29 May 2013

Brunei 2013

Managed to get a couple of days off for the long weekend. Initially we planned to go to  Redang and totally relax , but due to the late leave approval we found out that almost all the hotels and holiday spots were fully booked.How do we find a place nearby, where we can relax and explore all in 3 days ??


Day 1

Found it


Our Room



Not too bad


Balcony. spent a lot of time here with a good book.




Walking around


Our blocks pool


Being lazy we took the buggy every where


Now that's an entrance




Left our bags and went for food


Will have more of those columns later



view from our table



We were surrounded by these





Its 53 meters tall


What blew me away was that the American redwood trees are more than double this height


After food we took a walk around


2nd pool




3rd pool





Overlooking the sea



Time for tea :-)



In total there are 9 pools  :-)

For the first day we spent a lot of time eating and relaxing.



Day 2 


So where are we ?????

Welcome to  Brunei Darussalam    :-)




Time to explore.
1st  stop at the Royal Palace.
When they saw that i was the FJR guy they told me to leave  :-(


Actually its only open to the public during Hari Raya.


Busy streets huh


Friendly cop



A short stop at the river side for ice cream


There are crocs here


3rd -the Royal Regalia  Museum


Again quiet streets


The museum was really interesting, but you are only allowed photos in the main lobby


The chariot of the the Sultan.
Pulled by his warriors 


The shield and spear


A bit of history



After that we visited the highlight .......for me



The Water Village of Brunei or the "Kampong Ayer" was dubbed as the "Venice of the East" by the famous traveler Antonio Pigafetta in his visit to Brunei



my ride.



Meet the local



We went around and through it




The houses look old huh



And run down



They have their own schools





And fire brigade.


Fire brigade boat 


Their mosque


See that bridge. Thats for people to walk and kids to cycle. No railings ah......



imagine cycling there


Local water taxi


modern Houses built by the government



The beauty of it is the people who live in the old houses are well off. Have cars, and all the modern amenities.They choose to live as their fathers did. Cool.


Next we went to visit the  Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque


Thats a replica of the Royal barge


nice huh. Was too tired to go in....


Finally we came here -The Jame' Asr' Hassanal Bolkiah Mosque


Huge and magnificient


Its open to non- Muslims during certain hours of the day



I just walked around as i was too tired. Long day.




The royal entrance.



Nice huh


Back to our digs :-)



Eat and sleep ...yay  :-)



Day 3

Today we exercise
See the oil rigs in the distance.


We went for a 1 hour walk to burn some fat 


Walk with a view






They have a nice jogging path around the 180 Hectare property. Yup -Hectare



Us  :-)



A couple of kilometers done



And a final sunset on the beach


One last look at the majestic columns during dinner.


And back to real life.
A nice short holiday. Thank you Brunei.
Cheers.

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