Take The Boat To Work In The Morning, It's Faster Than Swimming Across Brunei Bay!

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This morning we had a little bit of unfinished business in BSB to attend to; the Royal Regalia Museum and we wanted to do a tour of the Water Village (called Kampong Ayer in Malay).

We had to get this all done by 12 (even though we were going to leave for the airport at 2) because by the Sultan's decree, everything must close between 12 and 2 every Friday for the Muslims to go to the mosque and pray. Not everyone goes to the mosque, but everything, including coffee shops, restaurants, tourist attractions, banks- everything, must close. So other than walking around we would have nothing to do for those two hours. This is a practice that feels very foreign to us; a little bit of a culture shock. This very different routine is probably one of the biggest differences that we could see between our countries or societies. We didn't feel this difference when we went to Egypt because cities like Cairo, although mainly muslim, are also very cosmopolitan and there are people of different religions living there. I'm sure that their work schedules in these Muslim countries have time off on Fridays for prayer as well, but not absolutely everything is closed. It's also very neat and obviously a big part of their society, traditions and lifestyle, so it's very interesting to get an appreciation for their daily life in Brunei.

On Fridays during Ramadan, the museum is only open from 9-11. We wanted to go to the regalia museum because we figured that with all the money this country has, their regalia is probably pretty elaborate. You have to take your shoes off at the door to the museum and there are some slippers you can put on to walk around in. They had some nice carpets so maybe this is why. We also had to lock our bags up because they were afraid we'd take pictures. The museum is free, which is great for our wallets! The first few exhibits we saw were pretty elaborate. His thrown and royal swords and such were solid, shiny gold. Unfortunately the crowns weren't in there, but they had a picture so it did look like every elaborate gold. The museum also had a pretty elaborate display of his gold float that he is driven around the city in on his birthday each year. They put on a pretty big celebration each year for his birthday. It was actually only a few days ago, but because it falls during Ramadan this year, they postponed the festivities. You can't really have fasting Muslims outside in the heat and hot sun without having eaten or had anything to drink since 4am. The display also had mannequins of the solders in uniform all as it would appear during the parade. Even cardboard photographs of people lining the sides of float, or the streets. Everyone gets the day off to attend the parade and they're supposed to be waving the country's flag. The rest of the displays weren't necessarily that interesting. Aside from the coronation float, also made of gold, there were just halls and halls of very exorbitant presents given by other heads of state. We weren't so interested in that.

After this, we grabbed some coffees and headed out to the canal to find a boat to take us to the water village. Kampung Ayer is an area of Bandar Seri Bagawan but out in the water of Brunei Bay. 10% of the country's population lives in Kampung Ayer. All the buildings of these villages are on stilts, and the locals have to take water taxis around to get from one village area to another and to get to the centre. In the mornings taxis bring all the people to work in the city core. There are even huge schools that are on stilts out in the water! What a very different place!! The houses are really cute too, and big. Our water taxi driver said that a few families live in each of these buildings. So the taxi driver (for $15 Brunei dollars- approx $12 Canadian) took us out in the boat for about 30 minutes and just drove us around the bay looking closely at the villages. After the boat ride it was time for everything to close and we took the time to pack. We thought the trip back to KL was going to be easy, but read tomorrow's blog to find out about that experience....

On a side note, Elysia's eye (although still very blurry) is doing much better. We can finally see some whiteness in her eye again, and the pain has gone away. We suspect maybe the blurriness is a side effect from the drops she's been putting in, so we're trying to wean her off of the drops a bit.

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Photos

The Mosque from Outside the Fence
We weren't allowed in because it is Ramadan