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1st Jan - 2nd Jan:Christchurch to Brunei
We left home at 3.00am New Year's day, thank you Pauline and Nigel for the lift to National Express!!!!!!!Woke up in time for breakfast at Heathrow before joining our Brunei Airways flight to New Zealand via Brunei.The seats were very spacious, and the service superb, the hostesses and stewards were polite, smiling, beautifully made up and had great figures!!!!!!A taxi shuttle took us from Brunei Airport a very short distance to our stopover hotel ...named The Times Square Hotel.
We joined another couple to take a 3hr taxi tour of the country.Quite an eye opener.The Sultan of Brunei ( who is chums with Prince Charles)began life in a small riverside residence, more like a cabin to us.He has made money through the oil and gas that his kingdom own and work.However it is how he has used that money since 1975 that is interesting.First he built the most amazing mosque (with gold domes) to thank the gods, and of course all his people are muslim, and follow the dress code.Then he built himself a fantastic palace completely walled and guarded with fabulous gardens, an abundance of land and many guarded gates.He appoints his ministers, including his prime minister and has built them all houses.All government workers are housed in 1970s type 4 storey apartments according to their Department, for example the firemen and families live in red roofed apartment blocks, the police in blue roofed blocks.These are rented from him for a subsidised weekly rent of 35 Brunei Dollars, about £10.00.Now comes the very funny part, he has an absolutely vast sports area called Gleneagles.There were at least 4 massive stadia with floodlighting for rugby, hockey, football, better than any English Premier Team.There were numerous Polo pitches with fantastic stadia, lighting, and that's nothing in comparison with the polo pony apartments!!!!There must have been 'apartments' for at least 100 of these.An interesting experience during our short stay.Transfer by taxi arrived on the dot for our onward departure to NZ
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