Back to civilisation

By the river at Sumbiling

I spent the morning reading my book by the river, and then Rudy and I left Sumbiling at around 10am. Back into the car, back into the speedboat (I missed the crocodile, apparently) through Malaysia and to Bandar Seri Begawan. I checked into the hotel, went for a walk down to a dead shopping centre, got some ice-cream and then came back to spend the rest of the afternoon in the hotel pool, which I had all to myself.  A local man sat down and started talking to me, bought me a juice and offered to drive me around Brunei. Something just didn't seem right, particularly since he wasn't staying at the hotel, so I politely declined. After he asked for my room number I felt good about my decision! Mind you, another one did the same thing 2 hours later so maybe in Brunei they don't see why asking for the room number of a single female traveller is inappropriate. I walked across the road to a small hawker market for dinner, it was pretty forgettable. I fed my "meat" to a cat who just looked at me, going "as IF" and stalked away. If the cats won't even eat it...

I am very much enjoying my hot shower, aircon and comfy (dry) bed!!

Ulu Temburong National Park

Looking up at the canopy walkway... long way up!

Breakfast was eggs and fried rice, and then Rudy and I departed Sumbiling with Ricky at the helm of the world's fastest longboat. We tore up the river, overtaking the park rangers who were going to register us, and arrived in record time. I've tried looking up a lot of websites to find out what the story is with accommodation in the park and I'd heard that there were lodges, but couldn't find any way to book them. Turns out they were taken over by Ulu Ulu resort a number of years ago and it has since taken over the park management as well. They collect all the entry fees and in return they provide... nothing. I needed to use the bathroom and we headed off in the direction indicated by the ranger, only to be yelled at by one of the rudest men I have ever met. "WHERE YOU GOING?? THIS PRIVATE PROPERTY!!!" he yelled over and over. It turns out he is the manager of the whole shebang. So you pay entry but they don't want you to use the toilets, their trails have rotted away and their signs bear no resemblance to the actual facilities. Hmmm.....

Way up above the tallest trees

Despite that, there is an area that is managed by Forestry and we went there (amid many jokes to each other about not stepping on the "private" stair or looking at the "private" tree...) It's a 350m staircase with a 200 metre rise. If you think about it... that's pretty steep. Once we got to the top of the ridge, there was a canopy walkway. It was extremely high and supported by aluminium scaffolding, but well-maintained. Up we climbed until we were actually above the rainforest canopy. Some of those trees are seriously tall, and it was quite eerie to be up so high above them. It's apparently one of the longest canopy walkways in the world, and by the end of it I was well ready to get down. There's only so much one person can take!!

We trotted back down the staircase, passing by other groups as we went. Because we had left so early we beat all the other groups and had it to ourselves. I was very glad about this once I was up there, because even Rudy's movement freaked me out. We went back to the boat via a suspension bridge. This was one of the most sturdy, reinforced, concretey bridges I have ever seen, yet they made everyone who walked across wear a lifejacket. Apparently version one of the bridge, which was more of the rope swing variety, broke with people on it. Twelve years ago. Yeah.... anyway... We got back in the boat and went a short way down the river to a small rocky beach with a stream coming out. We walked up the stream to the end, where a gorgeous waterfall awaited. By now I was saturated with sweat anyway so I didn't even bother changing into the swimsuit I'd brought, and just went in fully-clothed. Again we had the place to ourselves, so we just sat down in the water and enjoyed ourselves for a while. There are spa fish in this water so I took my shoes off and let them do their thing. These ones are bigger than the ones at the fish spa though and some of them bit with enthusiasm! Rudy found stones that you could grind into paint so we decorated ourselves and declared a new tribe.

Rudy and I in our new tribal paint

We were lucky because the water was clear when we got there but of course walking through quickly changed that. As we left, the other group of people was walking in. There were about 15 of them and I felt very glad that I was on my own! Got the fish spa and the facial all to myself.

After we got back I enjoyed a shower in the sun, then it was lunch time. I was sitting on the floor of the main area so Rudy got me a mat and of course I promptly went to sleep. When I woke up it started raining like it was never going to stop. There was a brilliant storm and it was so nice to watch from under the shelter, feel perfectly warm and have endless tea and a book to read. And Gossip Girl on the laptop...

Bruneian night walk

Is he smiling for the camera??

I am becoming a huge fan of night walks in the jungle, and tonight was no disappointment. After a delicious dinner of local food, I set off with no less than THREE guides (Rudy, Ricky and one whose name I have forgotten). Like a good night dive, we didn't venture too far but instead concentrated on looking in a small area for critters. They showed me lizards, insects, and frogs. Lucky for me and the frogs it rained all afternoon, which means that unlike everywhere else in the world, the frogs go to ground. My guide found one but that's all - this is lucky because otherwise they were going to cook them for me!! I would have tried it but I wasn't too disappointed and happy that Kermit got to live after all. Halfway along the walk we visited the Iban longhouse. It's an interesting concept, kind of like single-storey terrace houses on stilts but with a common verandah (this one was closed in) and it's an actual community. The longhouse looks fairly basic but inside the houses are normal with modern conveniences. We visited Ricky's house, and his sister has just finished school and hoping to be accepted into a nursing course next year.

Kingfisher

Part 2 of the walk was just as good, with a beautiful kingfisher posing as though he was plastic, and some more frogs in a little pool in the top of a broken piece of bamboo.

There were lots of noisy crickets and grasshoppers and the guides actually spotted several of them. They were all shapes and sizes, some were green, some brown, some yellow and black. We also saw a lizard that bears a striking resemblance to Burong's "25K" - perhaps it's the same one and I could have made a fortune! The tour came full circle and we emerged out by my room (scaring a poor bird half to death on the way). After a few more cups of tea it was time for a well-deserved sleep.

Sumbiling Eco Village - Rainforest Discovery

Water crossing

The words "eco village" for me are usually synonymous with "unkempt" and an excuse to not maintain facilities, and after the Mulu accommodation I wasn't actually expecting much. I couldn't have been more wrong. From the moment I arrived at Sumbiling I fell in love with the place. It's not that different to the Mulu concept, but it's done properly. It's right on the river, which due to a lot of rain was flowing far too fast to consider swimming (well, I did come in monsoon season!) There were hammocks by the river and I was glad that I picked up a dodgy Jackie Collins beach novel to read from the guesthouse in Miri.

Centipede

We sat down to refreshments on arrival - pulut and banana fritters! - and after a briefing and putting my things in the room, we headed off to the rainforest. I was the only guest, and yet I had two guides - Rudy, plus a local Iban guide as well. This was by far the best jungle walk I have done, simply because they explained everything as we went. There were a lot of Dillenia plants (Brunei's national flower and the name of the Miri guesthouse) which it seems are used for everything. Many of the trails are muddy and they have come up with an ingenious way to install handrails. They stake a living piece of Dillenia wood into the ground at an angle with another vertically to support it, and somehow it lives and grows and sprouts leaves - and of course since it's living, it doesn't rot. Very important in a RAINforest. My Keen H20 sandals have finally been put to good use as we had many water crossings, and I was delighted to find that unlike Teva sandals, when wet your feet don't slip in Keens. In fact they were just as comfy to walk in wet as dry.

Jungle ferns

Part of the walk was tasting the jungle fare and I tried banana stems (part of the leaf, not the fruit) which are cooked as a vegetable, jungle ferns (much nicer when cooked!) and this berry which tasted a little like a kiwi or a more sour strawberry. After a while we crossed from secondary into primary rainforest, which has never been cleared. There was no grass and it was cool and shady. The walk was a big loop and we emerged back in the secondary rainforest into a big clearing. This was the helicopter pad used by the British troops - it was easy to imagine waves of soldiers heading into the jungle.

After a few hours of trekking we headed back across the river for lunch, where I was delighted to find that jungle ferns were on offer! There was also fish and rice. The trek was really tiring (up and down small hills) and I spent the rest of the afternoon sitting in the living area under the fans and reading my book. There was endless tea available and Rudy was there the entire time. We got along very well together - lucky since there was nobody else around!!

Brunei - Bandar Seri Begawan

Beautiful Mosque - coated in 21ct gold

This morning I caught a taxi to Brunei! I think that's wildly cool, I've never caught a taxi to another country before. The border procedures took a fair while to go through but I had help from an Australian lady who moved to Perth from Kuching 22 years ago. It hadn't occurred to me that I would need to pay for my visa on entry so she came to the rescue again with the requisite $20 BND (about $15 AUD) and I paid her back in Ringgit. Armed with a shiny new full page stamp in my passport, I got back into the huge, leather-finished, air-conditioned taxi for the rest of the trip. It took 3 hours in total and wasn't that exciting, except for the roadside ditches that looked like lily ponds for the first half hour of Brunei. We arrived at Bandar Seri Begawan (the capital city) and I was dropped off at a shopping mall as requested by the tour company. I called Rudy and read my book for a while until he picked me up, getting a few strange looks from the girls on their lunch breaks (me and my bags...) Once he arrived he asked if it was ok if I went to the rainforest tomorrow instead (I'd already said I was flexible since my flight out is on Wednesday) so we had to find me a hotel for the night. I chose the Terrace which is fairly dated but clean, with good service, and a swimming pool for when I return from the jungle! Accommodation is far, far more expensive here than Malaysia, but still cheap by Australian standards.

High Tea

Rudy was fantastic. He checked me in and waited while I dumped my bags, then took me out for lunch at a local chicken rice restaurant, the oldest one in Brunei actually. It's such a simple dish but delicious, and it's funny, here the chicken breast meat is considered undesirable, unlike Australia. After lunch he dropped me at the Royal Regalia building, having booked me a boat driver for a mangroves trip at 4pm. The Royal Regalia is quite amazing, you have to take your shoes off outside and I can say it's the first time I've ever walked around a museum barefoot. It felt a little strange, given the utter opulence of the place. One exhibit of the coronation room even had two security guards watching over all the gold, and here's me running around like a monkey. Still, so was everybody else. You couldn't even take a bag or camera inside so they had lockers at the front for everything.

Kampong Ayer

I walked down the street, making one shop proprietor's day when I stopped for a drink, and ruining it by paying with a $100 bill. I went down to the waterfront and waited for Ali, my boat driver. Rudy had already warned me to ignore the other boat drivers, some of whom were extremely persistent, but eventually one man came over to me and we established that the boat he was on was my driver, and he was running a tour with two Kiwis, a mother and daughter. Basically I got to do their tour as well as my own, which was great since they were visiting the Kampong Ayer (water village) which I had forgotten about. It's a massive water village with almost 40,000 residents, and has been in existence for over 1300 years. It has its own schools, mosques, hospital, police and fire station. Wikipedia actually explains it quite well. Anyone can build there, and a house costs only around $10,000 but you have to apply to the government to supply you with the stilts to build on.

The pot of gold lies in Brunei of course

Ali manoeuvred expertly among the stilts and we got to see some of the village. Some houses had a cage with a cat - apparently they are pets; when the family is home the cat has the run of the house but when they're out, they lock it in the cage to keep it safe. The cats didn't seem to mind. To my surprise, our guide announced that we were going to Ali's mother in law's house for high tea! We entered the house and children were everywhere - in Brunei it is usual to have 10 - 15 children! Don't these people own TVs! (They do. And satellite dishes.) Tea was served from a nice teapot, as well as kueh sapit ("love letters") which are like a waffle cone folded into quarters. It was all very civilised.

Heading further down the river we went into the mangroves in search of proboscis monkeys. I've been pretty lucky with these and wasn't disappointed this time either, with two families spotted. They were very curious about us, unlike the ones in Bako. Ali, with eyes like a hawk, also managed to spot 3 enormous monitor lizards and a snake. Back towards the city there was an amazing rainbow, which I found amusing given that half the city is coated in gold. Guess that old tale finally came true, now to find the Bruneian leprechauns...

Proboscis monkeys

The tour guide dropped me at the market & mall, assuring me that buses ran until 9pm. I walked around but wasn't very hungry tonight. I bought some pulut daging, and the seller tried to tell me it was two pieces for $1. Unfortunately for him I can now read signs in Malay and I pointed out where it clearly said you get 4 pieces for $1. Just then a Chinese guy came up and asked what it was, so to punish the seller I said "I can't eat 4 pieces, here have two of mine!" His name was Ricky and he was from the USA. We walked around for a little while then I went to the mall ("The Mall") and saw the new Nissan March being launched. It's all happening in Brunei. What happens when you can't drink? Everyone heads to the mall on Saturday night. And when petrol is 30c a litre AUD, everyone drives. The traffic was horrendous! From what I could see there were 10 car parks and 500 cars waiting in the vain hope that someone would leave. After waiting for the bus for 30 minutes it dawned on me that I'd been given the wrong information, and I called a taxi from a nearby hotel. Unlike Malaysia, taxis are not common here and finding one can be hard.