Riverview Hotel Bandar Seri Begawan

... has about 400,000 people and is very rich from oil reserves. The Brits gave it independence in 1984 and the same family has ruled it for 600 years. Brunei almost became part of Malaysia (which surrounds it here on Borneo) in 1963, but Malaysia wanted to take too much of the oil revenue.

Alcohol is forbidden here and any meat has to be halal which means something about it being ok per Sharia Law to be consumed. Yes, even the food has to agree with the ...

... confused and turned to Kevin to ask why the crocs would be scared off by the local people....she thought that is was likely because the local people hunted them and the crocs would recognize them. Kevin immediately shook his head and told the rest of the boat what she had said. They all had a good laugh until finally explaining that he had said motors and not locals. We had a crazy driver on the way back and needless to say it only took 35 minutes ...

... visit Niah national park, which we'd already passed, thus had to take a bus back from Miri and wasted in total three hours. From the main junction it's still 14km to the park entrance with no regular transport operating on this route, only private (meaning expensive) minivans. I got a hitch from two guys actually going another direction, but they took me all the way to the park. I felt a bit awkward about it as ...

... shower curtains, we decided to stick with the hostel but to get ourselves out of Miri as quickly as possible. The hostel was actually clean enough, but our sheets and pillow cases were so threadbare that you could actually see through them. Once again, we had a room next to the reception desk so that we were kept awake until the early hours of the morning with the doorbell ringing, the TV blaring out and doors slamming.

The following day, we ...

Here we go again. Up at 6 to drive to Bandar (BSB), the capital. Vanessa has to drive us to the Sheraton Hotel (wherever it is?) for an 8:45 pick-up. We stumble upon the Hotel with 5 mins to spare and a tour rep drives to the waterfront taxi stop! Bandar is small by capital standards, very relaxed and cosmopolitan - odd for a strongly Muslim country. There is a very Chinese feel to the place. The country is obsessed with the EPL, English Premier League football, or more ...

... we will be there for about 3 weeks, it will be easier to stay in an apartment with its own kitchen and laundry. We dont have to worry about how to wash our clothes and how to get our food. And apartment is usually more spacious and more room to move about, so thats another plus point. We have lined up all the places we want to see and how to get there. We try to avoid as much surprises as possible. So there... more updates coming soon.

... lunch (claypot noodles) and then took the bus to another mosque. This one was covered in mosaic and had pretty little blue fountains and nice gardens around it. It was more decorative than the other mosque, and very clean. It had white ceilings with chandeliers and reminded us of a shopping centre with lots of marble and white. It even had an escalator leading into it! After this we went back to town and had Indian for dinner. The next morning we left Brunei and returned to Malaysia.

... Brunei is an interesting place you get everywhere via water taxi and everything looks so run down poor and dirty... but I have yet to see any poverty everyone seems to make ends meet just fine. Even if there house isn't dry and falling over. They still have there TV, AC, and power. at the mosque I meet up with 3 guys from Hong Kong and ended up taking a big 3hour water taxi tour ($10 each) which I thought was whicked value he had to pick up his ...

9 hours without a drink was hard going, Royal Brunei airlines is a dry carrier, but hey, you cant have everything. A nice place, very tidy motorways and shops, but nothing to do really. Had a great trip up to the rain forests, and into. Climbed a structure made of aluminuin scaffolding which was about 150 ft high. This was reached by struggling up a steep hill for 30 minutes.We got to this place in a long boat. Check out the photos

... sultan looks after his peeps. on ramadan day they have a big festival and he gives out $50 notes to people. - there is free health care in this country... break a leg, no worries! - you cant point with your index finger, its a religious no no. - if I wanted to get a cheap massage for $15, it would be a bloke doing it. (and a girl doing it if youre a girl). touching skin of a stranger of the opposite sex, another no no. - the giant ...