Sheraton Utama Brunei Darussalam Bandar Seri Begawan

... is quiet, clean, safe, and good enough to wander around a few hours. About the only buildings of note are the mosques but they are naturally off limits to us infidels anyway. It's like old churches in Europe...you've seen one, you've seen them all. Of course I am always looking for the unusual and right here in BSB I have found it...a village of 70,000 people built on stilts in the river right across from downtown. And yes, the only thing standing between me and ...

... his country, for his birthday he built the largest theme-park in s-e asia for everyone to enter for free which noone ever used so now it has rusted away, his crazy brother (once finance minister) went on a $20B spending spree which included boats named tits, nipple 1 and nipple 2, he soon got kicked out of the country and now lives in Britain on a $1.5M/year budget with his 13 wives and 36 kids. Just thought you'd like to know!

On to Kota Kinabalu.

... in the world. There is also a longhouse to be visited on the way.
I stayed overnight in Miri, though didn't have time for down exploration. The following day I set off for Bandar, the capital of Brunei. It was a five hour trip, during which I changed bus three or four times. Nevertheless, they were perfectly connected so no waiting was necessary. Brunei is a tiny Islamic country rich on oil, which became ...

... was live music night at the British pub underneath the hostel. Even though we were three floors up, we had to endure the sounds of a screechy girl band belting out Gloria Estefan hits, followed by a Malaysian Elvis, until the wee small hours. Yet another night without sleep.

Early the next morning, feeling extremely sleep deprived, we were collected for our flight to Mulu. We left our large backpacks behind as they were to be transported separately ...

... taxi seem oblivious to the inherent dangers of driving at such speeds in confined water ways with no obvious rights of way. I think our driver could see round bends - no trace of reserve or hesitation! 45 minutes later and we arrive somewhere up country. No-one told us where we were to get off, the name of the town, but simply ask for Melissa when we get to wherever it is. And there she was, our guide, Melissa. Her English was Ok, but there were significant gaps in her knowledge ...

... aren't any real hostels. But our hotel gave us all the chance to enjoy the pleasures of our own rooms and relax. Driving into Brunei the rain was incessant and just sooo heavy. Everywhere was flooded but apparently it's quite the norm. Money shines everywhere here. All the suburbs are akin to something from an American movie and the oil horses are everywhere. Seriously, everywhere. A few tourists ...

... but not hung and quartered! An hour later and we touch down, the airlock opens and a sudden intense wave of humid air billows into the air conditioned cabin. I would like to say that it felt refreshing, but when your body finds that it has to release a gallon of sweat in one desperate and exhaustive attempt to protect the vital life sustaining organs that are rapidly over-heating deep within, one can only describe it as 'Number 9' of 'The Worlds Top 100 Worst Ways To Exit An Aircraft ...

... Which was fine with me I thought for 3 hours he showed us heaps of stuff and even waited while we went to look at some building for an hour... so I do wonder how much things are worth? Only other thing to really note that Brunei is a dry country and that it has no night life at all. In saying that every time you go near the window at night with the light on. Some of the girls in the ally call up to you asking to come into your room for "a chat" only $20

... will you? Unless I get lazy, or don't make it back. The time of each dummy entry is the time I get into a particular region. Each region might result in multiple entries, depending on how interesting it is, or how much time I have to play on the interwebs.

... here has a pool table surrounded by cartoon paintings of dogs playing pool. And back to the robot, well I bought galaxyman with me for the trip but he has been whining a twiddling his toes complaining about being bored ever since he was separated from mr potatohead back home. so i couldnt resist buying this robot i spotted in a toystore just about an hour ago. only to arrive back like a kid on christmas morning and realise he's smart ...