Longest Day

21st of June is officially the longest day of the year and the start of the Summer season in the Northern Hemisphere. Sunrise is at 5.17 am while sunset at 10.10 pm. From now on the sun will start to reverse and heads to the South.

Today we made a trip to CentrO in Oberhausen in Germany, a 2-hour drive from our home in Holland. CentrO is a sprawling shopping complex with 14,000 car park spaces. It claims to be still the largest shopping mall in mainland Europe, apparently the one in Sheffield is the largest in Europe!

http://www.centro.de/englisch/index.htm

Football Mania

While on transit in Vienna, I saw this mural on the side of this Austria airplane trying to live up the spirit of the Euro 2008 that is gripping Austria and Switzerland. The host countries however are already out as expected. Tonight is the turn for the Group of Death where Italy and France could be out. In the end even the second string Dutch team was too strong for Romania. And that opened the door for Italy to go to the quarter-final.

Holland has been the surprise package so far beating France and Italy by big margins. Everyone here are really ecstatic with their national team's performance. Many streets in Holland are now colourfully decorated with many small orange flags which is the team's colour. It does give a great atmosphere here. Cars, bicycles and shops are also displaying the same.

Time flies very quickly. Its already mid June and soon the kids will finish their last term before the long summer break. So it's not too long now when we all are going home for the summer holiday!

A View Outside

This is what it looks from the hotel window. There are mosques everywhere, sometimes just about 100 metres apart. Even I saw one tucked at the middle of a shopping centre. The one directly outside looks like a typical Ottomon or Turkish design. And yet Syria is a real melting pot with a large christian population living alongside the Shi'ite and Sunni Muslims.

Arabian Souk

The Middle East is famous for its souks. Each countries have their own trademark souks and obviously claim theirs are the best. In Damascus, the main souk is called the Al Hamidiyah souk located in the Old City. It's quite a busy souk connecting to other smaller souks, each one specialising in something different such as ladies souk, spice souk and so on. While here I met a Syrian who has been to Brunei many times mainly selling table cloths. He still could speak a bit of Malay! He said normally he attended the annual international fairs being held there but lately has not done so but rather concentrates his effort in Malaysia.

In general, goods are quite cheap in Damascus, up to 50% off from what one could get in the Gulf states. This is because the standard of living is lower and salaries are in general below US$300 a month in the private sectors. Recently the Government increased the fuel price - the biggest increase was on diesel which went up by 350%. Although it is still relatively cheap, but everyone are feeling the pinch. At the same time the Government also increased the salaries of the civil servants by 25% and the private sectors are expected to follow as well. The main reason for the increase is to reduce smuggling of fuel to Iraq but also to lessen government subsidy on fuel which amounted to about a billion dollars annually.

Mesjid Umayyad

There was some time to spend in the late Sunday afternoon so I went on foot to the Umayyad Mosque, a 20 minutes walk from the Four Season Hotel. It is one of the largest and oldest mosque in the world located in the old city of Damascus.

After a short prayer in the mosque; I went around to see a few interesting things about the mosque itself. It was built by Khalifa Al-Walid ibn Abd al-Malik in 705 AD, about 70 years after the Wafat of our prophet Nabi Muhammad. During his reign, this powerful Khalifa continued the expansion of the Umayyad Islamic empire; in fact he took the early Islamic empire to its farthest extents.

He reconquered parts of Egypt and moved across to the west of North Africa before crossing the Strait of Gibraltar and began to conquer Spain. This would be the farthest extent of Islamic control of Europe. In the East, his armies made it as far as the Indus River, the empire thus stretched from Spain to India.

Inside the Umayyad mosque, one can find the relic of Nabi Yahya, also known as john the Baptist to the Christian (3rd photo). In fact in 2001 Pope John Paul II visited the mosque, primarily to visit the relics. It was the first time a pope paid a visit to a mosque.

The other important site in the mosque is the burial site of Saidina Hussein, the prophet’s grandson (last photo). This is an important Shi'ite shrine and well visited by the Shi’ite pilgrims. Today there were quite a large group of shi'ite, I was told they were Iraqis.

The tomb of Saladin, the great Islamic warrior who fought against the crusaders, is also located within the compund of the mosque. Saladin is famous for his conquer of Jerussalem and his amazing compassion to his enemies and achieved a great reputation in Europe despite the long and fierce struggle against the crusades. There are many books written about him and even a number of films made. The most recent one was the Kingdon of Heaven.

In Wiki it was stated that despite the Crusaders' slaughter when they originally conquered Jerusalem in 1099, Saladin granted amnesty and free passage to all and even to the defeated Christian army. Notwithstanding the differences in beliefs, Saladin was respected by Christian lords. King Richard I of England once praised Saladin as a great prince, saying that he was without doubt the greatest and most powerful leader in the Islamic world.

Indeed Damascus is a worthwhile place to visit and learn about the Islamic history.

Mesjid Kecil

Today on Sunday we drove back to Damascus as I have finished my short stint in the desert. I was there to see the overall operation and to do some scouting trips here and there. The drive back to Damascus again took 6.5 hours. We stopped over twice - one near to this small mosque by the road and the other at the famous Baghdad Café for some tea.

The road was quiet busy today with many trucks plying through the highway bringing goods to the East as well as to Iraq. One could see every now and then local militias or armies with mounted machine guns at the back of their pick-up vehicles patrolling the highway.

At one spot, there was a military exercise near the road with lots of tanks which looked like the Russians T72 make - very impressive indeed.

The roads are quite straight and scenic, mostly with high mountains in the backdrop. Judging from the bad driving style of the truckers, I am glad to arrive in Damascus safe and sound.

Life in a Base Camp

Compare to 20 years ago where facilities were pretty basic, nowadays life in a base camp is relatively comfortable. Staffs are accommodated in aircon cabin, the standard of catering are quite high, but most important of all is accessibility to internet and satellite TV. The desert area I am working on is quite a large area, in fact three times the size of Brunei! So driving around in this vast and empty land can be quite daunting and long.

But for most part, the landscapes are quite drivable on the 4WD. The temperature in the last two days was quite pleasant at around 32 Deg. C though a bit windy with dust all around. A few weeks ago the temperature hit 50 Deg. C – that’s hot!

In this operation, we have some weird machines that looks like vehicles one associates with in the movie Space 1999. These are very expensive kits costing about US$250K each. They seemed to roam around the desert plain without any purpose but infact their paths have been well and trully meticulously planned.

Empty Desert

Just came back to Damascus today after spending a few days out in a camp. It started last Friday when I set off on a 378 km drive due East of Damascus passing through the ancient city of Palmyra, a journey that took 6.5 hours.

The final location is a base camp in the desert which was to be my home for two nights. I won’t specify what it is exactly but sufficient to say that it is to do with helping to find raw resources for this hungry world.

Life in the camp is real hard work. Everyone was already up at 5 am. A work and safety talk took place at 5.45 am with some 200 workers before they disappeared into the empty desert in some 40 vehicles.

I later followed to see the operation and headed South as far as about 90km to the Iraqi border. The terrain is quite rough with many jabals or high grounds to navigate through to reach the other wadis. At one instance we were circling on top of a jabal trying to find our way down. Eventually we found a tricky spot to drive our 4WD vehicle down the steep slope. Toyota Land Cruisers is no doubt the most reliable vehicle to work with in this kind of rough and hot terrain. The fact that the talibans in Afghanistan are also mostly using Toyota Land Cruisers are exactly for this reason.

The Old City

Today is yet another of those hard and tiring working day. After work, it was time to watch Euro Football again at the hotel balcony. My wishes didn’t come through, the ‘diving specialist’ team a.k.a Portugal won by 3-1. Anyway, after that disappointment we headed to the Old City of Damascus for dinner. There are a few recommended restaurants but this one is amongst the best, once considered the best restaurant in Damascus. Anyway foods here are very cheap even in this posh restaurant. A 3-course meal for 4 including the mezzee as starter only cost 60 Euros! The setting is quite nice, where they transformed an old courtyard into an open-air restaurant.

The Old City of Damascus is like a labyrinth, once you are inside, you would feel like being trapped inside a maze network of narrow streets and busy souks. In my previous trips I did walk on my own around the Old City to try learn and familiarise with the different Quarters. But I must admit I’m still not confident to navigate around the place apart from the areas around the Ummayad Mosque.

Back in Holland, our son has now been cycling for two days to school. It's now complete. The whole family is now using bicycles either to work or school. Although occasionally they may use train or car if they have late lessons or sports activities at school, at least the positive transformation has been made.

Panaromic Damascus

We finished work at 6.30 pm today and went straight to dinner at a famous restaurant on top of the mountain overlooking Damascus. The sight from here is quite awesome. The photos show the panoramic view of Damascus taken when the sun was still there to when we almost finished our dinner into the evening. My Syrian colleague told me that there are about 2000 Mesjids in the city. There are quite visible by their green litted minarets. We tested the idea. We counted that there are about 10 mosques per square kilometer. The city is about 10 km wide and 20 km long. That’s 200 sq km. Multiply that by 10 – bingo – 2000!

Syrian foods without any doubt are the best in the Middle East. Syria however is not as well developed as her Arab neighbours because of the US economic sanctions. The country is also still technically at war with Israel. However the situation on the ground is very different. People are really friendly and living life as normal. Life is hard though, worsened by the migration of over a million Iraqis into the city. Life is even got harder recently as the government decided to reduce subsidy on petrol and triple the price of diesel.

Working in a Hotspot

Yesterday I flew to Syria – my fourth time in the last 14 months. It’s back to work again. However it wasn’t really a good start. My team got stuck at the airport as the people who are supposed to pick us up didn’t turn up. Strange thing is that mobile phone doesn’t work at the airport. We could not just hopped onto any normal taxi, as there are certain protocols that we have to follow for safety reason.

Damascus is a sprawling city, one of the oldest inhabited cities in the world. It is famous for its Ummayad Mosque. You can see this vast mosque in the centre of the photo.

The hotel we stayed in is a world of a difference to what is Damascus. The Four Season is the most luxurious place one could find here, owned by the Saudi prince Al-Waleed bin Talal. We had dinner at the hotel and watched football together with a large crowd at the hotel’s balcony. It was an excellent outcome for Holland as they hammered Italy 3-0. No body could imagine the Italian known for their solid defence could conceed 3 goals.

I will be here for a week. Friday I will be leaving Damascus and heading East close to the Iraqi border. In my previous trip here, I went on a fieldtrip to North Syria together with Dr Rock! Some of the photos from that trip can be viewed in the postings linked below.
http://paulaland-paulaland.blogspot.com/2007_11_01_archive.html

Country Road

It's the European Football championship right now but seems to be uneventful as England is not featuring at all. What a shame. Matches are being played during the evening prime time here but the games so far are quite dull. The big guns are starting to play tomorrow with Holland in the group of death with Italy, Romania and France. Any of those team could go through and becomes eventual winner.

Today during our one hour cycle ride we went along a scenic country road just outside The Hague. Being Sunday, there were lots of people on their bikes. What also helps is that the strong smell of manure out in the fields is no longer there. When farmers put manure on their fields during middle of spring, it really is quite unbearable to be outside!

Fuel Crisis

Today we bought yet another bike. This one is for our youngest. It was a real scramble to get it today as we arrived from Roermond quite late in the afternoon and made it before shops closing at 5 pm.

The first few shops near our home simply didn't have stock of boy's bikes. But we managed to get this one - looks quite nice. Faris now wants to go to school on the bike this week, with the proviso that my missus come along to send him as well!

Since our daughters started going to school on bike or train, our fuel bill has gone down a lot. Normally we have to fill our tanks full for the week which is about 80 euros. Nowadays we only use a quarter tanks each week.

Today RON95 pump price was 1.66 Euro per litre. That is equivalent to B$3.55 cents per litre – 7 times more expensive than back home. As all over the world are being hit by the fuel crunch, many governments have started to hike their fuel prices and reduce government subsidies. Other things will follow such as electricity tariffs, food prices, flights and so on. The most hit are the poor and those who are living on the margin. Wonder what it would be like by the end year for these people.

Half Price

The blog has been quiet this week; the culprit was the office work that spill to the evenings. After all of that, we wanted to have a good start to the weekend with a small get-together at our house last night with a few Bruneians living here.

Today (Saturday) we went to Roermond factory outlet which is a 2 hours drive to the south. There are 3 factory outlets in the whole of The Netherlands but this is the largest.
http://www.designeroutletroermond.nl/shops/index.php

The Roermond outlet has 10 other sister outlets spread all over Europe. Today was the start of the summer sale where the discounts are up to 70%. Although the idea of factory outlet is for major brands to off load their old stocks, most people don’t mind buying them as long as they are branded and of high quality. But most important of all they are all sold at bargain prices, usually at least 30% off compare to the high street prices. When the sale is on the difference goes up to 70%.

Easy Sunday

It was a tiring Sunday today for everyone. I took all the kids for cycling – we tried the route from home to our daughters’ school which is in the next town. Using the shortest route along the rail track it was 7.2 km in distance and took 27 minutes. There was apparently a proper cycle path all the way without the need to go along any main road. So now they want to do it tomorrow – cycle to school with some of their school mates – weather permitting of course. They are now planning to do it every Monday and Friday, for the other days they want to take the train instead.
Today apart from going to the school we were also cycling around. All in all when we looked at Google Earth, we cycled 28 km in total today. What is incredible is that our youngest who only learned how to cycle yesterday did it all as well!

A Flea Market

Flea market is a common sight in Europe but even more so in Holland. It is quite popular here where anybody can set up a stall and sell anything, mostly old stuff. It is like a car boot sale but on a grander scale. The items sold are traditionally old rubbish but attract a large number of visitors. It was estimated the total market size in Holland last year alone was about 200 million euros. So old rubbish eh!

Today we passed through a flea market set up in a shopping area near our house. There must have been over a hundred stalls in all. There were all sorts of things on sale, things that you would have thrown but may be useful and of value to somebody else. There were also some speciality stalls selling old furniture, stamps, coin collections, paintings and all sorts of things at incredibly low prices. In a way it is a great way of recycling things.

Pedal Power

We went to buy another bike today for our eldest. It’s the one on the right. It looks big, in fact as big as mine. But one of the workers in the shop recommended that size. But most important of all Fiz feels comfortable riding it. So there we are - we now got 6 bikes.

Our youngest actually didn’t know how to cycle. There I was in the morning teaching him how to paddle, balance and so on.

Incredibly after an hour he was paddling along the street like an expert. So much so that later in the afternoon I brought all the kids for a long cycle ride around the neighbourhood. Our front neighbour who is a very friendly Dutch was quite enthusiastic to see us on our bikes and especially to see our youngest learning to cycle today that he gave him a skateboard!

Few Words of Wisdom

Today Friday’s sermon was excellent. I tried to write here as in previous posts so as to remind myself what it was. Otherwise ‘masuk telinga kanan keluar telinga kiri’. I learnt that the best way to learn is to teach. Otherwise the information that you received remains passive. So in order to make it active, one needs to reiterate, thus forces one to think about it again and cements the learning in the mind and at the same time able to share with others as well.

The sermon today was given by a Malaysian Imam. He touched on the fact that when we are not in dire strait, we tend to distance ourselves from God or tend to take our duties lightly. For when we are in comfortable living, good health, happy family surrounding us, great social circle, it seems a long distance away to worry about us crumbling down and start to seek help from our mighty God. In fact it is actually a harder test compare to those who have fallen victims to all sort of catastrophe or sickness where such helplessness normally makes one really closer to God.

The second part of the sermon was on how to make use of the Ulama or Imam around us. More often than not he said they were merely used for the service of doa, makan kenduri, funeral and so on. But hardly one seeks the service for learning and increasing own knowledge. Here in Holland it has always been a tradition amongst the Bruneians to invite the Imam from the mosque to come to our houses once a week and teach our kids Quran reading and basic religious education. That has now spread out and many of our Malaysian friends have followed suit.

We are all Green

Yesterday we went on our bike to buy some groceries at the supermarket. It’s really great.

Everyday now our two daughters are cycling to the train station before taking the train to school. From there it’s another 10 minutes walk to the school. They say it’s really fun. But they said it would be more fun if the bikes get upgraded!

Ok one of the bike is a mountain bike (from Brunei) so is not really is comfortable to ride. And they want to do a step further – to cycle all the way to school. Ok I need to accompany them one of these weekends just to show how far that really is.

At What Price?

Last week Indonesia hiked the cost of fuel by around 30 per cent in response to soaring global oil prices and a ballooning subsidy bill. It resulted in strong protest.

When one look at the graph for comparison (not all the countries are included there), it’s interesting to see the vast differences in the fuel price. The graph shows the latest gasoline (RON95) price per country. The cost of raw oil is put as a comparison. Because of a lag of 2 to 4 months between increase in oil price and the effect on the pump station, the current price should be compared with an oil price of US$80-100 per barrels. On top of that one have to add refining, transport, marketing, tax etc. So anything below the lines is heavily subsidized. Most of those countries that have low prices are the producing countries including Brunei. It imposes a heavy burden on the government. It also inadvertently led to wastage and in some cases ingenious cross border profiteering.

Kid's World

Talking of my daily bicycle rides, I have now cycled for the last 10 working days on the trot, sun and rain. And I have clocked 180 km and 15 hours of cycling. So that must be good for my heart and mind.

Even our eldest got into the mood and cycled to the train station before taking train to her school.

Today was sport day for our youngest. He seemed to be enjoying the full day of activities and having picnic afterward with his friends.

And also today, Hazimah came back home from a 5-days trip to Ameland. She said it was very tiring, lots of cycling around the island whilst studying geography, the environment, the tides and seeing migratory birds passing through.

The trip was well organised, took about 3 hours for the coaches to reach the harbour from where the kids took a ferry to the island. On the Island itself, the group stayed at a hostel for the whole duration. The island is unique, similar in a way to Pulau Muara Besar back in Brunei, formed by the longshore current carrying and dumping sands while slowly forming an island.

Mahkamah Keadilan Dunia

This is the International Criminal Court (ICC). I made a mistake when ZB in the chat box ask me if I work for ICJ which is the International Court of Justice. And I replied no but said I passed through it everyday. I was mistaken. I passed through the ICC rather than ICJ. The International Court of Justice building is actually at the Peace Palace which is also in The Hague but a bit further to the North.

Anyway back to ICJ, a big decision was announced today. Pulau Batu Puteh which is just an outcrop of rocks in the water between Singapore and Malaysia you would reckon would only interest geologists. But apparently lawyers and politicians also love them. So a bunch of top class lawyers and politicians fought for these rocks for a number of years.

But today the verdict was passed. ICJ decided that the main rocks called Pedra Branca or Pulau Batu Puteh belongs to Singapore while the other rocks called Middle Rocks belong to Malaysia - fair isn’t it! The third rock called South Ledge is subject for another round of lawyer get-together i.e. more trips, more limelight. Geologist only loves rocks. But lawyers and politicians more than love these rocks, they make a career out of them. But on the serious note, that island is actually quite far from Singapore - 54 km to be exact. How SIngapore manage to win it is beyond me. Everything is possible. So what's next?

http://www.icj-cij.org/homepage/index.php?lang=en

Spring Cleaning

The recent 'summer' was a shortlived one. The week long hot period turned into rainy days in the past two days - back to the typical cooler weather one would expect for spring. But today the sun is back. Great. Time for jogging and cycling.

Today we also sent our segregated rubbish to the collection bins nearby. That’s a year’s pile of bottles in one box. And two large bags of old clothing for the textile collection box.

However, we left a few boxes containing papers behind waiting for the monthly collection this Tuesday when the dump truck will make its round.

It's a lot more civilised at home now. School exams for the kids are now over. They are now scheduled to go for school trips in the next few weeks. Hazimah is going to Ameland Island tomorrow for 5 days. Hafizah is going to Switzerland for a week in June. And our youngest Faris is only going for few day trips here and there.

Hidden Treasures

With the dwindling world resources, there are continuous tensions between preserving parts of the earth that are still remained untouched and to exploit these areas for their rich resources. And rightly so, large parts of the Arctic, tropical forests and protected areas in the world are still off limit. Brunei now faces similar dilemma. There are big parts of Brunei in the pristine jungles of Belait and Tutong that has not been fully explored for oil, mining, forestry and other resources. It’s a fine balance.

But the decision has been made. A couple of oil consortiums consisting of foreign and local players are now embarking on an expensive programme to search for oil and gas in Belait and Tutong. These are big gambles. If all goes well, Brunei will have its own Mr. JR Ewing one day!

Looking at the satellite image over Ulu Belait, one could see a big contrast between green Brunei and near barren lands next door in our neighbouring country. If you double click the photo to see an enlarged version, you could see some logging tracks have actually infringed into Brunei territory. It’s not an easy task to patrol the border 24-7. But if kept unwatched, our forest will soon be devastated by the same hands from next door.

Humbling Forces of Mother Earth

The current disasters in Myanmar and Central China are quite tragic. Cyclone Nargis, a strong tropical cyclone, caused the deadliest natural disaster in the recorded history of Myanmar. The cyclone made landfall in the country on May 2, 2008, causing catastrophic destruction and more than 100,000 are dead or missing. The earthquake in Sichuan province of China occurred 10 days later with a magnitude 7.9 on the Richter scale and could also easily have killed more than 50,000 people.

Some countries instantly sent their rescue and aid teams to these disaster zones. Without these helps, many of the victims would be left on their own to pick up the pieces and more likely would not survive long. For these rescue teams it’s their way to practice, sharpen their skill and experience a real situation which would help them better prepare when a disaster strike in their own countries. It calls for rapid deployment and massive co-ordinations, another aspect of the operation that the team would have learnt and benefited.

Recently in Brunei, we have a string of strong winds and disasters like flooding and fire victims. More often than not, we stand as curious bystanders watching the news and soon participate in another round of fund raising. It would be good when our own national service has been introduced that a fixed disaster team is set-up, that these disaster ‘opportunities’ are taken up by our own beloved country so that we could extend help immediately and perform a meaningful role in the international community. It might be the case that such a setup is already in existence. I remember we did send a small group to Aceh during the Tsunami. But it was a small army/medical/logistic group sent weeks after the disaster. In fact we sent more visitors and observers from our side to Aceh than providing additional helping hands. The khutbah on Friday was a good one, saying that one of the best things a person should do is to enrich himself with world goodness but not for the benefit on oneself but to enable one to benefit others.

Reducing my Carbon Footprints

Today, after nearly two years here, I finally cycle to work. The good weather was one of the reasons. But it was also because most of my office colleagues are doing it, and for me I really need to do some form of exercise. It took about 45 minutes, comparable to the usual bus/tram ride. Although it was still slow ride by any standard (don’t want to sweat) but I have been cycling all weekend just to build my leg power. The distance from home to the office is about 9 km, using the shortest route possible, with proper cycle lanes and minimum number traffic lights to cross. Now is a nice time to do it because of the dry and warm weather. Not sure whether I could do it when the weather becomes a bit unpredictable and too cold. In a way it’s also good way to enjoy being outside in the open.

I bought a basic Dutch bike. Bikes are quite expensive here. The reason is that they are well built and renowned brands. I bought this bike on Saturday in one of the largest bike shop in The Hague. A normal bike would cost about 500 to 700 Euros. Second hand bikes are 150 to 200 Euros but they are not many choices. Mine is amongst the cheapest at 300 Euros (that’s B$600). My daughter’s bike was even more expensive when we bought it last year. I thought of starting on a cheaper one first. If I carry on like this I would recoup the investment within 5 months as I normally pay 60 Euro per months on the bus/tram bus. And then may be I could try a more expensive one. With me in the shop was a gentleman who was testing this bike which cost 1300 Euros. It’s not even a racing bike – those are in the range of 2000 to 9000 Euros.

Straight after work I brought my staff for a team dinner at an Indian restaurant. Off I went, picked the bike from the bike shed (see photo) and off to town. After dinner, it was quite nice to cycle home especially when the stomach is full. During the ride, I realize that after all these years, always in the comfort of cars and modern living, here I was cycling home. I was actually reducing my carbon footprints. It’s my small contribution to save fuel energy and helping in reducing pollution and carbon emission. I am not alone. Millions of people around the world are doing their bits. What about you?

Canals in Leiden

This is a nice sight of Leiden, a beautiful and historic Dutch town crisscrossed with canals that are lined up by many 17th-century houses. We went here today to a fast food restaurant for lunch. Today is a public holiday but our eldest had to go to school in the morning to sit for her IGSCE Malay exam. She is still in year 10 but she is taking the exam a year earlier. She has been practicing a lot with us the parents with her ‘karangan’ and overall Malay vocabularies. Finding a Malay teacher here is difficult, although there is an Indonesian Languages and Cultures faculty in Leiden University, but the lecturers seems to be reluctant to be involved too much with outside teaching. So we opted not to then and hoping that our eldest daughter takes the initiative herself to learn Malay online or through what ever means. It all boils down to the requirement for scholarship in the future which needs minimum Malay pass. But then it is becoming difficult to get a scholarship nowadays. Even though there are all sort of scholarship schemes being introduced recently, they seems to cater for certain groups and ranks (ranting again!).

About Leiden University itself, it is the oldest university in Holland, founded in 1575. It is probably the most internationally renowned of all the Universities here. It got about 18,000 students, nine faculties, over 50 departments and more than 150 undergraduate programmes.

In Leiden today, we saw people going on canal cruise and just enjoying the weather. Its strange how people really appreciate such things which back home we too often take it for granted – sunshine and the good weather. Coffeehouses are now putting their chairs and tables outside where people sit down and enjoy their coffee. It’s incredible to imagine where all these chairs have been hidden all this time...

Orang Besi

Today, my youngest and I hopped onto a bus and headed to town to watch the new movie ‘Iron Man’. It was also our first time inside the new multiplex which has 9 screens. Our show was right at the top of the building with 5 flights of escalators and stairs to climb.

Buying the tickets was easy. There are numerous touch screen machines that allow you to select and buy the tickets without queuing. It took less than 30 seconds. The movie was shown in the biggest cinema which had about 500 seats. Today the cinema was quite empty. This was apparently because of the good weather so people have gone and crowded to the beach.

The movie itself is another bunch of expensive and ridiculous movie of yet another superhero. It’s ridiculous when somebody falls from the sky and only gets injured with some slight bruises.