This marks the end of my APEC VOF 2009 post. By far, this experience has given me the exposure on being in person with world leaders and global business leaders. Not only that I've learned a lot from them, but coming back from the VOF has given me the motivational spirit to contribute towards my country. Let's just not spill it out here yet of what it is but I hope and dream to see it happen in Brunei one day. It's gonna be a tough process but with the strong determination of my team and the support from peers, insyaAllah will get through it. During the course of our program, we were very fortunate to be able to meet and talk to almost all of Brunei's golden assets, and on a higher note, we get to greet His Majesty upon his arrival in Singapore. To conclude this post, I would like to thank the Ministry of Culture, Youth & Sports for their support and assistance from the very beginning up to the day we arrive back home. APEC VOF 2009 is by far the most memorable and unforgettable experience in my 2009 calendar.

Our Peruvian friends bidding us farewell at the hotel lobby

Meeting up with our Minister of Foreign Affairs & Trade II during the APEC meetings

And the very youthful Tareeq, CEO of our local HSBC.

And all this while I thought it was a bow-tie shaped biscuit, but then I realized it was the HSBC logo! hahahhh

The closing ceremony of APEC Voices of the Future 2009. An event that everyone has been looking forward to but at the same time marks the end of our APEC journey. Basically, there's two things that you could do, either to perform with your country representative or to set up a carnival booth. We opted for the latter because of the lack of talents among us given a short notice to do it. But once we were there, we participated with some of the performances done by other countries and it was awesomeee!! There's the Haka performance by the New Zealand of which is a tradition by the All Blacks Rugby team to do Haka before their game, then a lot of cultural dance and songs by the Taiwanese, Indonesians, China and lots more. Pretty much a fun night for everyone, and not just some dull sit down and eat closing ceremony. Once again kudos to the organizers!

To start off, the Brunei booth which showcases all the preserved heritage of Brunei that we managed to bring to Singapore.

Our first customer from New Zealand tasting the kueh sapit!

Then comes Mexico and Singapore

followed by the Canadians

Australia, USA & New Zealand

And this is the only representative from Japan, Ayumu, of which his country will be hosting the APEC 2010 summit next year.

Our neighbouring booth from Peru!

This is Blair, A NewZealander currently on an exchange programme in Singapore for one semester. What's interesting about him is that he got himself waxed just for the purpose of charity. For more info, visit http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=167245296002&ref=ts

With the Chairperson of VOF 2009

Hannah gave me the baseball all the way from America! uber cool

Enjoying a favourite past time of Singaporeans

Philippines! cantik :)

I believe we were very exhausted during this time of the photo being taken.

Brunei and Korea

Getting a feel of wearing the famous Mexican hat, the Sombrero

let the fun time begin ~

Last but not least, with the group whom I've been working with during APEC. From L to R. Melvin(Singapore), Xio Wen(Singapore), Eun Jong(Korea), Blair (NZ), Nuar (Brunei) & Row Ting (Taiwan).

The mini version

The real deal

Took a snapshot of another capsule just right behind us

A bird's eye view of Singapore in the evening

The esplanade. We actually walked from Suntec City, go through esplanade and walked along the road to the flyer. The Singaporeans told us that it'll take us only 10mins from walk from Sunctec, but we took 30mins!

The three Bruneians

Voices of the Future 2009. In 2010, it'll be in Japan!

Orchard Road all ready and set for christmas

Yes, typical tourist. Photo session even on a bus

Impressive architecture at the Singapore Art Museum

I'm the only human looking form of art in here.

I missed this outing but they're lucky to have this shot with the Merlion!

Arab street by 12am

Check out Borneo Bulletin Weekend edition, 14th November 2009, page 16. Or the online version at http://www.borneobulletin.com.bn/weekend/news/nov14h37.htm

And below is a moment of fun times during the closing ceremony for VOF which was led by the Singaporean delegates and followed by other 21 member of APEC economies. Such a great moment to be missed.

APEC Voices of the Future 2009 Singapore ended two days ago and I'm terribly missing all the delegates. I never knew a week-long of hardwork with them would have a direct impact to me upon not seeing them after everything has ended. I would like to thank the organizing committee for being such a great host and giving us the golden opportunity to meet and interact with world leaders and global business leaders. I have learned a lot from this experience and after all these years learning all those policies from textbooks and thinking it'll really work in the economy, I now know from the APEC CEO Summit that I've attended that implementing or eradicating a policy isn't as easy as it looks, there's always the pros and cons that's present.

I know that this post is long overdue and it'll be all jumbled up, so I'll just share some of the photos here from the day we arrived and the activities that we were engaged in. Bear in mind that it might not be in order.

Oh, just for your info, I would really love to visit Peru one day. From what I heard of from my Peruvian friends, it definitely attracted me to visit their country. That'll be one of the countries that's on top of my visiting list next. Alhamdulillah, so far I've been able to visit Mecca which was once on top of my list until my recent visit few years back. It's really a beautiful and peaceful place to be in, especially being in the Masjid Al-Haram.

I'm not sure what the purpose of this picture is but i find it cool

Teaching my fellow Bruneians on "how to use the MRT in Singapore". They're a quick learner. And that's fidzah, one of the 3 Brunei representatives for VOF 2009.

Meanwhile, this is Fatin, the other Brunei representative and myself.

The lecture hall at Singapore Management University where this is the place where we have our talks and briefings. Such a high tech university, they're not keen of stairs so they build up escalators all over the building.

Finally, a proper banner of VOF to show you all.

And in the afternoon, we were presented to the president of Singapore, His Excellency SR Nathan at the Istana.

The Bruneian delegates with the President of Singapore

I was told that this ballroom will only be used for ministers and world leaders for prestigious events held by the Istana, and we the VOF delegates were very lucky to be able to step into the ballroom to have an audience with the President.

The Brunieans at the main door of the Istana.

A contrast from green to high rising sky scrapers in the city centre, Orchard.

There are 4 kinds of these busses and we were divided into 4 groups namely A,P,E,C.

And in the evening, we were given a treat to Night Safari

They're really good at this

Thailand, Brunei, New Zealand

Last but not least, a group photo of 120 delegates.