freakseeker67

North Carolina….is home! Well, actually, I haven’t lived there in over 20 years…but I get back as often as I can, most all my family lives there, and even if I never return to live there, it will always be HOME!

Hmmmm…I rarely say places I’ve visited are not worth visiting, but Brunei is one of those places that if I never go there again, I won’t really care or miss it. It was unbelievably hot and humid when I was there…but it’s not so much the weather that I didn’t like. I’ve been to many hot and humid locales…it’s par for the course in that region of the world, so near the equator. But in a region that is home to Buddhism, and generally a very care-free, happy outlook on the world…Brunei is a repressed, hardcore Muslim state that would be better suited being located in the Persian Gulf vice the Pacific. The strongest drink you can obtain here is a cup of coffee, and as is typical in most Muslim nations, the women are covered up and treated like second class citizens. I’m not a fan of the way Muslim women are treated nor trained from birth that they are not a man’s equal. And as is typical of a Muslim nation fueled by oil like the nations in the Persian Gulf, the vast majority of that oil wealth is controlled by the royal family (Sultan of Brunei), and very little of it goes to the good of the nation. There wasn’t much to see other than many very ornate Muslim temples…they roll up the streets at about 2100, and not much to do but drink overpriced coffee and buy pirated DVDs and computer software. Yeah, pass on this place if you can.

I had the pleasure of living in Sicily from 1991 to 1994. It was without a doubt one of the happiest times in my life. I absolutely loved it. The Sicilian people are great, the beaches are great, the food…is out of this world! I couldn’t eat in an Italian restaraunt for years after leaving Sicily, because once you’ve had the real thing…these pale imitations they attempt to pass off as “Italian” in the states just cannot compare. The Italian people are helpful and friendly, especially if you at least make an attempt at speaking some Italian, my Italian sucked but I always tried, and between my half-ass Italian and their English (most Italians, especially in the younger generations, know at least some English, but many won’t use it until you first try and speak Italian), I always managed to get directions, etc. The Greek ruins found on Sicily are in better shape and are more impressive than the Greek ruins you find in Greece. The amount of history that you can explore here just blows you away, I think every conquering army since ancient times has owned Sicily at one time or another, and they all left traces of their civilizations behind. Fontana Bianca, a small beach near Syracusa, was always my favorite, but Taormina was beautiful as well. Palermo, Catania, countless other smaller villages in between, there is much to see and do here…and as for the Italian women…very beautiful and very sexy…they have a certain way about them…an attitude…that makes them some of the sexiest women in the world.