Brunei Roses: Hari Raya 2011

We certainly enjoyed celebrating Hari Raya this year! The first day was busy busy busy - we had three open houses we were invited to. I love open houses as it allows as to experience Hari Raya in the local way.

We visited our friend Hals and Keiko's house first. At open houses you are supposed to greet and eat the nice foods they provide and not stay long and go. But we had lots to catch up on and ended up staying for far too long : ) We were lucky Hari Raya started on Thursday. Matthew had a flight to Perth from the evening for a few days so almost missed the celebrations.

Tomoko-Natasha and Oliver.

The beautiful host Keiko and Hals with Oliver.

Unfortunately after leaving Hals and Keiko's we were sort of in a rush. But we still managed to visit two more of our friends places and enjoyed more chatting and more of the lovely food!!

The next day was a big day again. We decided to pay a visit to the Istana (the palace!) to meet the Sultan (the King) and the Queen. I really wanted to meet the Sultan but only males are allowed to greet him on this occasion.

We parked the car and rode the bus to the entrance. The ride wasn't long at all but Oliver got the biggest buzz from it!

When we got there we registered our visit:

And received these numbered tickets for... something special.

When we got in we walked though this corridor - with a plate and as you walk along you get what you would like to eat. Of course Oliver got his favourite food - Rice!!

He was pretty impressed the rice wasn't ordinary rice he normally has at home - it was yellow!

We then walked into this huge food court-like area to eat the food. It was just soooo crowded!!

It got rather uncomfortable with watching out for a little one and a baby in my arms. Luckily I had my friend to help me out. There was no way I could get there by myself with my two boys.

After a long queue we got to this area, which was packed with people but we each got a seat. But the unfortunate thing was by the time we got here it was almost at the end of the morning visit time. We missed it by 10 or 20mins and ended up waiting in these chairs for another 2 hours!!

Luckily Luca was entertained by Gemma and slept in my sling the rest of the time. Oliver was so well behaved on his iphone : )

The afternoon visit was from 2pm. But we were led through the security and entered the next room at 1:30. The room was heavily air-conned with lots of seats. There were signs saying no photos so I didn't take any from this point onwards.
When it was finally our turn I got very excited but found out there would be MORE waiting, this time outside and it was so hot!
By this stage Luca was deep asleep in my sling and Oliver was getting very very tired (he still has his afternoon nap around 2-3pm). We just started to feel very uncomfortable when we saw all the royal family come back from their lunch and enter the room where we could meet them. Yes we saw Sultan too! He was smiling and waving : )

And guess what!? Oliver fell asleep 3 minutes before meeting the Queen - after 4 hours of waiting he didn't get to see the lady he (or I made him) queue up for. Poor Nicole ended up carrying him to greet the Queen...

I was delighted when I greeted the Queen saying "Selamat Hari Raya" she said "You need to be careful with your baby" as Luca was sort of coming out of my sling! It wasn't a proper conversation but I at least got some words from her!

When we came out from the greeting room there was a person collecting the tickets with numbers, in return we received a special yellow box each and a greeting card. Both of my boys got money in the envelopes too!