Our chance to Visit the Sultan

Trip Start Aug 15, 2006
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Trip End Feb 09, 2007


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Flag of Brunei  ,
Friday, October 27, 2006

We've finally departed the comforts of Australia...flying over Western Australia, the Indian Ocean, and Bali was amazing...Indonesia is fantastic to see from the air...green, lush mountaineous terrain like giant drops surrounded by the blue waters of the tropics. The airline we flew with was Air Brunei, and being that Brunei is an Islamic state, a prayer was said in Arabic at take off to ensure that 'Allah' would guide and provide for our safe travels. Every 10 minutes, a distance chart would digitally appear on the projection screen that charted out exactly how far it was in Kilometers from the center of the airplane to Makkah (Mecca, birthplace of Mohhammed and spiritual center of the Islamic world)...this was all a very new experience as I had never been to a Muslim country before.
We landed and grabbed a taxi into town. Got a room at the government-owned youth hostel and had a look around. A very clean, quiet, and essentially empty town...that is, except for the banks of the Brunei River where dozens of water taxi drivers race around like madmen in these little wooden boats trying to get you to pay for a ride..."Mister! Mister!" They scream at you, as if being a Westerner means you have money painted on your forehead...We said "Let's Go!" and we hailed this guy down and he took us for an insane boatride at 9pm through Kampung Ayer (the Water Village, or the Venice of the East as it is called)...hundreds of homes that protrude up from the river bed...standing on stilts...water passageways in between these homes that act as streets for the boats...and nobody has lights on their boats so everyone is flying full speed in all different directions with these little flashlights waving in the air...we thought we were gonna die...and then our taxi driver yells "Crocodile!" and sure enough right in front of the boat this piercing red eye and giant hump! Amazing.
In Brunei, we also took the time to wander around and see the beautiful Mosques (Muslim places of worship)...The archictecture was phenomenal...The most impressive was the Omar Ali Suffudien Mosque, surrounded by a lagoon and overlooking the water village and the Brunei River. At night it would come to resemble a romantic palace as its towers would glow with neon green to contrast the pure white walls below. Everyday, at prayer times, we could hear the Muezzin call from the towers...an amazing thing. Truely surreal.
The people we met began to tell us that it was declared Hari Raya Aidilfitri (Islamic New Year) recently and that the Sultan of Brunei was opening his palace to the public, as he does once a year on this holiday. So we thought we'd go visit the Sultan! Hassanel Bolkiah himself. We arrived at the Palace by bus, and were taken to the entrance of the massive convention center-like building where armed guards stood with AK47's ...we entered through security to find an auditorium filled with people and a free meal (which was pretty good)...We ate and tried to wait in line to meet him, but the line was way too long...it would have taken hours and hours...and it was very hot. The people were very kind to us though. Without a lie, we were the ONLY North Americans in the entire palace...out of around 4,000 people. But everyone was so generous that we didn't feel out of place at all. The Muslims that we met we very warm-hearted.
After a few days of enjoying the peacefulness of Brunei, for there is no alcohol in the country, we decided to check out Malaysia. Onyl a hop, skip, and a jump away.

Note of advice: Stay away from KFC in Brunei...the worst chicken burger ever.
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