Brunei and the River Trip

 

I'm Still not well !!!!!!!!!!!!  Spent sunday afternoon feeling like death warmed up my nose like a tap being switched on and off ... Still spent 3 hours at the PC trying to build some power point slides - McD helping - for a presentation I was supposed to do this morning .... AND we lost the first attempt !!!!! Networked computing sucks big time.... McD ignored my onsetting nervous breakdown on losing version 1 and recreated Version 2 with great success I might add....AND THEN this morning I'm still like death and throats like someones been ramming a rasp down it all night and there was no way I was going in to do anything ...................................... 

McD reckons I have manflu .... The worst of all Flus in the world ...

ManFlu   

Actually I'm much worse than that ... AND McD went off to work and left me to suffer All alone .... :O\

 

OK - Brunei -

 

After the stop off at the villiage on stilts we were taken up the river and into the outskirts of the jungle there ... I loved it ...Could have spent a full day just watching the wildlife - the Birds and the reptiles in the mangroves ...

 

 

And of course the proboscus monkeys ... They call them "Dutchmen" locally because of their big noses .... Unfortunately the low light plus the high vibration of the boat engine meant most of my pictures were no good .... The big Male had perched himself at the top of a tree and promptly turned his back to us ...He didn't want to know ..but at one point turned his head to see what the noise was as the guide and boatman goaded him with 'monkey calls' ...

 

Obviously not too good at the monkey calls as he didn't turn around ....I did wonder what might happen if they had produced in monkey language something like "come on bignose, I'll take you on " ... .. He looked big enough to take us all on one handed ...

 

 

 

The big Monitor type lizard were rather plentiful along the muddy bank .... And very active ..always on the move as we neared them ... And not always to move away from us ...

 

 

 

 

 

As you can see we were never too far from civilisation ... Houses were dotted along the river

 

 

 

 

And then on the return journey we were able to see some of the mosques and villiage from a different perspective .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anyway - it was a few houre of absolute pleasure and next time we go to brunei I'm going further into the jungle ... it was awesome ... 

 

Next entry - why the "we are so going to Die" phrase just kept comeing up ..... And the Night Market.. 

The villiage on stilts over the river - Brunei

 

From about 10 degrees in Auckland, a 10 hour flight to 35 degrees in Brunei (plus the humidity), about 3 hours sleep in our wonderful hotel (42 inch TV - Oh yeh :O) and straight out with our guide ..First stop to visit the chinese stilt villiage over the water of the river eastury there...

 

Our boat was hand made from a tree trunk!! Large and reasonably stable but none the less hewn out of a log of wood with a sizeable propeller engine attached .... Getting on and off was a saga ... Dangerous really ..no hand rails ..VERY slippering steps and an 80lbs 40kg little chinese girl trying to steady me by holding my hand as I got on and off the boat ....I do biceps curls with more weight than that on one arm ..I'm 3 or 4 times her size ... Plus I have no balance ...My ear problem left me distinctly 'wobbly' at the best of times

"We are so going to die today ..." I mutter to McD as I finally make it to the bench seat on the boat ...

I seemed to use that phrase a few times that afternoon .....

 

There were more modern boats as well .... The eastury being quite a criss cross of boat traffic

On arriving we had to go through the same dangerous exercise in reverse this time back onto slippery steps cameras, bags etc in hand ..This time two 40kg chinese girls trying to ensure I do not take a plunge into the not so clean looking river ...

 

 

 

And then it got worse !! We are now on a walkway on stilts no handrail 12 high that wobbles ..Yes wobbles from side to side as i follow the girls ... It wasn't built for a 6foot 300lb Pom ...Oh no .. Plus in part the wood had rotted away so the walkway had holes in it in parts ... 

"We are so going to die today ..." I mutter to McD as I finally make it to the wooden house we were to visit and (I hadn't known) to have tea and a selection of brunei local cake delicacies ...

Now when travelling I do try to be careful of eating only the safer foods and liquids... Shell fish - I don't think so....Dodgy water - stay well away ... Food from places you are not sure of ...Uh Uh ...

But when we find ourselves invited to someones house and offered food and beverage I wouldn't dream of insulting our guests in not at least trying the foods offered ... Fine if you then don't like it ...A bit of humour a funny face etc and the jokes on us the winter pale strangers ....

 So after a glance to McD who understood my thoughts of "We are so going to die today ..." I  pick up the luke warm sweet tea ..

"It's safe water" the guide tells us ..The Sultan has fresh water pumped over to them.. God bless the Sultan I'm thinking ... The  tea was unusual ...Sweeter than syrup... but very nice and refreshing ..... Our guests speaking no English beamed as we drank it and I nodded to the man of the house .....

 

The cakes were a real assortment  ...Some I had had in Bali...little round dumpling filled with palm sugar, little aquares of spongecake that wasn't sweet as I thought it would have been ..  Prawn crackers. "They are home made" the guide tells us "They dry it all on the roof tops ...Shrimps etc" .. (Uncovered I was to find out a little later...  

"Yum" I say crunching into them ... 

There were about 6 diffent cakes - one was like a coconut macaroon. At the end of the tasting, of which we liked them all, we were asked if we wanted to take some away with us ... "just two from each perhaps ". I said not really sure what the custom was in these circumstances... we were given a little bag of cakes to take away. 

Handshakes and smile and nods all round with the man of the house. The guide told us that many visitors refuse outright to eat the food.  While they get paid for doing it, the lady of the house made the food herself and they all went to great trouble to look after the guests. The food was fine and clean and safe... It was a great introduction to our newly discovered Brunei and its people of the stilt villiage.

McD tried to Blend in with the locals by wearing her around the world "photography hat" A pin badge as a momento of where we have travelled.... 

 

The Sultan tried to move the people a few years back ..Offered them new housing on land ..Dispite the dangers and the dangers of fire (there had been one a few week previously) The residents refused.. this was their home ....

We were told we could walk around the villiage and take pictures ....Well we don't need telling twice about that :O)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At the end of the walk and photo session we came across these small golden headed fish in the brown river water.... 

 

 

Back onto the boat ....More stress but then once settled we were told the next thing was the journey up the river into the jungle to see if we could get close to the Proboscis monkeys that frequent there  ....

 

Not my Picture

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

         

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

Brunei and Hong Kong - Bits of Day 1&2

We took off from Wellington in a gale..Arriving at the airport we saw the departures list carrying numerous cancelations all around our destination of Auckland ... But our flight stayed open for us and we were quickly boarded and took off.. The Holiday had started....

 

It was the worst take off I had ever endured .. as soon as we climbed above the surrounding hills of Wellington harbour we hit 3 successive air pockets. Bang bang bang...the woman across the aisle from me  had adopted the 'brace position" they tell you to get into if the plane is to crash .... McD had my hand in a vice like grip that would have made a hardened kiwi farmer handshake pale into insignificance .... 

But we made it to Auckland safe and sound though shaken .... 

 McD had booked us into a motel to rest up and eat a nice evening meal before the main flight to Brunei at 3am the following morning ...

 

12 midnight and we were at the airport all booked in and through customs ... No Alcohol on Brunei Airlines flights ..Nor in the country as they are Muslim..

 

A 10 hour flight to suffer through. While the seats were uncomfortable the airline staff were great and each seat had it's own entertainment centre for your movie and TV choice... 

 

And then we landed in Brunei and the 30+C heat ... Collected our bags and passed through customs ..

"got anything to declare  drugs ??"  Said the customs man 

 

"no" Said we ... 

"do you have any Alchohol??"

"no" Said we ... 

"Off you go then " he says with half a smile 

and that was it !!  

 

We were met outside by our pre-hired guide for our stay, a young Chinese girl who drove us straight to the hotel talking non-stop the whole way to McD ..I was to get to learn quickly that in Brunei the women do not talk to the men ....................... 

 

What Can I say - The hotel was magnificent and comfortable and for a few hours we slept like babies before the first trip out ....  

 

 

 

 

 

 The sequencing went a little astray as far as the pictures here .. .We went out to visit the water villiage (houses on stilts over the river) and boated up the river into the borneo jungle to see the probiscus monkeys and then ate beside the river sampling Brunei delecacies before seeing the lights and the mosques at night .... All on our first day of landing ... Pictures to follow over the next few entries

 

But here ..........

 

 We also took a walk through a park - Just to keep the old man happy :O)  Who ever he was :O)   

 

 (Blurry) Picture below shows our guide and McD getting a foot massage on upright pebbles

 

A Blurry McD Laughs through the pain !!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That night we drove round to see the lights they still had showing from from a festival to celebrate the Sultans Birthday.

 

A mosque looked fantastic lit up and golden ..>Can you believe I took this picture without a tripod !!

 

 

 

 

 

The lights below were chandeliers but the locals called them the angels 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 The lights outside the Sultans Palace fell like rain ...Impossible to capture but an amazing spectacle

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We then visited another Mosque. Prayers were underway with the haunting prayers (I think but maybe from the Koran) being recited from the top of a spinaret across the city... We were to re-vist the mosque in daylight the next day ....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 The gold on the gate and the fence around the Mosque was gold inlay ...  

 

 

 

 

 

Were were very tired by this point but stunned  by the beauty of the place.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 More pictures to follow - Sorry the quality isn't too good ...Throughout this holiday I was plagued by low/no light and rain and visciously vibrating boats .... My Camera  helped where it could ...My stupidity in not carrying my tripod around with me shows in the picture quality .... 

But as McD kept reminding me ...I can't spend the whole holiday viewing it from a camera lens ....................:O)