Monday, November 07, 2005
Snubbing Royalty for Bowling
I was dithering between visiting Hassanal and accompanying, Degen, Vinson and Jovan for bowling today, and I decided on the latter. I figured, after Sam's experience at the palace, that it wasn't worth the time to spend so much time queueing and getting having my modesty outraged by the jostling crowd just to touch the hand of Hassanal - no matter how once-in-a-lifetime experience it may be. It would be purely for the bragging rights, which is not exactly the most compelling of reasons for me. So, bowling it was.
The bowling alley that we went to was at Abdul Razak Complex. It was old and decrepit, and there seemed to be this aura of gloom permeating throughout the entire place. There was nary a soul at the bowling alley, save for a couple of buggers who came shortly after us, and we soon knew why. The cost of one game was $5, which is comparable, if not, more expensive than the standard rates in Singapore, but that's where the similarities end. The quality of the bowling balls and lanes were far below the standards of those back home. Some of the balls were chipped at the holes where you insert your fingers, and according to Vinson, there were even some dents on the lanes. Besides that, I suspect the bowling machinery (for want of a better phrase to describe the mechanical system used to set the bowling pins and transport the bowling balls) isn't very well-oiled either because there were numerous times whereby our balls, bowling balls, got stuck at the end of the drain and refused to go down or the pins that collapsed weren't swept away. I mean, a couple of times, and I could just dismiss it as bad luck, but five to seven times, and on two different lanes? That's ludicrous! Where's the QC?! And guess what, there was a banner of the 1999 Brunei SEA Games put up in the bowling alley, which makes me wonder if that was the last time they did any maintenance on the place.
My bowling was as pathetic as usual, which isn't wholly unexpected considering my bowling experience in my entire twenty years of existence amounts to only, like what, five times or even less. Nevertheless, it appeared that Jovan and Degen weren't that great as well, so I still managed to come in second - a very distant second from Vinson - amongst the four of us despite scores of 65 and 71.
After bowling, it was back to Gadong as usual. We wanted to catch a movie, but there wasn't anything interesting available. The pool parlour was closed as well. This left us with practically nothing to do, and with the ferry coming at 7.30pm, we had 5 solid hours to kill. Unlike being in Orchard Road, where you can people-watch if you're really really bored, there's a paucity of eye candy here, which makes people-watching all the less satisfying. In the end, we settled on stoning at Coffee Bean, and bitching about, what else, but the army.
There's seriously nothing much to do in Brunei. But then again, is Singapore any better besides the clubs, pubs, theatres, greater eye candy, wider and cheaper variety of food...
The bowling alley that we went to was at Abdul Razak Complex. It was old and decrepit, and there seemed to be this aura of gloom permeating throughout the entire place. There was nary a soul at the bowling alley, save for a couple of buggers who came shortly after us, and we soon knew why. The cost of one game was $5, which is comparable, if not, more expensive than the standard rates in Singapore, but that's where the similarities end. The quality of the bowling balls and lanes were far below the standards of those back home. Some of the balls were chipped at the holes where you insert your fingers, and according to Vinson, there were even some dents on the lanes. Besides that, I suspect the bowling machinery (for want of a better phrase to describe the mechanical system used to set the bowling pins and transport the bowling balls) isn't very well-oiled either because there were numerous times whereby our balls, bowling balls, got stuck at the end of the drain and refused to go down or the pins that collapsed weren't swept away. I mean, a couple of times, and I could just dismiss it as bad luck, but five to seven times, and on two different lanes? That's ludicrous! Where's the QC?! And guess what, there was a banner of the 1999 Brunei SEA Games put up in the bowling alley, which makes me wonder if that was the last time they did any maintenance on the place.
My bowling was as pathetic as usual, which isn't wholly unexpected considering my bowling experience in my entire twenty years of existence amounts to only, like what, five times or even less. Nevertheless, it appeared that Jovan and Degen weren't that great as well, so I still managed to come in second - a very distant second from Vinson - amongst the four of us despite scores of 65 and 71.
After bowling, it was back to Gadong as usual. We wanted to catch a movie, but there wasn't anything interesting available. The pool parlour was closed as well. This left us with practically nothing to do, and with the ferry coming at 7.30pm, we had 5 solid hours to kill. Unlike being in Orchard Road, where you can people-watch if you're really really bored, there's a paucity of eye candy here, which makes people-watching all the less satisfying. In the end, we settled on stoning at Coffee Bean, and bitching about, what else, but the army.
There's seriously nothing much to do in Brunei. But then again, is Singapore any better besides the clubs, pubs, theatres, greater eye candy, wider and cheaper variety of food...
Posted by De Rui at 5:05 PM
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