My trip to Brunei is a short trip. The flight takes around an hour. My sister and I fly Air Asia .
Upon reaching the airport, our host, the same one as in Myanmar, meet us in the airport. We then go to her home to settle a bit and we leave to go to town.
As Brunei is in the tropics, and so is Malaysia, we have many things in common, like rain forest, similar wild animals and the weather. So our visit this time is just to check out the place .
Our first destination is Bandar Ayer, or river village. We reach town and the first thing is to get a water taxi, which is a boat. We haggle a bit with the price but we are not able get the price down. After sorting our the fare, we go down to the steps and board a boat. The boat takes us around the area. It is actually a village on water. There are houses, school, petrol station, shops, clinic, etc.., all built on stilts.
We are taken all round the village. We can even see the Istana (palace) from the boat.
After the boat ride we walk to the surrounding areas. We pass by the government buildings and some sort of a bazaar. However there are not many people. We then browse around the shopping complex. The shopping complex is big. There are not that many customers, perhaps it is a weekday. We then decide to have lunch. There are many food stalls and restaurants and one can find Mary brown Fried Chicken, which is a Malaysian Franchise, and food stalls that are similar to Malaysia and Singapore. After looking at all the eateries we decide to have Chinese Dim Sum ( Hmm.. looks like we are having Dim Sum wherever we go!!). The food is ok.
We pay in Singapore Dollars. The official currency is Brunei Dollars but Singapore Dollars is just as accepted. In fact the Brunei Dollars is sort of ‘peg’ to Singapore Dollars. It is the same rate as Singapore Dollars.
After lunch we walk around the shopping complex as I need to get some face masks since I am down with a very serious cough and generally feeling unwell. In fact I was already coughing on the plane coming to Brunei. So I thought it would be a good idea to be seen to be a bit more hygienic. In fact, I remember a friend who migrated to Japan, told me that Japanese wear face masks in public places when they have a cold or cough. I am not sure if wearing face mask helps. But never mind, I try to do my bit here!!
We then walk to the Mosque and the riverside. Then we visit the museum. There are a lot to see in the museum.
On the way home, we pass by the old Palace where the present sultan was born. It is a small palace compared to the one he lives in now.
In the evening we have dinner in a Thai Restaurant. The food is good and we particularly like the stuffed marrow. It is marrow stuffed with a mixture of chicken and prawns and steamed. It has a thick gravy.
After dinner, we decide to go to Jerudong park, which is a massive entertainment park built by the Sultan for his subjects. Jerudong park is the largest and most expensive entertainment park in South-east Asia and cost $I billion. I remember years ago when we had a business in Brunei, Micheal Jackson performed there. So did Whitney Houston and Janet Jackson. It was very popular and many people visited it ( except me, of course, as I was ‘too busy’). But now the number visitors have gone down.
The park is closed this evening. Upon checking the park is now only open on Thursday evening onwards until the weekend. So it’s not good timing for us as we will be leaving by then.
We then have a ride around the area.
The next day, we visit the Empire Hotel. This is THE hotel that one should visit as it is built by the Sultan. Most of the clients are the government departments.
The hotel is large and beautiful with very high ceiling. The scenery is to die for. However, there are not many people around. We take a tour of the inside of the hotel as well as the outside. It is situated by the sea so the scenery is picture perfect!
We then walk back to the house. We have lunch and later in the afternoon we leave for the airport and fly home.
Well, that is Brunei. At least I have been there!!
My next trip is Aussie Land!!
I hope you like my trip and the photos too!!
Until the next post, have a happy day. Please like and share!!
Penang Lassie.
