Brunei Travel

The tiny Islamic Kingdom of Brunei which seems largely unknown to most of the world, is located on the exotic island of Borneo. Brunei occupies a small portion of north central Borneo, which is actually the third largest island in the world. It's split in half by Malaysia into two separate parts, which are most commonly accessible by speed boats. Brunei is rich in resources, particularly oil which allows the Kingdom to be tax free and come with many luxuries for both travelers and locals. Exports from the country's resources provide enough money to make the country itself as well as the King of Brunei one of the richest men in the world.

Brunei Links
	Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddin Mosque on the left was built in 1958 by the 28th King of Brunei who passed away in 1984. Apparently there is enough money to go around in Brueni that each Sultan has their own mosque built after them. The gold you see in the picture is gold plated, with the rest of the mosque made up of marble and other expensive material imported from Europe, China and Saudi Arabia. The mosque on the right is the largest in the far east, and one of the most beautiful in the world. This one is called the Hassanal Bolkiah mosque, and is built in honor of the current 29th Sultan of Brunei.

	Above is a photo of the capital of Burnei called Bandar Seri Begawan. The entire country of Brunei is only about 10 times larger than a city-state country such as Singapore, and has a population nearly 400,000, muchless than Washington DC. The capital's population is nearly 45,000 people; and is home to about 15% of Brunei's population.
On the left is the Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, who was the current ruler when I visited Brunei in 2007. Above is the best pratical view you can get of his palace. The current King is the 14th richest man in the world who lives in the largest residential palace on earth. He has an interest for sports cars, and owns around 4,000 of them, including 500 models of Rolls Royce's alone. If that is true he would have to drive a 11 different cars a day to get behind the wheel of all 4,000 in a single year. Aside from his own personal possesions, he's also rumored to be a very generous man. It's said that the King visited Cyprus at one time, and left a $170,000 tip at the hotel he was staying at!

Along with their own mosques, all Sultans have their own burial places after they pass away. Some are put in a cemetery along with other Kings while some have their own tombs along the above river. On the left is a bridge crossing a river that leads to the tomb seen above. This tomb belonged to the 6th Sultan of Brunei, who ruled about 500 years ago during the 16th century.
If you haven't figured it out by now, Brunei is officially an Islamic nation, but actually only about 67% of the country is actually Muslim. 10% are Buddhist and another 10% are Christian, with the remaining practicing Chinese religions and indigenous beliefs. A large portion of Brunei's population are from surrounding countries, especially Malaysia. The man above lives in Brunei but is actually from Malaysia, on the right is a native woman of Brunei.

Much of Brunei's capital Bandar Seri Begawan is made up of fine restaurants, malls and other shopping districts. On the left is one of the smaller malls in Brunei's capital, which is also the only real city in the country. The second picture on the right is Brunei's main mall simply called 'The Mall' and is surrounded by western restaurants and other attractions outside. I never went out for the night life in Brunei, and while I'm sure there are places available to drink, I don't get the vibe that there were any crazy night clubs or party scenes here.

There is no shortage of luxury in Brunei though, the empire hotel above was created by converting one of the former palaces into a hotel for guests. If you ever dreamed of staying in a palace then Brunei is your best bet. The upper left photo is the hotel entrance and lobby. On the right are some giant marble columns in the center. You have to be pretty well off to have a night at this hotel, rates start as low as $700 and run up to $22,000 for just one night.

On the left is another picture of the Empire hotel from the outside. The hotel itself has all you need, including a large gym, a movie theater and other entertainment. Of course, Brunei is right on the South China sea, so the hotel is built along the beach. Another key benefit of staying here is the hotel usually isn't crowded, so you'll almost definitely have most of the place to yourself. I wouldn't be surprised if some people went into the movie theaters and were the only ones there. I asked a local man how the hotel could stay in business with such few guests. His reply was it that the hotel is government owned, so if they made money then great, if not then they didn't really care since they are so rich anyway.

The two pictures above are also from Brunei's capital Bandar Seri Begawan showing some more humble houses. On the left are some girls walking past their homes in the center of the city. On the right is another house with a ton of trash underneath it. Of course most parts of Brunei were very clean, but some streets and rivers had huge piles of trash which was something I didn't understand in such a rich country, I imagine a phone call from the right person could get this cleaned up overnight.

	Another famous part in Bandar Seri Begawan is its water village, where over 30,000 people live, or close to 10% of Brunei's population. The water village is connected by a network of boardwalks that link houses, restaurants, mosques and schools together. People have been living this way for over 1300 years. When the first European's visited in the 16th century they named it Venice of the East. On the left is the city's main market, on the right are water taxis also on the mainland ready to take passengers to the water village.

	On the upper left are some the small but colorful houses in the water village with several boats racing by. On the right is the water village's largest mosque. I imagine all the water village people can reach the mosque by the boardwalks.

A very special place in Brunei is Jerudong Park. Jerudong park was built simply as a gift to the people of Brunei by the King. It is larger than the size of Disney Hong Kong and when it first opened there was no entrance fees. Unfortunately the attendance in the park has dropped and very few people visit. The current fee is only $1 to enter, but a lot of the major rides have closed permanently. I visited at night and a lot of the park is kept with the lights off in complete darkness even though it's open, giving it a ghost town like atmosphere. On the left is the crystal arch, the symbolic entrance to Jerudong Park. On the right is part of the playground, completely abandoned and since Brunei gets few tourists I would never expect foreigners to pack the park. Although the park is just about free at $1, I think the natives don't visit often because its an expensive ride from the city to the park entrance, aside from the fact they have probably already been here many times.

I walked around the first half of Jerudong Park and other than park employees the only life I saw was this large snail on the left. Right before I left Jerudong I came across a light show using fountains of water. Here were dozens of people as seen on the upper right enjoying the show which actually was entertaining. Even though the park is mostly empty it is still very well maintained and clean.

After I was done exploring the capital and Jerudong Park, I took a water taxi and went along the rivers in search of wildlife. The taxis on the upper left are all hanging out waiting to give someone a ride, so it's pretty easy to walk up and do your own excursion. You can tell them all your destination and let them fight among each other for the price and then just take the lowest bidder.
An interesting sight to see is the one of the gas stations for the boats. You pull up in your boat and some of the workers will lower a long hose for you to fill up your tank.

The rivers here are brackish waters, a mix of salt and freshwater. The vegetation along the banks is made up of mangrove forests, trees that have adapted the brackish waters and rising and lowering tides. Above is a photo of the forest meeting the river; on the right is inside the treeline. Notice on both pictures how high the roots extend out of the water. The left picture was low tide, while the right is high tide.

I did two trips through these mangrove forests. On the second time during low tide I came across almost 10 giant lizards called monitors. These alligator sized lizards are huge, and were found along the banks of the river. All of them were shy and quickly ran away when we approached them. On the left is a monitor relaxing on the bank, on the right is one running back into the mangrove forest.

One of Borneo's treasures are the Proboscius monkeys that are endemic to the island. I've seen these strange monkeys before on television who became famous because of the male's strange noses. Until I came to Brunei, I had no idea that the only place in the world they existed was on this island. On the left is a large male which are the ones with the exaggerated noses, on the right is a female who looks deep in thought.

As I said before Brunei is separated into two parts by Malaysia. The mainland part is on the west, where the capital and most of the population lives. The other section on the east is called Temburong, and is mostly made up of indigenous people and rainforest. It is of course possible to drive from mainland Brunei to Temburong, but because you have to go through Malaysia this makes it necessary for you to go through the border control twice and ends up taking several hours. The easiest way is to use a water taxi which only takes about 45 minutes. On the left is the entrance to Temburong district after taking the 45 minute boat ride. On the right is one of the smaller rivers in the province.

Most of the people living in Temburong stay in a type of jungle shack called long houses. On the left you can see two of them found in this district. On the right is a woman and her baby appearing at the window of a long house. Even though these houses are small and the people make their life by hunting and fishing, some still use modern technology such as vehicles and a few even have satellite TV.
Most who visit Temburong province go to Ulu Temburong National Park. This national park is made up of virgin rainforests, meaning it has never been deforested. The national park has several places to stay at overnight and some good trails through the forest. Above are two strcutures built in the forest, the first is a huge tower with a walkway that puts you well above the canopy. The right is a suspension bridge that is used to cross high above a river.

Once you climb the tower you'll get a great view of the rainforest. You'll also see birds and plant species that live in the canopy which you normally wouldn't be able to spot on the ground; the strange plant growing off the tree on the right was maybe a 100 feet off the ground.

On the upper left is what looks like two leaves laying on top of each other. I would have kept on hiking and not even paid them any attention if one of the leaves hadn't gotten up and started running around. Even after looking at it closely it still seemed like just a leaf, but when it finally it rolled over on its back and I saw it was a strange species of a praying mantis. I've seen many praying mantises before but never one that had such great camouflage. The ant on the left is one of the biggest I've ever seen, second only to bullet ants that I saw in Costa Rica. In Temburong I saw other strange animals and insects as well. I have nicknamed this place the flying rainforest, because many animals like snakes and frogs are able to jump from trees and glide through the air. Seeing the flying snake would have been a real treat. The flying snakes body is so thin it can actually create an airfoil and help it float or glide to another tree. I did see a gliding animal from a distance, and was told it was probably a flying squirrel.

	Many large species of reptiles live in the rainforests of Borneo as well. On the left is a large crocodile on the banks of the river as we crossed to Temburong. Unfortunately we passed by it in a speed boat so I wasn't able to get a clear shot. Above is a large skink from the rainforest, I seem to see this species of skink all over the world.

	I've looked at many pictures of the Asian vine snake growing up as a kid. I found this one across the path I was on but it quickly darted into the forest and blended in with the foilage around it. I was lucky enough to get the picture on the left of its head sticking out behind a leaf. The snake quickly climbed a tree and disappeared into the thick vegetation as seen on the right. I'm not sure how rare these snakes are, but its always amazing to see photos of an exotic animal your whole life and then suddenly find one out in the wild.

Azeem from Brunei Darussalam: ROAR! You should check out these restaurants. Thien Thien Restaurant famous for its Chicken Rice and 'Soto Berubut', tremendously delicious! and 'Ismi Jaya Baru restaurant' which people prefer to call 'restoran KOLO MEE' instead of its real name.

Nasiru from Nigeria:I greatly appreciated what I have seen on Brunei's true history.

Sherwin from Philippines: It so beautiful, full of color in brunei... thanks a lot...you help me for making my project.

Gherardo from Italy: I knew Brunei in 1983 during construction of the New Istana (I was a designer of marbles) and keep memories of a dear and wonderful nature and hospitality of its inhabitants.

Mayank from India: I was searching some meaningful place on the globe, should be very near to nature. When I saw the pictures of Brunei that was really awesome. & my feelings came up to greet the beauty of Brunei.

Hasan from Somalia: I am pleased when I saw the pictures of Brunei, I said well done nation of Brunei and their king...

Mohammed from Kenya: Salam i am happy to see my brothers and sister in brunei i wish u the best

Syed from Pakistan: Assalam-o-alaikum to all my brothers and hello to all friends. I, really happy to see all these pictures and you have done a great job man! nice administration of the their country eccept one place where contaminated water and waistage came into our look, but over all this place is very very beautiful.

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