Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei Darussalam

We caught a fast boat from Kota Kinabalu to Labuan Island (Malaysian) where we had to wait for a couple of hours before the journey continued to Brunei. We got chatting to some men who were returning to Brunei on the same ferry and they were a large group of men who were on the island for "relaxing". They leave Brunei to party as there is no alcohol in Brunei and no entertainment at night. The island caters for everything they want- gambling, bars, and alcohol!

There were some modern shopping malls in BSB as well as the usual street markets.

Brunei is one if the smallest countries in the world with 80% of it pristine rainforest and we wanted to visit the virgin rainforest at Bandar but the Ministry of Tourism has made it compulsory for everyone (tourists and locals) to go with a travel agency. This made the tour about $130 NZ for only 4 hours in the jungle and was 3 times as expensive as visiting a rainforest in Malaysia. We decided against it and will try to do it in Sarawak.

It was easy to get around the city by bus or on foot and we visited the museum and the large mosque in the city center but couldn't climb up the minaret as it was all being renovated.

The Brunei River runs through the city and there is a floating village along the river. We walked to part of the floating village on the city side of the river

and we passed by this house with its poultry farm just outside the front door.

This looked like a house that had burnt down and the green building behind was the local high school. Although the streets of BSB were clean, the waterways are badly polluted around the floating villages.

The Primary School

At the end of our walk we came across this lovely mosque just on prayer time.

On our bus trip to Sarawak in Malaysia we spotted this sign in the bus.