salam...no time...
THURSDAY 20 JULY
We spent far too long in Brunei doing jack! There were lots to do but we spent
too long just chatting and listening to Dhakah moaning, quite entertainingly
though, about the useless Bangladeshi passport. And so it's no surprise that
this day started in such fashion at the dhal place.
Then, after reconfirming our flights to Oz and me getting their visa, we headed
for Muara beach, which is to the North of the country (not surprisingly).
Despite some driftwood it was a great beach, the fine sands extending forever
in to the South China Sea though that did make swimming very difficult. (I went
out almost 150 meters but was still only hip deep.) But most of the time was
spent just relaxing and writing in the warm fresh wind. It felt good.
Going there at Zuhr time, we left after Maghrib. But where do you go when
public transport ended an hour earlier. (Taxis are way too much, remember?). We
weren't so lucky with hitch-hiking this time unfortunately, not even with an
out of service bus returning to Bandar. So we eventually returned to the bus
station, asking people about our options. Without helping themselves, people
kept directing us to where the Bengalis hang out. Eventually we met a couple of
our countrymen, explained our predicament, and they invited us to stay at their
place. Great!
They had chicken feet for dinner so it was fortunate that I'd already had
eaten! They told us about the economic hardship that Brunei (and consequently
themselves) has been going through for the past two years or so (yep, now I
understand why they've started charging for Jerudong Park!) and also mentioned
how, just like the Gulf Arabs, the locals look down on the immigrant workers.
It was very sad to hear.
FRIDAY 21 JULY
After initially going the wrong way on leaving the Bengali guys' house, we got
a lift back to Muara bus station. Following my hair trim we headed back to
Bander. Had brunch at the dhal place, asked the Indonesian waitresses where
they bought their dresses and went to the shop to buy a few. Couldn't find ones
as good as they were wearing and besides, they were too expensive for
shoestring travellers.
Went to the river but didn't have time to go to Kampung Ayer again for we had
return swiftly for Jum'a. Prayed at the Omar Saifuddin masjid. It was a big
jammat as one would expect in the central mosque of the country.
After the prayer, bumped in to Dhakah again, (and a guy we stayed with the
prevuious night), talked, emailed (nearly 2.4GBP/hour so it wasn't for too
long), had lunch, chatted, and prayed Asr. Then Mustafa and my plan was to go
to the Sultan's palace and pay another visit to the Jame Asr Hassanal Bolkiah
masjid but Dhakah wanted to tag along. But only after going back to Pusat Belia
to say goodbye to a Morrocan. We went along but this dodn't leave enough time
to go to both places. Mustafa went for Sunset photos of the mosque; Dhakah got
afraid of having to walk back and didn't go anywhere; and I didn't go anywhere
because I wanted to write but unfortunately ended most of the time keeping
Dhakah company.
Again we didn't want to pay for a bed and so for the second night we slept in
the prayer room. Three free nights out 5 is not bad!
SATURDAY 22 JULY
After three months in Asia it was time for another continent. It was time for
Australasia, Oceania or whatever you wanna call it. Five days in Brunei is just
enough time to see most things worth seeing but we didn't do so, the last
couple of days stagnating too much, so in some ways it was good to leave. But
Inshallah I will return soon.
The day started in the usual fashion. (I'll leave you to work it out.) We then
said goodbye to Dhakah and the dhal place, made a call to friends in Perth (who
weren't in), went to the post office and headed teh Sultan's Palace.
Though we knew that the only time that the Istana Nurul Iman is open only for
three days after Ramadhan, we thought we could get good views of it from the
outside. Even that was not to be, even getting bitten by some ferocious ants in
trying to get good photo shots didn't help. We got better view of the golden
extravagance from the river three days earlier. We were heading for a better
vantage point but ran out of time (didn't wanna risk misisng the flight) so
headed back to the hostel and caught a bus to the airport (with another
Canadian (Vancouver). I've met many more Canadians on this trip than
Americans.)
More trouble getting through passport checks, I'm afraid. It was the usual
story that you are very familiar with by now but with an exeption - I lost it
man! I can get get quite animated when I'm angry! It can be quite funny!
Anyway, eventually I was released with apologies. And so on to the "North,
South, East or West, Royal Brunei is Asia's best" flight to Perth. The
vegetarian food was fantastic!
Australians are very strict about what can and cannot be brought in to the
country and so we had to declare the infamous chess set of Penelokan. There was
a risk of them confiscating it but they didn't fortunately.
And so Perth. I'd spoken to our friends answer phones a couple of times from
Brunei and knowing that they were due to go England very soon, I feared that
they'd already left. But there they were waiting for us at the airport! It was
greta to see them after three years. (We'd met on the North Anerican tour of
1997.)
Boy, it was great to sleep in a comfortable bed for a change!
wassala,...
NZ soon...
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