The journey begins...in Brunei!

I flew out of HK in the afternoon on May 24 and arrived in Brunei a few hours later. Some items of note - there was a pre-recorded prayer in Arabic that was broadcast over the loudspeakers on the airplane (Royal Brunei Airlines) that "blessed" the flight to ensure safe passage - making it clear that I was going to a predominately Muslim country. I was also sitting (not surprisingly, just my luck) right smack dab in the middle of a throng of Chinese mainland tourists. They were okay for the most part, besides the odd loud outburst (those of you living in HK know what I mean). In the Brunei airport I ran into a couple of other Western tourists on holiday from their study abroad semester in Brisbane, and we shared a taxi from the airport into town and hung out for the night...which basically meant that we sat around and did nothing because there is absolutely NOTHING to do at night here in the capital of Brunei, which is called Bandar Seri Begawan (BSB). My Lonely Planet guidebook says that the only thing to do at night is go to the movies, which we tried to do, but alas the theater was closed (and has been for the past 2 days every time I've gone by it, which is a lot). So I went to bed, excited about the next day.

Sunday I started out at the Royal Regalia Museum, which houses a collection of gifts from dignataries and presidents of other countries to the Sultan of Brunei (who has like 26 different words in his formal name). It also contained the royal carriage that was used in the Sultan's procession in Brunei when he became Sultan (or during his Jubilee - I forget):


The museum also contained some artifacts from the Sultan and many pictures of his younger days. It was cool because it was the first museum I've ever walked around in without my shoes - had to take them off when I entered. And thankfully the floors (tile/carpet) were quite clean!

Quick random note - I checked gas prices at the local Shell station here in BSB and 1 liter of regular unleaded costs 36 cents (in Brunei Dollars - the local currency). When I convert the currency to US dollars and change liters into gallons, it turns out people here are paying US$0.93 per gallon - so if you're fed up with gas prices in the USA then come and live here in Brunei! (Side note - gas in Brunei is subsidized by the gov't/Shell, but even if they didn't have the subsidy they would still be paying much less than you!)

After the museum I went over to one of the beautiful mosques here (under construction, but still nice to look at):


After that I headed over to a local fruit and veggie market - always an interesting place to see what the locals eat. I found some interesting items, and I also really liked the way people displayed their various items:


After the market I headed back to the hostel for a little siesta - 2 reasons:

1. it's hot here
2. there's nothing much to do here

I got up and headed down to the pier because I wanted to hire a small boat to take me around the various water villages, as well as to see the Sultan's palace and the beautiful sunset. I ran into 2 women travelers - 1 from South Africa and 1 from Wales. We decided to go on the boat together, though we also thought it a bit early (at 4pm), so we walked around and got a quick bite to eat. A lassi and rossi later, we headed down to the pier, negotiated with the boatman, and headed out. We were not disappointed at the sunset:




We also passed by the Sultan's palace, which is the biggest palace in the world. It has something like 1,700 rooms, including more than 200 bathrooms! After the boatride we got some dinner and then went to bed.

The nest morning I went to a couple of travel/tour agencies to see if I could get out of the city (because all the shops were closed yesterday - Sunday). However, the problem was that most tours had a minimum group of 2 people, and I was told that there were no tours going out today, so it was just me. Anyways, the tours seemed quite expensive, so I probably wouldn't have gone anyways. So I read my guidebook and decided I'd head for the beach in Muara.

I walked to the bus station, and evidently I looked quite puzzled, because a local named "Danny" came up to me to see if I needed help. Before too long he whipped out a page from the Brunei "Let's Go" guidebook series that had a little blurb about him as being famous for wandering around the BSB bus station giving out quality free tips to tourists. Usually I am quite suspect of people too willing to help me out, but he seemed to be genuine - anyways all he did was tell me which bus went to the beach, which was all I needed. The bus driver confirmed this and I hopped on.

So I finally got out of the city and got to see a bit of the countryside, which was nice. The bus passed by some of the residences of the various Ambassadors - not bad! After changing buses in Muara, I ended up at the beach...all by myself. I literally was the only person there (besides the construction workers, who were working on various things). Here - I can prove that I was the only one there!



The beach was okay - a bit too much pollution, but I had it all to myself.

Tonight I am off to Bali - more updates to come soon!