After our fantastic diving around Tubbataha Reef, we had to leave the Philippines as our visa was running out, again. But it was also time to move on. A cheap option was to fly to Kota Kinabalu (KK), located in the malaysian part of Borneo.
Unexpected, we did a day of diving there as well. Of course it was not as amazing as our liveaboard, but the overall experience was quite good. We spent a couple of days in KK and then decided to take a ferry to Brunei, a (rich) independent sultanate.
What we found in and around Bandar Seri Begawan (the capital) made us think of (and feel like) home. A small and rich country, very clean, where a lot of foreigners come to work as the minumum salary is quite high compared to the rest of the region. Most roads and houses are new (except for the water village) as well as the cars you see here and there. Almost no pedestrians can be encountered on the nice and neat sidewalks. Public transport is poor, taxis (if available) cost a fortune. Sounds like home, no? ;-)
The Regalia Museum was a nice passtime. We did not go to the floating villages- as we already did something similar in Myanmar nor did we trek through the rainforest as it was way overpriced. 2 of the museums we wanted to visit were beeing renovated wich was a pity.
One thing though has to be pointed out at this place: even though Brunei / BSB was quite boring, the people we met were more than friendly. Indeed, as our Hotel was 2 km out of the city center. we had to waved on the sidewalk for a ride. Every sinle time- after 2 or 3 minutes- a car stopped and took us to where we wanted to go! FOR FREE- and some times a free coffee was in it as well, which we excepted with pleasure.
Unfortunately Brunei has recently (April 2014) introduced the Sharia which penalises those involved in homosexual relationships with death by stoning. At a time where gay marriage is finally going to be introduced in Luxembourg, this shocks especially.
Brunei:
