{"id":1284,"date":"2012-11-22T14:18:21","date_gmt":"2012-11-22T14:18:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/?p=1284"},"modified":"2025-11-23T07:09:39","modified_gmt":"2025-11-23T07:09:39","slug":"brunei-up-a-river-with-a-huge-outdoor-motor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/2012\/11\/22\/brunei-up-a-river-with-a-huge-outdoor-motor\/","title":{"rendered":"Brunei – Up A River With a Huge Outdoor Motor"},"content":{"rendered":"

We must have been to Singapore too much, because when we travelled in the taxi to Kenn & Pla\u2019s apartment on Sentosa Island, we almost felt like we were heading home. We spent our first day wandering around a bit and then had a yummy Asian lunch with chilled lime juice at the Raffles caf\u00e9 with Pla. The heat hit us and made us realise how cold we had felt back in the UK. \u00a0The three of us then went for a, much needed, full body, Balinese massage for one whole hour.\u00a0 Wow!\u00a0 It felt wonderful to finally feel like all my muscles and joints were moving again.\u00a0 Our evening was spent in the Long Island Chinese Seafood Restaurant with Kenn, Pla, little Casse and Rob, a friend of theirs from South Africa.<\/p>\n

Thursday started with another taxi back to the airport for a flight to Kuala Lumpur, with only half our luggage, the other half is still under Casse’s bed.\u00a0\u00a0Then, after a long wait in a horribly noisy and\u00a0crowded terminal, we took another flight on to Brunei.\u00a0 It felt like we had spent most of the day lollygagging; this is a very old English word that has fallen out of usage, but I think we need to bring it back because it means ‘spending time aimlessly’ and we have definitely done a lot of that at airports this year.\u00a0 Our friend Ian and his girlfriend, Stephanie, met us at the airport and drove us back to\u00a0Ian’s house in the Medang Kampong of Bandar Seri Begawan, the capital of Brunei.\u00a0 They took us out to the Royal Brunei Yacht Club (definitely not as posh as it sounds) for a brilliant steak dinner with b.y.o. booze. \u00a0Brunei is an alcohol-free country, but expats living there are allowed to import a small amount of alcohol and to drink it in their home, or at certain clubs.\u00a0To make life interesting on the drive home, there are apparently no breathalysers, because there is supposedly no alcohol\u2026\u2026?!<\/p>\n

Despite not having a particularly late night and\u00a0having a\u00a0croaking of a frog outside that sounded more like a donkey, we both slept well in to the morning.\u00a0 When Ian and Stephanie finished work at lunchtime, we threw our bags into the car and Ian drove us 127kms west along the coast road, where we crossed the border to Sarawak and checked in to the Imperial\u00a0 Hotel in Miri. With petrol costing about 26 pence, or 40 cents (Aust) we didn\u2019t run up too much of a fuel bill. \u00a0Rodney & I had a quick swim in the hotel pool before we all went out for dinner\u00a0which also involved\u00a0a lot of drinking for the alcohol starved Brunei residents\u2026\u2026.\u00a0 It was a long evening and I was glad to finally nod off to sleep at nearly 2am.\u00a0 After a hotel buffet breakfast, the four of us went for a wander around the three arts and crafts shops in Miri.\u00a0 Ian didn\u2019t buy another mask for his amazing\u00a0collection, but I did make a purchase.\u00a0 It\u2019s a piece of wood shaped into a rabbit and then cut in half.\u00a0 It is hinged at the base and when you open it up, the flat centre has a number of golf ball sized holes scooped out.\u00a0 Apparently it is for a game called Congkak which is played with small cowrie shells in the holes; I\u2019ll have to check how to play it sometime\u2026..<\/p>\n

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The insides of the rabbit…..<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At the border crossing there is one overstocked shop selling alcohol and cigarettes.\u00a0 Ian was pleased to be able to use us as \u2018booze mules\u2019; Rodney and I didn\u2019t need to buy any for ourselves, but Ian is having a party before Christmas and needed some supplies.\u00a0 So with lots of paperwork filled in and stamped, we all helped to stock up his drinks cabinet.\u00a0 On the road back through Brunei we stopped off at Pantai Tutong to paddle in the South China Sea.\u00a0 The water was rather brown and much too warm to feel refreshing, but it\u2019s always nice to wiggle the toes in the sand and I\u2019m always happy at\u00a0a beach.\u00a0 After a snooze and a shower, we headed over to the Royal Brunei Yacht Club for a buffet dinner and an evening of live bands. Love the fact that the Commodore of the club really is called Jack Sparrow. It was a fun evening and rather nice to sit under a palm tree at the water’s edge when one band was just that bit too loud for my ears.\u00a0 Another late night is now playing havoc on our sleep patterns, but who cares; we\u2019re getting plenty of rest.<\/p>\n

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Stephanie, Ian and Laura at Pantai Tutong<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

We all slept in until quite late on Sunday morning and didn\u2019t get to a Chinese yum cha restaurant in Banda Seri Begawan until midday.\u00a0 A lot of the roads near the river front were blocked off for a big go-kart race, which made it a bit tricky to get to the restaurant.\u00a0 When we left, we stopped beside the track for a while\u00a0to watch one of the races and it was quite surprising how fast they shot round the hairpin bends.<\/p>\n

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Go karting in Banda Seri Begawan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

We then decided to try a bit of speed for ourselves by taking a fast boat up the River Brunei.\u00a0 The long boats are very narrow with a couple of big outboard motors on the back, so they shoot along the river at quite a speed, somehow managing to avoid the occasional tree trunk and slicing through all the garbage in the water.\u00a0 The river gradually narrows and lots of beautiful white egrets could be spotted amongst the mangroves and the crowds of palm trees which grow up through the muddy water.\u00a0 Sometimes the birds stand up tall, creating a beautiful shape and at other times they fold their necks low watching the water for passing fish.\u00a0 Our driver pulled up close to the bank when he spotted some proboscis monkeys in the trees.\u00a0 There were probably about ten of them moving slowly, or just sitting and watching us.\u00a0 They really are comical looking creatures with their long dangly noses. \u00a0I wish we could have got a photo, but unfortunately our camera wasn\u2019t good enough for the job.\u00a0 We were surprised to hear that proboscis monkeys only eat the buds of new growth on the mangrove trees where they live and will die if they eat bananas!!<\/p>\n

On the way back down the river to BSB we travelled around the back of Campong Ayer, the water village.\u00a0 There are rows and rows of rickety houses built on stilts, connected by a maze of bridges and walkways.\u00a0 Amongst the houses there are schools, mosques, a fire station, shops and everyone travels about in long boats.\u00a0 Apparently, everyone used to live in water villages before the city was built on the land and it seems a lot of the residents still do.<\/p>\n

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Long boat taxis on Sungai Brunei<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Kampong Ayer water village<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We strolled around the lovely gardens containing the tomb of the Sultan Bolkiah, the 5th<\/sup> Sultan of Brunei and we took some photos of the impressive Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque before heading back to the car and driving back to Ian\u2019s house, via the supermarket.\u00a0 A tasty barbecue for dinner and an early night was a good way to end the day as we had to be up early again on Monday.<\/p>\n

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The Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

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The tomb of the Sultan Bolkiah<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Ian dropped us at the ferry at 6:40am and we managed to get our name on the list for the 7:30am ferry to Bangar.\u00a0 The long boat carried about 28 passengers all up, seated on flat benches along the two sides and it travels at one helluva speed down the river, powered by two huge outboard motors and a driver with his foot permanently on the floor.\u00a0 It leans right over when taking the sharp bends in the very twisting river and all we could see was either the curve of the waves, or the sky above, depending on which way we were turning.\u00a0 I\u2019ll admit to being a bit scared as it felt a bit like being in a James Bond crazy boat chase, but again we missed all the floating debris and arrived in Bangar in one piece.\u00a0 It would have to be a racing-boat drivers dream job.<\/p>\n

We were met on the jetty by Nazir, our guide for the day. He was a wonderfully friendly fellow of only 5 feet tall (my height) and is of Iban heritage, one of the local Borneo tribes (previously head-hunters). He took us to a local restaurant for a roti with curry sauce and tea while we waited for two more tourists to arrive on the next ferry.\u00a0 8:30am seemed a bit early to be eating curry, but we had a feeling it might be a long time before the next meal.<\/p>\n

When Vladmir and Veronica, from the Czech Republic, arrived, we all piled into a tatty old mini bus and Nazir drove us further south in to the Ulu Temburong National Park.\u00a0 When we reached the \u2018end of the road\u2019, we transferred to a long boat driven by another tiny chap, much older and with a rather toothless smile.\u00a0 He drove us at great speed far up the river which twisted and turned around pebbly beaches and really narrowed in places amongst the endless jungle.\u00a0 We finally pulled up at a muddy bank and started to walk uphill treading on tree roots to avoid too much mud.\u00a0 We saw some massive ants, bigger than any we have seen in Australia, and a beautiful caterpillar which had four antennae fanned like a crown around its head. We also spotted a fascinating flying lizard, though he didn\u2019t fly for us. And we saw some lovely brown and blue butterflies, which hovered beautifully.<\/p>\n

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A beautiful bug on Rodney’s hat<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Second shock of the day: we were followed by a large group of Amway representatives on a junket from Korea; phew, we managed to get away without being signed up!\u00a0\u00a0We really hadn\u2019t expected to see them in the jungles of Borneo !!!!\u00a0 To burn up some energy, we climbed 500 steps\u00a0to a height of 900 metres to the base of a canopy walkway.\u00a0 The metal structure comprises of five enormous towers of ladders and a walkway between each tower. Each one gets progressively higher until you reach the fifth tower which you climb down to return to earth.\u00a0 The view from the top looks right out over the canopy of the jungle and you can hear the birds singing and the Amway reps chattering below\u2026\u2026<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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UP on the canopy walkway<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Under the canopy walkway<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We re-traced our steps back to our long boat and sped back down the river, pulling in at a small beach.\u00a0 Here we donned plastic crocs and waded up a small stream to a very pretty opening with a waterfall and a deep clear pool.\u00a0 Nazir encouraged us to take off our shoes and paddle in the pool and it was very funny seeing Rodney squeal when the tiny fish in there started to nibble his feet.\u00a0 I really jumped and squeaked when a fish nibbled my ankle, I thought they just nibbled the dead skin near the soles, that\u2019s what they tell you in the beauty parlours.\u00a0 We\u2019ve seen them around Asia and also in France, but have never fancied trying it.\u00a0 And having now tried the original, out in the wild, we probably never will again.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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The moment Rodney’s feet were nibbled<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Further on down the river, we pulled up again at a small encampment for a lunch break.\u00a0 Nazir pulled out pots of chicken curry, sweet and sour fish curry and a jackfruit curry, plus rice, all of which were very tasty.\u00a0 We followed this with a pile of pulasan fruit, which are the size of a rambutan but very dark red and spiky all over.\u00a0 When you peel them, they look like a lychee or rambutan inside and they do taste just like a rambutan, with an identical stone in the centre. Just as we were eating our fruit and Nazir was suggesting we take a swim in the river, the thunder and lightning grew closer and then the\u00a0heavens opened.\u00a0 We stayed under\u00a0a tin roof and watched the curtains of rain and the waterfalls developing on the opposite side of the bank.\u00a0 And while we waited and watched\u00a0I wrote lots of notes for our blog……… in the middle of the jungle.<\/p>\n

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The rain pouring down in the jungle<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

We ended up waiting for half an hour and with the rain only easing a little, our driver bailed the water out of the boat so that we could get back in.\u00a0 Even with a hat, sunglasses and a raincoat on, the water was streaming down my face and I had to keep my eyes shut most of the time.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know how that old man managed to steer his long boat down all the rapids, missing all the logs and the stony beaches. At times he drove us right under the overhanging tree branches, occasionally slowing down and then speeding up through the fast flowing white water; I continually wondered what he could spot; what was he avoiding that we couldn\u2019t see. He must know the river so very well.\u00a0 Finally Nazir drove the minibus back to Bangar and he made sure we got the correct ferry back to Banda Seri.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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The longboat racing back to Bangar<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

The crazy ride back, with all the bumps, rattles and sharp sliding turns, kept me awake, while most people on the boat, including Rodney, seemed to be rocked to sleep.\u00a0 There were men in smart clothes, ladies in their colourful long dresses and head coverings.\u00a0 There were workers with all their tools and generators, children fast asleep, huge bags of rice, packages wrapped in plastic and tied with brightly coloured string, a Barbie suitcase and wooden boxes of chicks all piled up on top of each other. The journey took\u00a0thirty minutes and would have taken\u00a0two to\u00a0three hours by road. \u00a0It was\u00a0certainly very different from the 272 bus from Sydney city to Naremburn\u2026..!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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On the ferry back to BSB<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

On Tuesday we opted for a lie in and spent time re-packing our bags.\u00a0 We then borrowed Ian\u2019s car and drove out to the Empire Hotel for lunch, but unfortunately the Amway reps had beaten us this time and every caf\u00e9 and restaurant was booked for a private function.\u00a0 We drove out to Muara to check out the beach and finally picked Ian up from school.\u00a0 In the evening, the four of us drove to the Pasar Gadong night market for dinner.\u00a0 There are no seats there so you buy whatever takes your fancy and eat it standing up, before moving to another food stall for something else. It was a bit of a hit and miss affair; we had some tasty sticky rice and some very nice satays and vegetable fritters, but I have to say I don\u2019t think I would bother with the \u2018chicken\u2019s arse on a stick\u201d again.\u00a0 I remember my Dad was always a little partial to the\u00a0‘parsons nose’, but none of us could eat them, so unfortunately, they did end up in a bin.<\/p>\n

Another quirky thing we saw in Brunei was in a chemist. All the rows and sections of the rows had a sign above stating what was on those shelves, e.g. haircare, or dental, or deodorants; much like everywhere else in the world.\u00a0 But there was a small section of\u00a0items which were obviously end of line, on sale, half price, whatever….. and the label above read “Price Abuse Labels”.\u00a0 We’ve never seen that anywhere in the world!\u00a0 Perhaps to the store keeper, it is an abuse to him selling the products at such a cheap price……? Or maybe something was just lost in translation?!<\/p>\n

Finally, on Wednesday morning, Ian dropped us at the airport before anything was open and at 9:30am we flew back to Singapore, via a shorter wait at the noisy Kuala Lumpur airport.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Sunset at Ian’s place<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We must have been to Singapore too much, because when we travelled in the taxi to Kenn & Pla\u2019s apartment on Sentosa Island, we almost felt like we were heading home. We spent our first day wandering around a bit and then had a yummy Asian lunch with chilled lime juice at the Raffles caf\u00e9 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1295,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-asia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1284"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1284\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8200,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1284\/revisions\/8200"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}