Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Brunei: Kingdom of unexpected treasures

I have not done a blog on travelling before so here's my first ill attempt to blog about my visit to the country I grew up in for the first 17 years of my life and also to promote this little country
called Brunei. Not many people know about this little country, except probably for most middle eastern country because its a muslim nation and in the last few years more Asian countries are aware of Brunei because of this 'unxpected treasure' that was discovered. I wish it was me =( but this guy beat me to it, Wu Zhun got famous through his boyband and appearing in many popular Taiwanese teen idol drama. So whenever I tell someone from Taiwan or China I grew up in Brunei they would go 'oooo wu zhun!'

Yes, that's him

Brunei is only well known for its oil and gas, and the Sultan used to be the richest man in the world before Bill Gates. Anyhow we only pay $0.52 a litre of gas, there's no taxes, Bruneians are rich people (i'm not rich... Im Malaysian) and because of that there is a downside, the country doesn't get many toursits and even though its almost the same size as Singapore there aren't many things to do here. I miss the Theme park we used to have which has closed because it wasn't making any money. However there ARE a few things that are worth visiting like the 6 star Empire hotel which is worth staying and has worn awards for being the best Golf Resort in The Asia Pacific.

Funny enough I managed to do a bit of sight seeing myself. Brunei has the largest (I think) if not one of the largest water village in the world and to be honest, it was quite interesting and I actually enjoyed the ride on the speedboat on the river. I actually felt like a tourist, maybe because I've been away for years!!

People travel with their speed boats or taxi boats around Kampong Ayer (the water village)

This is the school
A mosque in the middle of the village


I wonder if the students in the school ever wonderd if one day the wood would rot,
turn weak and fall in the river in the middle of the class.
That is not to say people are not advanced in the village. Look! There's 3 Satellite dish in that house.
Kids swimming in the river, but the water's really dirty with people throwing garbage in the river =(




New villages,oh also there are A/C in the the village lol

... and even a Gas Station, so cool!


and also Police Station

This boat ride was like many other river cruise I've been on, but neverthless it was pretty exciting because it's different and theres this 'Brunei' Feel to it.

We got into deep in the forest, swamps and there's a chance you'll encounter snakes and crocodilesSo you got to hire a Ninja. kidding. That's my boatman
But we got to see LOTS of Proboscis Monkey!!! Which made this trip relaly worth it.
I can't believe I have 6 days left before I have to go back to reality and work. This short holiday has been good, managed to rest, relax and God speaking to me about my PR situation, now I got to have faith and noit worry so much about it and pray for a miracle.

7 comments:

Fitness shoes said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Alix (Wolfgirl) said...

WOW! Kool setup dude!

Mimoko said...

youre applying for pr in oz?

Jason Lee said...

Cozymonster: thanks :)

Mimoko: yup, trying to hehe, love it there :)

Calgaroo said...

I absolutely love your photos..they are gorgeous..

Anonymous said...

Do you mind if I quote a few of your posts as long as I provide credit and sources back
to your site? My blog is in the very same area of interest
as yours and my users would really benefit from some of the information you present
here. Please let me know if this ok with you. Thank you!


Look into my homepage :: diets that work

Anonymous said...

I have learn some just right stuff here. Certainly worth bookmarking for revisiting.
I surprise how much attempt you set to create any such great informative site.


Check out my web site ... the tao of badass