Ya Mas Sememangnya Musik!

Indonesia. So what is there to know about this country? Well first of all, they are our neighbours and they sit to the south of us for you out there who is geographically challenged. Formerly known as Dutch East Indies, this country consists of 17, 508 islands totalling about 1, 919, 440 sq km (well that's enormous compared to our small abode of peace! just imagine how many Bruneis we can make out of that :p) With a staggering population of 245, 452, 739 (July 2006 est.) they are the 4th largest country in the world in that department.

Anyway, so apart from indomee goreng, they have another export which is probably one of their best, and pretty well known too. Yes people, i am talking about their music and no, not dangdut (ok so maybe dangdut had a little contribution in introducing Indon music earlier) i mean the Indonesian rock bands, popstars and music artists!


Sheila On 7

Let me tell you a story of my first time listening to Indonesia's musical talent. When i was young, my uncle always had me listening to dangdut because he was into it but i wasn't. and when we were all younger, i'm pretty sure you all had parabolas didn't you? Those big dishes behind your houses where you would receive a lot of Indonesia's satelite channels. Yep so i had one of those as well, and as i was flipping through the channels, and just like love at first sight..it happened, i saw Sheila on 7's video clip 'sephia'. and from that moment on, i was forever in love with Indon music.


Peterpan

Okay.. so as time passed by and i grew older, more and more Indonesian bands came through, a lot of them really good. Peterpan, Ada band etc to name a few and other less well known but equally talented groups such as Flanella, Nidji, Tiket and so on. With that in mind, so let us pay a tribute now to all these wonderful artists who have redefined the music scene in Indonesia as well as Brunei (these bands have a huge following in our country if you didn't know as you can see and hear from our radios and successful concerts)

"THANK YOU INDONESIA! WE LOVE YOUR MUSIC!"

p/s: if you wanna know more, check out Wikipedia's list of Indonesian musicians here.

Flanella

London oh London

A while ago my family and i went for a vacation to the United Kingdom to see our relatives there. As usual I brought my camera along and took some pictures whilst staying in London for the night. See below:

Tower Bridge

Sightseeing was really tiring but having the chance to check out these important landmarks was worth it. Well for me anyway, i've always been a loser for historical buildings :p something about the historical and architectural signifance of these landmarks never cease to bore me. I don't know about you, but my siblings got restless after about 30mins. haha. Anyway, above is the famous Tower Bridge of London. There seems to be a common confusion among tourists like me where this bridge is mistaken as the famous London bridge, which is a totally different bridge altogether. If one day you plan to visit London and check out this bridge, best go in the evening around 7pm on a weekday. The number of tourist by that time usually dies down so there's not much of a crowd and the view at night is absolutely breathtaking. I actually forgot how to get there but i think if you take the tube (London's efficient underground subway system) go to 'Embankment' and there should be directions telling you where it is. One thing i like about the city is the fact that you can go anywhere you like without getting lost. Directions, signs, maps are everywhere and the transport system in London is very reliable. There's definitely some aspects of tourism here which our country can learn from.

Oxford Street

Ahh..the Oxford street of London. If you are well loaded and likes to spend your well earned money on shopping, this is probably the best area to do so. Here shops line up next to each other ranging from major sports brand such as Nike, Quiksilver to well known stores in UK such as Debenhams, HMV, Topshop to shops only for the riches such as Zara, Gucci, Versace, Dolce and Gabbana. A note of warning though, it's not like the malls you get in Singapore, here you'd have to walk for miles as the shops are not located in just one area. But hey, at least you get to exercise. hehe. Add shopping and sightseeing together you will get sore feet :p

London Eye

Another tourist attraction worth mentioning is London Eye. Can't exactly see the full picture above but i'm pretty sure you all have seen it before. It's beautiful at night, didn't get the chance to actually ride it but i'm pretty sure the view of London from it will be very very worthwhile to line up and queue the long winding lines as you can see above. :p

Big Ben

Okay, this last picture.. well there's no need for introduction is there? i'm 100% positive you all know this famous clocktower, the Big Ben. Why call it Big Ben you might ask? Well for your information, that is something i will try to find out in the next couple of minutes. hehe. For the moment, just sit back, relax and enjoy the pictures of London through my lens.

Salam.

Calmness

These are some pictures I took with my uber cool camera phone. And when i say uber cool, i mean uber cool 3.2 megapixel with Sony Cybershot technology. Check it out.

Okay so thats just one picture, sorry folks, my internet's having problems at the moment. no worries, will be posting more pictures in my future posts. Cheerios.

Power To Bloggers

Bismillahirahmanirahim

Greetings everyone. As an avid daily reader of other people's blogs, its inevitable that i would one day start my own. As of today, i am now officially the new kid on the block. So for my first post, i shall write about the world of blogging from a Bruneian's perspective.

Nowadays, you see more and more Bruneians starting their own blogs. It's an ideal way to express your thoughts and to voice out your opinions. Blogging used to be a way for young people to express their emotions and feelings talking about random things and their daily lives. Girls writing about how their days went and boys posting their football matches and their analysis etc. that sort of stuff. As time went by, you see a lot more blogs and then you get the new generation of Bruneian bloggers who are more mature and talks more about thought provoking topics. Even Brunei Times acknowledge the importance and presence of these bloggers. So now bloggers have been elevated to a new level. Bloggers are now seen as a new media tool, maybe a new way to reach out to the young people of Brunei. A way no radio or tv have ever done before. Kids these days as you all probably know have an almost unlimited access to internet either from their homes/internet cafes/hotspots. So its no wonder that blogs are now becoming more popular than they were before. The new in thing? I would certainly say so.

There are many bloggers in our country now but some of them stand out than others. Ranoadidas, Bruneiresources, LSM are probably some of the best of the crop. Well known bloggers like them who provide local news, interesting articles, hilarious posts on a daily basis with quite a considerable flair in their english writing skills makes their posts enjoyable and worthwhile to spend that half an hour of your day. There are certainly many others who are worth the mention but i will not waste your time on that as most of you probably have heard of them. Anyway, so that was my first topic about. Just a random thought from a young student living in a peaceful village. Thank you for spending the time.

Hail to the Bruneian Bloggers out there.

Salam.