Brunei Darussalam

Despite being one of our very close neighbour, I have never visited this next door neighbour on the east. However as fate would have it, Royal Brunei offered the most economical flight to Perth when I went hunting in Matta fair early this year. The catch was... transit in Brunei. Oh well... why not, since I've never been there before.

And so, on 13th of September I flew to Brunei, Bandar Seri Begawan to be exact. The transit flight from Brunei to Perth was scheduled at night, while I reached Bandar Seri Begawan (BSB) in the morning. Hmm... as I was travelling with my mom and to make things easy, we signed up for a day tour at the airport.

So be it that 13th of September is actually the 1st day of Ramadhan and it is a public holiday in Brunei. Hence the town was rather quiet... though I cant say that in the evening.

See the top 2 pictures? Those were taken when I just reached the airport, but somehow after I reached back the airport from the daytour, it was fully packed. Beats me.

From the airport, you can get this magazine published by the Brunei Tourism Board called "BIG" - Brunei's Insider Guide. It's quite informative actually, and somehow I've developed the liking for reading travel books or magazine.

The daytour is actually rather pricey but transportation in BSB is not exactly friendly and flagging down a cab is not cheap either. It costs me B$ 60 (can use S$ widely as well) for a tour to Jame' Asr Hassanil Bolkiah Mosque, Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque, Kampung Ayer, outside of Istana Nurul Iman and the food bazaar. I actually paid additional B$ 10 (per head) for them to drop my mom and me off to a mall which coincidentally call The Mall (apparently the biggest mall in BSB) and get ferried back to the airport at a set time. Mainly due to ample time and nothing much at the airport...

Jame' Asr Hassanil Bolkiah Mosque. Look at the domes, it is gold. They actually polish it twice a month (according to the guide) if I don't remember wrongly

Unfortunately for me, the mosque is closed to non-muslims on Thursday and of course close for 1st of Ramadhan.

Let me stray a bit... the guide's name is Gary, whom when he intro himself was telling us his name was very simple only made out of a few alphabets but whatever it is.. do not leave out the "R"

see the escalator thingy covered up in the middle? It's for the Sultan of Brunei to go up to the mosque.

this is from the door of the same mosque, the red ones are rubies, the green ones are emerald and white ones are crystal. Guide said nobody try to steal wor...

Next we visited Kampung Ayer, nicknamed Venice of the East. See that boat? It is known as "Flying Coffin" because of the shape.

Opposite of Kampung Ayer, we have Kompleks Yayasan.

see the dome in the middle? That's another mosque - Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque

that boat is a fake one, it doesnt sail to anywhere and it was said that the Sultan has the dream of sailing a huge ship at the river.

the food bazaar, nice and cheap food :)

The Mall, last stop before we were picked up to go back to the airport again.

So there you have it... a day in Bandar Seri Begawan ;)


Side note: I had this Nasi Katok bought from the food bazaar and I think they drugged it! Cos I keep on thinking about it when I was in Perth = ="