Brunei, or officially known as Negara Brunei Darussalam, is located above Malaysia and (I bet many didn't know) is actually split into 2 parts. The country is a constitutional monarchy, governed by the Sultan, who is one of the richest man in the world, and is one of the oldest continuously reigning royal families in the world.
Brunei is lucky to be blessed with wealth from the abundance of oil and gas resources, which serves the people well in their general well-being. Free education from pre-school onwards, free healthcare services and affordable housing for all Bruneians!
This may be the reason why there is no need for Brunei to market herself as a tourism spot. What for when they don't need the capital or jobs that tourism would bring. Which is why it is a good place to visit once, because you really get to see and experience the sight, sounds and smells of the local's daily lives.
It happens that D was flying over for a work conference, so what better way to travel than to tag along for free accommodation! I flew alone on budget and not many budget airlines fly to Brunei and I only managed to find tickets from Air Asia, which requires me to do a transit at Kuala Lumpur. Otherwise normally it takes only 2 hours to fly from Singapore!
at Brunei airport
Touched down in the late afternoon and took a cab to the hotel. Since there are not many tourists and almost every citizen owns a car, the transport system in Brunei is quite limited! There are only 30-40 taxis in the whole of Brunei, no trains and the only cheap way of travelling around is by bus or foot. Or water taxis/boats if it requires you to cross the waters. But no worries, about a quarter of the cabs should be waiting at the airport. Taxis here don't run by meter as well, and the price is quite standard. A trip from the airport to the city area cost about $25.
We stayed at Hotel Ba'adiah, a relatively new hotel located close to the city. Then again, there are not many hotels. Can count with my hands I think. After putting down my baggage, I got some maps from the hotel staff and head my way out! First, to grab some food! Lucky for me, this hotel has a "shopping mall" with a supermarket just behind and a row of shops with restaurants just a stone throw away.
That's Ba'adiah Hotel in front, and First Emporium Shopping Complex behind. The prominent yellow and orange building is apparently an apartment building as well and it doesn't state 'First Emporium' as shown on the map, but I asked and confirmed it is. Anyway the only important thing is that it has a supermarket and opens till about 9pm.
And that's how their buses look like! With different lines in different colors.
taken from www.green-brunei.com
Besides the transport system, there are other important things to take note for travellers to Brunei:
- Singapore currency is accepted here except the $1 coin, I don't know why.
- Dress conservatively due to Islamic culture
- Yellow is the colour for royalties. So no wearing of yellow clothing!
- Mosques are closed on Thursdays and Fridays
- Every Friday, ALL shops/mosques/etc are closed from 12pm - 2pm (some closed from 11.30am - 2.30pm) for prayers or something. So just be prepared to have nothing to do between that period of time. No entry to anywhere, no food to eat). Some places are not opened for the whole of Friday as well, so do check opening timings of places before visiting on Fridays.
Managed to find a chinese "old school" restaurant that serves decent zi char food! (Red Leaf Restaurant, diagonally behind Ba'adiah and First Emporium Shopping Complex)
huge bowl of Crispy Noodles for B$5 and warm barley B$1.
Sometimes Bruneians refer to their currency as ringgit, but it's not Malaysian ringgit for sure. There is also a money exchange just next to Red Leaf too.
After asking around, I managed to find my way to the city via their bus. Now, it's always handy to have the bus route map and to study it carefully before heading out. Fortunately the hotel location is rather central and all the buses from the bus stop here goes to the city straight. Bus ride costs $1 per ride regardless of distance. I learnt that as much as our currency is acceptable there, they actually do not accept our $1 coins. Oh well, so I got my first bus ride free of charge. Took the bus alllll the way to the last stop in the city at the interchange. Got down and head out and I see the river to Kampong Ayer in front of me.
It was evening by then and I managed to catch the sunset and it was beautiful.
Then I took a stroll to one of their biggest shopping mall, Yayasan Complex, and shopped at Hua Ho Departmental Store, which is supposedly very popular among the locals too. Don't ever go to Brunei with even a teeny weeny bit of shopping mentality because you will be utterly disappointed. Yayasan was big, but honestly, the interior shops can fight with our City Plaza minus the cheap clothes. Besides The Body Shop, Guardian, Bata, Jollibee and KFC, nothing much that was familiar. Since Hua Ho was also mentioned in Lonely Planet, I thought it was worth a look. Oh well, it is just simply a Sheng Siong supermarket. Apparently you will be able to find local sweets and biscuits at Hua Ho, but none caught my eye.
Yayasan has a wide central walkway that separates it into 2 buildings. While I was out, I witnessed Brunei's famous mosque, Omar Ali Saifuddien, at night. It was definitely the centre of attraction, the white and gold exterior lit up in green with the reflections against the waters. Much more worthy of my time than at Yayasan. It was the time for prayers and chanting could be heard. I walked nearer to take a closer look and to snap some pictures before heading back.
I'm not sure if it was worth it, but there were no buses to head back to hotel by 7pm and I refused to call the hotel for transport back (they mentioned it will cost about 10 bucks for that short ride) so I decided to walk back with the map given.
The roads were rather dimly lit and there were still quite many cars on the road, but almost no one walking on the streets. Both maps that I had were not very detailed in that road names of small streets were not indicated and road signs in Brunei were usually only located at the start and end of each road, no matter how long or short the road is. So indeed, I overshot and was quite lost.
one of the dimly lit roads but at least with a hotel nearby, makes me feel safer. But D insisted that this is brightly lit already. Really?? Anyway it got darker later as I walked further but I was panicking to reach the hotel and can't be bothered to take any photos.
Felt damn sian and took a longer route back, passing by empty dark roads and trying to read a map under whatever light I can find. Finally after 45mins or even more, I managed to find the hotel. OMG.
Was perspiring like mad. More from the fear than the weather I believe. D will only reach Brunei at midnight and here no night life, I'm gonna rot waiting! Wandered around the whole Emporium Complex as if there are things to look at and then spent the rest of the hours at Delifrance cafe inside the hotel, reading a book, watching youtube videos and playing Candy Crush.
The hotel room looked clean generally BUT we found a roach crawling near the bed a few minutes after checking in and requested for a change of room. In the second room, I found a lizard on the second night and both D and I found an ant near the bed each. Eeks.
There! D preparing for his talk tomorrow with Stumps beside him. I need to bring him in order not to feel so lonely.
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