Bus to Brunei

Trip Start Sep 01, 2006

110

Trip End Aug 31, 2007

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Flag of Malaysia Bandar Seri Begawan, Malaysia
Monday, September 25, 2006

I got the bus to Brunei. Bus is probably a strong word. Some bloke turned up in his Toyota jeep (I think he had a deal with the guy at the tourist info. He'd told me about the "express bus"). We drove for half an hour then turned into a housing estate. At first I thought he was taking me to his house. Then he eventually found the house that he was looking for and we ended up picking up three other people before continuing the journey. The jeep ride was pretty straight forward. No hassles at the border crossings or anything. I eventually arrived in Bandar Seri Begawan at around 4pm.

I'm staying at the Brunei Youth Hostel. Or to be precise, I'm the only person staying at the Brunei Youth Hostel. It's like a ghost town. Although by all accounts, this hostel only really gets used by school groups and youth teams so I'm quite glad that I've avoided the usual crowd. The only other creatures here are cats, which may or may not be strays. Either way they have made the hostel their own and they do not like me being here one bit. They are amusing themselves by doing their best to trip me up. May be they get bonus points if I fall down the stairs - this seems to be what they're aiming for. I may have to have a word with the local Chinese takeaway and inform them where they can find some free meat. ;-).

Brunei its a dry country which has the amazing effect of making me want a beer. This could be the "wanting what you can't have" effect, or it could be just that's there's nothing else to do here so I feel like sitting by the river with a cold one and fighting off the mosquitoes. The lack of bars around the city have made it really quiet. Even the restaurants are dead. And with no drunk locals around the karaoke bars are even silent (May be that one can go in the plus column). But the upshot is still the same. With nothing to entertain me I find myself in bed at the shameful time of 9pm. I shall have to make up for this later....