July 16th

For those of you that don't know we land back in Blighty on the morning of this coming Sunday. So start planning the party now, dammit!

Leaving do

Tuesday night was our leaving do thingy. It wasnt exactly on the last night seeing as we dont leave till Saturday night, but it was still a good turn out. Boo sucks to everyone who didnt show up- you know who you are.... DINNY! At the end when everyone was a little tipsy (we went to Labuan and THEN to KL to get beer), Clint made a nice little speech for us, and apparently we had the best turn out for any gap year leaving party ever. Ev-er. We also got a certificate and stuff, so well, great, y'know. It's the people who have made this trip, so yay to everyone who came.

This is probably the right time to mention everyone we met and was awesome while we were here:

• Ummi
• Fuzzy
• Razi
• Dave
• Adi
• Dinny
• Faadzil
• Kaling
• Clint
• Toni
• Ashley
• David Lane
• Kasyfi
• Roger
• Marco
• Scottie
• Sophie
• Chris
• Hannah
• Mel
• Adam
• Adam (that's not a typo, there are two of them)
• Noy
• Amy
• Christine
• Sam
• Max
• Ally
• Haroon
• Fini
• Todd
• Chris Bell
• Ali the tank guy
• Eng

Monkeys!

And Adi and Dave, obviously. Wait... no, just monkeys.

One Morning Project

One Morning Project is a jokey name for the stuff we've had going at Fadzil's studio over the last few weeks (Fadzil is the big dude in the photos). We've called it that because the studio is full of paying customers during the day (the dastards) and so a lot of our stuff has to be done in the wee smalls, going on till morning. Mostly we start recording around at around two and finish at around seven, then go get breakfast. What with diving an' all its pretty tiring but its been a lot of fun. Yesterday we finished a three track cd which sounds pretty good- a little unpolished but seeing as I'm going home tomorrow its the best we can do. The second track 'So Fine' was written by yours truly, Dave and Fadzil. Just to show everyone up, Fadzil not only mixed and produced the track, he also sang backing vocals and completely put me to shame. I'll let you hear it when I get back if you ask really nicely. It's kind of gay though. The photos here were taken before the last all night session when we put the finishing touches to 'So Fine.'
One Morning Project are:

Adi on drums
Razi (Chubby Bunny) on guitar
Scottie on guitar and vocals
Fadzil on guitar and vocals
Dave on guitar and vocals
Dinny on bass
Josh doing vocals on one whole song (sing it, bitch)
With help from Hahmed and Kaling.

Ha, from now on, I'm TOTALLY letting girls fight my battles for me.

More beach pics

Try that.

Jerudong Park ......second time lucky?

So our second attempt at Jerudong Park. It was considerably better than the last visit, as there was more of us, and we found the kids play area,


The pirates ship, well the entrance bit, the actual ride was sold to buy a rollercoaster, which is also out of action now.
Im not sure what Scotty was doing, and I think Josh got confused.
Ummi on the merry-go-round.

The highlight of the trip had to be the bumper cars though. The park is pretty empty, so the staff running the rides that do actually work get pretty bored. So when 7 of us turned up all their hard work and practise ramming into each other was put to the test. They obviously left the best cars for themselves, because they were going much faster than any of us, and I think I got whiplash from one surprise crash. They let us stay on for about 20 minutes, after which we were all very hot, and realised the park was closing.

Beach + fire = happy boys

Last Tuesday the weather was too bad for diving, so instead we went to the beach with Dave, Adi, Ummi and Kaling. Pantai Muara is the best for beach camps apparantly, so we settled down in a spot which had lots of drift wood to make a camp with. I had underestimated Dave's vast experience of many beach camps, and within half an hour of choosing a place, there was logs to sit on, a fire and a beer pit filled with ice. It was pretty sweaty work, so we were easy sandfly targets, and targetted we were. They are so annoying, because they are tiny and you dont notice them until they have already bitten you. Adi looked like he had chicken pox all over his back, even before we got in the sea. So to cool down, and get away from the sandflies, we took a dip in the sea, fighting the waves which kept appearing from nothing.

After the sun went down was when the attention was turned to food and fire.

On returning from the beach, we went in the pool at Dave's until we rememered there is a crazy German lady who has super hearing.

A few days after this beach visit we went again, and made a monster fire, with Dave and Haroon putting on pretty much whole tree trunks.

"... if we weren't held down we'd get up and leave"

When it rains in Brunei, it really rains. Head-bleeding, "oh shit stop the car" rain.

Wan Long Kok

Wow. When Dave told me that there was a big metal scene in KB I wasn't really that impressed or excited, firstly because I'm not a big metal fan and secondly because there's a big metal scene in HIgh Wycombe so it doesn't necessarily mean that much. But Cash, Dinny, Razi and Adi rocked the kasbah in KB as Wan Long Kok. Tight riffs, just the right amount of melodic guitar, screamy vocals and good skins from Adi who's the best drummer I've ever met. Period.

In fact Adi deserves a double shout out because he actually played in two bands at the festival almost one after another. I'll put in some photos of his next band Karacoma. I took some pretty good ones of Adi himself but I cant seem to get any of them to come out properly on here so sorry buddy. Its probably for the best, by the time he'd finished the second set the look on his face was enough to scare children.



Also deserving of praise is Fadsil who plays a mean bass along with all the other instruments he plays, as well as owning, managing and operating his own studio. You know what the worst part is? He's a nice guy on top of all of that, so I'll include a picture of him melting faces at KB.

Hero in a half-shell

All hail before the awesome might of Sgt. Bronco!!

KB

Kuala Belait. Its a big town near the border with Sarawak, where they first started drilling for oil, so the shores are covered in rigs, which at night look pretty cool because they all have their pilot lights burning.

Our visit wasn't to visit the 'Oil and Gas Discovery Centre' oh no, it was to go to the only rock concert legally held in Brunei in years. They sort of banned rock music in about 1990 because the government thought that it encouraged drinking and anti-social behaviour. So to hold anything with loud music is a real feat, you have to apply for a permit which basically says that the police cant come and raid it. So the guys had been waiting for this gig for ages.

We ended up watching the England vs Portugal match in the hotel room, when it finished we all sat in silence, not much you can say really. Stupid penalties.

The gig was held at a country club exclusively for white people, which was very strange, and had to start at 2pm. So after argueing with the mean lady who didn't seem very pleased that the event was happening atall, we got into the hall. Razi, Adi, Kash and Dinny played first so we missed some of their set, but it was good once we got in.

Here's the guys practising the night before, and us just before the gig the next day.

I guess its because they dont hold music gigs like this, and because of their culture in Brunei, but everyone just sat down on the floor in the hall while the bands tried their very hardest to get everyone to join in. It was very odd.

The Sultan

We were just leaving the Empire, when round the front doors there were lots of security, red carpets and all the staff waiting. We were then informed by an Aussie golf coach, that there was a royal wedding reception happening in the hotel, and that the Sultan and others were arriving any minute. So dinner plans we halted and we waited around for him to arrive. So not only did we see the sultan, but we saw 2 of his brothers, some of his sisters, cousins, and various relatives. In the first photo he is the one on the right, in the orange top and black trousers. Trust me to take the worst photos ever, I said Josh should take them.
Anyway it was all very exciting and the waiting made us very hungry, but we saw the SULTAN OF BRUNEI!!!!!!!!!

Funny photo

Not sure what I was doing, or Josh, but there you go.

Crew shots

About time we showed off some of the people we hang out with, along with giving serious props to International Dave for letting us hang out at his house most every night, eat his food and watch his t.v. And stand under his air conditioning unit. Mmmmmm.... conditioned.

The guy on the left here is Dave Bell, or International Dave. As detailed above, he's a stand-out guy, and also extremely sexy to photograph. Most of these photo's were taken on our marathon trip to Tutong in the wee small hours to drop our friend Fuzzy home and watch the Sweden T&T match. The hat I'm wearing.... I have no recollection of where it came from but it shows up in photos from time to time. The guys next to me are Asad on the right showing how mean he can be and Adi on the left showing that he can't look mean at all. Seriously. Face like a care bear.



















All these photos are from a party Dave threw a few nights ago. Again, I have no idea what the deal is with the comedy hats. I think Cash (second photo, bottom left) deserves a prize of some sort for the expression on his face. I have no idea why he is doing that, but every time I see this photo a little shot of warmth goes right into my heart.

Kuala Lurah aka Booze run

Being a dry country, getting booze is an issue, especially if you are planning a party and need lots. Having a British passport is no problem really, but if you have a Bruneian one, you cant carry any alcohol into the country, as you are counted as being Muslim and so could get arrested or fined. So Josh, Max, Dave and I went over the border to get the booze for the party. Cos the car cant go over the border (need loads of paperwork) you have to park it atleast 600yards from the border, which isnt marked, so they can still fine people for parking too close. So you park the car and wander past all the cars waiting to go over, fill out far too many forms (although they had run out last time we went, lol) , have your passport stamped, then stroll over to all the stalls selling yummy food, cigarettes and booze. So we sat down for some really scrummy stingray and a few beers, grabbed the loot and made our way back over the border to the car.
So heres Dave doing his poker face, with Josh trying to work out how much we owed them for our goods, and Max in the background looking kinda sad.












And here are Adi and Curling enjoying their precious beers at the border town. Its sort of like a mexican border town, with no real buildings, just shacks and set up stalls. Oh, and on our return over the border there was a fight between we think a Bruneian and a customs official. Everyone in their cars were gawping, as we were, apparantly fights dont happen as often as in the UK?!@? Basically the border official ended up actually kicking the guy in the stomach, which appeared to deter him from whatever he was trying to do.

Chicken Porridge.....at McDonalds?

I kid you not, chicken porridge at McDonalds. Who'd have thought it.

Kuraman Photos

Here's Umi, lapping up the sunshine on the island of Kuraman.




And some scenery shots, isn't it gorgeous.