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Reunited with my travel buddies, Dupong, Jackie, Ruth and Jun, we did selfies and groupies around this rich little country.
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LAAG in BRUNEI
Selfie & Groupie
Laag!Laag!
Brunei
in
in Kampung Ayer
Courtesy of Dupong Ravelo
2
LAAG in BRUNEI
2014... The year when selfie and groupie trended around the world. Me and my friends loved to go with the trend and thus we celebrated it in Brunei.
Taking Off Manila
Landing in Brunei
Cruising Kampung Ayer
Tourist Trapping Friday
Swimming Pool Party
Malling in Gadong
Commuting around Bengawan
Losing Translations
Flying Home so Late
Travel Tip
What’s with the book title?
“Laag” is a Surigaonon term for journey, may also mean stroll, stride, walk. It chronicles the experiences
of the author when travelling abroad as a tourist.
CONTENTS
4
5
6
8
9
10
11
12
17
17
3
LAAG in BRUNEI
Author’s Note
I don’t want to sound cliché but just like everyone else I dreamt to
travel the world.
I realized that overseas travels can best be experienced while I am young, full of desire and energy for adventure. This realization set in
most fully in year 2008 when my green passport was about to expire 2
years later.
My journey started in Asia with Singapore as the first foreign country
and city, courtesy of Philippine Airlines’ Mabuhay Miles’ get-away promo. Since then, I was able to set foot on 9 countries (Singapore,
Malaysia, China, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, South Korea,
Indonesia and Brunei), 17 cities (Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Johor Bahru, Melaka, Penang, Hong Kong, Macau, Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh,
Siem Reap, Phnom Penh, Busan, Seoul, Jakarta, Yogyakarta,
Bengawan and Seria), and innumerable tourist destinations. I even visited some of these cities twice or thrice within the span of 6 years,
ushered to me mostly by the budget flight promos of Cebu Pacific Air.
I am writing down the true accounts of my foreign travels with the
sole purpose of telling my stories to everyone (even retelling it to my-
self) who would one day find themselves leafing over the pages that contain my idiocy and/or naivety when in foreign lands, faux pas and
lessons learned when dealing with diverse cultures and different lan-
guages.
The best feature I brought out here is that I travelled so cheap. I used
to pocket an average of USD500 for a 3- to 7-day trip. This shows
that travelling around doesn’t necessarily cost much and that it is not
merely a privilege of the elite.
Crisanto B. Gastardo, Jr., CPA, RN
Unit 838 Bldg 8 MRB Complex, Pilot Drive, Brgy Commonwealth,
Quezon City, Philippines
Home Phone: (632) 709.4991
Mobile: (63)923.425.0293 or (63)927.656.9620
4
LAAG in BRUNEI
booking a pick-up shuttle is highly necessary.
Dupong and I made a last minute transport
arrangement with the Radisson Hotel.
Group tour is expected to be crowded yet fun
-filled, more than my usual solo flight. The
downside however, as a personal note, is that
I cannot sit in a corner by myself and write
anything under the sun, like travel blogging.
Agreed to meet early that night at NAIA
Terminal 3 to rid of cramming and long
queue, Dupong came from Mindanao,
Surigao in particular, Auntie Myrna, who
resided in Cagayan de Oro City in Mindanao
also, came along with the couple Jun and
Ruth, and Jackie and I came straight from
our respective offices. After having paid for
the travel taxes and while waiting for the
check in counter to open at 8:30pm, we were
treated by the June and Ruth to a dinner at
the Pancake House within the terminal’s
mall. Laag!Laag!
Surely, this was some crowded but enjoy-
able trip. Six friends flew to Bandar Seri
Bengawan, city of Brunei Darussalam, on
Thursday night of September 11. My company
comprised of Dupong, Jackie and Ruth, my
college batchmates; Jun, Ruth’s husband; and,
Auntie Myrna, Jun’s aunt. All but Auntie
Myrna are my travel buddies. Dupong and I
shared a lot of trips in Hongkong, Macau,
Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, and
Indonesia, to name a few. Jackie joined my
trips to Singapore and Malaysia. Ruth and Jun
tugged me along when they visited
Hongkong, Macau, Singapore, and Johor
Baruh in Malaysia.
Our flight bookings were booked since
February 2014, taking advantage of Cebu
Pacific Air’s promo fare. However, it was only
when July (or was it really August?) felt so fast
approaching that Dupong and I started
looking for a decent place to stay in the
Bengawan city. We found two interesting
ones, Dupong eyed Radisson Hotel and Jackie
suggested the Empire Hotel,as referred to her
by a friend, who lived and worked in the city.
Given the distant location of the Empire
Hotel, we settled at Radisson Hotel. Also, we
found Radisson close to the city and nearby
tourist attractions. And Radisson felt very
responsive to our group’s needs. Then again,
time flew so fast that only when it was about
a week before our departure, we realized we
have not arranged any airport transfers to
and from the hotel. Given the limited public
transport in Brunei, plus the fact that we shall
be arriving in the country at early dawn, pre-
Taking Off Manila
Top: W
aiting fo
r th
e m
idnig
ht f
light
Sid
e: A
rriv
ing a
t Bru
nei
5
LAAG in BRUNEI
Brunei is too near that the 2-hour flight
from Manila flew past us like the tailwind of the
plane. Departing on time, we landed at Brunei’s International Airport at 1:30am of
September 12. We found their airport com-
parable to some of our improved national
airports; it was in fact undergoing expansion. We passed the immigration smoothly, finding 14
days stamped on our passports – maximum
allowed number of days to stay in the country. Not much around the arrival area can be
considered picturesque enough to spend a
little more time. Dupong immediately spotted our names (Dupong’s and mine)
raised a piece of paper. With a little intro-
duction, we found our shuttle driver to be a fellow Filipino.
Arriving at Radisson Hotel’s doors so sleepy,
we hastily signed the check-in papers, thanked Yassin at the frontdesk, bade good-
nights, and climbed our rooms 214 and 215.
We retired guilty to fail tipping the room boys who helped us settled because we have
not changed our US dollars into local Brunei
dollars. It was as if choreographed the rooming assignments, Dupong, Jackie and
myself took the triple bed room 214, and Jun
and Ruth occupied the double occupancy
bed, with Auntie Myrna settled at the extra bed in room 215. Before passing out that
instance, I called the frontdesk to book 6
seats for the hotel’s free shuttle to Yassan Shopping Center.
Despite the lack of sleep, we readied at 8am
for the day’s tour plan. We must start early in order to enjoy fully the buffet breakfast
for the first day in Brunei. Before the 10am
departure of the free shuttle to the Bandar Seri Begawan (BSB) Complex, we familiar-
ized ourselves with the hotel facilities, the
swimming pool, fitness center, and Avis Car Rental office. The day’s itinerary was hoped
to be short and simple. First on the list was
Money Changer; we cannot move without any local money.
Reaching the Yassan Mall at opening hours
where the only money changer inside was found to be closed yet, we looked for other
shops outside and found several ones lining
the ground level stalls of an adjacent commercial center. We crowded at the one
nearest to the mall that traded 1USD to
1.14BD. I changed my 200USD,
30MYR, and 2,500PHP to 309B$. Laag!Laag!
Landing in Brunei
Above: Bangar Seri Bengawan Complex
Below: Groupie at the Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque
6
LAAG in BRUNEI
Kampung Ayer, the river village , or
water settlement if you like, can be viewed
facing the commercial center we were at
that time. It looked intriguing to see this entire community standing on and connect-
ed by stilts over a body of water of Brunei
River. I have seen some other floating villages, but this appeared unique; yes
crowded yet organized, dense yet wide, with
clean waters around. A piece of vacant land can be seen from its background but the
people seemed to prefer water over it. More
amazing though is its means of transport, a water taxi to get to this island of houses and
other structures.
Due to too much humidity under the hot
sunny day, Dupong, Ruth and Jun retreated
back to Yassan Mall, while Auntie Myrna, Jackie and I dared the skin burning climate.
Acting as the cameraman, I encouraged them
to take poses at the riverbank, its boulevard, and wooden dock. Approaching the dock, a
couple of water taxi drivers offered us a ride.
We declined. Then suddenly, I found Auntie
Myrna and Jackie running down the dock and taking turns in posing at one moored water
taxi. It was later that I noticed its all smiling,
seemingly friendly, young and quite good-looking driver. He did not offer the ride but I
felt he was patiently waiting for us to climb
and board his boat. Maybe a feeling of, you know, paying that debt of gratitude having
him and his water taxi as our photo ops’ props,
Cruising Kampung Ayer
Selfie with the water taxi
Dupong a
nd J
ackie
; M
yrn
a &
me
Mr. and Mrs.
Jun and Ruth
Go
Courtesy of D
upong Ravelo
7
LAAG in BRUNEI
we took the ride with Fernan (at least it
sounded like Fernan when he introduced him-self in Malayo). We enquired the taxi fare to
be 20B$ and agreed to pay 10B$ each. The
first driver who approached and offered us the ride shouted something at us as the boat
started moving away from the riverbank. He
seemed to be swearing or cursing, thankfully
the engine revs screamed so loud and silenced him.
The speedboat ride was indeed enjoyable. We took turns to hold the camera and clicked for
selfie and groupie photos, so unmindful of
neither the scorching heat of the day, Fernan’s
speedy maneuvers, nor the bumpy ride as boat’s hull slapped the water surface wildly.
To taxi around the Kampung Ayer was
actually long. We got passed the floating structures, from residential houses, mosques,
schools, to police and fire stations, and hotel-
resorts. Everything around here floated, wooden or concrete bridges, transmission lines
for water and electricity, even the towering
Toyota billboard. From vantage point of the
river village, even the BSB Complex looked
floating.
We excitedly relayed to Dupong, Ruth and Jun our memorable experience and fantastic,
adrenaline-rushing adventure, with the water
taxi ride. They decided to do the Kampung Ayer water taxi ride as well. On one condition
though, they have to take Fernan’s taxi too. So
we settled at a closed restaurant by the riverbank to sight for Fernan. It did not take us
that much time to spot him; we identified him
wearing yellow-blue sweatshirt and a white cap. Much to our astonishment, Jackie was
seen walking down the boulevard, on her way
to the dock to catch Fernan and personally
call on him and book him for the intended ride. We teased her to have been smitten by
cute driver.
As the cameraman of the group, I joined the
second batch boarding the boat. It was my
second round so I asked Fernan to enter and
pass by some more routes and touristy points inside and around Kampung Ayer. As a result
of being exposed to the heat of the day twice,
I got a sunburnt face.
Laag!Laag!
8
LAAG in BRUNEI
Laag!Laag!
11 o’clock in the morning chimed, the
mosque heralded for the noon prayer, and
then all shops hasten to close. Only then that
we realized that it was Friday, that Friday in Muslim countries such as Brunei is prayer
day, that the midday prayer lasts for hours,
and during those hours, all activities including primarily the establishments within
the BSB Complex will be closed up to 2pm.
As soon as Ruth and Dupong emerged from the department store hoisting plastic bags of
Lego toys for Ruth and Jun’s sons back
home, we hurried to find lunch before all food outlets close. We tried knocking at
Jollibee’s main doors but they’re really
closing and no longer accepting customers. We ran after the adjacent KFC and success-
fully ordered our food choices before its
closing time. We managed to eat fast and then settled in one of the concrete benches
outside to wait for the mall to resume its
operation at 2pm. We observed faithfuls in
proper attires heading their way to the Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque.
As the clock struck twelve, the city came to
a standstill, literally. Funny was the tranquility
had reinforced and intensified the humidity of the surroundings. We had in fact failed to
consider Friday to be a significant factor affect-
ing our itinerary negatively. We should have stayed in the hotel rooms and recover enough
sleep.
Nevertheless we waited until our group cannot stand just sitting at the mall’s side benches. We
agreed to made use of the idle time and dared
the excruciating midday sun taking selfies and groupies of the mosque, the mall, the mall and
the beautiful mosque, the mosque and the mall,
even the gargantuan flower pots lining the
Yassan’s outdoor aisles, and the Kampung Ayer riverbank. The photoshoots however took only a
little while because we cannot bear the exposure
to the heat of the sun. So we decided to take a shed at a closed restaurant with vacant seats
along the riverbank.
Then, Dupong, Ruth and Jun decided to do the Kapung Ayer tour via the water taxi.
Tourist Trapping Friday!
Top: Selfie at Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque
Above: Groupie at Kampung Riverbank
9
LAAG in BRUNEI
Reuniting with Auntie Myrna and Jackie
at the river dock, we touched ground just in
time for the commercial centers to reopen.
Since we overestimated our mall tour, we mistakenly booked the shuttle pick up at 4pm.
It was not entirely a mistake, it’s the only avail-
able schedule in the afternoon as 12nn pick up time is not applicable on Fridays. So there we
were again, trying to scour the whole mall to
endure the 2-hour waiting period. Being inside the mall was in itself relieving; airconditioned
environment is a great relief from the humidity
outside.
Dupong suggested to wear a signature shirt for
our uniform doing the second day tour. The
Giordano shirt with “I Brunei” prints comes in two different colors, so it was decided that
the 3 ladies will wear white and the 3 gentle-
men, black. We then bought more Giordano shirts, which were on sale that day, for gifts to
our loved ones back home.
Having waited long enough, we decided to rather prepare for the pool party that night to
celebrate in advance Auntie Myrna’s birthday.
We grabbed a chocolate cake from a bakeshop, two buckets of fried chicken and
eight cups of rice from Jollibee, and bottles of
Laag!Laag!
Coke from a kiosk.
Back to the hotel, we cooled ourselves off; rested for a while. The night swimming also
celebrated our first night in Brunei. After
several dips in the pool for a while, we found the double celebration (birthday and
welcome parties) drab without a toast of
some wine or liquor. In Brunei, however, liquor drinking and cigarette smoking are
tabooed. Fortunately, none among us smoke
cigarettes so the ban works in our favor, but the liquors. Jun, as inquisitive as he is, ordered
few bottles of Equator Beer with 0.00%
alcohol content. Obviously, after few gulps
he gave up drinking the beer unpleased.
Before calling the nights off, we called up the
frontdesk to book 6 seats for a free shuttle to Gadong the next day. Initially we thought of
hiring Avis Car Rental service but found
60B$ per hour with a driver or 160B$ per
day without to be expensive.
Swimming Pool Party
Swimming at Radisson Hotel’s pool; Dupong, Ruth and myself enjoying
10
LAAG in BRUNEI
Laag!Laag!
When Jane, a friend of Jackie visited us last
night before the pool party, she suggested
having some attractions to visit at night. She
volunteered to be our guide and driver, promising to bring her car. Jane’s sedan how-
ever can only accommodate 3 extra persons,
so she proposed to hire her officemate with a car to join us; we’ll only pay for the gas and
some tips.
Second day yet in Brunei and it will be a long wait for the exciting night’s itinerary. Since
seats were prebooked, our daytime destina-
tion was Gadong area. It was informed that Gadong, being 5km away from Bandar Seri
Begawan, is an expansion of the urban settle-
ment area where a number of commercial centers crowd together. It was said to be alive
night and day.
Clothed in our uniformed Brunei souvenir shirt, we took the usual breakfast to prepare
for the free shuttle ride. We arrived at
Gadong’s The Mall few minutes after opening time. The Mall resembles that of Greenhills
Shopping Center and Division Tutuban
Center. We weren’t impressed and found shopping in the center lame. We realized yet
again that we mistakenly booked a 4pm pick
up because as soon as we got the perfect feel
of inside shops, we found it too small to spend half a day of window shopping. There was
nothing much to check, nothing more
interesting to find, just another flea market in an airconditioned environment.
Just like in Yassan Shopping Center, we did
the best we can to enjoy the moment. We found another Giordano outlet and shopped
for more tees. Then we stumbled on a shop
which sold to us plenty of local items, worthy
to be ladies’ gifts; from shawls, silk handker-
chiefs, malongs, and other batik-made stuffs. Grateful to have Filipino saleslady assisting us,
we settled shopping there, spent much of our
time and much of other Brunei dollars. We pulled them off from displays, picked them up
from stacks, asked for more variety of each
item. Later, we departed from the shop with
bags of purchases, both for personal use and for gifts or pasalubong to our friends and
families back in Philippines. We exited The
Mall at 10:30am, so we decided to check out the adjacent Centerpoint Hotel and its mall.
Thankfully there is a Coffee Bean and Tea
Leaf shop the, so I opted to stay sipping a handcrafted iced coffee with Dupong and
Jun, while Ruth, Jackie and Auntie Myrna
roamed around the mall area… to kill time...
hopefully until 4pm.
Malling in Gadong
Sid
e:
Selfie
at B
runei M
useum
Belo
w: G
roupie
at
Radis
son H
ote
l
Courtesy of Dupong Ravelo
11
LAAG in BRUNEI
Coffee filled me up when lunchtime came.
Jun and Ruth, invited us to try the Chinese
cuisine at Szechuang Dynasty Restaurant, just
next door to Coffee Bean. We were greeted by a Filipino waiter.
Everywhere here in Brunei, from department stores to commercial stalls, from food shops to
restaurants, we find fellow Filipinos. Amusing
enough to know that a Bruneish who worked
with Filipinos for decades is able to converse with me in Tagalog, she was a teller in Jollibee-
BSB Complex outlet. Dynasty also has Filipino
waiters whose assistance has added comfort and value to the establishment. Jun, who
drained his cellphone battery, was able to ask
for a charger from them. We only forgot to leave a tip.
It was still 2pm when we finished our lunch – 2
hours more to wait for the pickup shuttle, which seemed too long still . We can no longer
wait so we finally decided to take the local bus.
Dupong has googled about the commuter bus in the city, that out of the two bus lines
between Central and Circle Lines, the latter will
stop at Centerpoint Hotel. Jackie shouted at the approaching bus about our destination,
“SEA Hotel” but the bus passed us. She shouted
the same destination at the next approaching
bus and the driver called upon us to board. After turning around Q-Lap and Gadong
areas, passing more commercial centers, central
public market, the Masjid Jame 'Asri Hassanil Bolkiah at a distance, and more flea markets,
we stopped at SEA Hotel and walked a little
more to Radisson Hotel before 3pm. We then advised the front desk to cancel our pick up
reservation.
Actually, we only deposited in the rooms our purchased souvenirs from Gadong’s The Mall
and taken out leftover foods from Dynasty
Restaurant. We went back to the bus stop at SEA Hotel to take the next bus to the
Central Bus Station.
Brunei Museum was the next destination; initially not part of itinerary but we have
spare time to pay a curious visit. We took the
Central Line bus number 39 from the city bus terminal. Positioned at its bay, the bus
waited to fill with commuters and it depart-
ed only a little past 4pm. We thought of taking taxicab instead, but a taxi around
here is limited and expensive. Reaching the
Brunei Museum was a waste of time; we found it closed for renovation. Fortunately
we did not invest in taxi ride and the 1 B$ bus
fare per head per trip did not matter.
What mattered was the time lost getting there and back. But again, losing time in
Brunei is insignificant because there was
nothing more to go see around the city center; some interesting points are located
at the city outskirts which would require
private vehicle to get there.
(Continued on page 16)
Commuting around
Bengawan
Groupie inside the Circle Line commuter bus
Courtesy of Dupong Ravelo
12
LAAG in BRUNEI
Dupong was particularly interested to see
in person the source of the Brunei’s wealth –
the petroleum. The Oil and Gas Discovery
Center is located in Seria. It was said to be a two hour ride away from Bengawan.
We must be in Seria before lunchtime so we readied very early because we expected the
driver to pick us up at 9am. Since Jane
arranged our drive, we assigned Jackie to
contact the driver. She advised us at exactly 9am while finishing our breakfast that the car
was already around. We then searched the
parking area only to receive the next message that the pickup was lost in Sheraton Hotel.
Being lost has set the tone of the day. We
waited for a while for the driver to reach Radisson Hotel. When we boarded, the lady (I
mean the woman at the front passenger seat,
who appeared to be the wife of the smiling
driver) declared, “No Malayo, No
Ingles!” Bang! We felt the bomb exploded in our midst. We took it to
mean that the couple, we labeled them as
Uncle Driver and Auntie Tourguide, who will be driving us to our suggested destinations
only speaks in their local tongue. Then Jackie
handed them a piece of paper that indicated
the list of our must see destinations that day. When they read the list, they remarked in
their tongue, in their usual tone, in their usual
talking speed. Had we seen our faces, we would definitely find ourselves open-
mouthed, stunned, scared. Jackie almost fell
off her seat, I can feel. I can even tell she wanted to back out. Ruth’s family at the
back seats remained quiet; I sensed some
fear. Dupong and I however were confident
we can make fun out of this language bar-riers. We can turn these constraint and
inconvenience into some learning experience.
Armed with few Bahasa which we learned from our Jakarta trip in February 2013 and
Losing Translations, literally!
13
LAAG in BRUNEI
from my latest trip to Malaysia in August this
year, we kept our composure, smiled to the couple, and said, “Ok, ok. Let’s go!”
Upon entering the highway, the couple
started conversing, telling us many things. I believe, they were about anything which only
both of them understand, evidenced by their
occasional guffaws. Dupong and I recipro-cated only with limited and reluctant “ya”
and/or “ok”, while our four other company,
Jackie, Jun, Ruth and Auntie Myrna (we did not call her Auntie that day just to avoid
further confusion, now that we have Auntie
Tourguide), kept quiet and observant. Being
lost in translation really is scary. Of my six years crossing Southeast Asia borders, only
here in Brunei that I shared a tour with no-
English speaking tourguide.
To break the silence (or confusion?), I started
cracking some stupid but laughable jokes. As
some sort of vengeance, I used our own dialect, Bisaya. Since seated at the center
between Jackie and Dupong, the aircon
blower pointed directly at my groin. I used rambutan fruit to figuratively refer to my
scrotum, that “due to cold my rambutan is
shrinking!” It was timely then that rambutan
fruit is on harvest in the country, the couple took my joke to mean we wanted to eat
rambutan fruit. Uncle Driver made a turn
and parked at one fruitstand, then Auntie Tourguide went down and bought back 2
kilos of Lansones which she handed to us. She
muttered something which we took to mean that rambutan is out of stock. This joke begot
more jokes about rambutan and other fruits.
Auntie Tourguide mentioned about “Pantai” and many other incomprehensible words.
Clockwise: Eternal torch from Shell Petroleum Plant; Groupie at Billionth Barrell Marker; Selfie at Brunei Shell
14
LAAG in BRUNEI
Again we only responded “Yah, Ok!” and
surprised later to notice Uncle Driver entering a narrow road, away from the highway with
traffic signs supposedly showing direction to
Seria. Then after a while, we noticed a Pantai Lumut’s shoreline and beach resorts. Now we
know that “Pantai” refers to beach. But we
have plenty of them, more beautiful beaches,
in the Philippines. Nevertheless we were grateful to find toilets there.
At that time as well, we understood that the couple themselves have prepared an itinerary
for us, that they have different tour plan for
our group. How nice! How sweet, if only we
understood each other. This will however delay our way to the intended destination, so
we started using our handful Bahasa terms.
Every time we feel that the couple was think-ing of bringing us somewhere not indicated in
our itinerary, we immediately told them
“keluar!” to mean “don’t, no, not, exit, don’t go, no go, do not enter.” They understood it
though. Ha ha!
Arriving in Seria around lunchtime, we were awed at the welcoming gargantuan silos of
Losing Translations, literally!
From top to bottom: Billionth Barrell Monument; Jerudong Park; Jubilee Park; Jame 'Asri Hassanil Bolkiah Mosque; Groupie at the Empire Hotel and Resort
15
LAAG in BRUNEI
Brunei Shell Petroleum (BSP) on one side, a
mammoth torch of eternal flame on the other side, and the hammering oil mills here and
there. We opted to take our lunch first before
going around and found a place inside Jollibee. Yah, Jollibee! We came all the way
from Manila to experience Brunei except for
food; we still patronize Philippine-made
Jollibee. It rained when we dined and it dis-sipated by the time we resumed our tour.
There were plenty of gates in the BSP area; our note listed three gates amongst them.
Thus we have had plenty of “masuk” (we
mean “enter here”) and “keluar” (we mean
“exit now”), “kiri” to mean left turn or “kanan” for right turn, commanded to Uncle
Driver. Our first entry was to the nearest oil
mill where we have a closer look of the ham-mering machine. After some wrong turns, we
found our second entry to the Brunei Shell
main office. We hurried our photo ops not because there were other tourists, which is
surprisingly none, but because of super humid
surrounding. Our last stop which we missed
the first attempt was at the Billionth Barrel Monument. The spot has ample parking lots
for the vehicles, so Uncle Driver announced
“jalan jalan!” We took it to mean that we can roam around for as long as we like. As the
name suggests, it landmarked the production (Continued on page 17)
From top to bottom: Groupie at Radisson Hotel’s mural of Brunei at the lobby; BSB Complex Boulevard; Water taxi and Kampung Ayer; Another groupie at the Royal Palace; Youth Museum
16
LAAG in BRUNEI
Laag!Laag!
We walked our way back to our hotel and
along the way we passed by the public market, where Jackie went to buy Lansones,
Chinese-looking Temple, Coronation Palace,
and Youth Museum.
Night came and we readied for our night
tour. Auntie Myrna paid for the related
transport service fees. Jane arrived with her officemate, Alex, to board us. It was known
later that Alex once took a Filipina for his
wife. Jackie, Auntie Myrna and myself took Jane’s car; Dupong, Ruth and Jun in Alex’s.
Jane took are of our itinerary. Our first stop
was in Istana Nurul Iman. We had our selfie and groupie photos at the main gate
because the palace is only open to the
public during Hari Raya, as we were told. The second stop was reasonably far from the
city center, the Empire Hotel and Resort.
This gargantuan structure has a lot more to
offer, from an exclusive cinema theater, to almost an Olympic-sized swimming pools, a
restaurant of buffets, from breakfast to
dinner, and the giant fountains fitting for its size. Getting into and around the hotel and
resort was overwhelming and we thought
better than splurging for dinner. So we headed next to Jerudong Park and found a
seat for 8 persons under its covered food
court. My company was already tired, thus
Auntie Myrna and myself headed on to our routine photo ops at the krypton-like land-
mark of the park. We are all adults so we
ditched the park’s entertainment and rides and headed on to the next attraction, the
Jame 'Asri Hassanil Bolkiah Mosque. This
marvelous mosque is another gigantic structure which golden paints illuminated by
strobe lights at night. That mosque exuded
majesty and richness, which superlatives I can-not even find to describe it. Ruth and Jun were
already tired and preferred to stay in the car
while the rest of us still have reserved energies for the photo ops including the last destination
of the night, the Jubilee Park. This park looked
white and lame at daytime but at night can
transform into an extraterrestrial attraction when the spotlights pointing the center island
changed its hues.
Commuting ...
From the top: Brunei Museum; Oil and Gas Discovery Center; Coronation Palace
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LAAG in BRUNEI
Laag!Laag!
Brunei is too near that it will take only 2 hours
of flying from Manila. It is better to pre-arrange
your hotel accommodations before the travel
dates, including of course the airport transfers,
for convenience. Find your place of stay some-
where in these 3 major areas, BSB or Bangar
Seri Begawan Complex, Gadong or Jerudong.
These are where you'll find tourist attractions,
though limited. But I highly recommend a place
within the BSB Complex, where city proper is
and where Kampung Ayer is close by.
A country so rich that only few people is seen
walking on streets. So I love walking around
here; jogging is advisable at early morning and
late afternoon. Limited public transport can be
attributed to few residents. So you have to
charter a car, it be from private individuals or
from Avis company. There are commuter buses
yes, only at one Brunei dollar no matter the
distance, so just have to know your destination.
As to points of interest for tourists like me, my
friends and I were particularly enjoying the
water taxi and the ride around Kampung Ayer
- a must do and must see destination. There are
a couple of elaborate mosques and the most
interesting ones are the Masjid Sultan Omar Ali
Saifuddien in BSB Complex and Masjid Jame
'Asri Hassanil Bolkiah in Kiulap. If you have
enough budget, hire a car you can drive (filipino
driver's license can be used there; you only have
to drive a right-hand drive car) or a car plus the
driver to take you to the Oil and Gas Discovery
Center - the Shell Brunei that made the country
rich, most importantly the Billionth Barrel
Monument. You can also drop by the Empire
Hotel and Country Club just to take a peek and
some pictures of this over-richly ornated center.
I suggest you tour in groups to share the costs.
Remember, 1 Brunei dollar is 33 to 34 pesos in
Philippine money.
Brunei Travel Tip
Flying Home so Late Laag!Laag!
Laag!Laag!
The dark clouds that afternoon were threat-
ening. Despite that we went back to the BSB Complex to find more souvenir items fitting
for our last minute shopping. I myself was
not yet complete with gifts for my loved ones back home. I brought ref magnets to add to
my collection, tiny little I heart Brunei shirt for
my little niece, bullcaps for my father and bro
-in-law, and sunglass for my beau. Then we packed our things up when back at the hotel.
Last night in Brunei was gloomy. The rain fell heavily as we waited for the Cebu Pacific
Air’s returning plane to arrive. The down-
pours of the rain reinforced the chilly sur-
roundings of the airport’s predeparture area; the airconditioning units were all in full blast.
The supposedly 2am flight stretched to 3am,
then 4am, 5am, and 6am. The delayed flight gave me sleepless night and had me called in
sick for work that day.
of the billionth barrel of oil produced from
the onshore oil fields in Seria.
Satisfied with what we achieved for the day,
as per our listed itinerary, we started our
journey back to Bengawan at little past 2pm.
The couple then resumed to their tour plan
for us, Uncle Driver led us to Jerudong Park,
which we said “keluar!” altogether; then to Pantai Serasa and Pantai Seri Kenangan,
which we chorused “keluar!” again; and to
Royal Brunei Golf & Country Club, which we just made a turn and exited. Until finally they
understood that we wanted to go back to
the hotel already.
Losing Translations...
18
LAAG in BRUNEI
La
ag
!L
aa
g!
Brunei
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