BootsnAll Travel Network



“The Abode of Peace”

Brunei Darussalam, the complete name of the country I’m currently visiting, translates to the title of this post.  And in many ways, lives up to it.  Whether walking along the waterfront, watching and waving to the water taxis zipping past, or coming home in the night along jungle-lined lanes while listening to the frogs and crickets chirp, it is certainly a relaxing and peaceful place to be. Not to sound like a tourism brochure or anything.  But hey, maybe the Sultan will read this and decide he needs to hire me to do his marketing.  🙂

This morning I braved the public bus system.  As I’ve come to expect, the hotel staff was a bit shocked, if not somewhat appalled.  The very nice guy behind the reception desk this morning looked at me with wide eyes and explained where I needed to walk to the bus stop, which buses I could get on, and then emphasized twice, “…but they don’t run on a regular schedule.”  I said that it’s fine and asked how much time in between buses coming by.  I probably shouldn’t even be surprised,  but his answer was ‘it just depends – maybe 15 minutes, maybe 30 minutes, there’s no way of knowing’.

As a matter of fact, bus 22 pulled up to my stop about 10 meters ahead of me. I jogged and stepped on just in time, to a bus full of smiles.  I guess the locals liked watching a tourist jog to make it.  Bus driving, by the way, is a two person job here – one person to drive, one to open and shut the door and collect fare.  And when I promptly handed the fare collector the standard $1 brunei just as if I do this everyday, I scored another smile.

In town, I walked along the waterfront until a water taxi waved me down and suggested going for a ride.   We negotiated the tour I wanted and a reasonable price (I had enquired at the hotel and they warned me it would cost $20, so when the taxi driver suggested $20, I acted shocked and explained it was too much, how about $15? He accepted and off we sailed! well, motored.)  We cruised towards the Sultan’s palace (couldn’t see much, mostly just golden roofs sticking out above the jungle) and all along Kampung Ayer, a water

village spread out along the river with over 8 km of wooden walkways holding it together.  This is a beautiful place, which has a bit of everything, all of it built on stilts over the water:  run down shacks made of scrap parts, beautiful houses, police station, multiple schools, mosques, a hospital, a market, a tourism center, and a couple of small snack bars. Oh – and of course, a gas station for all the water taxis to fill up!

Back on the mainland, I wandered about and was enthusiastically greeted by at least half the people I walked past, including old market stall vendors, some guys hanging out looking like gang members, a policeman, some fishermen and just random people walking around.  You see, I stick out like a sore thumb.  There are people who can travel and just seem to blend in wherever they go – I’m not one of them.  And especially here, where I’ve seen exactly one other not-black-haired person since I boarded the plane yesterday.  I am so obviously out of place, and everyone wants to know my story.  What are you doing here?  For how long?  Are you by yourself?  Where are you from?  What’s your name?  What are you doing while you’re here?  What do you think of Brunei?  While sometimes I wish I just fit in, mostly I find it endearing and enjoy the easiness of having conversations with the locals, even if sometimes we only understand half of what the other is saying!

On my walk back to the hotel, i found a guy who had strung line across a little drain running through town and was pulling fish from it. And then just 50m down the road, I found yet another fisher. Neither of them was appreciate of my photo-taking and disappeared while I was snapping away.

Walking along, it started getting hot. And then very hot.  A guy drove by and asked if I wanted a ride, which I politely declined (intent on saving taxi fare and walking home).  He mentioned that he thought I was heading in the wrong direction and of course I insisted he was wrong.  Which in hindsight, is at minimum presumptive and in all right even rather stupid, given he’s the locall and I’ve been here for a whole 19 hours.  (in my defense, he didn’t seem very sure, and I have many years of training in exuding utter confidence regardless of reality!) He left, I consulted my map, and realized (surprise!), I had missed a turn and was heading in the wrong direction.  I turned around and headed back.  It got even hotter, and quite uncomfortable.  10 minutes later my friend the would-be taxi driver came by again and politely suggested maybe he should take me to my hotel (as I obviously was lost).  I gave in and asked how much, only to be completely surprised when he said – nevermind, he just thinks he should take me.  Which he did, with no expectation of remuneration of any kind.  The world really is filled with a lot of good people.

Here are a few more shots from around town, enjoy while I head off to the airport.  Next stop, Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia!

The "flowers" line the streets around the main mosque - they have loudspeakers! No wonder the call to prayer woke me up


Rambutan tree growing along the street

Mosque in the center of Bandar

my lunch getting cooked



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2 responses to ““The Abode of Peace””

  1. Jill says:

    I liked the fisherman pics – reminds me of a pic we took in africa of the guy and crowned crane gardening together!

    Glad someone got you back to your hotel (now they are going to have dumb blonde jokes even in malaysia!!) 🙂

  2. maybe they already do, and that’s why they are all so friendly to me. sense of pity…