Brunei Day 1 – 2: At and Around Bandar Seri Begawan

Day 1 – Sunday, 10th January 2010

And so it begins—it was my first time flying off from KLIA after taking off from LCCT thanks to my constant AirAsia flights (which is really the only airline I’ve ever sat in thanks to their extremely low prices, but this time around, Royal Brunei Airline’s prices were slightly cheaper than AirAsia’s), and everything was remarkably different, from the fact that we’ve to use an aero-tram to transfer to a different terminal to the more stringent security.

And the airline that broke my non-budget airline cherry happens to be the Royal Brunei Airlines. Amusing fact #1: Before the airplane takes off, an announcement broke the air of discordance: “Ladies and gentlemen, before we take off, we’d like to bless the flight” followed by the Muslim prayers.

Free in-flight food. ^_^ Although the portion was rather miniscule.

When we finally flew over Bruneian airspace, I could see a vast stretch of tropical rainforest lying beneath me.

The airport was not very impressive—it reminds me of when Malaysia’s LCCT first began its operations (it was as bare, clinical, and charmless as a hospital), except that the Bruneian airport is very much smaller. As I walked out from the airport, I immediately did a quick scan of the waiting people and spotted Desmond almost immediately, who began to quickly take me to the nearby parking lot, where I stuffed my bags into his car and got in.

So amusing I had to snap a picture, which reflects perfectly the fact that it’s a conservative Islamic country. Fun fact #2: Brunei is a dry country, in the sense that alcohol is banned throughout the country, with the exception of non-Muslim foreigners who are allowed to import a small amount of alcohol into the country for personal consumption.

My graciously generous host, Desmond.

The restaurant I was taken to for dinner by Desmond’s dad.

Rice with several dishes—absolutely Chinese alright. Desmond’s dad treated me to this too.

McDonald’s in Jawi, but you prolly can’t see it clearly in this pic. Further interesting facts about Brunei from what both Desmond and Desmond’s dad told me: Shell is the only petrol company there as apparently both the Sultan and Shell has some sorta pact, no buildings are allowed to be taller than the mosque within a 10km radius (apparently a hotel had to shelve down a few floors as a result of this), Brunei is also reportedly to be very safe that you don’t really have to lock your house gate, you can hardly see any motorcycles around or people walking around—nearly everyone has a car and drives, and the middle-income families would at least have two cars each because of how dirt cheap the cars and petrol are.

I was also brought to Bandar Seri Begawan (or the “bandar” as they called it, which was pretty close by from where we were) and it was rather.. dead. <_ <

The room I slept in during my entire stay in Brunei. It was actually Desmond’s room, but apparently since returning to Brunei he has been sleeping in the same room as his dad or something. It was then that I tried out playing Dragon Age: Origins that I’ve installed in my laptop for a month or so now, after hearing that Des has started playing it on his own laptop. Pretty awesome to be playing it in the same room together, even though it was really a single-player game. He was a little frustrated when I spent a considerable amount of time customising my Mage, lol.

Day 2 – Monday, 11th January 2010

After getting up and ready, we left the house at about 9.30am to head over to Desmond’s friend’s house to pick her up. The picture above depicts the road in front of her house.

Pei Yi and Desmond in a mamak-like restaurant.

We had roti canai and mi goreng for breakfast. I’d even say that the roti canai was absolutely top-notch—crunchy, and even better than that of the roti canai in Melur USJ17.

At a bubble tea shop enthusiastically recommended by Pei Yi—it was situated just opposite the restaurant we were just in. She also insisted on buying a milk-free drink, and I reluctantly accepted her offer—felt a little bad having everyone else treating this foreign guest too well. <_ <

I lol’d at this notice—I suppose this shouldn’t be a big surprise for a conservative Muslim country.. or in a PAS-controlled state like Kelantan.

My mango+jelly bubble tea drink which was positively delicious and refreshing.

At the Omar Ali Saifuddin Mosque, one of the more prominent landmarks in Brunei.

Me and Desmond.

So we actually get to go into the mosque to look around (my first time ever), and the one thought that struck me was how serenely quiet it was. I lol’d further when Pei Yi was made to wear a black gown to drape over herself despite dressing “appropriately” for the occasion, and we were only allowed to walk on the red carpet that was laid out specially for us (the visitors) as well as expressly forbidden from venturing out from the carpet and stepping onto the marble floor. Not too sure what the significance of this is though.

Said black gowns which both Desmond and I also wore for this photo opportunity.

The boat thing which was also a prominent landmark for the mosque. If memory serves me right, one of the local guys told us that it was built for when the Sultan held a Qur’an-reading competition or something.

Slippers strewn about.

A unique structure.

A HDR photo of the mosque.

The bridge leading to the boat.

The field where the National Day is usually celebrated at. Both Pei Yi and Desmond have stories of how they were forced into performing for the Sultan (as do their other classmates), lol. Desmond was selected thrice in his entire school years.

At a large platform where a mall is.

We proceeded to walk to Kampung Ayer.

Can’t say it looks any different than it is in Malaysia.

On wooden stilts.

A school ‘floating’ atop the river.

A closer look of the school.

Wooden bridge stretching across the river with a couple of fishermen at the end of it.

Said fishermen.

The wooden bridge arches into some bushes.

I thought this was pretty cool—a shot of what’s above and under the bridge, and this particular shot was only made possible by the fact that there are some wooden planks missing on the bridge.

I’m pretty sure we were waltzing into some local settlements at this point.

One of the many speedboats around looking for tourists to earn their living.

Me overlooking the bridge with the mosque at the distant horizon (yeah we walked all the way from there wtf).

A little girl walking back from school saying goodbye to her friend.

I walked closer to the little girl and smiled at her, and she shyly returned the smile. I raised my camera, and asked in Malay, “Boleh saya tangkap gambar?” and she nodded quietly. Only had one chance so I took a good look through my viewfinder and took one quick snap when she ventured out and posed for me. I can safely say that it’s my first ever real street photography, and with a little crop, it doesn’t look half bad.

More shots of this floating village.

A shot snapped after climbing up a steep series of stairs.

A French dude came up to Pei Yi and asked if she could snap a picture of him, and she did, and after which he engaged a conversation with her with the usual small talk of asking where the other is from, etc. And then he snapped this for us with the mosque we were in previously in the background.

We then got into the car and used my GPS to navigate to the Brunei Museum. As no pictures were allowed, I didn’t snap any, but suffice to say there wasn’t anything special in particular—just displays of reptiles and insects and plants that could be found in Brunei, and some other cultural artifacts, replete with some mannequins wearing some local attire acting out scenes of a local wedding, among other things.

Exiting the museum.

Another look at the museum.

Went to eat some claypot seafood noodles as our late lunch at about 2.40pm.

We then went to the Royal Regalia Museum and spent some mind-boggling amount of hours inside. No shoes are allowed, so we walked around barefoot on the cold marble doors.. and most of our time were spent ogling at what gifts other diplomatic countries have sent to Brunei. Some were downright cheapskate and hilarious (from countries like New Zealand, iirc), and there were no end of gifts that the “masyarakat Tiong Hwa” (Chinese community) of Brunei sent to the Sultan.

At the ground floor of the museum where photos were allowed.

Cannons and.. stuff.

I’m not exactly a museum person.

For the sake of saying I’ve been there.

At the Empire Hotel, supposedly a 5-star extravaganza.

Breathtaking architecture.

I particularly like the tall windows that look out towards the lawn and the blue sky.

At another angle.

At the garden.

A large swimming pool that’s near a man-made beach.

Said man-made beach.

A coconut tree wtf.

Me by the coconut tree.

The Empire reflecting against the water.

Riding on a beached dolphin wtf.

Resting by the waters on a reclining chair.

Me and Pei Yi resting.

At the restaurant Charcoal which Desmond took me to that night, after we went back home to shower after a long day out.

The atmosphere sorta reminds me of Chilli’s back in Malaysia.

Charcoal.

We were awaiting another of Desmond’s friend, David (iirc..).

My BBQ Honey Chicken—”1/2 chicken marinated in honey and caramelized, served with chef’s honey sauce.” for B$17.30, which, again, Desmond treated me to it wtf. Or rather, apparently his dad insisted to pay for all of my meals and “he’d kill me if I don’t do what he said” lol.

Pei Yi with her girl-friends.

After dinner I was then took to the largest pirated DVD shop in Brunei wtf.

They sell pirated movies and music CDs too, and they didn’t even bother to print the cover on the disc at all wtf.

Apparently despite Brunei being a dry country, there’s a few underground clubs around too if we know where to look or know the right people. But I wasn’t too interested in doing any of that there.

After that we finally went back home, played Dragon Age for a while and surfed the Internet with Desmond’s mobile broadband before sleeping.