After the Pinnacles trek and our second night at Camp 5, we didn’t sleep late as the bees were up and flying around our room. We packed, ate breakfast and headed out for the 9km trek back to Kuala Litut. We took it slower than on the first day and left ourselves time to stop and look at the flora and fauna, wincing at the muscle ache at the smallest inclines. Kishan and Daniel arrived at the boats at the same time as us and we jumped in for the short trip down river back to Mulu Park HQ.
We checked back into the hostel in the park and headed straight in for a hot shower. As our bodies realised we’d made it, the tiredness kicked in. We had a quick lunch then spent the afternoon relaxing in the dorm trying to ignore the stifling heat. Rhys left me asleep on the floor under the fan and wandered back to the cafe to use the internet where I found him later. We had dinner with Katelyn and Taylor at our favourite cafe just outside the park before walking a short trail to see if we could spot any of the giant stick insects we’d seen on our previous night walk. We didn’t have much luck, it seems they only like the pouring rain, but we did spot a cool frog and a scary looking spider.
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| Frog in Mulu National Park. |
As we hadn’t yet managed to climb the Tree Top Tower we set the alarm for 5:50am and went to the security office to pick up the key. The tower was only a short walk from HQ and took us up into the forest canopy where we hoped to spot some hornbills. Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t on our side and the drizzle meant we only saw very few birds with one distant hornbill sighting. After 40 minutes we called it a day, locked up, dropped the key back and went for breakfast. As we were pretty stiff from the Pinnacles trek we spent the morning hanging around the cafe waiting for our flight to Miri.
The flight was a short 25 minute jump and before long we landed and took a cab to our hostel. The room was very clean and modern, perfect for our first stop after 5 days in a national park in dorms. That night we wandered out to find somewhere for dinner and stumbled upon a busy bar with tables spilling out on to the street. As soon as we saw they sold Strongbow by the pint we were sold (despite it costing the same as in London). As an oil town Miri hosts expats from all over the world who work for the multinational oil and gas giants and the bar wouldn’t have looked out of place in the UK. We would have happily sat there for longer as it was a nice break from fried rice and noodles but had another early start to look forward to.
We reserved seats on a minibus that would pick us up from our hostel at 6:30am the following day, to shuttle us across the border and into Brunei. The border was stupidly easy and we didn’t even need to get out of the van, although we did have to fill is special customs forms because we had alcohol on us and we had to have stamped forms showing we’d brought it across the border and we had to sign to say we’d only drink it in private and wouldn’t offer it to anyone while in Brunei.
The van dropped us at our hotel in Bandar Seri Begawan, Capital Residence Suites, and we went to check in. We’d treated ourselves to 4 nights at a nice hotel as we’d spent Rhys’s birthday in a dorm in Mulu, and i’d emailed ahead to say we’d be celebrating his birthday and anything they could do to make it extra special would be brilliant. They pulled out all the stops. Not only did they upgrade us from a standard room to an executive suite that was bigger than our flat was in London (it had 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a laundry, kitchen, balcony, dining table and the highlight, sofas and a flat screen TV!), but once we were in the room the manager along with all the staff appeared at our door with a birthday cake complete with candles, singing happy birthday - Rhys was speechless. If we ever go back to Brunei we will be staying there again and would recommend it to anyone. The whole time we were there the staff bent over backwards, going out of their way to make sure our stay was perfect, from offering their driver for free to take us along with other guests to see the sights of Brunei to running us to the ferry port 45mins away.
As the room was so fantastic we didn’t really want to leave it, and along with the early start leaving Miri we decided to spend the morning chilling in our living room. We popped to the supermarket to buy lunch and dinner (we ended up cooking in every night to make the most of the kitchen and dining table) and had a quick walk around town and spent the rest of the day in the suite.
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| Rhys enjoying our suite at the Capital Residence Suites, Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei. |
The next day Rhys decided he wanted to stay in the room while I went to the Royal Regalia Museum. Leaving my shoes outside and my handbag in a locker I spent a couple of hours learning about Brunei’s history and reading copies of the agreements signed with the UK, before admiring all the gifts given to the Sultan from foreign countries and the chariot, outfits and other items from the Sultans coronation and jubilee. Brunei still has a special relationship with the UK following from a 19th century agreement that the British could trade freely in Brunei in exchange for providing protection from pirates. Brunei gained it’s independence in 1984 but was never actually a colony.
That afternoon, a squad of maids knocked at our door to make up the room so we wandered out in the heat to see the Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque. As it was prayer time and shut to non-muslims we were only able to walk around the exterior. It was very peaceful in the grounds and the building looked like something straight out of Aladdin with it’s 28 domes (it was built by the 28th Sultan).
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| Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque, Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei. |
The next day we decided to walk down to the waterfront to see if we could catch a boat across the river to Kampung Ayer. Kampung Ayer is a water village that is home to 39,000 people, roughly 10% of the nations total population and is the world’s largest water village. It has it’s own schools, police office and fire station, hospital and mosque with the pastel coloured stilt houses joined by wooden walkways.
As soon as we got to the water we were approached by Wann, a lovely tour guide who offered to take us on a short 1.45hour trip through the stilt water village and out to the mangroves. It was much cheaper than any other trips we’d seen and sounded like a good deal so after the boat captan Mark showed up we boarded and set off. Wann was full of interesting facts and we learned a little about the Istana Nurul Iman (home to the Sultan of Brunei and the biggest palace in the world with 1,788 rooms, 247 bathrooms, a 110 car garage, 5 swimming pools and an air conditioned stable for the Sultans 200 polo ponies), the main mosques in Bandar, the water village itself and the mangroves. We were lucky enough to happen upon a troupe of Proboscis monkeys and a mangrove snake along with 3 eagles. The trip ended up lasting more than 2.5 hours and by the time we got back to land we felt like we’d done our quota of sightseeing for the day and walked back to our suite to turn up the aircon.
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| Kampung Ayer, Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei. |
We had one last day in Brunei and after a lazy start, arranged for the hotel’s driver to drop us at the Jame'Asr Hassanil Bolkiah Mosque, Brunei’s largest mosque, a couple of kilometres out of town. We donned robes and explored. The driver had to carry on to the airport before returning to pick us up and we ended up waiting around for an age in the heat, there’s only so much you can look at at a mosque. Back in town we decided to visit the main central Mosque again since it was visiting hours, the exterior was far more impressive than the interior and you’re not actually allowed to do much more than peer in the door.
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| Jame'Asr Hassanil Bolkiah Mosque, Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei. |
We had one last blissful night in our suite before it was time to check out and head back in to Malaysia. We really enjoyed Brunei, although we didn’t actually do that much (and to be fair there’s not a whole lot to do unless you want to pay a fortune to venture into the rainforest that covers 70% of the country), the people were very welcoming and the city was clean, modern and relaxed. Compared to Aceh, the only other place we’ve been with Sharia Law, Brunei is far more laid back and seems far more open to other religions and ways of life.
We booked the driver to take us to the ferry terminal at 7am. The driver was there, as were we but another two guests had decided to join us and were 30 minutes late. Not a great start. When we finally got to the terminal we bought our tickets, cleared immigration and climbed aboard. About an hour later and we were still sitting in port and they told us the boat had been canceled. The next boat wasn’t until 1pm, 5 hours later. So we had 5 hours of sitting at the ferry terminal, there not being anything to do in the vicinity, along with the German couple from our hotel and two Dutch guys. Finally, after having to get our terminal fee tickets reissued at the last minute we boarded the 1pm boat and were on our way to Pulau Labuan.
By the time we arrived in Labuan, a duty free island off the coast of Sabah, we’d missed the last boat to Kota Kinabalu. Our other option was for a boat/taxi/bus combo and we realised it was more hassle than it was worth and we were better off staying in Labuan for the night. Commence the search for a hotel. Rhys walked around, leaving me with the luggage, to try to find somewhere and we realised accommodation was really expensive with not all that much bang for your buck. After a Canadian couple living in Labuan stopped to give me advice, Rhys returned and we set off to another area on their suggestion. This time leaving Rhys with the bags I wandered off and found somewhere closer to our price range and we checked in, along with the German couple. By the time we were settled in our hotel we only had time for a quick explore, (there didn’t seem to be much to see in Labuan other than some duty free shops) before dinner and a beer on plastic chairs owned by a Chinese restaurant, spilling out into the pedestrianised street outside our hotel. Dinner was delicious and cheap and we went to bed content.
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