Brunei & Malaysia: It's home for me tomorrow

I'm back in Kota Kinabalu. The trip was shorter this time. I left Brunei at 1:00 p.m. and got here in KK at about 6:15 p.m. Lesser waiting time and this time, we used the highway going to Muara.

Last night, together with other BPYs including my SG-mates Zam and Sharin, I tried Brunei's favorite dish, ambuyat, a sago-based paste that you dip in pungent sauces. It's sad Siti Raisa wasn't able to join us since she left for Mecca today. Quite a funny dish but not bad. It's like eating sticky gawgaw paste and dipping it in curry, chili or durian sauce. You twirl the paste in between bamboo sticks, dip and eat.


After dinner, we chilled out in Wandi and Yati's apartment. Then went for some roti john... beef, eggs, green onions, chili sauce and mayo cooked into a bun.

This morning, Wandi and Yati brought me to Muara for my ferry to Labuan. It took about an hour and thirty minutes. Got there in time for the 3:00 p.m. ferry to KK.

This time I'm staying at the Hotel Malar Kinabalu for my last night. I wanted a room for my own so that I could fix my stuff for the plane tomorrow. I had Indian food again for dinner, this time lamb murtabak and roti telur. In the middle of my murtabak, the cook told me the Malay name, muratbak kambing, which made me quite uncomfortable eating the rest of it. But it's sheep, not goat. The whole meal cost me only RM8 which is about P120. Expect to spend approximately RM10 for every meal if you plan to backpack here in Malaysia. That meal was quite filling.

I'm off to the hotel now to rest. I'll do some last minute shopping early tomorrow at the Sunday market which I've been waiting for all week, before I go to the airport for my 2 p.m. flight back to Clark.

See everyone soon!

Part 1: Hello from Kota Kinabalu!
Part 2: Ferry from Kota Kinabalu to Brunei
Part 3: I saw the Sultan of Brunei!
Part 4: Kampong Ayer, water villages from Brunei's past
Part 5: Still in Negara Brunei Darussalam

Brunei: Still in Negara Brunei Darussalam

It's the 5th day of my travel retreat. After all that stress in the Philippines, I just wanted to be alone to recharge. After posting yesterday, Wandi and Yati picked me up here at Yayasan where I'm typing again today. We first went to the Empire Hotel and Country Club. Talk about luxury! They said than when the hotel hosted APEC, Clinton just couldn't stop looking at ceiling even when the Sultan of Brunei was chatting with him.

We then when to Jerudong Park to take a stroll in a reminder of better times in Brunei. All of us were hit badly by the 1997 Asian financial crisis, Brunei included. Dinner was at a local joint in Jerudong. We had nasi katok... chicken, with rice and sambal wrapped in paper. The name has an interesting story behind it. People used the knock in houses to buy this cheap and light meal. Thus the word katok... hehe!

After dinner, we went for a drive around Jerudong since it was palace central since most of the royals chose to live there. All the luxury enjoyed by a single family!


In the morning, I decided to get up late since I am on rest vacation! Had brunch at another Indian restaurant and this time took the murtabak ayam (chicken) and roti kosong. Yummy! I then took a bus to Gadong, their shopping area, but found nothing of interest. So I decided to go to the Royal Regalia Museum back in BSB. As warned, the buses were very unreliable. How could a well-developed country have a bad bus system you may ask? Well, everyone has cars so no one rides the bus! It took quite a while waiting at the bus stop, no waiting shed, it was drizzling and yet the sun was out, talk about bad luck!

There are no entrance fees for museums in Brunei. And that is indeed a strong statement about it's economic standing! At the Royal Regalia Museum, you saw the crown jewels of Brunei and other paraphernalia used during royal functions, from the Sultan's down to the escorts. On display as well were the gifts to the Sultan of various heads of state and visitors. And as expected, the gift of the Philippines looked so pityful beside the regal presents of the other countries.

It reminded me so much of SSEAYP... we could do nothing but hide our faces when we gave the gifts provided to us by the National Youth Commission. Cheap and tasteless! We said to ourselves, we should have gotten the presents ourselves. It's government, what do you exepect? There were 1998 SSEAYP presents to the Sultan on display at the museum as well would you believe. And obviously, the Philippine present wasn't on display. This should be a wake-up call to the National Youth Commission staff, if you can't buy good presents, then don't! The SIP Board could do a better job!

Now I'm back in Yayasan killing time. I'm having dinner with the other Brunei PYs later. So I guess that's it again for now.

Part 1: Hello from Kota Kinabalu!
Part 2: Ferry from Kota Kinabalu to Brunei
Part 3: I saw the Sultan of Brunei!
Part 4: Kampong Ayer, water villages from Brunei's past
Part 6: It's home for me tomorrow

Brunei: Kampong Ayer, water villages from Brunei's past

Today seemed like it would be a great day of exploring Brunei's capital. After the procession and a filling brunch, I took a river taxi (they're like sports cars on water) to Kampong Ayer, a centuries-old settlement in Brunei with houses on water.

At first, they looked like our slums in Manila. But nope, these are the old heritage houses of Brunei. They are even more well-equipped than the regular Filipino home with air-conditioning, Internet access, plumbing and electricity. You'd see a lot with their own satellite dishes!

The community has it's own elementary and high school, fire station (since fires are a problem given that most houses are made of wood and close to each other), police station, and mosque. There are a total of 4,200 structures built on top of the water, linked by 29,140 meters of foot bridges. At total of 30,000 people live in Kampong Ayer, which is 10 percent of Brunei's population!

That's it for today. I could already hear the call to prayer from the nearby mosque (which sounds very much like a male version of our own pabasa).

Part 1: Hello from Kota Kinabalu!
Part 2: Ferry from Kota Kinabalu to Brunei
Part 3: I saw the Sultan of Brunei!
Part 5: Still in Negara Brunei Darussalam
Part 6: It's home for me tomorrow

Brunei: I saw the Sultan of Brunei!

Yes people, I saw Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah of Brunei today! It's an important religous holiday in the Muslim world (the Birthday of Prophet Muhammad S.A.W. Thursday, 12 Rabiulawal 1426) and the Sultan himself and the male members of the royal family led a three-kilometer procession around Bandar Seri Begawan.

It was good morning exercise for me since the procession was moving really fast and it was quite hard to keep up. I got good pictures of the Sultan and his Rolls Royce which was parked at the back of the Padang (these green marching grounds are the Malay equivalent of our town plazas). I'll upload them as soon as I get back to Manila. Funny as it may seem, my Bruneian friends saw me on TV!

After the procession, I went back to Pusat Belia (Youth Centre) where I was staying, to rest after that long walk. The next thing I knew, it was 2 p.m. and it was time for another of those Indian dishes I missed so much, roti telur (flour pancakes with egg inside) and beef murtabak, with various curry sauce dips.

Part 1: Hello from Kota Kinabalu!
Part 2: Ferry from Kota Kinabalu to Brunei
Part 4: Kampong Ayer, water villages from Brunei's past
Part 5: Still in Negara Brunei Darussalam
Part 6: It's home for me tomorrow

Brunei: Ferry from Kota Kinabalu to Brunei

I arrived in Brunei today on a ferry from Labuan Island. I left Kota Kinabalu at 8 a.m. and reached in Labuan at 11 a.m. I went through Malaysian Immigration, boarded the next ferry and left Labuan at 12:30 p.m. and finally arrived in Muara at about 2:00. I took a bus from Muara to Bandar Seri Begawan (about B$2) at the ferry terminal which was about 45 minutes. Cabs are very expensive so try to avoid them if you're alone.

Hungry and thirsty after traveling for 7 hours, I ate at the first food joint which I saw and it was Pizza Hut. How ordinary you would think but their menu is totally different from ours since most of our pizzas in Manila have pork and Brunei is a conservative Muslim country (no alcohol, no discos and pubs, etc.). I took the roasted garlic chicken pizza, really good! They should bring those pizzas to Manila.

After a few minutes, my friend Rewandi (an ex-PY from SSEAYP 2002) passed by for me. And in my rush to the car, I left my camera on the table! I found out only at Wandi and Yati's apartment and Wandi assured me that it was totally safe in Brunei. Yup, I was able to get my camera back. As Wandi told me, when you leave stuff on the table, more often than not, it's still there when you come back for it. I was surprised people just left their cars running when they went down to get stuff. And these aren't just ordinary cars mind you. People in Brunei are known to sport the latest car models.

We then left to pick up his wife Yati at work (also an ex-PY 2002) and proceeded to Yayasan Complex, the most popular shopping area of Brunei. Beside it is the Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddin Mosque, a royal Islamic most considered one of the most spectacular in the Asia-Pacific Region.

After chatting with Wandi and Yati, I discovered more than the well known fact that Bruneians don't pay taxes. Education is free and the government gives you an allowance to study. Health services and medication are free as well and the government would even send you abroad if you need specialized treatment (surgery, chemotherapy, etc.) and it's all paid for by the government! If you are a government employee, you can get a 0% interest housing loan (in the Philippines, you get charged a high interest rate which is where our corrupt GOCC officials get their benefits). The list just goes on and on! Sigh!

I thought everything was more expensive here in Brunei. But I found something which was much cheaper here than in the Philippines... gas! Yes people, gas here is still P15 per liter, the perks of an oil-producing state. I hope our government officials stop that self-interest thing and get Malampaya working to its capacity!

And to think all this only started to peak when Brunei became independent in the early eighties. I saw the Sultan's first palace and it was nothing but a wooden house which would have been a sorry sight if put beside our own bahay na bato. But look at the current palace, splendid, sprawling and elegant!

For dinner we had sate and wet fried noodles. I missed satay so much especially that peanut sauce which accompanies it.

Part 1: Hello from Kota Kinabalu!
Part 3: I saw the Sultan of Brunei!
Part 4: Kampong Ayer, water villages from Brunei's past
Part 5: Still in Negara Brunei Darussalam
Part 6: It's home for me tomorrow

Malaysia: Hello from Kota Kinabalu!

What a way to start my blog, writing about my journeys in some really exotic place!

Yup, I took advantage of those AirAsia trips and it's a real bargain. I'm here in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia right now which is the capital of Sabah. I took a ferry to Manukan Island yesterday which is part of the Tungku Abdul Rahman Marine Park, Malaysia's premiere marine sanctuary.

It's a 15 minute speed boat ride from the ferry terminal. As soon as you left the terminal, you already saw corals below and right at the port of Manukan, you had schools of fish greeting you. At the beach, you swam with fish as well! Great beach! And a really great experience!

I went back to Trekker's Lodge (which is a bed and breakfast place) where I was staying, my way of living the backpacker culture for the next few days. For dinner, I had nasi lemak (chicken with coconut milk, pandan rice and sambal sauce) and kiwi lou (just as I did the previous night) at a seaside cafe and enjoyed a really great view of the Sabah sunset.

I'm off to Brunei today. I will take a ferry to Labuan Island, then take another ferry to Muara in Brunei.

Great to hear we have a new Pope! Viva il Papa! Anyway, have to rush! See you!

Part 2: Ferry from Kota Kinabalu to Brunei
Part 3: I saw the Sultan of Brunei!
Part 4: Kampong Ayer, water villages from Brunei's past
Part 5: Still in Negara Brunei Darussalam
Part 6: It's home for me tomorrow