date with jess - brunei

if you did not know. the fish went swimming out of the tank, across the south china sea to see jessica chan chek sie! hehehe... sorry took so long to blog about it. cos i need some discipline to get out of the lazy holiday mood... hahahahah

i left a note on my table in case anyone was looking for me.. only two person leave miss me notes. hehe.. nice to read when i came back to office.

ARRIVAL NIGHT:

i landed, i was excitedly walking out of the airport and thinking to myself - Jessica better be here to get me.. hahaha.. and then from behind this tall guy, a girl came out of hiding, we screamed and laughed and hugged ignoring the stares.. ahahha... oh well...

we went into her car and she start the car - lo and behold - a very familiar voice came on from the radio!! - it's PC's sermon!!! i laughed and laughed and laughed... i tink it's God's way of telling me there's no running away from my pastor and my boss. i told jess and we both had a good laugh before switching channels. hhehehehe...

we went to check in at the hotel - which i cant remember the name now - ops.. hehehe... it is very very nice... thanks to jess.

these are the four paintings at the hotel's walkway that i super duper like. i really like it. everyday i walk pass it, i will for sure take a look. somehow it just attracts me. ah...

my first meal - at CheezBox next to THE MALL - beef noodle. hahaha... with my bubble tea with bubble and nata de coco thingy.. hehehe...

some of the things i brought from kl people to jess. hehehe.. she is missed here..

FIRST DAY:

the next day, we woke up real early to go on a road trip! yahoo!
we drove from brunei to miri! wow.... (like driving from kl to melaka).
early morning breakfast at the hotel's cafe - "Charcoal".

road trip day.

this is Naafi shopping centre. kinda like a small supermarket. we were enroute to miri and purposely detoured into here. and the rows of chocolates u see in the pictures are all the imported chocolates i've seen in nz n aus!! jorrr....... want to buy all of them! hehe... but i didnt. but i reeeeaaallii like this corner of the imported food i like. dont mind my expression. jess didnt say when she was gonna shoot. plus the store owner was just plain surprise seeing these two "suah ku" taking picture in the supermarket! hahahaah....

we pass by this small little park and so we do wad tourists do. stop and take picture lor! hahaha...

there are many culture/rules/understanding in brunei... just like any other country. we drove past this town where it's compulsory for everyone to reverse park here. in case of an emergency, everyone just drive off... it's the oil refinery factory. sample below.

we crossed the border and the officials were really casual about it. they didnt take my departure card. they didnt ask to see if my face is the face at the passport. they just stamp stamp and we breeze thru.
i was rather intrigued by this!! hahaha.... i kept laughing when i saw it.
LIM WEI LING DEPARTED ON 24 APR 2009.
don't u think it sounded like i died??? ahahhaha... like my obituary.... what a way to put it. =P
ok. after we crossed the border, we went to look for belacan beehoon (which i really like also) but then dont have so we ended up eating this bowl of 'thing' that i dunno wad it's called (dunno wad 'hu' i think). if u want to know wad it's called, ask jess to say it. hahaha... but it's quite nice. a little bit sourish kind. and i drink ribena sprite. hehe... this is really like. after this we went to a mall nearby to just roam around for a while.
while jess went for class, i sleep in the car. i was really really really sleepy. it was very very very hot but i dont really mind cos i get to sleep for a while. hahaha... that's jess coming out from class.
after class, jess felt hungry. i feel hungry. so went to search for the bah chang uncle. hahahah... but he's not home. so we went to search for him at the Tamu (pasar malam).
ok.so in the end we flew (i mean it literal at the speed jess was driving!!!!!) back to brunei for dinner and i've to try the local food - gam/glue! hahahahaha... ok.. no offence. just kidding. it's kinda starch thing call 'ambuyat' which is the local food. they eat this with dishes instead of with rice. but it does taste like the home made gam tat my mom used to make for me to use for arts and craft. hahahaha... jess' 3-step to eat. roll up the thing, dip it into something and then put it into your mouth.
oh, i finally get to meet with the phantom printer, her friend, Alvin. (in case you're reading this), he seems kinda a nice guy and a really good friend of jess. they practically have a nickname for every other people they know. ahhahaha.... ops.. should have taken a picture with him too.

SECOND DAY:

we woke up late, so no more breakfast from the hotel. so we went to seek out the laksa shop for laksa + cucur + sotong kangkung as breakfast. ops. forgot to take picture cos too hungry. hahhaa... then we drove around town. jess took me to her primary, secondary school, the govt offices, take a look at the village at the sea and then we went to.....

i HAVE to tell you. i must go to Charles & Keith. it's a MUST in my touring itineraies to Brunei. hahaha.... but the sad part was i didnt buy anything! argh. i flew all the way there some more... sigh... oh well. sorry pc, no souvenir for you. no sale.

after C&K, i went back to the hotel to rest while Jess went to run some errands and all that. then we drove to the Empire Hotel just in time to see the egg yolk dropped into the sea! the place is pretty. i like the benches by the sea where we can just sit there and feel the wind, the sea, bask in the greatness of God. it's an amazing reminder.
after sunset, we went to pick up Vely for dinner at this delicious Italian restaurant. yum... i like italian... white sauce cabonara... ooo..... yumm... the chef actually whipped up something for me that's not in the menu. and it's really yummie! i like it.

that's Vely, it's been fun meeting her. she's been a great sport, funny, pretty and most of all, she cares about jess. i get to hear her perspective of how Jess is doing. i really appreciated it. after dinner i took time to hear from Jess and we prayed and watch whale for the rest of the night.
LAST DAY:
my physical food before spiritual food. breakfast before church. dim sum! yahoo! yummie... just 2 min walk from our hotel. LUCKY RESTAURANT!

i visited jess' church - the St Andrew's Anglican church. the service was great! i really enjoyed myself. being the nobody there, i enjoyed the service tremendously without ppl asking me for things. i felt totally free to worship and just hungry for God's words to fill me up! the priest was preaching on "Discovering your identity in Christ". one thing that stucked with me was the story he shared from the "Pilgrim's Progress" book where the guy called 'Christian,' - his name before knowing God is 'Graceless'. it kinda stuck me. he's not called 'sinner' or 'worldly' but 'graceless.' it's so true. if we are called christian but still do not live by the grace of the God, then there is no difference. we are still just 'graceless' and not 'christian'..... think about that!

That is Jess and Nic (brother n sister). i think between me and jess, we kinda dragged Nic up from bed with a hangover from the wedding bash the night before - just to have lunch with me and catch up of course! .. hehehe..... thank you thank you!
this is my last meal in Brunei - sushi! yahoo! the Kaizen Sushi house. Jess like this place and the food a lot.... but it's really nice. not bad at all..!
after lunch, we lepak here for a few hours wasting time til i can go check in at the airport. a kid puked right next to us stinking up the whole place! hahaha.... i didnt realise it and nic tot wad's with the cheesy smell.. ewwwww..... i entertained them with pictures and updates of the ppl in kl!

that is me and jess' last shot at the airport. saying goodbye is hard. i will miss her a lot. that's the end to my date with jess - all the way across the south china sea. it's time for the fish to swim back to the aquarium but it's also nice to know there are ppl who misses me here and is happy to see that i am back horr..! =)
*i finally saw Jess wearing the 'you shall see greater things' tee shirt