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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

17

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