Brunei Day 2-3: The mirror of the gods

Day 2 – Monday, 11th January 2010

#1 This was shot during my second night in Brunei, and I had somehow missed putting it up altogether despite already writing about my first and second night there—so here it goes, a brightly lit night shot of the Omar Ali Saifuddin Mosque.

#2 Desmond and I continued to drive around, and he seemed particularly keen on wanting to visit this particular mausoleum of a Sultan and wanted me to snap pictures of it, lol.

#3 Then we went to the largest mosque in Brunei that was conveniently situated fairly near to Desmond’s place, the Jame’Asr Hassanil Bolkiah Mosque.

Day 3 – Tuesday, 12th January 2010

#4 We awoke the next morning with Desmond bringing me to the city (forgot which, and if it can even be called that as it was really too quiet to deserve the label of a ‘city’) for breakfast.. which again, he treated me to it.

#5 Without his friend, Pei Yi, in tow as she was busy or sommat, we went to the Jame’Asr Hassanil Bolkiah Mosque which we saw from outside the perimeter of the mosque the night before.

Unfortunately pictures were expressly forbidden (as usual)—we had to stow away our handphones and camera in the locker and explore the mosque on our own, taking our sweet time indulging in the Islamic architecture. We followed a bunch of Singaporeans who looked like National Service trainees (Desmond told me that Singapore has a military camp or something in Brunei) into the prayer hall, and it was quaintly grand. As before we weren’t allowed to venture out from the carpeted area, and by eavesdropping on their tour guide, we learned that the Sultan would actually be there to um, dole out the sermons on Fridays or something.

#6 A part of the exterior of the mosque.

#7 Star-shaped fountain. We spotted an iguana or some species of lizard nearby but I couldn’t snap it on time. >_>

#8 Then Desmond drove all the way out to locate a beach to visit as I had previously requested to visit one the day before or so. So sleepy was I on the way there I could barely keep my eyes open as I chatted with Des while in the car.

#9 Atop some vandalised rocks that served as a barrier against the sea at Jerudong.

#10 Someone fishing in the lagoon, if I got that terminology right.

#11 More boats.

#12 And then Desmond decided to bring me to another beach…

#13 …which is surreptitiously hidden behind some clearing (at Kampong Jerudong). I thought this is a pretty cool pic of him with his dad’s car.

#14 And then we went to yet another beach—unfortunately, I know not the names of these places. This particular beach is located inside a forest reserve at Berakas, and it was pleasantly relaxing to sit by the beach and chat—about our lives in Melbourne and how we came upon it, about my recent Great Southern Touring Route road trip and my highest recommendation that he should go for it one day, about the choices we’ve made for our education, about Ethan.. pretty good bonding session, really.

We then picked up Pei Yi and headed towards the direction of Tasek Merimbun which was somewhere between 60-100 kilometres or so on narrow roads cutting through various villages. At one point our journey was strenuously slow as a huge truck in front of us slowly ambled by and with the narrow road, we couldn’t possibly overtake it.

#15 Got lost a little bit towards the end of our journey.

#16 And then we spotted it—this earthly, peaceful paradise with nary a ripple in the lake. So calm was the lake that it reflects the sky perfectly and made for good photo opportunities.

#17 A floating hut.

#18 Hello panorama. Click to enlarge.

#19 Pei Yi pointing towards something to Desmond.

#20 The requisite touristy picture of the photographer.

#21 Pei Yi took this of the me and Desmond.

#22 The reflecting qualities of the water.

#23 The bridge leading to an island with some graves and a couple of fishermen.

#24 At the island exploring an empty hut overlooking the waters.

#25 The mirror of the gods.

#26 The inside of said hut.

#27 Fishing—a picture of tranquil.

On the way back across the bridge to our car, a teenage girl appeared to collect some fees from us (she wasn’t there before we crossed), about B$2 per person if I’m not mistaken, which Pei Yi most generously paid for me.

#28 An extremely late lunch at a coffee shop-esque place in Tutong. By late, I mean 4.50pm.

#29 At a famous Japanese restaurant (whose name escapes me right now, even Ethan was talking about it when I told him that I was going to Brunei) that Pei Yi’s family was treating us too! Pretty sure the bill was ginormously expensive, and thus my guilt meter was ranked up even higher as I needn’t pay a single cent, and I haven’t even been spending much these days except for purchasing two fridge magnets for my mum after our breakfast that day.

Apparently Pei Yi’s eldest sister is currently studying at Dunedin, South Island (New Zealand), a town I had given a miss when I was there some months back. And Pei Yi’s dad was supposedly flying back to NZ that very night too.

#30 Insane variety of food on the table with the various sushi—we were pretty damn stuffed.

#31 Pei Yi’s family eventually left to go the airport, leaving Pei Yi with some wads of cash to pay the bill later while we finished off the food.

#32 It was raining fairly heavily and we eventually ended up at a mall at Bandar Seri Begawan. I wanted to get an “I Love Brunei” tee at the Giordano store there, but there wasn’t any for my size.

#33 Spent our time wandering around aimlessly in the mall. I was a little tired by then and felt like going back to Des’ place to recuperate, but my compadres wanted to show me around I couldn’t very well say no to that.

#34 We ended up at the arcade to pass the time—you can collect tickets to redeem for stuff from various machines, and we also played some Mario Kart game and a spot-the-difference game which is always fun playing with some friends.

#35 The basketball arcade machine.

#36 lmao@Pei Yi.

#37 The three of us with some of the tickets we won (and eventually passed to Pei Yi to be given to her friend since none of us collects them).

#38 Desmond with his friend.

After a while, amidst the rain we finally returned home and I played some Dragon Age before sleeping. It was a long day out, and more is to come the next day.