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Not my photo unfortunately |
On June 11th, 2017, I was in Brunei. I arrived on the 9th and was due to leave on 13th although that got moved to the 14th. It was a work trip and Paul was meant to be with me but had been called off to Vietnam. This meant I had a weekend in Brunei on my own, in most Countries this would not be a problem as there is always plenty to do. I was in Kuala Belait so not near Bandar Seri Begawan the capital – about 80 minutes’ drive away in fact. It also turned out that my meeting scheduled for Monday 12th was delayed as it was a public holiday, so I had a long weekend on my own.
I met with my client for
our first meeting on Friday 9th in the evening. Of course, Brunei is a dry Country and it was
quite odd discussing work in the evening over a mango juice. It was Ramadan so there was a banquet every
evening in the hotel, but no other food was being served. The banquet food was very nice that said.
Saturday morning, I went
down to breakfast and noticed a British looking young man in a Baker Hughes boilersuit,
so I knew he was probably there working.
I explained I had a long weekend to kill and asked him he knew of
anything to do. He said, “There is
nothing to do”. I was not put off
thinking that perhaps my tastes may be different. After breakfast I went for a walk. It was extremely hot and soon realised that I
would need water. Thinking I would also
stop for a coffee, I headed for some shops but found that during Ramadan, you
could only get a takeaway coffee which needed to be drunk in private. I settled for a bottle of water. I walked to the beach but had been warned
(and seen the signs) that there were crocodiles so did not go far.
I then saw a snake … it
was a good snake, in that it was dead but by this time I was hot, bothered and did
not like the look of the wildlife so thought I would go back to the hotel and speak
to concierge – perhaps book a trip somewhere.
I did see a hornbill which was exciting when I was out and about.
Concierge were rather surprised
that anyone staying at their hotel wanted to see anything, they dragged out and
dusted down a folder, which gave me some hope.
There were only 3 things in it – a trip to the water village, a boat
trip to see the Proboscis Monkeys and a trip to a treetop walk in the
jungle. As I do not like heights so the
last one was out … which was a shame as I am sure I would have loved the
jungle. I wanted to see the Proboscis
monkeys though, so I booked the trip for Sunday. At this point I discovered that taxis do not
exist in KB so booked transport via the hotel to Bandar which was not cheap.
On Sunday, I got to a rather nice hotel in Bandar (The Empire - https://theempirebrunei.com/) where the
trip started from. The hotel in KB,
although it contained everything you need in a hotel, was basic. This place was palatial. I waited until the time I should be collected
and nothing … eventually I spoke to the concierge at that hotel – much more of
a tourist hotel, they contacted the company and they said the booking was for
Monday and not Sunday. I took a walk
around the grounds at the hotel, headed back to concierge as my transport was
not picking me up until much later, and they arranged a trip around the water
village.
This was an interesting trip, but it did not last very long. I was hungry at this point so went to a
supermarket to buy some food but had to eat it in secret. I felt like a naughty child. Back at the hotel in Bandar I did see lots of
monkey’s (macaques) cheekily jumping from tree to tree and chatting away to
each other.
Monday, I travelled back to Bandar and arrived at the nice hotel again,
I decided to get there early to spend more time watching the Macaques before my
boat trip, I could also get coffee and cake at this hotel so there was no
hardship waiting there. I was eventually
picked up and taken to the river where we had a sampan trip up the river to see
the Proboscis monkeys. We found a large
group including dad with the big nose and plenty of babies and were able to get
in close to them. It is times like this
that I wish I had my big camera. Anyway,
that was great, I had seen proboscis monkeys once before in Borneo, but they
are always such a pleasure to see. And
as a bonus we did not see any crocodiles – which I have only seen in the wild
once, in Darwin. I had dinner at the Empire
hotel then took my trip back to KB.
I eventually got to see my client on the Tuesday and had a successful
meeting before heading back to KB and treating myself to my last night in
Brunei at the Empire hotel. As it was my
birthday, they upgraded me to a suite which was magnificent. It was a shame that I only had the one night –
I could have lived there easily! I did
spend a while trying to work out the curtains, that were operated by a switch
by the bed.
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