Brunei Darussalam

Bright and early Monday morning my traveling buddy "S" and I checked out of hostel and hopped on a boat heading to Brunei (another country). 

Brunei is a tiny country on the northern coast of Borneo that is surrounded on all sides (other than the ocean of course) by Malaysia in fact it's actually split in two by another little sliver of land that is also owned my Malaysia. With about 2/3 of it's inhabitants being Muslim their influence here is felt much stronger here than even in Malaysia. Brunei is also a very wealthy country due to it's abundance of natural oil deposits. As we made the 45 minute drive from the port to where we are staying in the capital of Bander Seri Begawan (BSB) I was surprised by the very large houses we passed along the freeway, the likes of which I haven't seen since leaving the US (Both in style and size). The city itself is very clean (other than the river) and organized. I refreshing break after the hectic chaos that I have experienced through out the rest of Southeast Asia. And, unlike KK, BSB has lots and lots of culture :) 

The first thing we did when we got here was go and see the two biggest mosques in the country. 

Omar Ali Saifuddin Mosque

This Mosque is right next to our hostel so it was pretty easy to get to. 

  

Jame'asr Hassanil Bolkiah Mosque
The guidebook said this mosque was only 3 kilometers from the center of town. Our hostel is pretty close to the center of town so we figured it wouldn't be that bad of a walk. Two hours later we finally found the place. That's ok though, the sight was well worth it. On our way back we tried to find a taxi (I've yet to see a taxi in this city) and instead found a nice man how gave us a ride back to our hostel. Word on the street is that the spires are made out of real 24 kt gold whereas the spires on the previous mosque are only made out of 17 kt gold. 

Today we woke up and got a boat taxi to give us a tour through 

Kampung Ayer

Basically a series of villages on stilts that are only accessible from the river. Some explorer dude named it the Venice of the east. The villages are all pretty self contained, the even have their own schools and several different mosques. My favorite part was the bright colorful way the houses were painted. 

From the river you can also see the 

Sultan's Palace

AKA the largest habitation on the face of the planet. I've also heard from my lil bro (who know's if he's actually a reliable resource or not) that the Sultan drives around in some fancy car that is made out of pure platinum. Anyway, the palace is pretty hard to see from the river since it's surrounded by forest but it's the best view you can get. Once a year, at the end of Ramadan (which actually was just last week) they allow any visitors who want to to come inside the palace where they are greeted by the royal family and presented with a gift. Man that would have been cool, I should have come last week. 

Since the above picture is the best I could get I went online and stole some more to give you an idea of just how massive it is. This is the garage....

The sultan also owns a 747 worth 111 million dollars. The inside has been completely redone to make it more homey--complete with pure gold bathtubs, sinks, bed frames and who know's what else. 

A few miles up river and we were in the mangrove swamps complete with Probiscus Monkeys! I was finally able to see one in the legit wild. 

This one is a probiscus monkey

This one is not

FOOD
For lunch a stopped at the local market and got some street food. I have to say it was probably THE BEST food I've had since leaving Thailand (Other than this amazing coconut, pumpkin, sweetcorn soup I had last week but that doesn't count because that was a western restaurant) .