Blogs from Brunei, Asia - page 9

DAY 11 Wow! My muscles have never felt like this before! Every part of my body aches, but my thighs and calf muscles are screaming and neither Stuart or I can walk very well. We look like a couple of old people. Oh hang on! We are a couple of old people! Today we are leaving Kota Kinabalu and Malaysia to go to Brunei. So we have a nice breakfast of left over cornflakes and do our best to walk with our backpacks along the seafront to the bus station. I am sure that the walk will help to loosen everything up. It seems like a very long walk to the bus station, but is probably only a mile and it is very hot this morning. So when we finally arrive we are suitably sweaty. We ... read more

It deals in dollars, the majority of it's population speak English and it has one of the wealthiest rulers on earth. Yet not much is known about the Kingdom of Brunei, sandwiched between the states of Sarawak and Sabah in Malaysian Borneo. Perhaps this is because it is now one of the smallest countries on the planet despite it's empire having formerly included all of Borneo and Southwest Philippines. The country is blessed with some of the biggest oil fields in the world and subsequently has been able to spare most of it's above ground resources. Brunei has some of the most intact primary rainforest, a rarity in Malaysia these days. The Sultan reigns supreme here, holding three key cabinet positions: prime minister, defence minister and finance minister. However, the people of Brunei also benefit from ... read more

This is the last blog entry for our 2010 winter adventure. We are actually at home now, (and were at home for the last entry-sorry to confuse you!)but I wanted to share the last few pictures with you. Our next stop on the cruise was Brunei. This country is ruled by the Sultan of Brunei, who was at one time, the richest man in the world. Rather than take the expensive ships tour, we decided to do our own thing yet again. After a short although VERY HOT walk from the ship, we found a local bus stop. For $1.00 each, we were able to catch the local bus into the city. The taxi ride we had priced out at $25.00- so already we were feeling pretty good! Once in the city centre, we did spend ... read more

From the wharf at Bangar I took the 9:30 am boat to BSB(Bandar Seri Begawan) I was in Seri Bengar, a small fast boat, there was another one leaving a bigger boat, at the counter there were 2 windows I just went where no one was queueing up so I ended up in the small one. Not so bad though, the ride was smooth and past some really nice mangrove scenery, the water of the river is murky brown and the banks are lined with palms and mangrove trees. I think getting close to BSB we ended up in the open sea but the water is still brown, we dropped off a few soldiers on one town before arriving to town, we passed a few villages on stilts, a bit more modern than the ones in ... read more

“What nationality are you, sir?” I was asked by a smiling middle-aged lady, well before I could reach Immigration counters after landing at the Brunei Airport. Being a dual national it took me a few moments to blurt out the right nationality matching my passport. I told her that I need a visa on arrival. It turned out she was an immigration supervisor. She took me to an immigration counter to the side as instructed the officer manning it to assist me. She dropped in twice during the whole three minutes that it took in visa issuance to apologize for the held-up and murmuring something the effect that transport is waiting for me in front. The penny dropped once I was out of the arrival hall. There was signage welcoming guests attending some ATF Conference ... read more