This is BruneiThe next leg of our journey across Malaysian Borneo would take us through the Sultanate of Brunei. Unfortunately/fortunately there is no road that goes from the state of Sarawak to the other state of Sabah. Therefore we would have to pass through the little oil state that most people have never heard of. The country is expensive (similar to Singapore, in fact their curriencies are tied and have the same exchange rate) so we didn’t want to have to spend the night there. This led to us rising early to get through our long day of transit.
Getting to the bus station, several km from town proved difficult. The information given in the guide book was completely wrong, and not many people around seemed to know how to get there. Eventually people told us that there were no busses, and we needed to take a taxi. Yes, the dreaded taxi. Because of the time crunch, we broke down, after bargaining hard for our fare. Arriving at the station, the taxi driver showed us that the morning bus had already left, and the next one wasn’t until 3:00. He probably knew this when he picked us up, but didn’t want to tell us until we had already paid. I think he was expecting us to pay him to take us back to town. Now we had to decide if we would stay in Miri another night, or stay the night in Brunei. We found a local bus into town and were able to figure it out there.
Apparently the busses between Brunei and Miri used to be quite frequent, but with the amount of people in Brunei (and probably Malaysia) with cars these days, there are very few public transportation links to and within the country.
We decided that even though it would be expensive, it would be worth at least spending the night in this unique country. It would almost feel rude not to.
Brunei is not your typical oil state ruled by Islamic law. Then again, I have never been to a different one, so maybe there are a surprising amount of similarities. I guess it’s location in Southeast Asia’s tropical climate makes it unique.
We arrived just after the Sultan’s birthday, which is celebrated for the month of July. Therefore it was hard to tell if the Sultan always had billboard sized pictures of him up all over the country. Even though Malaysia seemed fairly developed, the suburbs of the towns we drove through on the way to the capital could have been in America. In many aspects, they have it better, though. A longer life expectancy (77), universal health care, free schools, subsidies for cars (though I would have liked subsidized public transportation instead), short work weeks, no income tax, a high minimum wage, pensions for all and free sport and leisure centers. All this and the only downside I see is living under Islamic law, which is unfortunate since only 70% of the population is Muslim. Sorry Chinese and Indians, no beer for you.
Upon arriving after dark to the capital, Bandar Seri Begawan, we were welcomed with a lights display that made us wonder if our bus had gotten lost and we ended up in Vegas. The city was dressed up for a party, and it made us glad that we had decided to stay the night. The lights, of course, were for the Sultan’s 65th birthday, and it would come with some other surprises as well.
Just a tiny taste of the Sultan photos that were everywhere in the country.
Looking back on it, these are some of the more modest displays of the great Sultan.
Although it was a sultanate, the cheapest place to stay happened to be a hostel at some Christian center. The dorms were segregated (along gender lines), and they had more rules than the Sultanate.
While Lise checked us in, I ran to a bank to get some Brunei dollars. On my way, for the first time since Kuala Lumpur, I was approached by a prostitute. It was shocking and I realized that I didn’t usually have to deal with this kind of behavior because I was always with Lise.
On our quest for cheap food, we foolishly followed the Lonely Planet’s budget dinner suggestions of the riverfront food stalls and the mall food court. Neither were open. We were very hungry and came dangerously close to settling for KFC. But then, lo and behold, we turned the corner, and stumbled right into the night market! We were saved!
Unfortunately, though, with Brunei being such a rich country, it seemed that they felt the need to emulate the food culture of another rich country: America. Burgers and (cold) fries were some of the more common options, as well as fried chicken. We settled on something we had seen in Malaysia, which I would call street food fusion. It was an “egg banjo”. It is not much more than an egg sandwich with a few extras, but its name alone made it worth eating. Nearby we noticed some sort of event going on in the open green space next to us. As we moved closer we realized it was a tug-of-war competition. In Brunei, however, this is no playground game. They take it seriously, and these teams were big and focused. We found some seats and watched for a while. Up front there was a roped off area for VIPs. The teams had coaches that yelled commands and encouragement to them. The highlight, though, was the Rasta coach. We were laughing about him before we realized he was a coach because he was obviously Malay, but had a big red, green and yellow rasta beanie, that we assumed held dreadlocks, a huge Bob Marley shirt, and Bob Marley pants, with big colorful pictures of Bob on them. He was easily the littlest guy on the field, but he screamed at his team with all his might.
Night Market
Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque by night.
We took our time the next day to actually do some sight-seeing. We toured the Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque, whose minaret it the tallest building in Bandar Seri Begawan. It was nice to visit, but as mosques go, it wasn’t old, extravagant or unique enough to be overly impressive. However, I did see a six-foot monitor lizard lounging in the lagoon in front of it.
More interesting was the stilt village across from the city. It was a quick water taxi across the river. All the colorful homes, businesses and schools were connected by narrow wooden walkways. It was nice to explore for a while as people seemed much sweeter and simpler than those in the malls back in the city.
Horseshoe crabs as decoration.
Next it was onto the Royal Regalia Museum, or as one person more accurately described it, “The Sultan’s Stuff Museum”. As much as I like stilt villages, this was definitely the most entertaining and unique part of the stop in Brunei. The highlight was the Sultan’s collection of gifts from other heads of states. Most of them were from Southeast Asian countries, Muslim countries or the world’s various kingdoms. Many were elaborate knives, sometimes on plaques, others tiny jewel-encrusted models of the giving country’s mosques, fancy bowls or other bizarre plaques. One of my favorites was the plaque given by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, with a big picture of himself on it. I am sure the Sultan of Brunei really appreciated that. Among all the shiny trinkets and gaudy knick-knacks, Canada’s gift really stood out: a shiny wooden carving of two grinning seals. Canada. So typical. They weren’t the only country to give a wildlife themed gift. Former president of Ghana, Jerry Rawlings gave a classy elephant sculpture. Unfortunately, I could not find a single gift from any American president. I was really excited to see what we would have given to represent our country. It would have had to be good.
Other than the gifts there were elaborate displays recreating the Sultan’s coronation ceremony in 1967, as well as exhibits on the Sultan’s early life. After about two hours we hadn’t even seen everything, but we had had enough of this showboating Sultan, General Haji Sir Hassanal Bolkiah Mu'izzaddin Waddaulah GCB GCMG. Yep, what a name!
The Royal Regalia Museum
So now it was time to leave the country. We managed to find our way, through two slow local busses, to the port to get on with our trip. The easiest way to get from Brunei, to the other side of Malaysian Borneo is actually via boat to the island of Pulau Labuan, and then another boat on to Kota Kinabalu, the capital of Sabah State.
The vessel was another torpedo boat with too much air conditioning. This time, though, we were at sea, and the waters were rough. The boat rocked constantly. Enough to make us a little nauseous, but not so bad to make us worried.
Back at customs on the other side, my passport was rapidly getting cluttered with Malaysian stamps. Three entrances, two exits, plus an additional stamp from the state of Sarawak. I was getting a little worried about whether my passport would hold up this whole trip, as I was running low on pages and still had a lot of traveling to do.
