Wednesday 1 December 2010

Sultan's Birthday (Day 14 - 15/07/2010)

On every 15th of July, Taman SOAS located at the heart of Bandar Seri Begawan will take center stage as Bruneians of all walks of life will throng to see the Sultan and the beautiful parade. The 15th of July, as we all know, is the Sultan's birthday.

As his Majesty was celebrating his 64th birthday at town this year, the participants of the Sungai Ingei Faunal Expedition were far away from civilization but that didn't stop us from celebrating the annual royal birthday in the base camp.

The morning sky of Day 14 was clear and it had rained heavily the night before. The camera trap group Team Samhan were miles away from the base camp as they camped at Sungai Berar. After breakfast, the remaining participants in the base camp gathered together at the front porch of the base camp for a special event.


National Anthem and Flag as a sign of respect


The Brunei flag was raised high up and the participants, lead by Dr. Charles, sang the National Anthem. Although there was no audience (and they faced the beautiful forest when they sang), the event was held to show our respect and pride to our Sultan.

Since the Sultan's birthday was declared as a public holiday, a break was also given to the participants on Day 14. However, the Small Mammal group and the Tarsier group went to the field for a quick check and rested for the rest of the day after that.

To celebrate the Sultan's birthday, our main chef, Haji Ramlee, cooked us a special lunch and dinner and even baked two cakes, much to the delight of the participants in the base camp. The break was much needed because the participants were getting fatigued as the 3-weeks long expedition came to a near end.

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Small Mammal group crossing the river to check their trail



Salwa and Cikgu Haji in action




Haji Ramlee (chef) writing down the special menu for the day


Haji Ramlee also baked this cake...



...and this too!


To be continued...

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