Day 37: Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei

Brunei is surprisingly different than its Malaysian Borneo neighbors, but it is really quite simple in terms of tourism. Let’s be honest: when you have oil money, do you really need tourism dollars? It has two fascinating elements:

• Sultan
• Kampong Ayer Water Village

Let’s start with the Sultan. Most people tell you to go on the water to go and see the Sultan’s palace. We decided that anybody could do that –we’re going to take the bus! Apparently nobody takes the bus. We asked our hotel, we asked the tourism office beneath us, and it was only the other bus driver we asked at the station who actually told us the right number. Did we see the Sultan’s palace from a better angle via the bus? Not really; however, anybody can see the palace; not everybody can see his driveway and his gate! The grounds are really quite incredible. From what we could see, one border of his property stretched at least 1-1.5 kms. As you walk along, you can see there is a freakin’ water park inside the palace gates. Why not? If I was Sultan and had some odd bazillion dollars and my grandkids wanted to go to a water park, I’d build them a water park. This ain’t no Duck Dynasty!

We then decided to go to the Royal Regalia museum. This museum shows just some of the trinkets that have been gifted to the Sultan over the years. By trinkets I mean gold stuff. As we looked at the various gifts, we judged the gifting countries just a little bit. I mean, who wants a photograph (ahem, Australia – bad gift!) when somebody else can gift you a replica of a some odd BC emperor’s terra cotta chariot (well played China, well played). However, it wasn’t just gifts that were there – they also had all of the Sultan’s coronation & 25^th Jubilee adornments as well. Now we are talking gold! Gold everywhere! Not only does he have the usual golden scepters, the golden hand to hold up his head during the ceremony, the golden spears, umbrellas, throne with tiger skins, gold embroidered clothing, etc; but he also has a man-powered, gold painted chariot that is used to pull him through the street afterwards. Plus his 24-36 nobles who follow him dressed in very specific attire, carrying very specific items (swords, shields, spears, weird golden box for bettle nuts) and having to walk on foot. Oh, did I mention there isn’t just one of these in this museum. Oh no – there are two! They built a second one just for his 25^th Jubilee. Why not?

Afterwards we decided not to go over to Kampong Ayer but rather just watch the water taxis go to it. Kampong Ayer is a 1000 year old stilt village. It is also the largest stilt village in the world. It is directly across from BSB, separated by a river. The water taxis must be able to spot my reflective white self from across the river, because we must have had at least 10 come up to us and ask if we were going to go over. It is really quite charming to look at, although we’ve read that the buildings are all modernized on the inside. Supposedly this village has its own mosque, fire brigade, school, etc. It’s probably one of the nicest things to actually see within Brunei.

It was 5 p.m. by the time we decided “Brunei – check.” The country is pretty amazing in both the Sultan’s wealth and its ability to survive. Not sure what the future holds for this country once the oil money runs out. Glad we came, but we are looking forward to heading back to Malaysia.