What is is that you are desperate for when arriving in the tropical heat of a new city after a three hour airport wait, a one hour flight and a four hour bus trip? Yes, you know us well and you guessed it, a cold beer or a nice glass of why why. Bandar Seri Begawan in Brunei was sadly, as expected, dry. Apart from the rain that is....
So no chance of a drink outside, we settle into the surprisingly good hotel restaurant and order fresh fruit juices. A few sips out to make room and then a subtle top up with our specially imported special water. It tasted good!
Next morning we wake to a searingly hot day for a walk around the capital of this small but rich Sultanate. The Sultan of Brunei is the richest person in the world and the loyal citizens here pay no tax, get high standard, free education and health care, petrol at 25p a litre, and the highest minimum wage in SE Asia. But we guess he's not that generous, they still have to work for a living whilst he rakes it in and buys hotels like the Dorchester..... No motorbikes here that you see everywhere else, they all drive flash cars, for which they get subsidies to buy. But everyone seems happy enough and loyal to the Sultan. But there the similarities to the oil rich states of the Middle East stop. BSB is small, very attractive and compact with a few modern buildings, a very impressive, very gilded, mosque (the highest building allowed), and the largest stilted town in the world with over 20,000 inhabitants. The city is very clean and well manicured with a few international banks and bad shopping. Although of course Ant did manage a few purchases in the sunglasses department....
We start our walk with the Tamu Kianggeh open market just across the river inlet by the hotel. Stalls selling all manner of fruit, veg and mystery meat. And pet stalls with birds, rabbits and rodent looking things.... Gill moves swiftly on.... Then back over into the city to head to the Royal Regalia Museum which was really good. As well as all sorts of info on the history of the Sultanate, there were all the gifts given to the Sultan on his accession, including a huge green vase thing from QE2. The Arab nations' gifts had a few more jewels encrusted on theirs..... And his first wife and third wife feature too. The second divorced one was nowhere to be seen...
The carriages he used for both his coronation and jubilee celebrations were there too, huge, gilded, spectacular and well displayed in the huge atrium with the plushest carpet we have ever seen, or indeed felt on our feet as no shoes allowed! Neither of us are museum sort of people, but this one was fascinating and well worth a visit.
Then onto the grand, very golden mosque (it was Friday so unfortunately we couldn't go in) via the Coffe Bean Cafe for coffee and cake. Then to the mall, very disappointing, and then to the river area. The mall, to Ant's great disappointment sported the latest from Alain Delon.... The water across to the stilted village was too rough for Gill, so Ant took a James Bond boat across and toured around looking at the impressive schools over there. We couldn't go into the Sultan's palace, it's only open a few days a year, but we could see bits of it in the distance. Looks a swanky place though, 1788 rooms, 257 bathrooms, its own mosque, but some uncharitable writer compared the architecture to that of Heathrow Terminal 5....
After lunch we got really desperate, roasting hot and not a why why in sight! So to take our mind off the lack of available alcohol we decide to visit the Brunei museum just out of town which had an oil and gas section. We thought it would be good to learn about the black gold that has made this country what it is today. We didn't learn much though, the oil and gas section was closed.....
But there was a benefit. For months, we have been trying to find how we travel overland from Brunei to Kota Kinabalu and it has been impossible. Whenever there was any info it was contradictory to say the least. We thought that there was an express bus which was what we were looking for as trying to do it by individual buses seemed like a three day trip with problems managing the eight border crossings required. But someone, somewhere stepped in to help. Normally, we would have grabbed a cab to the museum but decided to be our more adventurous selves and try a local bus. As we waited for a No 39, Danny, a local tour guide come wide boy approached. Turns out he is the agent of the bus we were looking for and told us all we needed to know, and that the stop is just ten metres from our hotel. Serendipity. And if anyone is trawling this blog for bus info across Borneo here is Danny's email: danny25174@yahoo.com
Back into town, really gagging now for a sundowner, we order yet more fruit juice, take a few sips, add the special water, you get the drift.......
For dinner, we decide to go to the Centrepoint Mall at Gadong and make our way to the bus station to catch a No 1. We get the last one and get off a couple of hundred metres away in a huge rainstorm. Again, big shopping disappointment, the mall is a cross between modern India and old Bangkok without a label to be seen. And foodwise, lots of fast food of the Kenny Rogers Fried Chicken Shack variety, so we plumb for Italian. They surprisingly sell Schweppe's tonic water which we discover goes exceptionally well with special water... I wonder if anyone has ever realised that..... Feeling nicely mellow, we grab a cab back to the hotel ready for the border marathon tomorrow.
We enjoyed Brunei, short visit that it was. As well as a new pin each, it was good to see an Asian country that was unlike any other and would recommend it. But one day without freely available cocktails was probably enough....
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