A short visit in religious Brunei

Sunday 13th April

We arrived at the pier in Muara in Brunei. People told us that we shouldn't count on the public bus, it's not always they swing by the pier, it depends on how busy they are. But with 25km to the capital Bangar Seri Begawan (BSB), we were pretty dependent on the bus. Taxi's were to expensive for our budget, so that would be our last option.
We decided to try to hitchhike, and that was much easier than we thought. The third car stopped and brought us the whole way to BSB. The guy was very helpful, he even dropped us off right outside the hostel, and helped us get in contact with the people there. It was a youth hostel connected to a youth center, so they were actually closed on sundays, but Erik had warned them about our arrival, so they knew we were coming. But still there was nobody there, so we just decided to wait for them to come by. It didn't take long before we heard some noise from downstairs.. It was the manager arriving. I think we were lucky that we didn't hang around for longer, before he showed up.
For the first time in Asia, Erik and I wasn't allowed to sleep together. Brunei is crazy religious, so we got seperated in each our section of the building. I shared room with an Italian girl (Ambra), she was on holiday from her third year of working in Australia. She knew a lot about working and living in Australia, so we sucked all the informations we could possible think about, out of her. She made us more calm about finding a job and earning good money, and to my luck she was a waitress, so I have plenty of advised places to look for jobs now.
At night we took a boatride together with her around Kampung Ayer, a water village on stilts, with a population over 20.000 people, 9 primary and 1 secondary schools, their own mosques, police station, fire station and so on. After our sightseeing we met up with a Malay expat - Athur (who Ambra got a free ride from at the pier earlier). He's working for Petronas and was the sweetest guy on earth, he showed us around the city, payed for our local dinner, took us to both the Jame'Ars Hassanil Mosque mosque (the largest in the country) and to Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque and to the palace of the sultan of Brunei. It was an amazing night and Brunei is definitely a special country, with a lot of oil money!

The very nice gentleman that gave us a lift from the pier and into BSB

Female section on the hostel

Bandar Seri Begawan (the capital of Brunei) by night

Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque

Jame'Ars Hassanil Mosque mosque

Front gate to the Sultans palace (it was actually the guard that "forced" us to take a picture with him - big weirdo )

Monday 14th April

We were excited to see more of Brunei. Every museum in the country is free of charge, so we tried to be a little cultural. We started the day with taking a taxi boat to a nice little restaurant in the water village, we were entertained by all the taxi boats that got their lunch delievered in a basket, down in their little boat. We visited the museum in the village and got a good insight in the history behind all the wooden stilt houses. Then we took a taxi boat back to BSB to visit the Brunei museum. Unfortunately the gallery of oil and gas was closed due to constructions of the building, so we only got to visit the technology museum which wasn't interesting at all. Would have been great to learn about how they get the stuff from the underground to the gas pumps, but maybe next time!!
All busses in BSB is unbalanced, so we hitchhiked back to the city, which again to our big surprise was very easy. The population in Brunei is so helpful and friendly, and it was super to get in contact with some locals, and hear their stories and opinions about their rich and special country.
We returned to the hostel after a round of Indian roti (pancake) with chicken, had a quick rest and then we were in for some more sightseeing. Visited the Royal Regalia Museum, which is a celebration to the Sultan of Brunei, and there's an exhibition hall with copies of some of all the gifts he has received from the worlds countries. He's a popular man who have done many good things for his country and it's population. 
Taking the bus from the bus terminal in the city is doable, but that's the only places where you can depend on the bus.
We decided to visit the Gadong Mall, 4km out of town. I don't know why we went there, cause we didn't plan to go shopping and after a quick round in the center, we found ourselves in a coffee shop, leaned back in each our soft chairs and using their free wifi. Still wondering why we went there... When we decided we had used enough time in there, it was dark and of course there wasn't any busses heading back to the city. So what do we do... We hitchhiked again, and got a ride from a young friendly couple, who wasn't heading towards BSB, but decided to drive us the whole way anyway. Finally Erik got his will (I'm very hard to convince...!) and we dined on Burger King.

Breakfast at the big restaurant in Kampung Ayer

Big contrasts in Kampung Ayer 

Tuesday 15th April

Indonesia is up, our flight was 9am from BSB airport. We arranged to meet in the common area at 6am and try to catch the unpredictable bus from the street, and if that didn't go well, we would take a taxi. I slept in, didn't hear the alarm clock, Erik had realized that something was wrong cause I was suppose to put our shared toothpaste on a shelf for him, when I was done with it.
He had been yelling out my name, outside the woman section for 10 min, when a girl finally offered to help him. I would have liked to see his face, he was on fire at this point.. Neihter Erik nor the girl knew which room I was in, but eventually I woke up by someone knocking on my door. Time was 5.49am, and I should be meeting Erik at 6, I was so confused and stressed out, and knew there was a mad Erik waiting for me... I managed to pack my stuff together within seconds, and actually be ready at 5.55am. No time for toothbrushing, toiletvisit, water in my face.. Didn't have time for anything!! And guess who I had to wait for in the common area... Oh yeah Erik. He used all his time on getting a hold on me, so he wasn't finish with his packing yet. What a wonderful morning!
Bottom line is that we made it out on the street for 6 o'clock, and the bus would maybe come very soon. A woman passing us told us to walk to the busterminal instead of waiting at the side of the road (as the busdriver told us the day before) - while walking towards the terminal a car pulled over and asked where we were going.
We were astonished over his kindness, and to our luck he was on his way to work - in the airport! How lucky could we possible be! He dropped us off right in front of the departure hall, and we couldn't thank him enough. Brunei is definitely on the list with the best countries and the sweetest population.
Our flight to Kuala Lumpur went fine, we had 4 hours waiting time there, spended on writing this and Erik making videos.
We arrived in Denpassar airport on Bali around 7pm. As Erik said it, this was the first time we arrived in a new country and he didn't get new energy.. Not because of Bali, but because we feel a bit feed up with travels now. We have decided to stay at places longer time, and not travel so much around here. Public transport is like going back to Laos, and there's no energy left for that. So we will take it easy here in Indonesia.. Let's see how that's gonna work out for us..!
That's all for now - but there's more to come very soon...

Brunei money

100 Brunei dollar = 433 Danish kroner

Brunei Video