Where in the world is Brunei?

So many people asked me this question and more often than not it was then followed by “Why do you want to go there?” Let me answer the former first. Brunei is a very small country on the island of Borneo. Borneo is just South and West of the Philippines’ southernmost islands, with about an hour and 45 minute flight from Manila. Why would I want to go there is a little more vague, but I was a bit curious about this little chunk of land. As it is, Borneo is 99% an island in Malaysia and less than 1% the sovereign country of Brunei. That alone is pretty interesting to me. It’s land mass is almost 6,000sq km and it is also one of the last remaining Sultanates. Initially, this tour was designed and planned by another AWCP (American Women’s Club of the Philippines) member that had to cancel. Recently a friend from Manila moved there, so I was very interested in going. If nothing else, why not chalk up another passport stamp from a place I haven’t been. Expat living begins to mean travel bug with an underlying competition to have the most unusual stamps and maximizing the number of extra pages you are allowed to get in your passport before the government makes you get a whole new one (which is 2 set of pages, in case you are curious). Ask any expat, passport bragging is definitely a favorite past time! All in good fun, I promise.

Anyhow, Curt wasn’t quite as convinced it was a country he needed to see (though missing out on that stamp was killing him!), so I took it as a nice long weekend getaway from the always fun, but sometimes, overwhelming, family. It just so turned out that 7 others ladies were going solo as well. I could feel the girl weekend solidifying and the fun beginning!

As tour leader, I try prepping for these tours so that I prevent any misinformation and am sure to not run into any snags. I was a bit busy leading up to this tour, so when the reports from fellow travelers began to come in that Brunei doesn’t sell alcohol, I thought we had better find a solution. The rumor was true and the solution was also legitimate. As non-Muslim visitors over 17 yrs of age, we can each bring in two bottles of wine and 12 beers! Woohoo! Although that does put a dent in my weight limit for my luggage. We begged, coerced and pleaded for the non-drinkers to take some wine for us. It worked like a charm and we were all set for a nice, relaxing visit to Brunei. We did learn as soon as we checked in though that we could ONLY drink inside our hotel rooms. OK…we can adjust!

All 23 of us tromped out of Manila on time and with smiles on our faces on Friday, Feb 26th.  The flight was uneventful and quite a surprise, actually. We flew Royal Brunei Airlines and I was quite impressed. It was a very clean, very organized, but no alcohol! I don’t mean to sound like a total lush, but c’mon, that’s the fun part of flying internationally! We had all day free to roam the HUGE resort property. We actually never needed to leave it as there was a bowling alley, tennis courts, golf course, beaches, pools, a cinema and several restaurants. I have left off tons of other activities, but needless to say, it was ginormous! It had all the makings of a 5-star resort, without the 5 star quality. Beautifully done rooms, but no finishing touches, to be more clear. Great pool with a swim up bar that only served juices and a huge main atrium with very little furniture. It was quite bewildering actually. It was as if they stopped furnishing it halfway through. Anyhow, we walked the grounds, got a little lost and finally had lunch at the Clubhouse for the golf course. Back to the main hotel we went, where we grabbed the travel mahjong set and set up camp out by the pool. Several of us play mahjong every Friday, and it was Friday after all! We introduced a few travelers to our favorite game, had some juice and enjoyed the conversation. Later we had a short organized tour to attend to. It was the night tour of the water village (the first time of many that we boated around it). I have seen water villages in Shanghai and they have them in Vietnam and Cambodia and many other places as well. This was quite different though. These were houses on stilts that sat in a river inlet.  It has it’s own police force, highway system (boat highways) and taxis. I believe there were around 30,000 people living in the village.  We were there at night and it was tough to see any depth, but we were a bit surprised of it’s size.

Afterwards we ate shabu-shabu (almost like fondue with just broth) and were gently directed by the Filipinos in our group, how to effectively cook our food. I think we are so used to only putting in a few things at a time, but apparently you should put it all in at once…live and learn. It was sweet, actually, as we also were able to learn something about the culture we live in, even when we aren’t in it. After dinner we were bussed around the city for night photo shoots. This means we were able to get out at several different mosques  and the main palace for photo ops. The lights do make an impressive picture. The tour leader, on our request, took us to a more local mall. Here there were lots of people and vendors selling stuff. What struck us the most…nothing was made in Brunei. NOTHING!! All the headbands, purses and other “stuff” they were selling was made outside of Brunei and brought in. This makes collecting things from other countries truly difficult. We wasted in hour or so and then were taken out of the mall and through an open air market to the bus. I think the tour leader was very interested in showing us the local outdoor food market. What he wasn’t understanding was that we have seen them, walked through them and smelled them on many other occasions. After all, we live in the Philippines. So most of us walked straight through to the parking lot and got on the bus!

Back to the hotel and the eight singlets gathered in our room (Joan and mine to be more specific) to toast our first day in Brunei. I have to admit, these drinking fests were my all time favorite moments on this trip. Guards down, filters long gone and girls can really be interesting! Some ladies I knew well, others I had never before this trip and the best part was the age gap (early 30’s to late 60’s) as that adds such an element! We had a blast!

On Saturday we were able to sleep in and start our day off slowly as the half day tour didn’t start until 12pm. We managed to make it to breakfast before the kitchen closed and spent our mealtime planning tours for the other gaps in our schedule the following day. The half day tour started with lunch at an Asian buffet restaurant. Not my favorite, but have eaten at my fair share of them, so I survived. Brunei is very contemporary compared to other Muslim countries. Some women wore head covers, some did not. I never saw a woman in a burka, but sometimes were in more conservative dressings. The only time I saw men in kaftans was at this restaurant.  Now, I am sure there were some on the streets here and there, but nothing that caught my attention. There was once long table full of men in kaftans at this restaurant though. Some had the full length dress type on and others the pants and tunic. Most of these men then had on head covers, but not necessarily the long ones, just these little hats. Just an observation I had, nothing more…thought it was interesting and worth mentioning.

Afterwards we were able to go inside the largest mosque in Brunei. The ladies had to wear these awful polyester covers that were not the right weight for 95+F degrees.   We were only shown the men’s prayer room, which was quite large, air conditioned and had these nice prayer rugs from Belgium in it. It really seemed like an over the top type of mosque, but oddly enough, only two people were in it praying. A man and his son were side by side in the prayer room praying. Except on tv, I had never seen a Muslim pray. Watching the father and the smaller son on their knees, sitting up, leaning forward, sitting up…on and on…I really was struck by how peaceful it seemed. Not only that, but the tradition and the two generations…it really was striking to me. If they had let us take in our cameras, I surely would have captured this. It may have been the vast open, beautiful prayer room with just the two of them in it, but it struck me and I will hold that memory for a long time.

Then another photo op of the outside of the mosque. With the 14K gold leaf minaret tops and the escalator leading the 2nd floor where the prayer rooms are, this mosque was striking and very beautiful.

On to a lame photo op of the palace. The palace was so far away and only the tops of the buildings could be seen over the tree tops, that is was a useless stop. Next we got a day trip to the water village! Back there we go where we could see some of the colors they painted them. Like any other neighborhood, some people liked to be original and paint their houses crazy colors ( no HOA there!). The tour took us inside one house where we were served tea and cookies. Not much different then houses in the US, but the floors were linoleum and doorways seemed to have a threshold you had to step over. I am not sure if this is for flooding or just what happens if you add on to your house. The dwelling was humble, but I was impressed. Living in Manila you see so much poverty and I assume I expected something similar here…but it wasn’t like that at all. On a side note, there isn’t much poverty in Brunei, the Sultan pays for just about everything. Healthcare is covered, there are no taxes, lots of housing subsidies, etc.

Pleasantly surprised, we headed out and to the mall. It wasn’t much of a mall and there was hardly a soul there. That was weird in this country, we didn’t go many places where there were people…even walking around outside. Sort of eerie…Some people bought fabric, some bought trinkets and souvenirs. Most just wandered around. We ended up at the Royal Regalia Museum and were able to learn about Brunei’s history. This took a few hours and then we were done! Time to be free and do as we please. We had dinner out at the Chinese restaurant on this night. The service was SLOW as snot and there were only 3 other tables of people! The food was very good though, so I guess that makes up for the service. Back to the room for some drinks we went with another entertaining evening of story-swapping.

We planned Sundays tour separate from the main group tour we were on. Sunday was going to be a free day, but a few of us wanted to get out and explore. We set out for a monkey tour. Apparently, Brunei has these monkeys that are pretty rare. What the heck? It was a few hours and we could use to get out of the hotel. Apparently every tour includes a water village tour. It became the side joke…and there is the water village….AGAIN! We boated by the water village and deeper into the river. We saw huge monitor lizards, cool birds, monkeys (we did catch a few pics of them) and crocodile. I think we were so entertained by the wildlife experience as it really was one of the most interesting things in the country. I would never say I didn’t like Brunei, but I will say it was a bit…dry. I don’t mean just the alcohol part, but there is nothing happening there and nothing original there, it’s a country that wants to be more interesting, but needs to do some more work. One tour guide said they are building the world’s largest free amusement park…maybe that will draw some people! The rest of Sunday was lounging by the pool, drinking too much in the room and being loud Americans in the restaurant. We ended up getting take out as we knew we were too wild for the restaurant crowd!

Then there was Monday. We patiently waited until the afternoon when our friend, Chrystal, was getting back into town. As soon as we could, those of us that know her, popped over to her house for the afternoon for mahjong, shopping and dinner! Chrystal lived in Manila about a year, moving to Brunei last fall. Before Manila she was in Shanghai for while. She’s an eternal expat. Her house in Brunei was luxurious, the pool tempting in the crazy heat and our visit with her was priceless. I just love that woman and it was so good to see her again. Her driver took us to the airport and back the RP (Republic of the Philippines) we came.

In summary, I wouldn’t trade the experience with friends or the friendships I made there, but the country…boring! BUT, I have the stamp!