Brunei Darussalam

If you have no idea where and what Brunei Darussalam is, don’t worry- neither did I a few months ago. Brunei is the smallest country in Southeast Asia, with a population of only 398,000. It is situated in the west of Borneo between 2 of Malaysia’s areas: Sabah to the north and Sarawak in the south. It is a very rich country- due to oil.

From KK we took a 3.5 hour absolutely-freezing-please-turn-the-AC-off boat ride to Labuan (an island) then another boat to Muara- the sea port in Brunei. Whenever I have to go through immigration, I always get nervous- this time was no different. I did have a Brunei visa, but still I was a little apprehensive (especially since the officers looked pretty intimidating). The lady took my passport as I smiled oh-so-sweetly-please-let-me-through… She got up (I was like, dammit!) and went to this other office. She asked me if I had a receipt for the visa, I replied with a squeaky “no”. The guy stared intently at the big purple stamp in my passport and eventually said “it’s ok”. Phew! I was relieved!

From there we shared a taxi with a nice Australian/New Zealand couple. The taxi driver took us to our accommodation at the Pusat Belia in the country’s capital Bandar Seri Begawan. Do you remember your school days? When you went on school trips and you stayed in big dormitories, with signs saying “no drinking” “no chewing gum” “no gambling, “no smoking”…well, this is where we stayed- at a youth hostel. It was the cheapest accommodation in Brunei, and it was perfectly ok! I shared the dorm with 3 girls from Slovakia- so it was cool to just listen to them speak, see if I understand/remember anything.

Since we would only be in Brunei for 2 days, we dropped our bags and immediately left to go walking. Our first stop was the Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque. It was built in 1958, costing US$5 million. We had to take our shoes off and put these black Harry Potter cloaks on (I did search the pockets for any wands, but to no avail :-( )
Since it was a modern mosque, it had a modern feel- so rather starchy and, well, modern! There was even an escalator!

Next we visited the Kampung Ayer (Water village) area which was one of the most fascinating things about Brunei!
There are 28 villages in total, with about 20,000 people living there. This place is considered to be one of the biggest water villages in Asia. All of the houses are built up on these wooden planks/poles which support it (well, barely) and there is a main wooden boardwalk allowing you to get access to the village from the city.
We came across many children playing- making a kite or just running around (nice to see kids playing!). From the outside the houses look rundown, old, falling apart and inhabitable- but if you look inside (I only got a tiny peak) it’s a whole different world. I was told that inside the houses are really comfy and spacious.

The thing that got me the most was the utter complete contrast between this village and the city centre- situated less then 500m away.
Standing on the bridge in the water village looking towards the city- you can see this contrast: the huge, rich and shiny mosque stands tall with all its wealth and glory, then a couple of hundred metres away there is this village where people live in slums- a dirty, flea/mosquito infested place. But the people in the slums were always smiling, kids just being kids and having fun with limited toys and the old people just hanging out in doorways. So even though they don’t live in fancy, up market houses- doesn’t mean they are unhappy about life!.

Bandar Seri Begawan (BSB) is an interesting city from the get go. Since Brunei is predominately an Islamic country- the sale of alcohol is banned. (Non-muslims can bring in to alcohol from Malaysia/elsewhere). It’s funny how the moment you are denied something, the more you want it! So I craved an ice cold beer, but fat chance I was going to get it anywhere:-(. Since the price of gas is so cheap (about US 0.50 cents) everyone has a car, so the streets are strangely empty, quiet and hush-hush. Even the cars themselves seem to move silently, with no screeching or hooting. So together with the dark thunder clouds accumulating up ahead- gave the city an ominous sorta feeling. You are fined $1000 if you litter-so the streets are immaculate! I liked BSB, but I always had the feelings of being restricted, limited and controlled-rather like I was in some video game where if I stepped outta line- I would be eliminated!
I was careful to watch my step, to no accidently litter or just go against the “rules” for fear of being arrested (ok, that’s a bit too dramatic ;-)) And I did feel as if I was somewhere in the Middle East, and not in the middle of Borneo, in Southeast Asia!

That night we had supper with a fantastic view of the big sky filling up with dark clouds, as well as overlooking the river. I had a noddle soup- was great! Asian food is most definitely my favourite kinda food! :-)

The next day we visited the Brunei museum. I am not huge fan of museums, but this one kept my attention for a little bit longer than usual. Normally I enter a museum and the first thing I look out for is a bench… ;-) It had info about the traditions and history of Brunei, as well as some environmental and ecologically info.

Now, the funniest thing that we saw was the hundreds of middle aged white people! We were just chilling in the plaza with mango- sticky juice all over our faces, when all of a sudden I started to become aware of something strange and I asked myself “where on earth are all these white folks coming from?” They were everywhere! More whites then locals! Every few minutes a couple would come shuffling past us in their sensible shoes and white socks- usually the man would be dawdling behind with the wife striding up front. We guessed that they were all in some tour together, but it was such a funny sight! An Ozzie feast!

A thing about the dorms, of which I was a little insulted by! There was plastic on all of the mattresses in the girls’ dorm, but not in the guys. Which makes me think that maybe they think that women are "unclean"… Also on the bus- plastic on the seats…hmmm- not cool!