Brunei 11-5-08. the day of Return

              
                       I was tensioned driving towards the border                                                              our escort

   It was Sunday morning and raining lightly. We had 52.137 km behind us and were now only a few meters away from Brunei, my home.
   A motorcade police officer waited. Together we drove to our Immigration and custom post. I was nervous.

          
   
   Then coming closer, I could not believe my eyes. There in the rain a large crowd was waiting and camera men of RTB. 
   Then I saw Dato Hamdillah, the Deputy Minister of Industry and Primary Resources. He had come to welcome us home.
   There were the Directors of RTB, Dr. Joseph, sponsors and their representatives.
   Sheik Abbas the 4 W/D adventurer and veteran of many miles, well-wishers and my family.
   All happy to see us back. And Radio was there and Newspapers. Suddenly we the humble travelers were celebrities.
   If we had not greeted everyone appropriate, please forgive us. It was not intentionally, it is just there was so much going on.

             

   Dear and distinguished reader, just look at the pictures; can one get a warmer welcome? This is Dato Hamdillah, one of the leading
   men of our Nation. I returned to him the flag of my beloved country with these words:
   " Dear Dato I return to you our symbol, which was with us for over a year, traveling in distant lands. Raised in many occasions for the
   glory of our beloved Brunei Darussalam.
   I watched over her. I cared for her. I shielded her. She flew strong on shores of icy Atlantic waters of Cape Aghulas. And in the barren
   desert of Namibia and Sudan. She flew high in Greek waters and in  snowcapped Baluchistan. She went to Medina and Mecca, our
   most holy  sites, and was proudly held in our embassies on route. At the pyramids, the pharaohs' spirits admired her and in
   Persepolis, Iran,  Alexander the Great.
   She had seen 37 countries, now is the moment to hand it back. It was a big responsibility which I carried with much devotion.
   " But Dato with his great heart declined: "Only with your two signatures on it, I will accept"  "What could I say?"

              

    Interviews and more interviews. Is not out there a big audience looking? The questions were many I hope to have answered them well
   and appropriate.

        . 
        Dr. Josef and Geoff  the Borneo Bulletin writer and coordinator.  Naturally everyone like to have a photo with Dato Hamdillah      
    
             
        Dato Hamdillah,  Dr. Josef, the RTB directors, what a honor for us           This pride and smile of Dato comes from his Heart           

                      
                                 family and friends all like to be part of the welcome. Thank you for being here
      

    Yes, dear reader you see right, this is Dato! He drove JAMBO to the RTB studio in Kuala Belait. That is Brunei spirit of the best!
    First in  the 4 W/D convoy, he cruised our companion and mile master of distant lands to town, right to the RTB studio.
    And JAMBO liked that. How we know? He just locked the drivers door, did not allow Dato to leave for a moment, as if he wanted to
    say: "Come on Dato, I enjoy your driving, please bring me home to Anggerek Desa!". It seems JAMBO had a mind of his own.

         
   In front the Police and Motorcycle club of Brunei, they escorted us until Bandar Seri Begawan. Behind us drove the 4W/D Association
   with a 20 or more vehicles. They all came to greet is to show their appreciation of our journey. Thousand thanks to all of  you who
   came and devoted their free time to greet us. Over and over, I had tears in my eyes.
   This is what we Bruneians truly are. We care.

          
   At Anggerek Desa my family arranged for a welcome, lunch. After the  prayers all enjoyed fine food, which we missed for so long.  

         
 
        
                           What an excellent food,                                                             and a " 7 miles" long banner

        All has an end one day; and if there is Allah's blessing- a good end- just as in our expedition.
    HE guided us in decisions, where splits seconds counted. You just know what the right move has to be. This is no exaggeration.
    We are  100% convinced, as several events could have ended different, like the Indian lorry driver coming to our side so close that
   his  tire left marks on JAMBO.
   Expertise and luck goes only that far!  An invisible hand protected and directed us on our long journey home. It was the Almighty in
   HIS grace and reason, not known to us little humans as of yet. Only at a later stage in life  all falls like a puzzle into place and we
   realize his plans. It is written that sometimes, when people where in danger, miracles saved them.

   A good example is the camel expedition of a German, Gerhard Rohlfs which I share with you: In 1861 he traveled the Sahara but was   
   robbed by his guides and left back for dead. Two Marabout, West African Islamic religious teachers, wandering holy men  saved him  
   and brought him to Algeria.
  Then it was the year 1873. The Pasha Khedive of Egypt launched the first scientific expedition into the Libyan desert west of the
  Dakkla  oasis.( As you dear reader might remember, we passed it on our journey). They wanted to establish a route between here and
  Kufra Oasis in today's Libya. The caravan of camels directed their course west into the unknown desert, but  soon  realized, sheer
  200 m high sand dunes blocked their way.

                 
  After 17 days, they run out of water in the middle of a sand sea,  man and beast were doomed. Nothing to drink.
  The nearest oasis was two weeks away.
  Then the miracle happen. Where every 20-50 years a raindrop falls, suddenly it poured from the sky. So heavily that they could
  replenish their supply and reach safely Baharia oasis, after 37 days. This point you can find on detailed Egypt map. It is called
  "Regenfeld". (rain field).

         
              We needed and got HIS blessings when crossing  nations with agitated population.. Thanks' to your prayers too   

   Two hours in Brunei, we were asked: "When is your next expedition?  And to where?" With  Allah's grace and funds available, we plan
   to cross Africa on the Westside up from South Africa until Senegal, then ship the vehicle from Dakar to Argentina drive on the east
   side to Fire land, (Diego del Fuego) the southernmost point of South America, where beyond only the Antarctic waits.
   Along the Pacific West coast up to Alaska. Cross the Bering straight into Russia, then China and back south home to Brunei.
   Two years long But that needs funds and a good vehicle with more space It may remain a dream only.

                           
                    These fine men associate themselves with the expedition and our success. They are all -as I- Brunei Malay

   Now and foremost we have to "replenish" our savings.
   "JAMBO? What will be with him?"  people asked us. For him it would be best to find a place in the Museum.
   With all electronic  devises, kitchen and chairs, just as it was in the expedition. Surrounded by info's and  pictures.
   for  tourists, our population and students to see, learn from it in the years to come.
   Maybe he is to be exhibited in Sabah and Sarawak too.
   JAMBO  which saw Medina and Mecca, has to have his price.
   Mind you, this is the first ever journey not only as a Bruneian Malay, but the first by a Muslim woman.
   Nothing  what has happen in the past, comes near it.
   And we will  write a book to be published in English, Malay and Arabic.
 
   We thank the sponsors, the officers in the Land transport, in Foreign affairs, Immigration, Customs, all who helped.  
   RTB did such a good job with Rampai Pagi every Sunday. Telbru connected me via the  satellite phone to the studio and provided 
   free talking time. Brunei Tourism throw their weight behind us, so did Malay management of Standard Chartered Bank, which waved
   B$ 4500.- from the credit card cheat back then in Namibia.  Honorable and distinguished reader, this is spirit embedded in us Malays!  
   This is supportive patriotism for our beloved Brunei.
   Thanks to all foreign Embassies, which provided visas, Foremost the Saudi Embassy making our travel possible.  
  
   It was very helpful to have the lab top from CFKing. The GISCOM tracker reported the route of JAMBO, it became a further
   enhancement to our web site.
   And thanks to all other donors, no matter how small, who gave from their heart.
   Sorry for all those I begged repeatedly, just to find closed doors.
   They must have their important reason not to become a positive part of history.

   What makes me most happy is not our achievement but the realization, that we Brunei Malays are such caring people by heart,
   people not found easily elsewhere. It is a heritage carried with us for generations and reborn with every child.
   We must treasure it into our future.
   The welcome in our foreign Embassies was an experience we do not  want to miss. Remembering Jeddah, Muscat, UAE, Tehran,
   Islamabad, India, Myanmar and Thailand, where great men fly our flag,  And this excellence goes as far back as Jordan and Egypt,
   not to forget our Embassies in Laos and Cambodia.
   Almost everyone found time for us, and went beyond their duty, I can assure the honorable European reader, your Ambassador will
   never pray for your safety nor shoulder your hotel bill, arrange for your delicatessen meal, nor have a Punjab music in your honor
   unless you are the President or King.

   We get meanwhile e-mails from Brazil, India, Hungaria, the UK, Austria, Germany and South Africa, besides Malaysia and from home
   off course. All  congratulating, commending very positive about our journey, pictures and story, although sometimes we have been
   critical with world events. But if one travels with eyes closed it is better and cheaper to stay at home.

   One-hundred thanks to Fauzidah Hj.Mat Noor now 10 years with us, the soul and hearth of our small company. She kept the wheels
   in motion. We are very grateful for that. It is not easy to find an intelligent, honest, kind and reliable woman.
   "You are the best, there is no  better one around."
   And thanks to my husband Harun, I could not have done the expedition without him. He is comrade and an experienced someone who
   knows what he is doing.

.                          
                      The daily bread                                   comrade and partner                              " Fauzidah Hj Mat Noor!"

   Now being home, I take the liberty to direct a few words as a simple humble person, which has experienced in this year long travel
   perhaps more than many decision maker in our beloved country.
   We have seen allot. The misuse of money and power  by authorities, of men swapped to position by providence or ruthlessness,
   failing completely themselves and those whom they should care for.
   We saw foremost suffering, hungry people and the millions of children without a future and hope for a decent life.
   Blessed with ignorance of childhood now, awakening at a later stage  into their misery.

              
                       The father earning in struggle a meal                        and these innocent  kids. What will await them in Bangladesh?   

        
    I have seen with much hearth pain, the suffering, the very hungry, the ones forgotten by society, the disposed ones, enduring hardship
    and waiting patiently for their last day and the final call of the ALMIGHTY.
    We met on the roadside women,  gravel workers sieving by hand for fifty cents a day.
    We saw the results and famine of civil wars. The cripples and unlucky ones, their limps  exploded away by US left over's dropped from
    the sky. The brutality of warmongers, directing actions somewhere from the US.

   Look at the bed in a yard next at the wall. See the women carrying cow dung a valuable commodity, and sit back to reflect how much
   we through away, take for  granted what we have in Brunei.
 
                 
             the woman's "sleeping room" and her child                                          trading in "sh..." That far humans had come....

                    
  
                                  I met many caring, humble and hard working people, without greed or arrogance. True personalities.    

   How much we are blessed I only realized  during our travels. We never want to end in Brunei like these unfortunate.
   We all must and will care for our future.
   And since I know many Bruneians read our page, I take the liberty to express my worries. Forgive me please if I upset someone with
   these frank but good meaning  words.
   The ALCOA Aluminum smelter bothers me. It may become the biggest polluter of Borneo. And this in our green Brunei! 
   Again I repeat. I hope the authorities will consider an INDEPENDENT ASSESSMENT STUDY  before any signature on a contract is
   made. Independent experts have to judge what will be the harm of this Moloch on us. Not ALCOA employees!
   Such a giant has its own life, once created it will stay even if it ruins our environment.
   But this is our only Brunei. We have no where else to go.
   It maybe very good for Brunei, or if we are to believe the Internet, maybe very bad.
   But experts (of which no one in our government is), will advise. Independently advise. That is all what I beg for and we the Bruneians
   deserve. ALCOA in their assessment might be bias in their favor.
   If the plant is clean and  safe, the experts will tell. If it emits sulfur dioxide which attacks your throat and lungs, they will say so.
   If it released polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (stink's) they will tell, or perhaps PFCS?  The internet say  that during smelting process
   due to malfunctioning and low temperatures, those are created. A cancer maker with a terrible long life.  You cannot escape.
   Testicular-, liver-, Breast cancer, take a pick. That is what the internet says. But again the ALCOA plant for Brunei is maybe safe.
   Some independent expert must advise our leaders. 
   If our country is ready to spend billions it must be wise to make an assessment for a few  hundred thousands dollars.
   The sheer size frightens me. Where are they dumping the toxic waste? Take it out again hopefully? How many thousands of tipper
   truck every year? 50.000? 80.000? Are they roaming then in Sungai Liang?

   I saw a few good big business opportunities on our long  way which I like to share with you.
   Can we not have our own "BRUNEI PETROLEUM OPERATIONS?" owned by our country? Not individuals.  It is done in other
   nations. Besides, Multinationals drill everywhere. Why not we? What stopped us starting exploration, lease a "block" ourselves?
   Having a 20 rigs? Nothing stop us! It needs only will and thinking people. In Egypt I saw in the desert the no. 83  drilling rig, maybe
   they operate a hundred over. Owned by Egypt!
   They took their future in their own hands! Please do not tell me now, Egyptians are more clever than we.
   Let us follow their example, we take a calculative risk and share the future wealth when oil/gas is found in such foreign countries.
  
    Join with PETRONAS or any other firm in future explorations. OMV the Austrians have petrol  stations in many European countries.
    Can we not do the same? That is clean income for our future. 1000 petrol stations belonging to Brunei in 20 countries.
    It can by done. Brunei has the funds besides hydrocarbons.
   But we the Malay must do it ourselves. Not others for us!
   What about purchasing oil and gas tankers, and run a fleet of 100 ships transporting  hydrocarbons to US and Europe?

   Words are out for a trans shipment port in Muara. Please officials involved, look at a chart with world shipment routes, take a ruler and
   check how far a ship has to divert just to change cargo in Brunei. Look and you realize it cost a lot of time and fuel just to come here.

   Ask large shipping companies this question: "what would it take for you to transship in Brunei?"
    I give you the likely answer.
   There is no reason for shipping companies to divert from a straight course because Brunei owns a transshipment port.
   There is no market beyond Brunei, no money In Zamboanga and Palawan, and Manila has its own harbor.
   Please look at the map before you sign anything. Besides, Kuching has a port so does Bintulu and Miri and Kota Kinabalu. Little
   transshipment there, only cargo for the local market. Not because they do not like the idea, but there is no one who would come.
   Besides there is Johor Baru on the main shipping lane, and Singapore. 
   What is if they ever cut a canal though peninsular Malaysia or Thailand/Myanmar. (A sort of Panama canal to safe fuel costs?). It
   shorten the routes to Japan and China by many, many miles.  
   A transshipment in Muara port might benefit only the ones, involved in the construction.
 
   Safe that money, invest it in ships which sail commodities needed elsewhere, or buy satellites and rent out, or communications. The
   Brits are smart guys. VODAFONE we saw in almost every country. They pour money in where profit can be made.
 
   But foremost we Malay have to care for our self. I say it again!  We are capable.
    I met many fine, devoted, intelligent Bruneians on route. They are not the only ones.
   There are youngster keen to proof themselves, with ideas and agility. Bring them in.
   Soon, no more foreigner doctors, must be a task of our Health Ministry. No more Mini markets in foreign hands. No more foreign pilots.
   No more foreign teachers. But then again, send home who is unwilling or incompetent in his position.

   Our jobless youth is wasting their life away. We must create opportunities, not with automated manufacturing giants which needs a
   few people only. The one who advises our youth to try their luck outside Brunei, because we do not have work, should leave first
   himself and set an example. That is, as if the father tells his children. He is unable to care for them.
 
   We could help with subsidies aimed at production of commodities. And export guarantees. (Insurance pay you if the buyer fails)
   Subsidy (for the one not knowing, the government  compensates with money if your productions price is higher than world market) is a
   useful tool and practiced in the US and Europe for export and protection of their farmers. You sell your  local chicken, Mee and
   crackers, in Malaysia or Singapore or anywhere else below their price and claim your difference from the government here.
   You are competitive now.  But you must employ local Malays (Off course subsidy is no cheat, it has controlling strings attached.) .
   Our beloved Brunei needs all of us. She was once a great nation by size and otherwise,  but went as many, through hard times. 
   By now, while we still have the resources, we need to spend them wisely.
   What our forefathers gave us, we must care for, to surrender it with all our improvements proudly to our children one day to come.
   They are our future.
   We need a clean home inhabited by active and resourceful humans strong in faith and will.
 
   That should please His Majesty, our Sultan; but foremost ALLAH who in his grace and wisdom may grant us his blessings on our way
    into the unknown distance in time, in a straight and direct course as this rail track, once laid in Baluchistan.

      "We Malay feel and care for each other!" I learned during our expedition.
       "It was the best news I could think off, for a long, long time."
     
      Yours humble Norhayati abu Bakar

                                
                                                                        The Brunei Malay are one family          
        
   A few final expedition words from Harun ( as he insist):

   " Red lips like cherries, smiling like an angels kiss in spring ". that was Norahyati, when we first met 20 years ago.

   Ever so, once in a while an exceptional human is born. Those are the history makers, the people not forgotten by time.
   Once ever so, they appear on the face of the earth, fine characters devoted to a task they set themselves. Unrelenting pursuing it, 
   but never for their own benefit, but  for a good and noble cause.
   Brunei Darussalam this lovely Nation has such a daughter, Norhayati Abu Bakar, my wife.

                                                                   

   52.000km was a journey of extremes. Not only on climate and landscapes, but human behavior too.
   Extreme to both sides. We met many  "run downs and hopeless"  along our routings, but then the best, a nation has to offer.
   Devoted Foreign Affairs officers, people with great heart and understanding.
   Valuating and encouraging our endeavor, compensating our endurance with love and support in kind.
   They acted out of spirit, out of patriotism, out of love for Brunei Darussalam.
   In  this one year long expedition, we were traversing  places where no man dared to set foot, unless protected  by guns.
   For those dangers she took from her hard earned savings. "It is for the glory of Brunei Darussalam." she said.
   Such an opinion shows an exceptional personality.
   My sincere hope is, that people in the appropriate quarters realize this achievement in its full context and not only honor her, but
   compensate her for the funds she had spend. As for my wife Norhayati Abu Bakar it was"
 
                                  "THE ULTIMATE JOURNEY FOR MY BELOVED BRUNEI DARUSSALAM"

   What more can be said?

   ==========================

   Restless and determined, they think already of another journey: crossing  Africa, North South on the West side, try to reach the
   pygmies and cannibals in innermost of the continent, ship the car from Cape Town straight west to  Buenos Aires drive south to Terra
   del  Fuego, the land of fire in the deepest south.
   Or even start in the Antarctica, traverse the Americas until Alaska maybe to the North pole too.
   Sail to Russia or Japan, and come down southbound and  finally home. 1 ½ years it takes and US$ 110.000.-
   The journey is to begin at our independence celebrations in 2009.

    Is there anyone out there who still thinks the Brunei Malays are non achievers???

    Dear reader at home and abroad. Many thanks for visiting this web site, they receive your emails, all of them positive, although they 
    wrote critically about some countries, the exploitation and corrupt leadership.
    The wastage of funds needed so much by the poor. Used  to travel with open eyes and ears, they had nothing to gain if they polish
    an image unjustified. That is not what the Koran demands from a Muslim or in fact from any human.
    Leave the lies to the manipulating media. The travelers  told what they had seen.

   "Bringing Brunei to the world"  had cost them  B$ 72.200.- that is US$  46.000.-. and another US$38.000.- on lost income.

    August 4th 2008.