we arrived late into Brunei, my friend Andrew had pre booked a hotel so we just went there by uber.
I had some trouble on arrival. they didn't like it that I had been in china 3 weeks before, but I kept telling the id been in the Philippines for 3 weeks and been in Malayasia, and the rule was 14 days so I was ok, thankfully, after a few minutes they let me in. we fly as it was faster, though we needed to had a flight out/bus ticket leaving to get the visa on arrival or they wouldnt let us check in, so we hastily booked a bus ticket online. it's a muslim country so the women all wore head scarves. here, alcohol is illegal and unavailable, apparently those who don't want to drink just cross the border into Kota Kinabalu, or Miri (both Malaysia) the hotel was nice and the tv included Netflix and youtube, which was great. the flight itself was nice, the air hostesses had nice uniforms, service was good too, there was also a sandwich and orange juice too.
the waterfront at night
the statue made for the kings 60th birthday, called Mercu Dirgahayu 60, its the figure of 60 in Sanskrit
the next morning changed to a hotel in the centre along the broad walk pier looking out onto the water where the floating village was. it was small, basic but clean and a decent price.
we had arranged to meet with a local. an Indian guy who had moved to Brunei for worked but was married to a Malaysian girl and had a family in Miri, when he wasn't working he just crossed the border to go home. he took us first to the park. Tasek Lama Recreational Park has a waterfall and a nice walk. it wasn't busy when we went, there were also some vendors selling fresh coconuts and juices. its free in with some picnic areas and a small watch tower, after our walk we drove to the mosque, Jame' Asr Hassanal Bolkiah Mosque
https://youtu.be/HmthkHVQDQc
Jame' Asr Hassanal Bolkiah Mosque, also known as Jame mosque for short. its set in some lovely gardens with fountains. it was beautiful and quiet when we went, as the was already a service happening we couldn't enter. we had already looked around when it started to rain fortunately, and our host needed to go back to work, so her dropped us off at the hotel, we chilled for a while till the rain stopped then headed back out to explore the area.
later on it was dry, we found some Korean English speaking tourists who asked if we wanted to join their private boat trip and pay a few dollars each. the bat was operated by a local who spoke good English and lead us to the port where we all stuck on life jackets.
he took us through the floating village KAMPONG AYER, the world's largest floating village.
Kampong Ayer means water village, and is the world' largest floating village, with a length of 38km, with mosques schools shops, a police station and even a fire station. there's speedboats and water taxi's that ferry people around, along with an interconnecting plank path. the water taxi's are the reason behind why it's dubbed the Venice of the East. with a history of over 1000 years, with houses ranging from 4-45,000 USD
he showed us some of the famous sites along the river such as the royal regalia museum, Istana Nurul Iman (royal palace), Raja Isteri Pengiran Anak Hajah Saleha Bridge (RIPAS bridge), Istana Darussalam, and Jong Batu
Istana Nurul Iman (royal palace) is considered to be the world's largest private residence in terms of floor area, earning it the title of "world's largest residential palace" the name means Palace of the Light of Faith, with the interior designed by the same designer who worked on Burj al Arab.
The palace contains 1,788 rooms, which includes 257 bathrooms, a banquet hall that can be expanded to accommodate up to 5,000 guests, a mosque accommodating 1,500 people.The palace also includes a 110-car garage, an air conditioned stable for the Sultan's 200 polo ponies, and five swimming pools. In total, Istana Nurul Iman contains 2,152,782 square feet (200,000 m²) of floorspace.Istana Nurul Iman has 564 chandeliers, 51,000 light bulbs, 44 stairwells and 18 elevators.
the underground garage can house 110 cars. the Palace has a breathtaking collection of paintings by world-known artists, including one of the paintings of Renoir. The palace is richly decorated with gold. The windows and the doors are decorated with tiles made of pure gold including the door handles!
the palace is open to the public once a year for Eid-ul-Fitr (the festival at the end of the Muslim fasting month Ramadan) when the palace receives about 110,000 visitors over a three-day period where the guests receive gifts of food as well as green packets containing money for young children. The palace is also open to Muslims during 10 days of the Ramadhan period for Tadarus and Tarawih prayer gathering.
the sultan is one of the richest men in the world, here are some crazy facts about him for your pleasure
he took us into the mangrove areas and found a big troop of wild proboscis monkeys! (the ones with the unfortunate shaped nose) we ha learnt at the zoo that the young males need to leave the troop, even if they are the children as they will fight with the dad in power struggles. you can tell the different between male and female from the nose, the female nose is much smaller and flatter, there was a couple of cute babies in the troop. it was amazing to see them in the wild!
we later on found 2 huge monitor lizards relaxing on trees again super close, to the point we had to be a bit careful.
after the boat ride we walked around the small city, checking out some more local sights such as the famous Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque, considered to be the most beautiful mosque in Asia Pacific, https://www.globotreks.com/weekly-snapshot/snapshot-sultan-omar-ali-saifuddien-mosque-brunei/
we chilled for a while in the room before checking out the famous food night market. we got perhaps the HUGEST lime juice ever jumbo jumbo size I think. there is a local Brunei currency but most people ay in dollars, its particularly hard to change them into anything else. we even bumped into our friendly boat driver at the market! like Kota its also fun of seafood. (GADONG NIGHT MARKET) there are buses available apparently but we just got an uber as it was more convenient. most food and drinks in the market ae around 1-2 US dollars. and due to the pandemic, food can be ordered online and delivered! though its better to check it out in person for the great atmosphere. it's open daily 6-11.30 usually
https://youtu.be/G_qYGnr0ONc
we headed back and spent the night chilling and planning a trip to Sri Lanka, we got the bus early the next morning just a few hundred metres away from the hotel that took us direct to Miri, Malaysia, Borneo.
you can it on EASYBOOK, but we just went in person, there wasn't too many on it, but still best to get there early/pre-book to ensure a seat.
https://www.easybook.com/bus/booking/bruneidarussalam-to-miri
it costs 20Brunei DOLLARS
https://asocialnomad.com/brunei/brunei-to-miri/
