We were packed up and waiting in the lobby of our lovely Somerset Hotel at 11:45, and our transport was due at noon. There was a definite edge of concern that the transport might turn out to be one of the incredibly decrepid minivans we had been in on the way back from the longhouse. The seats had had all padding beaten out of them through years of over-use, and had the disconcerting feeling that they weren't actually bolted to the floor properly.
This concern soon turned to doubt that we were actually going to get there at all when there was no sign of anyone by 12:30. Then, shortly afterwards a chap turned up and took us, not to a knackered old mazda van, but to a brand spanking new spacious air conditioned car. Bonus! We tootled off, but I had to check that we weren't stopping to squash any more passengers in. The driver replied no and me and the lady congratulated each other on money well spent. That was until 10 minutes later when we pulled into a depot full of knackered old mazda minivans. Bugger! It turned out though that we were just picking up some supplies for the journey and we carried on our journey in the plush car.
From there on it was a fairly uneventful trip apart from the fact that all petrol stations in Brunei close for a long lunch on Friday. This resulted in us having to pull over and have an extended lunch until we could fill up the car for the remainder of the journey. I just about coped with this dramatic change of events.
BSB on arrival seemed like an incredibly tidy, landscaped version of the cities we had been in Sarawak. There were lots of modern buildings around, but the streets seemed strangely empty of pedestrians. We later realised that this was because pretty much everyone has a car here.
We went for a wander, and quickly came across this modest celebration of the Sultan.
The royal mosque known as Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddin Mosque, built in 1958 was an incredible sight.
Its gold leaf covered dome and minarets were very OTT but really stunning.
Apart from a number of rather empty shiny malls, downtown too felt a little underpopulated. There was nothing like the bustle of our the places we had recently visited in Malaysian Borneo. We had a look at our lonely planet, and decided we really didn't need to stay longer than one night. The country's only other main attractions were the temptingly bizarre sounding theme park known as Jerudong Amusement Park. This like the scandalously expensive Empire Country Club was built when the Sultan's brother Prince Jefri Bolkiah was accidentally left in charge of the country's finances, and nearly bankrupted the entire economy. Now both these sites are apparently rather lacking in maintenance, and are falling into disrepair. We didn't quite have the energy for either though, so opted for a tour by water taxi of the fascinating water villages that surround BSB. These provide the vast majority of the city's workforce.
We wandered down to the waterfront, and a super speedy young chap managed to have the bow of his boat up on the steps in front of us before we quite knew what was happening. After a quick haggle we decided on a reasonable price to hire him for an hour, and we went on our way.
The dock in the centre of town was a mass of speeding boats, who somehow missed colliding with each other with a practised ease.
The houses of the water villages didn't seem particularly high off the water. I guessed we must have been pretty near high tide at the time.
This was one of large number of primary schools that our guide pointed out to us. Some of them seemed huge. He told us there were six primary schools and one very large secondary school. In total there were about 25,000 people living in the network of water villages. Clairy liked the stacked furniture to the side.
The juxtaposition of the richly adorned mosque and the ramshackle houses in front was quite a sight.
Our guide informed us that one of the buildings here was the old palace that the current sultan was born in. We were not sure quite which one he meant though as they just looked like rather ordinary tower blocks.
They sky was looking filled with rain and there was a fairly constant rumble of thunder in the distance. We were glad we had been chosen by a covered boat.
The lady, enjoying zooming along the waterways. They did really feel like streets, as the occasional shop and business passed us by.
There were quite a few pedestrian bridges. Some of which seemed a little too low to fit under, but that didn't slow our guide down.
The main mosque on this side of the water village.
The dome you can see here is actually the roof of the sultan's palace. It is thought to be the largest palace in the world with over 1587 rooms. Our guide cheerfully informed us that the first three floors are just filled with the sultans car collection.
Another view of the palace looking down our lovely water taxi. The boat was all wood, beautifully painted and looked after.
This house had been gutted by fire, apparently due to an electrical fault. There were a number of fire stations around with both road vehicles and boats for getting to the fires as quickly as possible.
Another mosque.
In some places the waterways were very narrow, but this didn't stop the water taxis from absolutely hairing it around.
The huge secondary school. Our young guide was a pupil here.
One of the fire stations.
Yet another mosque. You can't have too many it seems.
In a bit of a hurry.
Check out this stunning pic. The pot of gold is somewhere in the mosque.
Our guide told us that the boats in the distance are moored at his taxi company's headquarters and that the business was started by his grandfather in the forties.
A hairy beast, with the water village museum in the background.
Our very cheerful guide.
Oh hi!
What a lovely vessel.
We got back literally just as the heavens opened in a mahoosive Borneo style tropical downpour. We had some dinner, and then made our way to a coffee shop to shelter from the rain. Clairy spotted this shop window of super bright materials for women's clothing.
Fortunately the coffee shop had free wifi, so we stayed for a while hoping the rain would relent and let us get back to the hotel. It didn't though, so we hopped in a taxi, who's driver was the lovely Amy, and she generously gave us all the information we needed and a bargain price to take us to the ferry wharf the next morning to continue our journey on to Sabah and Kota Kinabalu.
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