The Wanderings of busman7

Population of the entire country 375,000 a bit of a change from Bangkok’s 10,000,000+ & it covers an area of only 5765 sq km, making it one of the smallest countries on earth. An interesting bit of trivia, Brunei owns a cattle station in Australia, Willleroo, which is larger than the country itself & I intend on passing by when I am in the northern territory.

The capitol city, Bandar Seri Begawan (BSB), population 81,500 on first impression seems really small with it’s lack of high rise buildings but lots of green space & it’s compact airport is a welcome change from Bangkok’s monstrous Suvarnabhumi (bear with me as after 2 months in Bangkok, it’s kind of a culture shock leaving), shall go exploring in the morning.

Oh yeah & no alcohol in Brunei except for what a nonmuslim tourist is allowed to bring in. Only giving all these dry facts & figures because if you are like me, you have never heard of the country or met anyone who has visited, one of the reasons I decided to include it when Borneo was added to my itinerary. Also it’s the first country listed in Lonely Planet’s SE Asian guide book which, with the exception of East Timor, I will have visited all, by the end of next week when I reach Indonesia.

So BSB makes a good place to spend a day to get away from Thailand’s tourist scene as not that many here & the ones that are are so full of themselves they can’t be bothered to talk to you anyway. It’s just the boat operators that try to get you to take a ride but they aren’t too aggressive so not a problem, will take one this evening when it cools down a bit. Checked out the town this morning with a visit to the mosque & museum, then it got too hot for walking so will chill with HBO & A/C this aft then boat ride & check out the night market after.

Tomorrow morning catch the Blue Bus to Miri in Sarawak Malaysian Borneo.

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 24th, 2010 at 00:00 and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.