Brunei Darussalam is one of the richest and smallest countries around. It gets most of its wealth from offshore oil and it shows. Bandar Seri Begawan is the mellowest capital city I have ever been in. Overall, the city is clean, polite, safe and rich. And the rest house we are staying in has some the softest beds and pillows we can remember. If it wasn’t costing us $22 a night we would want to stay longer.
There isn’t much to see in the city, or the country, as far as “sites” go. But the main mosque is nice to walk around. The main thing we are looking for tomorrow is some handwoven fabrics. That is the traditional handicraft here and some of the best we have ever seen. They are made with gold and silver extruded thread and cost a fortune. We want just a small swatch to take with us.
We came over from Malaysia by boat. Tomorrow we will cross back into Malaysia and make our way to Kuching. It will take 14 hours, 3 bus changes and one border crossing to get there. The border crossings are pretty easy. Being unemployed, we have started making up professions to put down as our official employment on the entry forms. I got a look of unease from my latest one; poo cleaner. But the immigration official didn’t say anything about my race; human.
My friend Jeff asked recently if we stay away from fast food. Actually, we almost died biting into that juicy all beef patty from Burger King the other day. It was heaven sent after 2 years of rice and fried fish. Beef was not on the menu in the Philippines but we did get plenty of pork. Which is nice now because being in a Muslim country there is none. It’s all beef, lamb, chicken and duck. For us in the Philippines, Sbarro pizza was our sin food. It’s just nice to eat western food once and awhile, especially after having to eat dog at every fiesta.
You can see the mosque from my picture just to the west, it’s the building surrounded by the round pool of water.
Brunei Hotel: 4°53’20.51″N, 114°56’37.55″E
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Robert J Kent Jr
Wat/San/Health Engineering Consultant
