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Bandar Seri Begawan - Borneo - Brunei
May 3rd - 5th, 2016
Entering Brunei via bus gave us a chance to watch as the environment slowly changed from how it is in Malaysian Borneo, the main differences were the standards of the roads and buildings, though there were still many long houses to be seen. The fauna looked to be very similar, if a little more well kempt from a road view but the biggest change was the cars, no broken down, beaten up old Protons here, much newer and seemingly in vastly better condition, you could tell you had entered a place with more money to splash around.
Our full day in Brunei began with a 20 minute walk from our hotel to see the Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque via an interesting shortcut that took us through a part of the floating village, along a rickety wooden walkway and then up over the Sungai river itself to come out right beside the Mosque's fence. A clean, crisp white building with glorious golden minarets shining in the morning sun and a wide artificial moat encircling it, this was the largest Mosque in Brunei when it was built in 1958, taking 11 years . We decided to have a look inside and were very glad that we did, not only was it deliciously cool inside after the heat, but we found a very helpful chap who told us all about the building, the Italian marble it is made from, where different people go to pray and what each part of the Mosque is used for.
Leaving the serenity of the Mosque behind and armed with directions from our new friend, we slowly (it was very humid by this time) made our way across the city some 2km to see the newer, larger Jame-Asr Hassanil Bolkiah Mosque. Unfortunately we were a few minutes late to go inside, but I suspect the exterior is the most spectacular aspect if its anything like the previous one. Blue tiles, white marble, winding staircases and lots and lots of gold barely sums up this stunning building. A main central dome connected to 4 towers on the corners and surrounded by beautiful gardens with mosaic walkways, a tree lined avenue complete with gushing fountain and a car park the size of your average football field...this was built to impress! We eventually tore ourselves away and trudged back through the, by now, scorching sun for a siesta, it being far too hot to be outside.
Once the worst of the heat had passed and we felt we could bear to be outdoors, we took a stroll to the Waterfront from which you can see Kampong Ayer, the largest Stilt village in the world, home to some 30,000 people, it has its own primary and secondary schools, a fire and police station and even its own Mosque....all also built on stilts out above the water. Admiring this from afar is one thing but we had decided to take a boat tour to get up close, so after minimum of haggling and checking the price and times were what we wanted we jumped into a boat with a sunroof and set off.
Our driver/guide dropped off a fellow passenger at one of the terminals in Kampong Ayer before whizzing us up river to see various of the city's iconic buildings from the water. He took a little while to warm up to us but once he saw we were interested in wildlife, started pointing out all sorts of things, crocodiles on the mudflats by the stilt houses we walked past earlier, monkeys raiding the rubbish and locals fishing from little boats.
We were able to see the Astana, or residential palace, home to the Sultan of Brunei on our journey, this building is the height of excess, sporting some 1700 rooms, apt for one of the richest men in the world, even if it does look more like an airport than a palace! After this we sped up and spent a pleasant 15 minute jetting along the river towards the mangroves where we had our fingers crossed for a sighting of Proboscis Monkeys.
After some time gliding along, scouring the trees for movement we finally saw some life, a family of Macaques chattering away and some stunning white wading birds, silently fishing in the shallows. Then a rustle in the leaves caught our attention and we were really lucky to see a pair of Proboscis monkeys floundering from one tree to another...they don't look like the most graceful of creatures. We watched them for a while before continuing deeper into the mangroves, but that was our luck used up, apart from a few birds we didn't see anything more until we started heading back to the city, I had just been asking about the crocodiles in the river and what size they got to, when he spotted a huge 3m specimen on the far shore! That really was the end of our luck with wildlife, but we enjoyed the cool breeze and the views as we zipped back along the river towards Kampong Ayer. A quick tour of the water village, pointing out the main sights as well as a new suspension bridge that is being built and will become a new road link, and our tour was done. My misgivings that we may have paid a lot for a short trip were unfounded as we were out for about an hour and a quarter rather than the half hour the tout had offered.
Well pleased with ourselves and with dusk approaching, we took a wander along the waterfront, went to see a tiny Chinese Temple and checked out the sunset behind the Mosque before finding some dinner. Heading back to the hotel we sussed out where the Royal Regalia Museum was ready for the morning and got an early night.
Our last morning in Brunei before leaving Borneo altogether for the Philippines and we wanted nothing too taxing so headed to the museum we had looked at the previous day. This large dome shaped building tells the life story of the current Sultan of Brunei, from early childhood, through his time at Sandhurst and onto his life as one of the richest people in the world and ruler of a recently independent, oil rich country. It was fairly interesting, there was a large display of various gifts the Sultan had received for his coronation and in fact the whole central section of the building was claimed by a mock up of his Coronation Procession and was very impressive indeed. His vast chariot that was pushed and pulled along by his soldiers as well as all the royal regalia, uniforms, banners and other accoutrements were arranged as if it were the day itself....Andrew liked the swords!
After we'd seen all there was to be seen we headed back tp our hotel to pick up our bags and get the shuttle to the airport, which is in fact smaller than the Sultan's house!
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