Sept 20 - Oct 5


Sept 20 - 24: We came. We saw. We Karaoke'd! Or at least Jay did. I've heard way too many horror stories about Malaysian prisons to brandish my singing voice. Though if there were any real justice in this world, Jay should have been drawn, quartered and forced to watch Ishtar 1,000 times. His crime: Unchained #%&*!@?$ Melody. A song that does to me what high voltage back yard bug zappers do to mosquitos. Luckily he redeemed himself with a beastly version of Stairway to Heaven. Our companions were two local girls we'd met on the high speed ferry across the south china sea from Kuching to Sibu. Stephanie is an Indonesian up north to meet her friend Linda, who'd flown in from Kuala Lumpur. We started talking music and she insisted she could sing 'My Heart Will Go On' by Celine Dion better than Celine, and offered to prove it. Honestly, I am not able to reach an objective verdict for a couple reasons..the first being that when you have a gorgeous Indonesian girl with an even more adorable accent singing love songs to you..well..yeah!....but more importantly because I've never heard the original version for more than 15 seconds, at which point I'm usually violently looking for a different station.

After Sibu, we made a fairly quick beat for the small and rich country of Brunei, where we are now. The Sultan of Brunei was, for quite a while, the richest man in the world, though he's now been surpassed by the herd of computer geeks running around america. His house has well over 1,000 bedrooms, and apparently he never sleeps in the same one twice in less than 2 years. Rumor also has it that all the bedrooms are equipped with the Clapper and that a strategically placed rumble of thunder can sink the rest of the country into black out. We won't be staying long, but we'll leave our mark some way, some how. More later.

Sept 25: We spent the day exploring Bandar Seri Begawan, the efficiently named capital city of Brunei. The Sir Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque - or as we like to call it, "oooh big and shiney" - is a sight to behold..and lucky for you, you can! If you click here. We also strolled through the wooden planked superhighways of Kampong Ayer. It's a collection of 28 'villages' built on the water. The people were exceptionally friendly and little water taxis zipped by at break neck speed. Still, there was quite a contrast, as some of the photos show, between the shanty town and the considerable wealth just a block or two over.


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