself.

We sat down, and I was immediately captivated by the magnificent view of the sky and the sun setting in. Well, the Kg Ayer houses could also be seen, but I’m not a big fan of them simply because many of them looked frail and not well groomed. But the view of the sunset would be enough to win people over.

Despite its moniker, the restaurant does not just serve Soto, but many other dishes as well. This I realised as I flipped through the menu. They served a lot of traditional dishes, that only older generation local moms mastered, which I think is quite useful especially for our foreign friends and tourists to introduce to and try out. Another plus point for Soto Pabo. We tried out the traditional dishes and had some teh tariks. They were all quite nice.

It was time to leave. I was still savouring the view, snapping some photos, thinking to myself…this restaurant is not so bad after all. I walked jollily along the wooden walkway towards the parking area, all smiles. Then….along the way…..I accidentally looked down. Oh crap!

Last week, I went to check out “The Box” to see what the fuss was all about. The Box which was officially “unboxed” on 07 September 2019, is the country’s biggest container-styled commercial establishment, boasting 19,800 square feet of retail across 61 containers, across two floors with over 300 seats and a central patio area that serves as a mini amphitheater (I copied this word by word from the press text on its launching). I saw the photo of it and it definitely looks so cool and modern. The design is so outside the box (the box, get it?). I could definitely see it becoming a landmark and a must-see destination for tourists.

The Box is located in Telanai, not far from where I live, about less than 10 minutes drive away. Unlike other newly opened commercial establishments, such as the Aman Hills Shopping Centre, the OneCity Shopping Centre and One Riverside, The Box just sits by itself out there, along a quiet road, not near any hotel or AirBnB, a stone’s throw away from pretty much nothing. Its not a place that tourists can just walk to from their accommodation or stumble upon while exploring on foot. Locals would be just fine as they own cars, but tourists would have to take a taxi or the bus to get there.

Look-wise, The Box scored high. It is like the more good looking and well-built sibling of the Container Park and the BIBD Connects. Its stunning look certainly makes a perfect backdrop for vacation photos and selfies, of course. But the establishment has to offer more pull factors than its looks in order to get good reviews from tourists and for locals to keep on coming back.

Stepping my foot into The Box for the first time, the first thing that came to my mind was pandemonium. A combination of feeling like I was in a subway station (where you have to manoeuvre through people blocking your ways and walking across your path); a night club (where the music is blasting so loud that you have to practically scream to be heard when speaking) and a night market (where the hawkers are calling out at the top of their lungs telling you that your order is ready for pick up). Definitely not an environment for peace and quiet loving people like me, let alone elderly people like my 80-year old mom. There goes 10% of Brunei population. It was obvious at the get go that this place is meant for the youths.

Despite being suffocated by the crowd and loud music, I was still willing to give the place a chance. So I turned to checking out the food that they have to offer there. I was up for trying everything (except seafood) to see if there would be something delicious and memorable, that one can only get from The Box and no where else. That would definitely be one pull factor to make people like me (who hate crowd and loud noise) to come back there, regardless.

Granted that the place just opened, not all of the “boxes” were rented yet at that time, but I would say the number of F&B vendors already occupying the spaces were quite decent to offer a variety of choices. We did a “browse through” and I was excited to see that they had almost every type of food – pizza, pasta, burger, seafood (no thanks), soto, nasi lemak, lok lok, fried chicken, tortilla wrap, ice-cream (is this food or drink?), donuts and other pastries. I said almost because there was no sushi vendor (yet). As for drinks, there were a lot of them – coffee, bubble tea, Thai tea, fresh juice, teh tarik, you name it – to the extent that I felt like the drink vendors were in my face.

So we had to climb the stairs to get to the first floor. There is also a ramp (for wheelchairs?). I saw 3 elderly people climbing the ramp. They looked tortured. That could be the most exercise they had in years. To get down there are also two other options – a tunnel slide and a drop pole (firemen pole-ish). The elderly trio would still have to take the ramp down I suppose.

It was 8.15pm and I was starving. Food tasting time. My first stop was Dapur Ayam Gepuk which is supposedly popular with its outrageously spicy crispy chicken dishes. Oh bring it oon! I was just about to order but before any word came out of my mouth, the guy said “Sorry, we ran out of chicken” Say whaat?? Ok, never mind. Its your loss! (sour grapes).

So, to nurse my disappointment, I went to get some drinks at Chill Chill. I love Chill Chill drinks. When they said Chill, they really delivered because their drinks are heavenly cold. I was just about to order but again, before any word came out of my mouth, the lady said “Sorry, we ran out of ice” Say whaaat??? At this point, my disappointment has transitioned into irritation. Fine!

So, to simmer my irritation, I went to the 8 Bytes cafe. It looked chaos in the tiny container unit (6 people running around like headless chicken) but at least their food have not ran out yet. Despite the chaos, the lady manning the cashier asked me, with a smile, “What do you like to order ma’am?” Oooh finally, I said to myself. I ordered 7 dishes from there – 2 x Salted Egg Yolk Wings, 1 x Sriracha Wings, 1 x Honey Garlic Wings, 2 x Aglio Olio Pasta, 1 x Shrimp Aglio Pasta. She then gave me a tiny number card – 15 and still smiling (despite her unkempt hair), said to me that the order will be ready in 20 minutes. Ok. Fair enough. I left them to it and got on to buy some drinks.

I headed on to Energy Juice at the first floor. Something caught my attention. A green coloured drink called Greenery – pineapple, spinach, cucumber, green apple, honey in one drink. I nervously asked while pointing at the picture “Do you have this?” Yes, we do, the lady said. Oh! Thank god! Finally, I got something.

I joined my family at a big table on the first floor. As I was sitting down enjoying my Greenery, it dawn on me….hmm…is it me or is it hot in here? I asked the rest. Everyone was breaking in sweat as each confirmed that it was really hot in there. I looked around, the building has a large fan right in the middle of the ceiling, and some air coolers here and there, but they are not enough to cover the whole building. Oh my….

Half an hour had passed and it was time to get the food from 8 Bytes. It had then became more chaotic in their “box”. I didn’t see any food ready for pick up. It seemed like they had not gotten to do my order yet. I tried to stay calm, despite being all sweaty, and stood there and wait. Standing there, I watched in horror their faces drenched in sweat. I could only hope and pray that those sweat didn’t drip onto the food they were preparing. I showed the lady my number and she said…oh they are coming up. I asked with a forced polite tone…how long? She said 20 minutes. Say whaaaat?? It was close to 9pm and I was swungry (sweaty and hungry).

I came to realise that this is not a place for people to go to have a quiet meal, to wind down and relax after a busy day at work, to enjoy the food and have chit chats (free therapy) with close friends and family about life and other stuff, to get your order taken from the comfort of your seats, no long waits for food, no climbing up and down the stairs, no sweat involved. The heat was a major turn off. At least for me, it is definitely not a “cool” place to “chill” out (get it?).

So, will I come back to The Box? Yes. But maybe not anytime soon.

An old friend from Indonesia once commented many places in Brunei end with ‘ng’. Tutong, Temburong, Sengkurong, Jerudong, Maraburong are just a few.

This post will not offer an answer. I guess there were people in the times past who thought of or saw something and came up with those names. One floating story though is that Jerudong originates from ‘jauh dong’, commonly used by Indonesians in describing distances. This falls into place with the story of an early settlement of Javanese in Brunei in Jerudong from which people remark as the origin of the name Kampung Jawa.

I am sure the subject on the names of places has been explored before but the substance is not openly available.

This begs for a more in-depth insight into the origin of (the names of) places in Brunei.

Part 2 will follow

My search for potteries brought me to KB where the first and only ceramic workshop in the country is located. The last time I went to that part of Brunei was six years ago during our family trip to the Oil and Gas Discovery Centre in Seria. As for KB town, I have no recent memory of going there, apart from the time when I tagged along with my dad during his pusu supply runs. That was ages ago.

So, last Saturday, with the ceramic workshop as our main destination, off to KB we went. I managed to entice my niece (and her car) into accompanying me on my KB “adventure”. Besides, she knew well that there was no way that I could drive my old jalopy 93 kilometres to KB without it acting up or falling apart along the way.

It was 11am and we were all pumped up, taking pre-trip selfies and all. Of course, first order of the day was to empty our bladders, then stopped by the kedai runcit to get some drinks and snacks for the road, filled up the gas tank, then the road trip began.

The first 30 minutes of the drive on the highway was quite normal as it is the regular stretch to take to my mom’s place. We are very familiar with the sequence of landmarks, each with its own tales. At the left side, beginning with Bukit Shahbandar, then the Jerudong Park Playground, the Istana Nurul Izzah, the exit to Kg Lugu, the back gate of the Maraburong Prison, the exit to Kg Bukit Panggal, the Sungai Basong Recreational Park, the Ma’had Islam Arabic School and the Serambangun Industrial Park.

Things got more interesting, at least for me as a first timer, as we reached Bukit Beruang. The big flyover bridge across the highway caught my attention. Whats this?? I said as I took a picture of it. Grinning, my niece told me that the thing has been there since 2015. I did a quick google search on my phone and there is a national housing scheme (1,500 houses) in the area and also a Sixth Form Centre completed in 2014 and 2012 respectively, so the flyover was built to cater the increasing traffic.

As we passed the flyover then there it was, the new highway – the 18.6-km Telisai-Lumut highway, a 10-15 minutes-long stretch that connects with the Lumut-Seria bypass highway. With this new highway, road travellers will now bypass Telisai and Sungai Liang. Instead of seeing the Kg Telisai Mosque, KK Koya Restaurant and the Sg Liang Soon Lee Supermarket along the way, we see what I would describe as the most beautiful and calming scenery one can enjoy while in a car.

It was like something out of a dream. I might be overreacting, but seriously that was the image in my head when work and people become too in-my-face and I just want to get in the car and drive away (although my niece was the one driving) to a destination unknown (where there is internet connection) over the horizon. The blue sky with stacks of white puffy clouds, the luscious green forest were all gorgeous. I was soaking in my moment of zen, before I knew it, we have reached the exit to KB town. I looked at my watch. It was 1215. Time to eat!

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.

BSB is still a sleepy town. I am yet to figure out why it is still so. Of course there are new things but people are still sparse. I went to Mary Brown Friday night. There were only me and my niece in the restaurant from the moment we ordered until we finished our meals. Next door, I saw a grocery store. The items are neatly arranged. I can see fresh fruits and vegetables. There was a good flow of customers at the cashier. Nearly all of them are foreigners. Not tourists, but foreign workers I suppose.

We had a walk along the block. Theres a small thai food corner with seats at the already narrow sidewalk. There were two foreigners, a man and a woman, sitting having some thai meal. They seemed not bothered by people walking by very close to their table. They were in work attire with their ID lanyards around their necks. I looked at their ID cards, they were in Chinese or Korean alphabets. I heard them speaking, and assumed, from their language, that they are Koreans. There could be a Korean company in the area, or they are embassy officials.

At the next block, theres Piccolo Cafe. The interior looked decent. I saw just two customers inside, Caucasian couple. From the way they dressed, my guess is they are tourists. There was nothing more to see further down. So we turned around, crossed the road to Burger King. Walked down that block towards Padang SOAS. I was excited for a while as we approached a restaurant with big pictures of familiar looking fat sandwiches. Wow! we have subway sandwiches already??! My excitement was premature. It was called Substation Restaurant serving “Subway-inspired” sandwiches according to their tagline.

Along the block, we saw a sign of a new cafe called Matcha Mana. Sounds like the Malay word “macamana” as in how?? I wonder if it is deliberate. It is located inside through a small entranceway. The space was tiny. My bedroom is bigger than it. It is serving Matcha related food and drinks. I knew about Matcha from cooking shows on TV. It is some kind of green tea. Ive tried Matcha cookies, they were nice but I was not too crazy about them. I then wonder who are their target customers being located at a desolate spot. Perhaps BIBD employees or the two Koreans who I saw having the thai meal earlier.

The next block looked a bit deserted with empty units. I peered inside. They looked dirty and haunted. Theres the Ayamku Restaurant there with a decent number of customers inside, all locals. The floor, tables and chairs, even the entrance door are dilapidated. There seemed to be no effort to make the restaurant look attractive. I didn’t even want to imagine about the kitchen. I thought Id buy some fried chicken for Dupey and his friends so we went inside. Im sure Dupey doesn’t mind the lack of hygiene.

With some fried chicken in tow, we walked towards Yayasan. I was told that there are some new things inside. At last, some life can be seen inside Jollibee Yayasan. People dining, noisy kids playing at its playground. We were just passing through and as we exited Jollibee it was quiet again. I think the closure of Hua Ho Yayasan really affected the visitor traffic of the Yayasan.

We went to check out the new food court on the first floor. First impression, the floor was clean and the table and chairs were neatly arranged. Promising. The wide glass windows allow diners to enjoy the beauty of Masjid SOAS. I just wished they cleaned the window’s exterior. I can see lots of dirt and goo sticking to the glass. Not the sight you want to see when trying to enjoy some meal. Back to the foodcourt, there are varieties of choices from around 6 vendors. There are Malaysian, Indonesian, Thai food, BBQ and Grill, Fruit Bar, and Danne Burger. Only the burger menu sticks in my mind because of the colourful buns. I think they want to make them look like macaroons.

We continued to check out the first floor. Theres a big colourful souvenir shop run by Aewon. They sell locally-made snacks and other foodstuff. The Brunei souvenirs are quite decent looking. Most of them are keychains and magnets. Brunei snowglobes would be nice but they don’t have it. They also sell Thai and Malaysia souvenirs, which I found a bit strange. I saw some proboscis monkey plushes. Granted that the proboscis monkeys are only found in Borneo, I relate them more to Sabah and Sarawak than Brunei. They should actually sell the Brunei public bus plushes instead. At a flat rate of $1 per person, it is certainly something unique about Brunei, much like the London Bus, only cheaper, more colourful, single deck, and can pick up and drop passengers very much anywhere even in the middle of the road.

Still in the souvenir shop, we came across models of Malay wooden kampong houses with nice wooden benches and tables right under their windows. Much like a studio set. There were also some Malay costumes hanging nearby. We figured that they are for tourists to wear and take their photos with the houses as background. Cool. But the model houses are colourful and looked more like the wooden houses you see in Malacca. Kampong Ayer houses look less fancy than that. After taking some pictures and goofing around at the set, we said thank you to the shop attendant and left.

Right outside the souvenir shop theres a tiny booth selling locally made icecreams. The wall of that area is nicely decorated with colourful cartoon strips. There are wooden stools and tables. Very relaxing and fun environment. I tried the vanilla icecream, took some selfies, and off we went.

On our way out, we went into a store called Lemari. They sell mostly handbags, MK in particular. There are other items too like scarves and some fancy trinkets. My guess is that they are items they bought in bulk during sales at shopping outlets and warehouses in the US or UK. The same goes to another shop called the Hive at the ground floor. Other than branded handbags and shoes, they also sell fancy things, those we usually see at theme parks or disneyland. The prices are reasonable and certainly save us the trouble and spending of going overseas ourselves to get them, so why not? It was at the Hive that I spotted something that Ive been planning to get but never expect to find here in Brunei – a handbag raincoat. Yes, handbags need raincoats too. 

By then we were already tired. But there was still one last place that we wanted to check out – the BIBD Connects building at the Taman Mahkota and the giant photo frame nearby. Both were just opened in April 2019. I was more excited about seeing how cool the building design is rather than what its 7 local vendors got to offer. Made from assembled container parts, the building is indeed so beautiful and modern-looking. I don’t mind having one. But I wonder if they rust over time. The large frame is quite cool too. But it lies in the middle of the dark grass field. I had to be careful with what I was stepping on. There could be dog poop everywhere. I took some nice pictures of Masjid SOAS through the frame. But if I want nice pictures of the mosque I can just google image it. To prove that we were actually there, we tried to take some selfies in front of the “framed” mosque. Nothing worked. I asked my niece to stand at the corner of the frame. But it was so dark, using a flash also didn’t work. The picture came out superb nonetheless. We should come back and try again during daylight.