LR Asma Hotel Bandar Seri Begawan

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And let me tell you how badly alcohol hand sanitizer burns when that is your only first aid available for unexpected mishaps. I ended up buying some yellow ointment from a Chinese pharmacist and I will let you know in a few days if eastern medicine really does work or if it just makes your leg swell up and fall off during the night. Actually the stuff was made in a factory in Malaysia but I just don't understand why they have to make it bright yellow. This ...

... had been told was true, there really was nothing to do. There's a great big mosque in the centre of town, and then the Sultans Palace, but thats about it. The mosque is pretty cool though, the floor and walls made from Italian Marble, the stained glass windows were cafted in the UK, and the carpets were flown in from Saudi Arabia. Tasteful!

Brunei is one of those random places that everyone's heard of (the sultan was the richest man in the world for a long time ...

... out bus of our travels so far. It was at least 30 years old and chugged along at no faster than 15 miles an hour. It sounded as if it was going to break down at any second and we were worried that we were going to be stranded in the middle of nowhere in the blazing midday sun. It would actually have been quicker to walk to the border. After undergoing the customary health checks for Swine Flu, we were waved through Immigration without ...

... some impressive stalagmites and stalactites. We were then taken to the Deer Cave, a huge cavern in the mountainside, which has around 3 million bats living inside it. The stench of their droppings piled up on the floor of the cave was so strong that it made our eyes water. At sunset each evening, there is a mass exodus as the bats emerge from the cave to search for food. We sat outside and watched them as they flew out, grouping into snake-like formations ...

... only excitement of the "float" - the water was cool and welcoming!
Later Melissa took us to her own home longhouse, quite different from the others we'd seen. It was Vanessa's first visit to a longhouse and proved very interesting to her. A long verandah and communal area with local Iban people going about their usual weekend lives - very relaxed and quite unperturbed by foreigners gawping into their living room and being shown around their kitchens! Voyeuristic, methinks ...

... on to keep it dry. Never expected to do that inside a vehicle. A couple of days spent in the capital admiring the obvious sights of the fantastic huge mosque in the middle of town. It looked great lit up at night. A boat ride out to the mangroves watching probiscus monkeys swing around followed by a glimpse of the Sultan's new gaff on the way back through the stilt villages. It looks nice ...

... try and counterbalance things! I swap the micro-digital for the macro-digital and update my Facebook. Unfortunately I can't upload any of the photos that I have taken so far as I have accidentally packed the camera cable in other luggage and the computers do not have card readers. After a couple of hours admin I find myself drifting off whilst typing almost leaving QWERTY tattooed across my forehead I give up and attempt to get some sleep on the floor next to the best air-conditioner that ...

... sur le bord de la riviere en plus. Malheureusement beaucoup de bateau a moteur. Autre anecdote, a notre grande surprise notre Hotel est en fait une maison de rencontre. On a plusieur joli demoiselle qui surveille constament notre hotel. On se sent en securite s'est bien surveille. Bon, mais on est contant car se n'est pas sur notre etage. Je les surveille moi aussi par la fenetre. Bisouxxxxxxxxxxx France et Rejean

... Sitting Room Bar 2 x LCD tv's Free Breakfast Free Shuttle Bus Now that's what I call roach motel special! Brunei is pretty hot, Kate informs me that it's 32 degrees at 7pm... that's pretty hot.. She'll have to source some local air-con goodness from somewhere. After a day long stopover, looking for trinkets and second-hand theme park rides, she'll be back in transit, headed to London..

It's been way too long since our last entry- we've been to 7 countries since Bali, but now as we have an apartment in Buenos Aires with internet connection, I am committed to thoroughly catching up in the next few weeks. With that said, I continue our journey from Bali, heading to Thailand, with a stop in the tiny country of Brunei. We flew Brunei airlines, which I ...