Brunei, BSB: Modern Living in the Middle of the Jungle

This mosque in Gadong, a suburb of BSB, was constructed with real gold - the Sultan spares no expense for this rich country
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After checking out some of the Malaysian Borneo national parks in Sarawak, we decided to venture into the small, strict Islamic country of Negara Brunei Darussalam (the Abode of Peace), known for the rest of this journal entry simply as Brunei. Brunei is situated in the north of the island Borneo between the Malaysian states of Sarawak and Sabah, and is covered in around 80% pristine rainforest. The primary purpose of our trip to Brunei was to explore the jungle interior of Ulu Temburong National Park, but our first stop in Brunei was to its most populous city and capital, Bandar Seri Begawan. We'll keep it simple and refer to this city as BSB, which seems to be what everyone else in Borneo does.

A view of part of the large water village (Kampung Ayer) in BSB where 30,000 residents live
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As you should know by now, we flew from Mulu to Miri, both of which are in the Sarawak state of Malaysia. Miri is over 2 hours by car to BSB in Brunei, and since there is no easy way to get from Miri to BSB by bus (no trains at all), we had someone pick us up from the airport and drive us. The guy who picked us up was named David and works for a company called Intrepid Tours, whom we booked a 3 day tour through to explore Ulu Temburong.

The water village has over 30,000 residents, all living in wooden houses built on stilts in the river.

It was strange to see so many things in Arabic in the middle of the island Borneo
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After a very easy border crossing into Brunei, the first sight we saw was a long-tailed macaque casually strolling across the small, two-lane highway. It didn't seem bothered at all that we were driving about 55 mph towards him, so we had to slow down and wait for him to get across the road. The only thing Kyle could think of was why the monkey was crossing the road, and all Dan was thinking was that the monkey wanted to get to the other side.

The day we arrived in Brunei and BSB was a national holiday and it was very quiet on the streets. We gathered that celebrations for this holiday were in full swing and extremely extravagant, as several Bruneions seem to be quite wealthy judging by the immense and beautiful houses we passed on the journey to BSB. David told us that a lot of Bruneions cross the border into Malaysia to buy alcohol for the national holiday, as alcohol is completely forbidden in Brunei.

The view of the Sultan's mosque in BSB at night from our accommodation was very beautiful
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BSB was a surprise when we arrived as it was a very clean city and more picturesque and modern than we imagined it would be. We arrived in late afternoon and the weather was gorgeous, so we took a stroll around BSB to see some of its sights, including the Sultan's mosque, a view of the large water village in the Brunei River across from the city and a couple of large markets in the city centre. It was pretty hot so we decided to visit a large shopping mall in a suburb of BSB called Gadong. The buses stopped running at 6:00pm and we had to hop in a taxi. Our driver was very friendly and offered to stop at another large mosque, the biggest in Brunei (and we think the nicest as well).

It was an eye-opener to see the poor water village in front of the wealthy Sultan's impressive mosque
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Gadong Shopping Centre was a very new and modern mall consisting of 3 floors, one of which was devoted entirely to food and a large cinema. We enjoyed sitting down to eat in the air conditioned food court before seeing a Japanese horror film called "Ghost Tunnel". We went in with low expectations as we hadn't heard anything about the film, and we were surprisingly pleased with it. In fact, we think it is the best Japanese film either of us has ever seen - Sparks and Wills give this one "two thumbs up". After the movie, we saw what locals in BSB do for fun on a Saturday night, or least those under 30. Cruising the streets around Gadong Shopping Centre in souped-up Japanese cars seems to be the national pastime.

View of the Sunday market in BSB from the balcony where we stayed
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The next day, we walked a little bit more around BSB and the started out 3 day tour. The first part of the tour was actually in BSB itself, and we went on a boat tour around Kampung Ayer (a water village) located in the Brunei River across from the city. The water village has over 30,000 residents, all living in wooden houses built on stilts in the river. Most of the families in the kampung have lived there for their entire lives and do not wish to take the government's offer of a free house built on land. They wish to keep their traditional way of life, and some of them have a really good set-up, with satellite TV, broadband internet access and all the modern conveniences you or I would expect to have.

The entrance room in a water village house is only used to entertain guests
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We were able to enter one of the houses and were seated in a very grand entrance room, which is only used to entertain guests. It is tradition that the room is not used for just the family or for kids to play in, unless there are guests at the house. We took our shoes off, entered the house and were greeted by the husband and wife who lived there. They served us tea and several delicious Bruneion sweets made of congealed rice. We walked through the house after tea, and saw a long hallway with bedrooms off either side. Then we viewed the kitchen and washroom, both of which were very large. The particular family we visited made a living selling their congealed desserts so a large kitchen was essential, but most of the houses were set up in a similar way, with large rooms all around.

Water village residents taking their longboat to the mall
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After the water village tour, we were to get a fast water taxi to a small town called Bangar, where our guide for the Ulu Temburong tour would be waiting. To read more about this tour and see photos of the Bruneion jungle, be sure to check out our next journal entry for Ulu Temburong in Brunei.