Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Greeting The Royal Family

They may not be citizens, but having lived here since birth, my patriotic other half and his like-minded cronies went for their annual visit to the open house at the Istana in Bandar Seri Begawan yesterday - together with 30,000 other visitors.

In what is a family tradition introduced and passed down by my equally loyal father in law, hubby had trooped up to the palace to wish Raya greetings and respects to the royal family since he was two years old - something I have never thought of doing in Malaysia.

At least here in Brunei, I had the experience of going for my first (and only - so far) trip in 2004 when a couple of girlfriends came over from Sabah. It was quite an experience to see so many people of different skin colours, backgrounds and languages willingly queued for hours or jostled with each other for a less than 5 mins opportunity to shake hands and wish Raya greetings with the Royal Family.

And because of my dislike for crowded places, and what to me personally was an event that could be better organized, it never ceased to amaze me that everytime Raya comes, hubby and his friends will be busy making visiting plans - of course, being big eaters, the banquet is a big attraction and yesterday, he came home with a tales of lamb chops and rendang.

As for us at home, the one thing that we look forward to when he comes back is of course, this :


Goodie pack stuffed full of junk food
Posted by Jewelle Tan at 07:58:22
Comments

2 Responses to “Greeting The Royal Family”

  1. Aunty J says:
    October 24, 2007 at 12:02 pm

    Ha! I remember when V and myself went over for a visit and all of us incl. your hubby’s frens went to the Royal open house! I tot that was fun…tapi yg funny…semua pakai ayu2 kunun wt our baju kebaya/kurung…tapi naik bas!!! hahaha…Thank goodness we took the bus. Otherwise we’ll be stuck in the jamm! But I must admit, it was really an interesting experience :)

  2. JeWeLLe says:
    October 25, 2007 at 1:00 pm

    Aunty J : I will never forget that anti-glamour moment of us looking so gorgeous hanging by the bus! Thank your lucky stars I didn’t have my digi cam then, ha! Don’t forget the “push from the back by soft squishy body parts!” It was definitely an interesting experience :-)

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