Borneo Bound: A day in Brunei (23rd March 2010)

This morning Blanka and I had made a plan to visit the Royal Regalia Museum which appears to be all about the sultan and all about how great he is! It also holds all the gifts he was given from all the different heads of countries for his coronation in 1967. The gift from our Queen was an interesting one, it was like a large green glass vase! Apparently it’s meant to be a beer mug but I’m a little wary of that interpretation seeing as Brunei is dry! I’m sure in 1967 someone somewhere advised her that this was going to be the best gift to get the sultan but really?? Some of the other gifts were quite incredible in choice and design ranging from small handmade objects from small villages within some of the Malaysian states to elaborate gold and silver ornaments. I’m not sure what use he ever got out of his gifts though seeing as they are all now being glass cabinets! :-)

I have to say though it was a very interesting museum and I could have stayed longer if it wasn’t soooo cold in there.

Next stop was a coffee shop. They don’t have alcohol here but they do have 24 hour coffee shops.

After a sufficient refill we headed off to the mosque. Blanka had already been there on her last visit but now she had nothing to do until her flight this evening so came along as well. It is, of course, a very elaborate mosque and really beautiful with it. We’re allowed to visit inside but only very briefly and we were only allowed to walk on the tourist carpeted areas and of course we had to totally cover up. We took lots of photos of the outside and even some of us with our cover up gear on, it’s not a great pic though so I won’t be publishing that one either. :-)

After the mosque we went off for a wander around another part of the water village, this was one you could just walk to and we saw some really lovely places in amongst the not so nice places. One lady even invited us into her home to show us around and it was very surprising considering it was on stilts over the river. We would have liked to stay longer with her but Blanka had a flight to get to and all the walking was taking its toll on my tired legs and I needed a rest.

Tomorrow morning, on Dannys advice, I’m taking a coach from Bandar to cross the border into Sarawak and then onto Miri. Then the plan is to have one night in Miri before heading down to Niah Caves NP and then onto Kuching where Keith will join me on Sunday.

So now for the next part of the story and you just wont believe what happened to me next!! Really, I can’t make this stuff up!

After Blanka had left to catch her flight I thought I would have a bit of a break from the heat, take a shower and relax for an hour before going out to get a bite to eat and those award winning pics of the mosque at night. Well the pics of the mosque at night was fantastic, if I do say so myself and I even had the company of a very cute mini Milo, almost as vocal as Milo as well. I then had dinner at a lovely Indian Muslim place that did the best Mee Goreng I have tasted since I’ve been here and after that I headed over to the Coffee Bean cafe to try and catch up a bit with the blog and make some plans for Sarawak. Brunei is a dry country so the entire youth population seemed to be in two side by side coffee shops on their computers so I joined in. Connection wasn’t that great and just before 11pm I decided to call it a night and head back to the hostel. The entire hostel is surrounded by 10ft high fencing and protected by foot long metal spikes, I had asked Blanka the night before if there was a curfew but she didn’t know and seeing as we were back fairly early it was ok. Tonight however was a different story! As I approached the main gate I caught a glimpse of what I thought were closed gates (!) as I got nearer and actually up to them I say that they were not only closed but locked with a great big chain and padlock!! Oh at this point I should also point out that the building is also surrounded by a moat oh and there was a storm going on, thunder, lightning and rain!!! To reach the gate you go over a little bridge and either side of the bridge is a lethal rounded type spiked system making it impossible to climb over the bridge and over the fence from that angle!! It wasn’t looking good, my stomach lurched, oh my god, what now? I called out to see if anyone was around but the whole place seemed totally deserted. I had visions of trying to climb over the fence and impaling myself on the foot long metal spikes and not being found till the morning! I also had visions of having to try and book into a hotel somewhere and then get back to the hostel in the morning and then on to the bus, at the moment I wasn’t sure what was the worse option, this country isn’t cheap you know! J I called out again but no answer and so for some reason I decided to try and climb over the gate. I hung my bag of water and tomorrows breakfast on the gate with my umbrella, then with my backpack on my back with my laptop inside, oh and in a skirt I might add, I amazingly managed to scale the fence! I’m still not sure how I did it really.

I was shaking when I got to the other side but managed to collect my belongings off of the spikes and head up to the dorm, only to find two guys sitting outside chatting, literally about 30 metres from where I was calling and they were totally oblivious to all the drama, they said ‘Hi’ as I walked by so I returned the greeting and headed off to my room, only to find my hands were absolutely filthy with black oily tar of some sort, I think it was the kinda stuff they coat railings and fences with to stop people getting over them, fortunately for me it didn’t work in quite that way tonight, but getting the black stuff off of my hands is a serious mission!! At least I was back inside the hostel, I did wonder though what would have happened if we wanted to get out in an emergency............I guess we just didn’t.