Braving Borneo

Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei:  Palm Garden Hotel

First and foremost, this hotel is kind of out on it’s own.  It’s not in the city center, it’s not next to the Gadong market (although the walk is only about 10-15 minutes and they’ll drive you there for $5 Brunei).  I was a bit disappointed as we drove up, I checked in and went up to my room.  It is pretty basic, and seems a little run down.  That said, I was just at Le Meridien in Paris a couple night before, so maybe it was just shock of the change.  The staff was very friendly and helpful, I paid $88 brunei including breakfast (about 45€), there is air conditioning, a small pool, and a very nice fitness club on site.  Major drawback for me was the very hard bed.  Overall in summary: decent value for money, location a bit of a challenge, bed not comfortable for “soft mattress” lovers, but otherwise okay.

Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia:

Eden 54

I liked this hotel.  The lady at check in was very friendly and helpful, offering luggage storage if I needed, pointing me towards a restaurant for dinner and supermarket to buy a few snacks.  My room was a bit small but very nicely decorated with dark wood floors, nice colors and furnishings, bed was a bit on the hard side but not too bad.  Free Wifi available in the rooms, I think I paid about 35€. Location is good, in a bustling part of the city with shopping and restaurants right outside, waterfront not too far away.  I would stay there again.

Palace Hotel

This was my favorite hotel.  I had a beautiful, spacious room with wood floors,modern and comfortable furnishings and decorating, a nice bathroom and two relatively comfortable super-twin sized beds.   The entire hotel is very stylish and inviting, with a lovely pool area, nice fitness room, and on-site spa.  My massage therapist was great, and a 60 minute aromatherapy massage only cost about 18€.  Free Wifi in the lobby, air conditioning in the rooms, price including breakfast &tax was about 45€.  The only drawback is location, as the Palace hotel sits on the outskirts of town and really too inconvenient to walk.  A taxi costs 15 MYR (about 4.5€) into town. Still a nice place to stay and I would definitely go here again, especially if you’re looking for relaxation and not intent on the bustling city life.

Hotel Sixty3

Modern, comfortable hotel in a good location.  Since I was miserably sick, I got the most out of the comfortable bed: wasn’t really able to enjoy anything else!   It is farther from the airport than the Palace Hotel, so unless you want proximity to town, I personally preferred the Palace (with on-site spa, pool, etc).  But this one is also nice, similar cost and directly in town with shopping / restaurants just outside.

Mt. Kinabalu, Pendant Hut:

Small hut with dorm rooms.  Bed comfortable enough, sleeping bag, inner sleeping bed and pillow provided (so you don’t have to carry them up the mountain!).  Bring a small towel.  Very friendly staff, tea and coffee available all day.  Not heated, sitting around requires warm clothes.  Breakfast served at the hut (basic food), dinner served a few meters down the hill at Laban Rata (nice buffet).

Nature Lodge Kinabatangan

Good cost/benefit ratio.  Basic accommodation surrounded by jungle, my 1 night package included a bed in a 5-bed dorm room, dinner and breakfast, 2 river safaris and one night jungle walk for 370 MYR (about 100€).  The dorms are built in raised huts, limiting the number of non-human visitors inside, although I did have a friendly gecko perched on the wall next to my bed.  We had shared bathrooms and the showers looked a little scary but were fine.  Overall very natural, I would stay there again despite a not-so-comfortable bed (I could feel the lattice through the mattress).  Our jungle guide was great – very knowledgeable, superb English, entertaining stories and examples about the animals.  There are probably nicer places to stay, but this was good and budget-friendly.

Semporna, Scuba Junkie Dive Lodge

First, please note that a number of establishments run under the Scuba Junkie name: the dive lodge (backpackers lodge) in Semporna, a Bar / restaurant next to the lodge, the dive shop, and the Mabul Beach resort out on mabul island.  It’s important to keep them apart in your thinking, because I rate them quite differently.  I was not impressed with the Lodge in Semporna.  Very dark, dank, musty dorm room, toilets and showers in integrated cabins (3 of them on our floor, not sure if there were more elsewhere) meaning wet toilets all the time, check in staff didn’t seem very helpful or knowledgeable.  The plus: ease (across the street from dive shop), free Wifi, and cheap.  If you dive with Scuba Junkie, a dorm bed including breakfast only costs 25MYR (about 7€).  I can’t say I would stay there again, mainly because of the dark, dank room.  Felt a bit like sleeping in a dungeon.  But maybe there are some better rooms.

Mabul Beach Resort

Love it.   For a few days, maybe up to a week.  Right off the beach sits a collection of little beach huts, main  building with restaurant and bar, and a large building housing some dorm rooms.  The resort jetty is also right there at the beach, with the dive shop at the end of the jetty right next to where you board the dive boats.  My first night, I was in a 10-bed dorm room which was a bit hot and the air felt stale during the night (too many people breathing the same air).  The room itself was nice, all wood floored and paneled, nice looking and relatively comfortable beds, toilets and showers  en suite (4 of them, same strange integrated idea as at the lodge, albeit a bit bigger so water doesn’t get everywhere quite as much).   On my second night, I moved to one of the individual huts and it is great.  One double and one twin bed, ensuite bathroom that is quite roomy, nice porch with table and chairs out front.  All wood paneled and floored, ceiling and standing fan and some huts have airconditioning (you pay more). All rooming options here include 3 meals a day and a small snack at the end of the dive day, around 16:00.  Water, tea and coffee available in the restaurant, pretty much whenever you want it in my experience.  The food is good albeit somewhat monotonous – hence my note that a few days and up to a week is great.  I paid 95 MYR (about 25 €) for the dorm bed and all meals, and 170 MYR (45€) for the beach hut (single supplement, normal price is 115 MYR pp double occupancy).  The huts with air conditioning run about 60 MYR more per day.

The staff is great, especially the guys in the dive shop and the dive staff.  Although also reception and dining room staff are friendly and helpful.   I can definitely recommend this as a good, laid-back place to visit.  Very down to earth, mix of western and asian travelers (mainly western), both long-term travelers/backpackers and regular vacationers.  A bunch of like minded people intent on diving – early to bed, early to rise, conversation centers around diving and travel.  Nice experience overall!

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!

Finally I arrived, a mere 3 ½ hours later than planned (thanks a lot, mister VIP).  Only 1 day in Brunei so this robbed me of 15% of my time!  Part of travel though: take it as it comes and ... [Continue reading this entry]