Brunei 2000, Part 3

WEDNESDAY 19 JULY

Woke up still very tired. My body didn’t feel like going to Temburong, the
district, much of which is virgin forest, that is cut off from the rest of the
country by Sarawak. But Mustafa convinced me to go and I’m glad of it for I had
a great day.

After breakkie at the same dhal place, along with Byron and London we took a
speed boat along Sungais Brunei and Temburong, and their many tributaries, to
Bangar, the district centre of Temburong. The ride on the roof of the small
speedboat through mangroved rivers was simply fantastic! The boat was very fast
(unlike Australian trains!) and it was especially great when boats would
approach from the other direction, creating waves that really rocked our boat!
Quiet an experience!

From Bangar we shared  a taxi to the Peradayan Forest Reserve. Hiked up through
the rain forest, seeing the biggest vine ever, to the summit of Bukit Patoi.
Over half of the way up was on raised wooden platforms and steps. It felt a bit
artificial but at least it was wood that we were walking on and not a paved
road. Byron’s flight to Darwin was at 3pm so left when the platforn ended.

The hike was very pleasant and the view of the surrounding rain forest, which
seemed to extend forever, was good but not as great as London, who for some
reason thought Brunei was a city state, found it to be. It was not “the most
amazing thing” !

Coming down, we met a Swiss who’d been covering the Sultan’s birthday for a
German speaking newspaper and was at his birthday dinner and will be next year
too. We left a message for the Sultan!

Our driver then took us back to Bangar, where London got off and headed back to
Bandar, and continued with us to Batang Duri, 17km South of Bangar. There was
an interesting small zoo there, if a little bare, with native animals such as
otters, mongeese and many sorts of birds including one, which we met near the
end, that said “Assalamaualikum” to us! Near the zoo was a traditional dayak
longhouse. One needs to spend more time there to really appreciate it but we
were in a hurry to catch the last boat back to Bandar.

Yes, another exciting boat journey through the jungle! Of course we were
sitting on the roof again. Got great views of Kampung Ayer and the many domes
and minarets rising from it as we approached Bandar. The best thing about this
day were the boat rides!

Following a fat lunch/dinner at the usual (oh, what I’d give now for
traditional Indian/Bengali food made by Indians/Bengalis and not the bland
stuff made by Hari Krishnas, hippies and other ‘alternatives’), we headed for
Jerundong Park again. This time, despite there being hardly anybody there, it
was open. I hate theme parks because of having to queue for ages to enjoy a
ride lasting only a few minutes at most. But Jerundong was different! Very
different! Not only did we not have to queue for anything, they even had to
start up some of the rides for us! For the first half hour or so we didn’t even
see any other visitors!

Being Brunie, the rides close for 25 minutes during prayer times. Prayed
Maghrib before starting on the rides. The rides were all free until very
recently but now only the crap one are so. The good ones cost two to 3 dollars
but I have to admit even most of these were crap. (There was a good vertical
drop one though.) Perhaps not having to wait in queues for ages had something
to do with it, you know, even crap rides will seem good after you’ve been
sweating in line for hours.

Spent the last 2 hours playing arcades games. This was the best value. Thought
we’d have 4 hours but they closed the park at midnight rather than than the
advertised 2am. We were planning on spending the night at the park or near but
with it closing early, meaning that we would’ve had longer to stay outside
before the buses (they stop at 6pm, remember?) started again in the morning,
didn’t really help.  

We were on our way to the place of a Bengali who works at the park when at the
exit we saw a bunch of Malaysian university students waiting for a bus back to
the outskirts of Bandar. Started talking to them and eventually got on their
bus. The bus dropped them off before Bandar but the driver said he’d take us to
Pusat anyway. Only after arriving did the driver talk about a bus fare, but we
paid anyway.

We’d only paid for two nights at Pusat Belia and had already used them. Didn’t
wanna pay for more so we slept in the prayer room for free! 10BDR is a lot when
you’ve been used to paying 2 or three and besides, the musollah, which even had
pillows, was comfortable enough so why pay for a bed!