Life abroad: As Robert sees it

From Kota Kinabalu to Kuching is 1,125 km (700 mi). This trip on a California freeway should take about 12 hours by car. Not in Borneo, it took us 48 hours by using 1 taxi, 1 pump boat, 2 ferries, 2 border crossings, 3 mini-buses, 5 long-haul buses and we still had to walk a kilometer at the end to find our hotel.

Getting from Brunei to Seria was easy enough but after this is where it got fun. We got onto a mini bus at Seria, which drove for half an hour to the next town. There we pulled up to another waiting mini-bus and everyone got out while prompting us to follow. We duly obeyed and switched to the other bus, driver included. Why we did this, I have no idea. As they say in the Philippines, “Sir, we make our own sense here.”

We drove until the road literally went into the river. But it wasn’t a problem because there was a pump-boat waiting by to take us across. It was’t easy getting in and out with our bags on, especially still being sore from climbing Mt. Kinabalu. If it wasn’t for my admiring friend in the white shirt holding my hand while I got in, I would probably have tipped the boat over. On the other side, we all piled into another bus that took us to Brunei immigration. When we came out, there was a yet another bus to take us the rest of the way.

One of the best parts of traveling is trying new things. Floor level squat toilets are fun and much preferable to the ones with just a bowl and no seat. Your legs don’t get as tired when they are at floor level and you can really squat over them versus keeping your legs bent at 90°. But imagine if you have never seen a toilet bowl with a seat? How would you approach it? Well, I included some directions I recently saw. I always thought it was self explanatory but I guess not.

And here is our hotel in Kuching: 1°33’23.21″N, 110°21’17.63″E

–
Robert J Kent Jr
Wat/San/Health Engineering Consultant

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

–
Robert J Kent Jr
Wat/San/Health Engineering Consultant