The Rizqun International Hotel Bandar Seri Begawan

... Israelis are forbidden from entering Brunei since this is hardcore Islam here and the politics are aligned towards the middle east. One thing that strikes me is that even though the population is Phillipino, Malay and Chinese, signs are written in Arabic as well as Malay. I would be willing to wager that no one here is of Arabic descent or even speaks it but having this Arabic writing pleases someone somewhere I guess.

This capital, Bandar Seri ...

... of the regular 45. That afternoon was spent relaxing poolside later followed by watching Michael J Fox and Nicholas Cage movies.

Some info we have heard about Brunei. The Sultan has built the most expensive hotel in the world ($1B dollars), he bought a car for every family in the country (400,000 people live there), he offered to move everyone out of the stilt villages and into homes, he pays $140M a year to have the British army in based ...

... was a big favour from them. After a while I realized though that it wasn't as pure act as it initially looked like. My queerbait appearance did its part and a feel of driver's hand on my leg indicated guys' real intentions. Even though they were turned down they drove me to the park entrance. It's not heavily visited place, so you have the jungle basically for yourself. Niah is famous for its cave, one of the ...

... against using the services of the rottweiler as we were too scared to approach her for travel information and we couldn’t understand what she said anyway due to the fact that she snarled with a rather strong accent through gritted teeth. Instead we booked a five day excursion, including three days of trekking, to the Gunung Mulu National Park through an adventure tour company in the town and arranged to be collected early the next morning. That ...

... with Man Utd, Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea - the rest seem to be seen as fodder for the big boys. S'pose that's quite accurate?
Our rep points us in the direction of a water taxi, life jackets are issued and ignored by many. We dutifully put ours on and set off on a white-knuckle ride up stream. This was a James Bond style ride, steep banking, bouncing through boat wakes, sharp bends, quick deceleration - brilliant ride though and no hint of sea-sickness. The locals in ...

... into Brunei, the darn richest place ever. It's billed as a fairly strict Islamic State but has let it's hair down over the recent years. Girls wearing Western kit and frankly, it could be a Western City easily. Except for one thing. No booze! As I see you all recoil wondering how I will cope I was fine. We only spent 10mins here. Only kidding. We stayed at a hotel (cheapest we could find) as ...

Where am I? What? Who? I..I..I feel awful! Been flying for 5 hours the sun is bright, the sky below is displaying the perfect example of Cumulus Mediocris Radiant (Cloudspotters Guide, its boring but its a part of my life). Breakfast!Is it? You could tell me that I was flying on a goose through an ocean of peanuts right now and I'd answer, okay!? Its not great that I am looking forward to spending nine hours in an airport but at least I'll be able to stretch myself out, I think I need to be ...

... from school and that was really cool to go and see... and he also took us to go see the monkeys with the funny nose (big nose).. Everywhere you walk near to the water all the water taxis hassle you to take a ride. One of the guys said "I give you special price 30" which I said no to and then he was like ok 15. It just shows you how you have to call the price and not them. Though even then when we said 10 each for our ride he said yes straight ...

Placeholder Entry - I thought I'd go through and fill out the blog with placeholder entries, for the benefit of those looking at this while I'm on the go, so they can see where I'm going. Obviously if you stumble on this blog after I get back, you won't see ...

... gives a welcoming yet quirky first impression to the place. - if youre bored and find a toyshop in the middle of nowhere and buy a robot, remember to buy a screwdriver to open the battery compartment. - they make it clear on the in flight magazine that 'the penalty of smuggling drugs into the country is DEATH', but when you arrive at the airport there is absolutely no baggage check from customs. straight through baby! - the project ...