VS School Exchange to SOAS Brunei- Day 1 Arrival

It was an exciting Sunday afternoon as 10 VS students (from the Wushu team and the Chinese Orchestra) and staff from VS arrived at Brunei. The VS delegation was led by Principal, Mr Low Eng Teong. Accompanying him was Mr Muhd Imran (Physics) and me, Mr Randell Siow (PE). Upon arrival we were warmly greeted by PG. Zahari, Principal of SOAS (Sultan Omar Ali Saiffudin High School), Hajah Nur Amalina (Vice-Principal), Haji Roslan (Vice-Principal).

It was touching and heart-warming to see the buddies and various staff sacrificing their precious sunday to greet us at the airport. Although this is my first time to Brunei, I definitely felt very welcome.


As we made our way to our accomodations at the SEAMO VOCTECH (South East Asia Ministers of Education Organisation for Regional Centre for Vocational and Technical Education and Training), we had a really pleasant surprise- a traffic police escort!
How cool is that! :)

It's not every day that you get traffic police trying to stop traffic for YOU rather than trying to stop you for traffic :P
All of us were impressed and touched by this gesture as it showed us the intense and passionate hospitality that our hosts had prepared for us.

After checking in to SEAMO VOCTECH, we had a small briefing where staff and students introduced themselves:

Thanks to Cikgu Zarina and team who took good care of us and allowed us to settle in smoothly. It looks to be a most exciting trip for us!

After dinner, we were formally welcomed by the Principal, PG. Zahari.

Each of us were given souvenirs from SOAS and were briefed by various members of staff on the upcoming days' programme.

It certainly promises to be an enriching trip. Tomorrow, we are waking up bright and early to head to Bukit Beruang to study the density and distribution of Eurycoma Longifolia as part of the ecological field trip- What's Eurycoma Longifolia, you ask?

Well, it's better know to us guys as Tongkat ALi :)
Hee hee, interesting, right?