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Published: March 27th 2007
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Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque
I loved this Mosque, it was beautiful We managed to get about an hours sleep at the airport, I got a bit more on the plane after we had taken off & then Claire woke me up for breakfast. When we got to Brunei we got our bags checked at the airport & questioned if we had alcohol with us. Although alcohol isn’t illegal here for non Muslim people you are only allowed to bring in a certain amount for personal consumption & have to declare it at customs.
We arranged transport to the hotel we had booked & checked in about 1pm. We had air con in the room & as it was so hot outside & we were so tired we watched TV, had a shower, had a sleep & eventually ventured as far as the supermarket across the road to get something to eat.
Claire & I made the most of it being just the two of us again after so long & had a girly night in watching films & pampering ourselves with face masks & manicures. We had such a good night’s sleep on Sunday & eventually got up at 9am to have breakfast before exploring Bandar Seri Begawan.
After breakfast we had arranged for the hotels shuttle service to take us into the city, expecting it to be a minibus or something we were shocked when a man in a white shirt, trousers & bow tie ushered us out to a brand new air conditioned car & chauffeured us into town. We arranged for him to collect us at 4.30pm in the same place.
First we went to the Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque, as you can see from the photos it was a really beautiful mosque, surrounded by its own lagoon & a stone boat, it is supposed to symbolise the wealth of Brunei, which I can assure you it does.
From there we walked along the river & past Kampong Ayer, the villages of stilts. As it was such a hot day we had to escape the heat & get lots of cold drinks from the nearest shopping mall. As Brunei is mainly Islamic, the man we had sat next to on the plane had told us we would be better accepted socially if we wore head scarfs. I didn’t mind covering my legs & shoulders but I didn’t feel comfortable wearing something on
my head, besides I think I would have passed out from the heat & didn’t feel I was being disrespectful if I didn’t cover my face or hair.
After a refuel of lots if water we found the bus station to find out the best way to get out of Brunei & into the Malaysian part of Borneo, (Sabah & Sarawak). From there we walked to the Arts & Handicrafts Centre where I purchased a hand woven purse & wooden spinning top with Brunei written on the top in Arabic. (Claire & I have a rule that we have to buy a souvenir from each country we visit so this was Brunei’s).
From here we walked back to the shopping mall to stock up on more cold drinks & got a long boat down the river to the Sultan's Palace, (Istana Nurul Iman). The driver first took us around the back of the palace to a pier where a police said we could not go in. The driver took the boat around to the side of the palace & said he would come back for us in an hour. Claire & I walked in the direction of the
Kampong Ayer
The villages on stilts on Sungai Brunei palace & passed a sign that said 'Private Property - Trespassers will be shot by order of the Sultan.' The man had only dropped us off somewhere we weren't supposed to be & could have been shot. We walked past another guarded entrance & asked if we were allowed in, the police said no & to walk around to the front of the palace, I was melting at this point but wanted a good photo so we continued. We eventually got to the guarded front entrance where more police said we couldn't go in & that we could only take a photo from here - gutted!
We took as many photos as we could & then headed back to where the boat was coming to collect us, hoping that we wouldn't get shot in the process. The man came to collect us & wouldn't take us back to where we wanted to, (we thought he was trying to get more money out of us), so we told him to drop us off on the villages on stilts & we walked back through them. It worked out well as we got to take some great photos anyway.
We got
collected at 4.30pm by our chauffer & headed back to the hotel, stopping at the supermarket to get some cold drinks & food for tomorrow's journey. We spent the evening watching films & on the internet. Unfortunately Claire's bed had bed bugs, (we think), she was covered in little bites & that was the only logical explanation as there were no mosquitos in the room & I had no bites. Ironic considering it is the most we have paid for accommodation since Japan & there were bed bugs!
BSB was very quiet for a capital city, there were hardly any people & it was a bit like China again, being starred at, especially this morning on the boat, Claire started waving at one man who had been sat starring at us for about 20 minutes & said hello, most people would turn away embarrassed at that point but no this man continued to gawp at us, like he had never seen anything like us.
I was quite happy to leave Brunei as there wasn't really a lot to see or do apart from what we had already seen, so we headed back to Malaysia, cheaper & more cheerful!
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Andy
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I wish you'd hurry up and do your next blog - my dad wants a picture of a monkey! xx ;)