Blogs from Brunei, Asia - page 11

(Day 439 on the road)Bandar Seri Begawan is a strange place. It is the capital of the Sultanate of Brunei Darussalam, by far smallest country in South-East Asia, which is in turn by far the richest country here due to its abundant oil reserves. In fact, the Sulatn of Brunei is one of the richest men in the world. What Bandar (as the locals call it) lacks completely however, is atmosphere. It is difficult to imagine that a country enveloped by vivid Malaysia can feel so boring. Even sterile and policed Singapore has a much nicer feel to it. We arrived on the day of Karen's birthday, and had a seriously difficult time to find a restaurant that was just a little more upmarket than the typical Chinese or Indian corner-restaurant with their plastic chairs and ... read more

We caught a boat from the main pier in KK to the busy port Island of Labuan for a short stop before catching the next boat (with no AC or outside airflow, yuck!) to Brunei. When we arrived in Brunei we found that there wasn't a money changer or ATM and we needed to catch the bus into town. A Swiss couple (who Geoff had previously met at Mt. Kinabalu) had already offered and paid for us. Later we found out that the bus took Ringhit and you can use Singapore dollars at par in most places. The first afternoon we spent the evening with the couple and took pictures of the beautiful mosque downtown. We got a peak inside after we put on black gowns; the girls got completely covered from head to toe. For ... read more

February 14th Okay! Wow! We woke with less than half an hour before check-in closed. It was straight up and off running first to check in and then through security. By the time we had fully woken up, we had taken off. The alarm had gone off but cleverly, I had placed it inside a pocket of my bag. It was quite a long flight before we landed in Brunei. For some reason we thought it would only be a couple of hours or so. Anyway, we landed and realised that we had absolutely ages before our next flight to Manila. Kindly though, the airline gave us a free tour of the city! The first time I have heard of such kindness by any airline. About ten of us hopped on a bus and headed right ... read more

Vstala sem kar zgodaj, pred Paulom, ker sem hitela v mesto: vceraj sem se namrec s tistim Kanadcanom zmenila za book exchange, ker sem ravno ze skoraj koncala svojo knjigo, on pa jih je imel tudi na zalogo ze prebranih in je rabil nove. Tako da sem bila ob sedmih ze na poti do glavne ceste, kjer sem morala ujagati bus do centra. Vmes sem malo probavala stopati, ker so mimo vecinoma vozili starsi, ki so otroke skipali v soli, sedaj pa so se peljali na delo v center, a brez uspeha. Vcasih se mi je kdo se nasmehnil izza armature, ampak dalje so peljali vsi in tako sem po 20 minutah pripesacila do glavne ceste. Tudi tam so mi kdaj pa kdaj ustavili (ne da bi iztegnila palec), ampak so vsi hoteli od tri do ... read more

Sla sva na zajtrk kar cez cesto k mamak, in sicer na roti telur bawong (roti breadwith onion and egg) in roti boom (roti bread with butter, sugar and coconut spread). ni treba poudarjati, da je bilo oboje, ceprav povsem na razlicnih polih okusov, bajno. Zatem sva sla s ena morning market (ker imam pac rada standard), ker je bila ravno nedelja, ko je najvec guzve. Kupila sem hladno sojino mleko in vrecko kuhane cicerike, ki jo prodajajo kar tako kot kokice. I like! Oboje je bilo po 1,20ringgitov, kar je recimo da enih 30 centov USD. Ni slabo. V primerjavi s Tajsko je celo ceneje in bolj dostopno, ampak rec je pac z marketa, kjer je ponavadi vse ceneje kot pa v stacuni. Sla sva nazaj domov, ker me je pac cakalo pakiranje. Pri tem ... read more