By Prime Sarmiento

Note: Between Deadlines is a series of posts that I wrote, while literally chasing deadlines as a working journalist, last month when I joined Bootsnall's #Doyouindie travel writing challenge. Every day, for 30 days, Bootsnall emails a question (and challenge) which a participating travel blogger has to ponder on and write about. Everything of course is related to independent travel. I joined the challenge because I want to kickstart my travel blogging mojo again, which has been sidelined by other concerns. I unfortunately wasn't able to publish any of this last November (again too much work and a bit of procrastinating). But with work slowing down for the Christmas season, I am finally posting them. Nope, I didn’t answer all 30 questions, but only chose those which I believe are personally relevant and can help all you Gypsy Gals craft your own journeys.   

Question: Tell us about a time you slowed down & enjoyed an experience and how slow travel can be the best way to travel.

 

    Being an expat is perhaps the best form of traveling slowwwwwwwly.  Having all the time and money to know more about the a certain place, a culture which may be familiar or different from one’s own, is a privilege that only those working overseas can afford – unless of course you have loads of money to begin with or have the means that will allow you to work and live anywhere. But for most of us working professionals, the expat life is the best (and probably the only) option to live – sustainably – for more than a few months overseas.

    While this is my sort-of-third time to be an expat, nothing spells slow travel more than living in this laidback  but oil-rich sultanate in the island of Borneo. In Singapore, where I used to work as a regional commodities reporter, life is quite fast-paced. Everyone is in a hurry somewhere else, to buy something, to achieve something, a kiasu ambitious attitude that seems to penetrate every corner of this tiny but nevertheless wealthy city state.  But it’s the regional finance and trade center so I guess won’t expect anything else from the Lion City.  In my second time as a sort-of-but-not-really expat life in Hanoi, I was busy looking for a language center willing to hire a CELTA-bearing-but-non-native-English-speaker that I lost my entire perspective why I wanted to live overseas. Being broke and depressed will do that to you.

   Living in Brunei, however, has settled me down for a while. I have been living here for nearly two years, and in the process, pushed me to know more about it. With nothing much to offer in terms of selfie-worthy tourist spots and the fact that it’s not the most happening places on earth (no bars, everything closes by 11, public consumption of alcohol is prohibited, Christmas decorations are frowned upon), it’s but natural for most residents here to cross the border just to have more fun in Malaysia.

   But the beauty of traveling slowly is to give one the luxury of knowing the place more than what it can offer to a tourist merely passing by.  

 

Explore your neighborhood because you’ll never know what you’ll find:

Instead of a spending a weekend across the border, shopping and partying in Miri or Limbang, I walk around my neighborhood in Gadong and in the process found some shops selling items that I want: cheap household stuff, coffee beans, freshly baked bread, handcrafted soaps, organic food, quality drugstore make up and even an all-natural, lavender-scented, homemade cream that cured my eczema. And did I mention a that there’s also a zumba studio, a vegetarian café, and a day spa just a few blocks away from my apartment? Brunei is no shoppers paradise – shopaholics won’t enjoy visiting any of the malls here – but I’m happy to know that most of these shops provide budget-friendly products and services for my wholistic health needs.

I appreciate walking around the neighborhood filled with trees, very few pedestrians and even in a car-driving city, not a lot of cars. A single gal like me is also a grateful that Brunei is safe, which allows me to jog around the area even late at night.

 

 

Be a tourist and go to tourist spots:

And this is fact the best way to enjoy them because, unlike a tourist who can only drop by for a day or two, I have more time to go to such place, and go back whenever I feel like it.

Brunei is promoting itself as an ecotourism site – a tough proposition for a Borneo-based country as tjis is also home to more popular ecotourism centers of Sabah and Sarawak. Still, Brunei can at least rightfully claim that it has a well preserved rainforest right in the heart of the city. Hence, whenever the weather is good and one of my friends have the time to go there, we hike Bukit Shahbandar. Well this is mostly a form of workout for me, but at the same time a way to appreciate how beautiful the place is.

I also visited Kampung Ayer, Brunei’s famed water village and even took photos of one colorful house owned by one of the residents there. 

 

Eat local and learn a lot more than the local cuisine:

When I first arrived here, a senior Bruneian editor asked me if I tried nasi katok – the one dollar fried-chicken-with-rice- and-sambal meal which might as well be the national comfort food. I heard of nasi katok but I was framkly reluctant tio try such an unhealthy food. But I figured that since I was here, I might as well try it. Which I did – and in the process served as a gateway to for me to try other local favorites including the bread and coco jam combo roti kahwin, sweetish dried noodle dish kolomee and ambuyat – that gooey starch made from sago palm eaten with a variety of fish, meat or veggie dishes.  It also encouraged me to visit the night market where I get to know more about the local street food. 

 

Take time to really know the culture

Eating local is just the first way towards learning more about the country. I picked up a few Malay words here and there and bought myself a dictionary so I would at least know basic phrases. I went to Hari Raya parties, where locals invite everyone for a whole-day feast after the month-long fasting during Ramadan. I even bought myself a colorful baju kurung – hey the mermaid style skirt looks good on me !  I read a lot about the prevailing MIB philosophy and the Brunei  royalty .  And since I work in the newspaper, I get to talk to my Bruneian colleagues and interview other Bruneians about their views – mostly of the business and economic landscape here as I’m after all working here as a business editor.       

Use this time to know more about yourself:

Since I’m in no hurry to move from one place to another, I have all the time in the world to experiment and to try stuff.  From divining on my Isis cards to monitoring moon cycles for my meditation. From spending more time in the kitchen ( save money, eat healthy, lose some weight) to using downloaded bellydancing videos  as  part of my regular fitness regimen. From trying my hand buying and selling stuff (not my cup of tea!) to stock investing (now this is interesting as I have to read a lot of business stories so I might well use that knowledge gained in building my finance portfolio).

It also allowed me to assess what I really want in my life (career, family, financial freedom), where I want to live on a longer term (neither here nor Manila), and who I want to be (an ever changing definition of one’s self). I was able to do this because I get to be away from my comfort zone and disconnected myself from the influence of family and friends whom I love with all my heart but their presence can sometimes be limiting, forcing me to conform to their expectations even if I’m not comfortable with it.

 

So if you ever get the chance to work overseas, I encourage you to take that job. Of course, for most Filipinos, working abroad is also a financial choice as these jobs usually offer higher paychecks. But more than the money (or the prestige), being an expatriate means you get to travel slowly – and in the process you learn more about that new place and create your new self.