The mini country on Borneo
Borneo is an island, where 3 countries share the land – the
Malaysian part is called as the island itself Borneo, the Indonesian part is Kalimantan and there is also a tiny country called
Brunei.
We were travelling from Kota Kinabalu to the south, when we stumbled upon Brunei. We decided to visit it as it was on our way, otherwise we probably would have never travelled there.
Not expecting much, we arrived in the afternoon during a big storm. Luckily it stopped, so we could explore the capital Bandar Seri Begawan a bit. But …
Our first surprise was the fact, they don't have sidewalks outside downtown. We were walking almost on a highway with no buses passing, we found taxies after 30 minutes when we arrived at a shopping centre. There we really had to look for a restaurant, where they accept cards, because we didn't have much Bruneian money left. We ended up in Pizza Hut, where we discovered a strange pizza flavour: honey chicken. It is surprisingly very popular there.
We walked to the golden mosque – Jame' Asr Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, which is very impressive by night. It glitters and shines in pure gold.
After walking on the highways back to our accommodation, we found out that we were alone in the house. Spooky, especially when I started telling horror stories – my secret hobby.
The next morning we were waiting and waiting and waiting for the bus. Public transport in Brunei is really unreliable. But then a red car stopped and a guy asked us where we were going. To the centre, we said. “Ok, jump in,” and off we were, super happy he gave us a lift (without even sticking the thumb up).
Again in the centre, we just went to the most famous mosque in the country, known as the floating mosque as water surrounds it. It is allowed to enter, but you have to be dressed properly and women get a burka. Just make sure it's not praying time and they will welcome you with open hands.
From the mosque we walked to the water village, the biggest water village in the world. It's easy to hire a boat to have a better view, or you can easily walk on the lifted pathways and lose yourself between the houses.
In the afternoon we caught the bus to Miri, the border town in Malaysia, from where we continued our way down on Borneo.
