Back at school

I'm back at school after the holidays. So much work to do that I think I might drown. I'm sat at home at the moment.......just cleaned the house because the maid can't come this week....what a drag. Anyway, Neil's gone out to buy our first TV. All the TV's we've ever had have been inherited from someone or other and have been very small. He's very excited. We've gone for a 29" LG TV. We considered buying a 34" TV from this Chinese brand, but the quality was a bit dodgy (although it was cheap).

Anyway, I think I've just heard him pull up. So I'll have to go and help him drag the TV out of the car.

Take care

Julia

The lazy life in Brunei

Things that I don't have to do myself now that I live in Brunei:

-Fill up my car (the petrol attendants do it all for you)
-Pack my own shopping
-Clean my own house
-Iron my own clothes

Life can be very lazy here......it seems to be the way of life. I LOVE IT. I especially love going to the petrol station. You just drive up, wind your window down, and tell the guy how much you want to spend and then you pay him through the window.

I also love having a maid. The other day I was trying to take the lining out my trousers. I made a complete mess of it and just left it on the side. A couple of days later, my trousers appeared on the table all sewed up and fixed. Amazing.......I never even noticed they'd disappeared.

Of course I do have to put up with some negative things, but the positives out way the negatives.

Anyway, one more week till half term break and then I'll be spending two lovely days at the empire hotel with my sister and mum.

Temburong

Today I went to Temburong which is another part of Brunei. It is mainly jungle. To get there we had to go by boat. So we went to the water village in Bandar (the capital) to catch a water taxi. The water village is called Kampung Ayr and it is a whole community that lives in houses that are built on stilts in the water (see picture above).

We went in a little speed boat. The picture above is me, Neil and a load of people from work.

When we got to Temburong, we got in a mini bus and sped off to the other river that would take us deep into the jungle. When we got to the river, we then got into long boats, which are very narrow boats which can navigate very shallow waters. The drivers were extremely skilled, because they had to continually check the water for upcoming rocks which they needed to avoid.

We arrived in Temburong National Park Visitors Centre about 30 minutes later. The area feels really cut off from the outside world. It’s really quiet and lovely.

One of the highlights was a jungle trek through the forest where we saw massive trees and humungous ants….thankfully no leaches. The man in the picture above was our guide called "Hadi".

At the end of the jungle trek walk there is a canopy walk way, which is high up in the tops of the trees. You have to climb up scaffolding to reach the top. It is amazing to look out over untouched pristine rainforest from that height.

When we got back to the base camp, we had lunch and then cooled off by having a swim in the River. It was actually surprisingly cold but extremely refreshing. You can just about see me in the picture below (I'm the one wearing the straw hat). Neil didn't go swimming....cuz he's a wimp...hehe.

It was a great day. By the way, to get a closer look at any pics on my blog, just click on them to open them up. You may need to click on them a second time to see them full screen.