Day 1 & 2 Diary by Charlie Blanchard
After a long flight watching films, sleeping and eating 4 interesting meals (Royal Brunei Airlines certainly feed you well) we landed in Bandar Seri Begawan, the capital city of Brunei at 09.45 local time on Wednesday 14th July.
We were met by Easy our tour guide for our day in Brunei. The humidity was 80% and the temperature 30°C even at this time of day.
Our first visit was to the Bolkiah mosque where each of the 29 domes that represent each of the past Sultans was covered in 24 carat gold flake. Due to the Sultan’s birthday the following day we were unable to go inside the mosque it was a really interesting start to our trip.
We then drove to see the Sultan’s Palace which has over 1,700 rooms and his collection of 6,000 cars plus another Gold Dome. As we drove away from this we passed the 7 star- (yes 7 stars!) Empire Hotel which is amongst the most luxurious hotels in the world.
We then went to the Royal Regalia Museum which was a celebration of the Sultan of Brunei. This included the Sultan’s crown jewels and solid gold hand used by past Sultans long time ago to rest their heads on. There were also lots of other gold items such as a gold cat and many other gifts given by dignitaries and heads of state. The coronation carriage in the past carried by 48 bearers and but now on wheels was also seen and man spears and a history of the Sultan’s life.
We then went to lunch at the Food Court in the Yayasan Shopping precinct . This allowed a short time to look for cheap sunglasses without much success before we went by Water taxi to Kampong Ayer (the Water Village) where 10% of Brunei’s population live and which has its own school’s, fuel station, fire brigade and now has a sewage system. (PABS tells us that the sewage system is new since 2000 and in the past the sewage went straight into the river!). Brunei has no income tax, free education and free medical service for all its people. They are obedient and there is little crime. In fact Easy told us that Motoring offences are the major amount of crime in Brunei.
The houses from the outside looked very basic but when Easy took us inside one of the houses where he had arranged for us to have tea, cakes and biscuits we were surprised to find it well furnished and in good condition. Very clean and well kept rooms showed that the people took pride in their houses. The noise however from passing speed boats that taxi people around the village and across the river to the centre of Bandar Seri Begawan meant that it did sound like living next to a motorway. Kampong Ayer is known as the Venice of the East. The fast motor boats however are the Gondolers of this water village.
We then drove to the Brunei Museum where we looked at a display of plants and stuffed animals that showed us the huge Biodiversity in Brunei and in Borneo as a whole. We also looked at the Islamic Art Gallery with lots of Korans and other Islamic arts.
Leaving the Museum we returned to the Airport where we joined our flight after 2 hours wait in the airport to Sabah. 35 minutes after take-off we landed in Kota Kinabalu, the capital city of Sabah. We were met by our guide Lee and drove to the Hotel in the middle of the city. After freshening up we went to the Sedco restaurant in Kota Kinabalu where we had a great meal.
