Now’s as Good a Time as Any

Sultan of Swing

August 28th, 2007 by Greg

When I told a few other travelers I wanted to check out Brunei, the response I usually got was something along the lines of “don’t bother, there’s nothing to do there and it’s too expensive”. Something about it just intrigued me though, and I decided to do a stop for a night there, in one of the world’s smallest and richest countries. There was a boat service from KK that made a stop on an island that is effectively a border control station town, and then on to Brunei. From the port, a bus took me to Bandar Sari Begawan, the capital city.

Once I got to BSB (smartly, everyone abbreviates it), luck was really with me and I didn’t even know it. There’s only one hostel in the whole city, and then a bunch of “budget hotels”. The hostel is about $10US a night while the hotels start at around $40-50. I walked right over to the hostel, and found a bed right away, though the whole place seemed to be deserted beyond the man who met me when I first showed up and asked for a spot. I later found out that it had been under renovation for the previous six months, and reopened only two days prior, making me the first guest since the reopening! In addition, touts usually meet all incoming buses and steer backpackers towards one of the hotels, saying that the hostel is closed for renovations (even if it’s not), but somehow I didn’t get intercepted by any.

I dropped off my stuff and started walking around the city. It’s not very big, at least the downtown area, and I managed to get to a couple sights easily enough. First up was the floating village, built on a river passing through BSB. Now Brunei is a very rich country, huge oil reserves that the government has complete control over has ensured that. The sultan gets all of this money, but he makes sure his 350 thousand or so citizens are all taken care of, with no taxes and large subsidies available on houses and cars. Wandering among the floating village, along a somewhat rickety plank-walk that meanders through the precariously balanced buildings, it’s easy to assume that this area is somewhat akin to the slums seen in almost every other Asian country. Not so, in fact the sultan has offered to get all of these people proper homes, but they prefer to live the way they have traditionally, with everything, including schools, police and fire stations, hospitals, and mosques (Brunei is a strictly Muslim country) all perched on stilts above the river. Their relative wealth becomes obvious when you look at the parking lots along the edges of the village and see all the brand new cars.

My other stop for the day was at the “big mosque”, built by the 29th sultan (father of the current one) and one of the most easily recognizable landmarks within the city, because well, it’s huge. I had a walk around, snapped some photos, and then went inside to have a look around. Wearing shorts and a tee shirt I was obviously underdressed, so they provided me with a black full-lenght robe to wear over my clothes. I walked the allotted tourist path through the front part of the mosque, had a good look around, and then walked back out. My guidebook suggested checking out the mosque at night, to see it lit up, so I decided to go walk through a nearby mall for a while and have dinner, waiting for it to get dark, and then return. When I came back, I had to agree, it did look nice, bathed in green and gold light.

Before heading to bed I stopped by a local supermarket to pick up some food for breakfast and snacks for the road. My plan was to take the long progression of buses (you have to change 3 times!) to Miri beginning early in the morning. On my way out of the supermarket, a local man, Abdul, was walking out at the same time and asked me where I was from and what I thought of Brunei (I’d been getting similar questions all day, they don’t get many tourists here). We chatted for a bit and it turned out that he was something of a tour guide, working in Brunei and Sarawak, and he was heading into Miri the next day to pick up a couple of guys who wanted a tour of Brunei. He offered to give me a ride for the same price as all the buses would cost, and moreover it turned out the guys he was picking up were staying at the hostel I had booked online already, so he could take me right to it! As what would normally be around a six hour journey by buses would only take maybe two in his car, he said he wanted to leave around midday, which would give me a little more time in the city. We arranged a time and place to meet again the next day, and I went to bed wondering if I was really that lucky.

The next morning I took the extra time and walked to the nearby Royal Regalia Museum. Within the museum are all items pertaining to the coronation of the sultan (mostly the current one), including the formal attire of all participants in the ceremony, a chariot of sorts that carried the sultan himself, and hundreds of gifts received from local people, businesses, and foreign countries (nearly all but the U.S. are represented, not sure why we couldn’t be bothered considering how much oil Brunei has at the very least…).

After a couple hours or so at the museum I was sultaned out, and went back to the hostel to read and chill out for a bit before it was time to meet Abdul. I had a small lunch nearby, and gathered my things. He was there within a few minutes of me, and we were off. Since we had plenty of time he said he’d give me a little extra bit of a tour on the way to the border. Just outside of town we stopped at what is actually the laregest mosque in Brunei, built by the current sultan (each successive one seems to try and top the previous). I was able to walk around the outside a bit and snap some more photos, but the interior wasn’t open to tourists.

We then began to head out of town more, and along the way Abdul was constantly pointing things out and giving me little facts about the country. While the road was contained on both sides by patches of jungle, just on the other side of them were mansions built by the sultan for his family, including 3 wives and many children. Further up the road, we began to pass through a massive suburban housing development, all built for the employees of Shell (which has a contract to get all of Brunei’s oil). We also stopped briefly at a monument near the sea built in 1992 to commemorate the billionth barrel of oil being brought up. Abdul was quite proud of this, though I did notice the water washing up on the shore was jet black as the horizon line was dotted with oil rigs.

We reached the border soon after, and instead of having to get out, go through passport control and customs with my bag, and then get on another bus, we didn’t even need to leave the car. Less than an hour later, we were entering Miri, and Abdul brought me to the hostel and I got checked in. I had hoped to see him again when he picked up the guys he’d be taking into Brunei the next day, but unfortunately we missed each other. I’m still not sure how I got so lucky to not only get a ride but an impromptu tour as well, but as far as I’m concerned if anyone asks, Brunei is definitely worth a visit.

Photos
Brunei Darussalam