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So cheap hotels in Brunei.... well don't know what went wrong but Vik found a Hotel which had a deal on, it was called the Empire Hotel. The Empire is a famous hotel in Brunei, it's classed as a five star or six star depending where you look. So is it now becoming clear that this cheap search for hotels started to get led astray some what. The pictures got a hold of us and probably being so tired and sore still from out climbing triumph we started to convince our selves that perhaps it was time for a little luxury. The hotel certainly wasn't cheap in Ringgit (Malaysian money) but was really cheap for such a high star hotel in English pounds, but still NOT backpacker's budget!! - Come on carol get your money head back on!!
We had convinced our selves to come back down to reality when that night in the hostel Sarah started to chat with a lady from New Zealand who had been living in Brunei for years. She was full of good tips and recommendations and had many stories to tell. We then got onto the subject of accommodation and she pointed out that everywhere in Brunei is expensive, she gave us some names of a few hotels to try. She then said you must visit the Empire Hotel whilst you are there, even if it's to just take some pictures or even stretch to a coffee. She then gave us the history of the hotel which was all very interesting: The sultan of Brunei, as you might be aware is a very rich man (at one point the richest man in the world) his brother Prince Jefri was put in charge of the countries finances and it turned out he was a bit of a spender. He went on a spending spree, he spent US$16 BILLION of the countries money on complete extravagance such as helicopter flight simulators, a fabulous boat built with toilet roll holders made of pure gold, he brought private jets and expensive cars and then it seemed on top of all that he also had a gambling problem. Another of the extravagant things the prince had built was the Empire Hotel, with no expense spared - with the motto of the hotel being 'If it sparkles, it's real'.
After listening to this storey we were even more taken in by the charms of this hotel, we tried to convince ourselves that we would be staying in a part of history and it would be an opportunity missed. Again we almost convinced ourselves out of it, Vik suggested we should phone Julie Treth and she could make the final decision. Well we should of known, we didn't even need to explain the story of the sultans brother and she was telling us stop being silly and book it, we would never get an opportunity to stay in a 6 star hotel again! Well that's all the convincing we needed and five minutes later we had booked it! Just one night left in the cat ridden hostel and we would be entering luxury yeah!!!!
The only problem now was we had to try and make ourselves presentable for such an establishment, so that they wouldn't take one look at us and refuse to let in two dirty backpackers and toss us out onto the street like a pair of tramps. So we quickly went shopping and brought a frock each and painted our nails and had a dam good scrubbing! Then we got our covers out for our backpacks to try and conceal our true place in society.
BRUNEI
Our taxi turned up and it was a dirty old van, it didn't seem so bad until we crossed the border into Brunei and arrived at the entrance of the Hotel. The driveway was never ending, passing the famous golf course, cinema and theatre. It was like when you are a teenager and you don't want to be dropped off outside the school gates. We held our heads up high as the porter came and took our groty backpacks onto a shiny clean trolley. We then walked through the doors and looked at each other and said are we sure we have got the right place; the lavish lobby was monumental with the biggest chandelier we have ever seen!!
The panic set in and we started to wonder if we had even got this right and it's this hotel and at the cost we thought, are we going to be in the servants quarters agh!! We checked in feeling dubious that this was even the right hotel, and we were really in a cheap imitation down the road.
FROM RAGS TO RICHES
But everything was honkey dory and we were taken to our room in the sea view building on a buggy. We had a pretty woman moment as after the lady had shown us how to work the remote control curtains and massage shower we jumped up anddown on the bed screaming !!!!! Wow, the clean sheets and flush toilet would have been satisfactory but the feather pillows and quilt, coffee machine, sky T.V, marble bath, massage shower…. Well they were the icing on the cake.
So off we went to explore this hotel/palace it was huge, it had nine swimming pools for a start. So we sat and had smoked salmon sandwiches by the pool bar before chilling out in the Jacuzzi and spa. No pool crashing today!! As I said earlier Brunei is a Muslim country and it's strictly no alcohol, not even sold on planes flying in and out of Brunei. However we thought it would be a good opportunity to have a detox for a few days.
Later by the pool a group of American lads came and had a chat and as quick as that, the detox went out of the window as we put an order in for some alcohol. The Americans were on their way to the black market, oh well we did try. So later on we had a good old knees up which seemed even more exciting as it was forbidden!
The next morning we had planned on getting up early to enjoy the facilities but a mixture of the soft feather quilt and the alcohol kept us in bed longer than we intended. We woke up and could have kicked ourselves, quickly got ready and made our way to the pool. On the way we passed reception and still not feeling fully sober we enquired on an extra night's stay. The sales man sat us at down and some how we ended up booking another four nights and being upgraded to the E- club. After sunbathing and having a snooze we both sobered up completely and said bleep… bleep…. bleep…. what have we done!!!!
We now had a deluxe twin room and all the E- cub facilities, breakfast in the E-club dinning room, high tea and mock tails every day! Ohh get us!! So without boring you with all the luxurious details we lived it up and made the most of the fantastic hotel for six days and no more trips to the black market!! But still the detox was totally out of the window, with all the cakes and lovely food.
We did venture out of the luxury cocoon for a day and visited Brunei. We had been warned by other travelers that there wasn't much to see and unfortunately they were right. Although we probably saw a lot more thanks to the tips off the New Zealand lady. We took a boat ride to see the water villages where the majority of the locals lived. We then went to see an island were there were loads of tins hanging from the trees, if we hadn't been previously informed we would have assumed it was rubbish but it was what the locals put the placentas of their new born in. They also included paper and pencils and other objects in the tin, it was to hopefully ensure their child would grow up to be educated and have a prosperous future. The main thing we noticed whilst wondering around the city is for such a wealthy country the majority it seemed were not benefiting. Feeling a little guilty we went back to our luxury hotel.
Unfortunately I (Sarah) had a cold whilst in the hotel and between me and vik we came up with what we thought was a cunning plan to maybe get something free. As by now we didn't want to leave and thought by saying I had caught something from the pool we might get a free night ha! It sounded such a good idea at the time! So after a call to the manager who was very sympathetic he said he would phone back within five minutes and we thought we had cracked it. Umm well the plan started to go a bit wrong when he phoned back to say an escort and a car had been arranged to take me to the private hospital immediately for tests and did I need someone to come and help me or was I ok to walk. Opps so it was too late to start retracting my severe illness, so off I went hunched up to the lobby and was whisked off to the hospital where I had a full examination. The Dr's diagnosis was a cold and too much traveling- cringe, how embarrassing, I talked myself out of having to pay the extortionate hospital fees and only had to pay for the medication- well we will never try that trick again!!
After the realisation we really did have to leave this place will filled our backpacks with the obligatory freebees - no Vik not the quilt….put it back! So back on the traveling road it was, leaving in style though as we couldn't let go of luxury that easyily, so we had a Mercedes take us to the ferry and from that point we were back to two dirty backpackers again. Oh well it was good while it lasted!!!
KOTA KINABALU - MALAYSIA, BORNEO
We then crossed the border at the other side and went into Sabah (Malaysia, Borneo) where we stayed in Kota Kinabalu for a few days whilst waiting for our flight back to Kuala Lumpur. Kota Kinabalu was a big dirty city but had a few nice places to venture to, such as the small islands a boat ride away where everyone runs to for some clean air and sand. Also the natural hot springs at the base of Mount Kinabalu itself, it doesn't take long to make you shriveled like a prunes in the boiling water!
We had another night out whist in the city as we had being drying out in Brunei. We were invited to join a table of high society Sabah residents, one being the owner of the new bar we were sitting in. Much to our delight they were asking us to sample some of the new menu, after quoting some of the lines of the cookery programs, umm needs more seasoning - they seemed to think we knew what we were on about! The night progressed and one of the men started to move in on Sarah, much to the Vikkis amusement- she obviously knew something different. We sat and lapped up the free drinks, things seemed to be getting weirder with this sleazy man as he was talking about how in touch with his feminine side he was umm strange. It wasn't until we called it a night and Sarah made an escape that everything fell into place and the light switch went on…. It's a woman isn't it Vik….. Yeah ha!!! We howled all the way back to the hostel.
So we were now got another flight back to Kuala Lumpur ready to start our journey up the east coast of Malaysia Peninsula.
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