Long parted family comes together

17th April 2010

This weekend is special. A few days ago, daddy received a sms from one of his cousins in Malaysia informing that daddy's aunt is coming to Brunei. She is our late grandmother's younger sister who resides in Melbourne, Australia. If we're not mistaken, only daddy and Wawa had the chance to meet her once when they went to Melbourne with our late granny approximately 16 years ago. For the rest of us, it's our first time meeting her and we wondered how she looks like.

When we finally get to meet her yesterday, we all agreed that she resembles our late granny not just physically but also the way she talks and acts. We call her "Yee-Po". For her visit, Yee-Po mostly stays with her brother but this weekend and the next, she will be staying at our place.

Yesterday, it was Nazrah and Syahmi's turn to spend time with Yee-Po. Today, it's ours! Here's what we did...

Firstly, we went to Brunei's most famous landmark; the water village we call Kampong Ayer. Funny enough, Safiya and I had never been on a boat before which is ironic since nini green owns a home on the other side of the river. As such, we took this opportunity to try it out and visited the newly opened "floating museum" located in the heart of the water village itself. It's known as the Kampong Ayer Cultural & Tourism Gallery.

The boat ride was scary at first and I even ducked when we went under a bridge. The return trip however was another story. We started to like it. The boat felt even faster than daddy's car! The only downside is that mummy couldn't accompany us as she is still within her 40 days post-delivery confinement period (according to our custom) and the boat trip would not be suitable since there was definitely lots of bouncing on the water.

Then, we had lunch at the Tarindak d'Seni restaurant which is located at the Arts and Handicrafts Centre building. The buffet was great and affordable. They even have ambuyat as part of the buffet menu and we ate a lot.

After lunch, we visited the Royal Regallia gallery.

Before going home, we stopped by the fish market and bought some prawns to prepare for a special dinner. Our home-made noodles is our exclusive family dish and of course Yee-Po must taste it too. With the help of our expert dough kneader, the recipe is successful yet again. Yee-Po said that she also likes to make it back in Melbourne but ours is definitely better tasting because of the cangkuk manis; a vegetable she can't find in OZ.

After a satisfying dinner, we shared stories with Yee-Po. Since Adam, Sasya and Nazrah are sleeping over, Safiya and I got busy playing while the grown ups take the opportunity to learn more of our Chinese side of the family. In addition to those in Malaysia, now we know that we have a large group of relatives in China! We sure hope that we can meet some of them someday...