Brunei Wealth

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An early start saw us at the ferry terminal to buy tickets for our trip to the island of Labuan, which is 8 kilometres off the coast of KK and as it sits at the mouth of Brunei Bay is the route most people take to get to Brunei. It takes 3 hours to reach Labuan and I hated the whole trip. Boats and I don't gel and as my stomach was already queasy I spent the whole trip with my eyes glued to the horizon. It was on Labuan that the Japanese forces in Borneo surrendered at the end of the war and were their officers responsible for the Sandakan Death Marches were tried. I stayed with the luggage whilst Jerry caught a taxi to visit the Commonwealth War Cemetry where 4000 Commonwealth servicemen were buried. A couple of hours later we were back on another boat for the last stage of our trip to Brunei. That trip was worse than the first as we were last on and got the seats at the back next to the engine and the diesel fumes! It was a long hour to shore.

After clearing immigration and paying $20 each for our visas we caught a bus into Bandar Seri Begawan, the capital city of Brunei. You could certainly notice that Brunei is a wealthy country - the Sultan was the richest man in the world at one stage. We passed some amazing buildings and lots of big houses. At that stage we hadn't seen any of the Kampung Ayer - a collection of 28 villages built on stilts over and along the banks of the Brunei River. These villages house 30,000 people. We didn't expect Bandar to be so tiny and still can't believe how quiet the streets are even though we've been here 2 days. It's centre is literally only about 5 blocks square. Absolutely incredible architecture and very clean. The streets are covered in strings of lights but for some reason none have been on in the evening which is a pity as it would be the icing on the cake.

We checked out a couple of hotels - the youth hostel at $10 a night each was full (separate male/female dorms) as they are a conservative Muslim country and there was a pretty nasty place up 5 flights of stairs for $40 night, shared bathroom which wasn't appealing. So we ended up in a hotel which had promotion on at $100 a night (very comfortable but I'm sure not as plush as the Empire - a 6* hotel we'll check out tomorrow) The Empire Hotel cost US$1.1 billion to build and was one of the first 6* hotels in the world. Anyway re our room we didn't really have a lot of choice as Brunei does not cater for budget travelers. The smelly boat was mainly for locals to use to get to Labuan to buy their duty free alcohol - you can't buy alcohol here easily. All the rich tourists do the sensible thing and fly in.

I wasn't capable for anything other then a headache tablet by the time we arrived so after a short walk around headed to bed. After a decent breakfast we walked to the Royal Regalia Museum and admired all the stunning, if for the most part totally useless, presents that the Monarch has received over the years. Gifts from Australia were noticeably absent so they obviously didn't mark the grade though there was a rather interesting dish from NZ - and a lot of gold from elsewhere. There was a very interesting display of his coronation clothes, thrones etc. The worst part was walking around bare foot - my sore feet don't agree with that.

After an interesting lunch (does that look like egg in the photo?) in a shopping centre - again only for the zircon - we caught a bus to the museum to gape once again at some amazing Islamic artifacts. I absolutely love the jewellery and embossed Korans. The collection of prayer rugs was also pretty amazing - some very delicately woven and others heavily embroidered with gold thread. Unfortunately you weren't allowed to take photos. I'm really enjoying the Islamic displays - the prayer rugs at this one were really detailed. Later that evening we sat by the riverbank and were entertained by all the little motor driven boats roaring across the river to the water villages on the other side. There are no bridges so all the locals use these boats for transport. The night sky erupted into some amazing lightning before we went back to our hotel. We are amazed at how quiet Brunei is - the people are very friendly and the cars actually stop at the zebra crossings! It has to be one of the most peaceful capital cities in the world. The large mosque looked stunning in the evening as it was all lit up, with the minarets highlighted in a vivid shade of lime green.

The next day dawned and it was a great one. We hired one of the water taxis for a tour of the water villages. They consist of hundreds of wooden houses on stilts all joined together with plank walkways. There are schools, fire stations and ambulances there. The odd restaurant but no shops so everybody has to go across the river to buy food, which as Helma (our boat driver/owner) said that is very good good for his business. We loved the trip as we sped between all the houses and ducked under the plank walkways - and it was cool with the wind blowing. A great way to travel and a lovely friendly driver as well. He called his boat 'Chelsea' after the English soccer team. He took us upriver in search of the proboscis monkeys and we were lucky enough to see them (one up close) amongst the mangroves. We were very sorry when the trip was over.

Later that day we caught a local bus out to the Empire Hotel - a 1.1 billion dollar building owned by the sultan. We had afternoon tea there with full silver service in the immense lobby surrounded by 5 story high gold and white pillars. The only problem we had was we didn't realize that we were supposed to get the door boys to phone the local bus company to come back and pick us up. As it was on the bus route we presumed it would just turn up - it had dropped off right at the front door previously. Eventually we got back to our hotel, which now seemed a little smaller, and there were certainly worse places to wait around in. like the various bus stations we spent time in next day! The final place we visited in Brunei was the mosque - it only opens to non Muslims at certain times. We joined the rest of the tourists, dressed in our robes (Jerry included) for our viewing. We weren't allowed to step off the special carpet that had been laid for us or to take photos. Mosques are full of space inside and the domes are intricately decorated. The floors are usually always carpeted in segment squares and tis mosque had crystal chandeliers, many stained glass windows and an escalator which was for the exclusive use of the Sultan. He used it every Friday when he went up to his separate prayer area upstairs.The sultan is very highly thought of even though he certainly shows his wealth very flamboyantly .Helma very proudly told us that every year he goes to the Sultan's palace to eat a meal and shake the Sultan's hand. He has a 3 day day 'open palace' every year at the end of Ramadan.

We enjoyed our time in Brunei but next day headed back into Malaysia via a very rickety and extremely noisy bus to Seria, close to the border of Sarawak. Upon arriving in Seria we found that our next bus didn't depart for nearly 3 hours. There was nothing to do there so spent the time reading at the bus terminal. Seria was full of oil wells and had a big expat population who no doubt have a very good lifestyle. The cafes were full of westerners, mainly British with their families of small children. The Dvd stores had the best range I had yet seen, including boxed sets of all the Aussie TV shows. We filled in immigration papers at the bus stop before boarding a bus to the local river where we crossed on a miniature ferry to another waiting bus which took half an hour to the border were we went through immigration on both sides including temperature checks. It was very busy at the crossing as a lot of people from Brunei were heading to Miri for the jazz festival and alcohol on sale in Sarawak. Brunei is a very dry country.

Upon arrival in Miri we had trouble - yet again - with the guide book. A lot of the riverfront was undergoing reconstruction so looked quite different to our map. Eventually found a cheap Chinese run hotel - there always the cheapest and cleanest - and got a great room with cable TV for 63 RM night. Though Miri is a resort town it didn't impress us very much - though we were there for the Jazz Festival which was a fabulous. It was held at one of the beach hotels which was a beautiful venue. The festival seemed to be really well organised with lots of food stalls and 4 big double sided video screens set up which made it very easy to see what was happening on stage. We spent the next day in a cafe watching the rain - it was very heavy - and resting before heading to the airport for our flight to Kuching, the capital city of Sarawak. We had debated about heading to the Mulu National Park to see the large cave systems but decided not to. No real reason except probably the thought of mud, leeches and very high humidity. We've enjoyed Borneo but the heat and humidity here has really exhausted us - I think after all our years in Mackay we thought we wouldn't really feel it but it's very intense here. Presently we are in Kuching and will be for the next 9 days. It is a beautiful place, with a large historic area and the best waterfront we've seen anywhere for a long time. But when we arrived last night a 7pm there was barely anybody on the streets.

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Photos

Mind your head!
The many plank walkways in the village

Goodbye!
Our happy taxi driver with his next passenger

Butter Chicken
The strands are egg - I don't know how they get it that way

Comments

[anonymous]

brunei sure is a quiet peaceful country =)