Brunei
Early in the morning we set sail heading towards Brunei. A 3-hour trip in a freezing cold ferry (yes, people around here love to put their A/Cs as low as 17.C... go figure!) takes us to Labuan - this town is the equivalent of Aland, an island where all the ferries from Finland/Estonia stop on the way to Sweden and it functions as a little tax paradise for alcohol lovers. Malaysia is mainly a muslim country which leads to high taxes on alcohol, especially beer (I haven't even seen wines on supermarkets or restaurants menus) that is priced at about 8 Ringits (roughly 2 Euros) for a small can - given that you can easily have a full meal for 3-5 ringits, this is clearly a luxury in Malaysia! However, in Labuan you will find alcohol at normal Asian prices (0.50 Euros a can) causing people to invade all the duty free shops in the place in order to help themselves with cheap booze.
At Brunei a bit of a different experience awaits us: for the first time we're not staying in some lodge/hostel but chose to do some couchsurfing (for those who don't know what this is... google it:P) instead and have a different look at the place! Judging from the info in LP (short for Lonely Planet), we thought we'd be entering a rather strict country, extremely conservative and so the fact of bringing in some alcohol (even as a gift!) sounded like a bald idea to us!
However, reality turned out to be quite different. Bruneians are actually very relaxed in this sense and, in fact, only 65% of the population is muslim which might give a little insight to the reality "behind the scenes". People were extremely welcoming and, having been a British protectorate until very recently, a lot of people speak English flawlessly (in fact, many people use it as a first language together with Malay!).
Zaza (our host) comes to pick us up at the harbor and her style makes me believe that Brunei is indeed far more relaxed towards physical contact and in appearance than what I thought: "No physical contact between a man and a woman", "Dress conservatively" are some of the sentences that come to my head from the guide... well, Zaza was dressed in surfer shorts and with 2 piercings on her upper left eye-brow... she definitely does not strike me as a conservative person! Sure, there are always exceptions but as I quickly found out, Brunei is indeed far more different than what is sold to us on the books!
She drives us into Bandar Seri Begawan center (the capital) in her Mini Cooper S and I'm positively impressed at the traffic (nearly non-existent) and the surrounding nature. The whole 25km drive on the freeway is bounded by forest on both sides and the air feels somewhat more fresh and clean! A few very important facts about this little sultanate: no taxes, free education, free health care, low prices, high salaries... sounds like a bargain, huh? Well, it is! Cars cost less than half of what they do in Europe and the fuel costs... well, let's say that the price per liter of unleaded is around 0.30 EUR while diesel does not even reach 0.20 EUR! With that said, it is clear that EVERYONE drives a car, public transportation is very limited (also bear in the mind that the population in the metro area is of only 200.000 people) and you don't see many people on the streets... they are probably shopping or eating! The 2 major entertainments for Bruneians... officially ;)
Zaza has clearly done her homework (born in Brunei but brought up abroad) when it comes to the country's history, culture and society. She explains what buildings we're looking at, which Sultan ordered it to be constructed, what year and often the 'reason' why it was ordered to be built. After arriving to the city center, she drives around for 2 minutes and says... that's it! The number of 'sights' is actually pretty small and you can easily visit them all in a single day. However, the hour is late (4pm) and the stomach is empty so we decided to just grab something to eat and head home to freshen up.
A few hours late, we go to town for a little party... unfortunately, I will leave the details of this evening out of this blog, just like an author often writes that a certain topic is off the scope of the book ;)
The alarm rings early (8am) on December 3rd and it's time for some sightseeing. We start near the infamous Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddin :) and stroll around the park sitting in front of it. As I attempt to enter the mosque I'm confronted with a guard that tells me I need to come back at 1.30pm. I check the board on the stairs... it states 'non-muslim visitors allowed from 1.30 till 3.00 pm) - how did he know I was not a muslim?:) I decide to head back and visit the water villages, set just next to the mosque: this is a very different view from what you except in Brunei! Very humble wooden houses sitting on thin trunks and as far as the eye can see. This is clearly a different part of the city, one that you will not usually see in postcards (I actually found one or two but clearly not the most popular of sights in town!) and that people don't really talk about much. Visitors are also not very common around these areas as most of it is accessible by boat only... and the ride is not that cheap. Dozens of locals driving small boats come around offering their services: "Sir, want to see the proboscious monkey, I can find them all" - he has no idea I have spent the past 5 days watching all different kind of apes, dawn till dusk and have no intention to get another shot at them!
Walking back to the mosque I see a fancy shopping center and quickly discover where all the Bruneians are during daytime: hiding from the sun and spending money in malls! You will see all the 'hot' brands there and at much more attractive prices. Clearly Brunei is a place to visit if u're into shopping, I dare comparing to Paris or New York where some people like to go for their 'xmas shopping' - however, flying to Brunei is not that cheap and they have no interest in attracting more tourists, certainly not a place for 'backpackers' (there is a single hostel in town and u can't even book it online) - many foreigners working in Brunei, mainly Filipinos, actually go through the hassle of taking a 7 hour boat ride to fly from KK to their home countries in order to avoid the high prices charged by Brunei Airlines (which is also the reason why I decided to backtrack to KK to fly to Kuala Lumpur... it was really worth all that extra effort).
Finally the clock shows 1.30pm and it's time to see the mosque. The inside actually looks much like any other Muslim place of worship but given where it is located it certainly gives it a different feeling. I like the fact that give us the black gowns to enter, it makes the visit much more authentic then entering in simple khakis and t-shirt! The inside is humble and non-muslims are only allowed to talk in a single carpet... as I quickly understood as soon as I accidentally stepped out and got warned by the guard. The visit lasts no longer than 10 minutes :)
Outside the view is rather spectacular - there's a lake surrounding it and the reflection makes it look like there's an exact copy of the mosque turned upside down... and since it's mostly sunny, u can enjoy this view pretty much all year 'round.
The city is nearly in its entirety already covered on foot although we do walk a little more and visit a chinese temple (the only chinese temple in Brunei) to then finish our tour in the National Regalia Museum. This is definitely a place worth visiting... as u walk inside u are kindly asked to leave all your belongings in a safe and then head through a well laid out path similar to the one you find in IKEA (if you follow the arrows you will see the WHOLE supermarket and it's no different here). The items displayed are amazing the say the least: everything shines, gold is everywhere (at least golden :D) and it's all impeccably displayed - all the gifts offered by different states and events describing the state's history and events, all is there! From the crown used in the coronation to a photo of the current sultan while in school at the age of 3, nothing is forgotten! The visit last for nearly 2 hours, and I must say that it's a museum that u soon don't forget!
One curiosity... often Portuguese hear the sentence/question "Why is your name so long??". Well, let me just tell you something. The current sultan of Brunei is: Kebawah Duli Yang Maha Mulia Paduka Seri Baginda Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Al-Mu'izzaddin Waddaulah ibni Almarhum Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddien Sa'adul Khairi Waddien. How about that for a long name? ;)
One great thing about being a tourist here is that all the sites are for free. You don't have to pay to go anywhere and it makes the whole thing muuuuuuuch more enjoyable :) There's enough to see and experience in Brunei (I wish I had the time to see the rest of the country...) and that together with the fact that you don't need a car nor to pay for most of the sites make it really worthwhile, even if you are on a tight budget. Just hope that you will find a place to stay... ;)
The sun has now set and Zaza picks us up and drive around a little more for dinner and some other stuff really not worth sharing here... except for the shopping center experience we had later! We wanted to do some shopping before the boat trip and we head for yet another shopping center totally packed with Bruneians entertaining themselves playing some dancing games on Xbox Kinetic in the middle of the mall! There's a huge competition going on, points are assigned to each participant and the top 5 are qualified for the final the day after! People are going totally nuts there, cheering, applauding... nearly a football match!:D
On the way out we pass by a shop that, among other items, has all the material required for... Christmas! Trees, Santa suits, everything is there! This is only one more detail that shows how open and relaxed the society actually is regarding religion. One thing that is not tolerated though is alcohol, so bars and discos simply do not exist in Brunei: people choose their homes as the venue for their 'secret events'...
Needless to say that by 11pm we're dead tired and want to grab some rest before the 7.30am boat...
No comments:
Post a Comment