One of my favourite childhood legend was the story of Nakhoda Manis who denied her mother upon his return from a long voyage in seek of fortune. Disappointed, his mother cursed Nakhoda Manis and his entire ship turned to stone. This unverifiably remains of the stone boat can still be seen on the west side of Brunei River now known as Jong Batu island, literally means the stone junk. When I was a kid, I can see this small rock island from my mother's 5th floor office. Yesterday during our proboscis monkey hunt, for the first time in my life, I had the opportunity to behold this legendary island from a stone throw away.

The structure of the island was indeed like a ship fallen to it's starboard side, hence perhaps thats how the tale came about which was passed on to many generations. Anyway, check out The Daily Brunei Resources for more coverage and photos of Jong Batu. Yes we posted the same topic today, apparently Mr. BR visitted the island last Tuesday and my post today is BR-ish style and might beat the purpose of photography :) Mr. BR, hope you don't mind bro, legends like this are just my favourites.

..the port side, notice how the 'ship' fell to it's starboard side. Nurul Iman Palace in the background.

View from the front of the 'ship'

There's another mythical island on the east side of Brunei River called the Lumut Lunting. Legend has it that during the reign of Sultan Muhammad or Awang Alak Betatar, the first Sultan of Brunei, there was a cock-fight between Asmara, an undefeated cockerel owned by a Majapahit minister, and Mutiara, owned by Sultan Muhammad's nephew. Asmara lost, this angered the Queen of Majapahit who then cursed Mutiara into stone, hence became the Lumut Lunting.

This photo was taken during our first Roda Impian excursion in January. I've posted this picture before, however I didn't see any resemblance of a chicken though.

We tried to look for crocodiles upstream Bengkurong river, but all we found was this.. a species called Proboscis EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 IS USM.

p/s Further reports from the mission, check out Bruneian, Zadm, SoulJah, Klick With Aku, Airbiscuit and Sinadam.

I enjoy portrait photography, especially when we can capture one's mood and facial expression. As much as I want to be versatile, I haven't done much of macro, abstract or other genres in photography but soon I will. Anyway, few 'vain and camera-friendly' girls at work were eager for a lunchtime pose yesterday. Tired and stressed after a hard work on the frontlines, they still managed to put on a quick touch-up of loose powder and blushers when they saw me approaching, armed with my 50mm.

I will post more portraits of the boys and girls at work soon, for the time being I will feature Shazwani.