Brunei
BRUNEI
Here’s a photo gallery from the small state officially called the Sultanate of Brunei Darussalam. It’s located on the northern coast of the island of Borneo in Southeast Asia, about 500km north of the equator. Given the political and cultural system, which prohibits the sale of beer, we knew it would be challenging to make this trip. On the bright side, foreigners (non-Muslims over 18) can bring in six small cans, which have to be thoroughly checked by customs. There was no point in staying long in this purgatory, so we decided to make the trip a two-day visit to the capital city of Bandar Seri Begawan, which we nicknamed “rehab”.
To be honest, there isn’t much in the capital. There’s a mosque in the centre, some shopping malls, a night market that’s completely empty after 10pm, and monuments that the Sultan built and named either after his wife or himself. The Sultan has a relatively free hand in spending oil wealth thanks to the small size, low population and oil wealth of the country. This means that the people there are well taken care of (free healthcare, almost free gasoline). The biggest source of entertainment is probably the museum dedicated to the Sultan or the mall where you can buy Czech Baťa shoes or some Czech crystal glassware.
BRUNEI IN PICTURES
On our first day back, we went into the city centre in the evening. We were surprised to find the town half empty, except for one park where teenagers were playing football and some street food was being prepared in nearby stalls. The town centre is basically two parallel roads with a few office buildings and a shopping centre in between. We went to the local night market around 10pm, but it looked like all the stalls had closed a while ago. So the only thing to do during the day is probably either the shopping complex or the Royal Regalia Museum, where you can learn about the life of the local monarch.
The Sultan, who has been the de facto absolute monarch since 1967 and has executive, legislative and judicial powers, is the head of the entire state of some 5,700 km². If we complain about the attempt to cumulate the functions of certain politicians, just imagine that the Sultan of Brunei holds the following positions:
Head of State
Prime Minister
Defence Minister
Finance Minister
Minister for Foreign Affairs
Religious leader
Legal authority
Compared to the Sultan, those European politicians eager to hold as many positions as possible look like a Sunday league footballers.
On the second day of the rehab, we did a more in-depth exploration of the capital and its surroundings. We took a local water taxi and headed down the Brunei River towards the Kampong Ayer water district. We saw a crocodile and monkeys in the trees, but the photographer was too slow to react. The water district is the largest water-based urban district in the world. You’ll find a school, a police station and a fire station there. At the Sultan’s new residence we turned around and went back to the city centre (meaning the shopping mall by the mosque). We spent some time hanging around in the nearby parks, had a successful attempt at geocaching and checked out the mall again. That was our activity in 32° C with 75% humidity. Back home we finished all our beers, a few rounds of Yahtzee, had medicore noodles at a nearby restaurant and that was the end of our rehab time in Brunei.
It was collectively determined that Brunei can be considered a success.
It can be stated with certainty that this place is lacking in any form of entertainment.
We’re not necessarily talking about taprooms, but rather any other venue that isn’t a mosque or a museum exhibition, such as the “Me and My Life” featuring the life of the local sultan.
It’s been marked as finished, so we know we don’t need to come back here anytime soon (if we ever do).
Brunei trip in numbers
No. of days
By boat
Photos taken
Pics size
Geocaches found
New beers