Brunei and luxury
Trip Start
Oct 10, 2006
1
19
48
Trip End
Mar 08, 2007
Kuala Belait, Brunei
Monday, December 4, 2006
We arrived safely in Brunei after an early flight on Saturday morning. The only issue with the flight was the fact that we could choose our own films on the seat back TVs, so Q and I chose different films and started watching them, then with 30 minutes of the flight to go they decided to prepare for landing and turned off all the TVs which meant I missed the last 5 minutes of my film (which was really the climax) and Q missed the last 10 of his - most annoying!
Anyway my cousin Jill was waiting at Bandar airport (patiently as we were 40 minutes late) and we drove the hour and a half along the coast to her house just outside the Army garrison at Kuala Belait. We were welcomed by Rod (her husband) and Milo and Dom their children (who are now grown up teenagers and I hadn't met them before!). Milo had given up his room for us so we have a fab room with a really comfy double bed with cotton sheets and duvet and air con and we were able to fully unpack our rucksacks for the first time this trip.
Jill & Rod have an amah (a nice Filipino lady called Juliette) who has done all our washing for us so we have fully fresh clothes for the first time for ages and she even scrubbed my walking sandals (not a pleasant task!!). We went to a party on Saturday night at a house belonging to the Shell Oil company (most of the expats over here seem to be oil company or military) where the cocktails and beer was in plentiful supply. Despite Brunei being a 'dry' country the expats can buy booze from the Naafi stores and can drink it in their own houses, so house parties are much more popular than going out to public venues(where you can't drink). On Sunday we went over to the social club run by Shell which was like a country club with swimming pool and tennis courts and sports hall etc, it was lovely. The sun had come out and Q and I both got a bit burnt while lazing around and playing in the pool. The boys went back to boarding school on Sunday evening (they weekly board at an international school at the capital city of Bandar) and we went out for a nice meal at the Shell Yacht Club.
Jill and Rod won't let us pay for anything which makes us feel very guilty and they have been so good at looking after us that it has felt like a real treat being here.
We went shopping and looked round the local area on Monday and then yesterday Jill took us over the border into Malaysia (which I will do a separate blog for so the extra country is logged on travelpod).
The weather has been interchangeable - always hot but we have had numerous rain showers as they are entering their rainy season, and most nights there is thunder and lightning.
Their house is a large very nice single storey house and out behind the garden fence is the beach, but unfortunately swimming is out of the question as there are very nasty jellyfish and seasnakes in this area. You can see some of the many oil rigs just off shore with their chimneys burning off the oil at nights. We have seen a very large monitor lizard and some of the hornbill birds which are quite interesting but luckily none of the cobras which you also get here.
It has been great for me to catch up with Jill and have a good old gossip and for Andy to meet a few more members of my family. And we really want to thank both Jill and Rod for their hospitality and generosity - we really have appreciated it.
Hope you are all OK.
Love
Bex & Q
xx
