Curious No More- Part 2

Ok continue with my Brunei road trip story..
So, after charging my camera at Coffee Bean, apa-lagi.. went out to take pictures-La!
We went to this field that reminds me of 'Dataran Merdeka' back home.

Outside the gates of the dataran/field


The national flag


The field that look like Dataran Merdeka.. I don't know what's it called!


One failed shot out of many others lol


Haha Kat never did make it =D


Nice-kan!

After our little photo shoot sessions, we went to the 'Kampung Ayer'.

"Kampong Ayer Stretching for several miles along the banks of the Brunei River, Kampong Ayer, Brunei's famed water village, is a fascinating glimpse into Brunei's past.

Built entirely of stilt houses and wooden walkways, this cluster of 42 villages housing more than 30,000 inhabitants is the world's largest water village. Some people refer to it as the 'Venice of the East'.

Today Kampong Ayer is an almost self-sufficient community being equipped with modern facilities such as schools, shops, markets, mosques, clinics, police stations and fire brigades. All are connected by a maze of stilted platforms and walkways.

Kampong Ayer is a national heritage and efforts are being made to preserve this lifestyle so that the legacy of the 'water' people of Brunei will be retained, not only as a tourist attraction, but also for the future generation of Brunei" (Taken from some Brunei tourism site)

The water village and the water taxis

So yeah, we went on a water taxi that costed us 60B$ = RM144 for an hour ride. It was really nice. We were to go through the Brunei rivers and into the water villages.

Suited up






I know-La how fat I am now!

HAHA when I saw this Kayak, it reminded me of the time Langkawi, when Andy & I was a team and we were racing against Barry & Suet.. Before we even reached the shores, I just jumped out and ran there so that we would win. And as I turned back, I saw our Kayak, with poor Andy still in it tumbled upside down! HAHAHAHA. 'Coz you see the kayak needed two person to stabilize it and so when I jumped out, the kayak just overturned and Andy not knowing I would do that didn't had time to get out. Daymn those were the days-La.. Haha thinking that I could have almost drowned him.. Sorry Andy lol..

So serene...

We were told by the guides that if we were lucky, we'll get to see crocodiles, monkeys and other wild life creatures. We were lucky indeed. Saw like 4 crocodiles.. big & small.. monkeys and even a wild boar! Haha I remember Sam saying "Ohh delicious" when he saw it and the tour guide was like "Eh harammm"... HAHA. Damn suprised at the guides expertise of the river. They could spot a freaking baby crocodile from like god knows how far away.

One of the spot where we saw a baby croc


Tour guide pointing to us monkeys


Monkeys!


The water village. I was asking this stupid question..

Me: Kat.. I wonder how the postmen send letters to these houses..

Kat: Err... by boat?

Me: Oh yeahhhh.. HAHA.

Water school.. How cool! Everyone sure kene tolak into the water wan during their birthdays haha.


I don't know if Sam thinks he won't drown or he wants to drown.. huh Sam? =)

Then walking to the mall, we passed by this gold monument thingy.. Don't know what's it called again.. I'm really bad in remembering names ok. People or not. If I go on tour, sure damn wasting money wan-Lor. Wont remember a single name of all the place they bring me. =/

Eh my legs look nice here.. I didn't shrink it k!


Ok, fat here..

Oh Oh I saw Jollibee's at the mall! My favorite fast food chain. Had it like almost everyday during a week in Philipines and have been craving for it eversinceeeeeee!

JOLLIBEEE!


The spaghetti! Mmmm marvelousss... Expensive though after converting.. I know rule no.1 when travelling is not to convert but but...RM20 for this set!!! And I had two! hehe..


The mall.


Damn cool wan the mall.. Consists of like 4, 5 separate buildings.. And this the middle where you'll need to walk through to get to other buildings.


Last shot before my camera died. Again.

Curious No More- Part 1

I'm finally no longer curious anymore of how Brunei looks like! 'coz we went on a road trip to Brunei last Thursday.. Sam, Navin, Kathleen and I.. The border of Brunei is actually just 10 mins away from where I am currently..=) But the drive to the Bandar of Brunei took 'bout 2 hours from the border.

Malaysian immigration at Sungai Tujuh, Miri.


Brunei's immigration.

The tol plaza after entering into Brunei.. Which is RM10 and 3 Brunei Dollar. A tip.. if you would be driving and passing this tol, remember to have loose Brunei dollar as according to my friend, they would not give change =/ wth!

After entering the borders, I was so so so excited as I've always really wondered how Brunei would look like 'coz you know we don't hear or see anything 'bout Brunei in the media right..

I was like wide awake although am really sleepy. Only had like 3 hours of sleep 'coz we went to the club the night before -__-".. But all I saw was just jungles beside me sweat-la.. went back to sleep..

Then after don't know how long, was woken up by the others, saying we're gonna stop for lunch.. And so we stopped by this stall that sells "Nasi Katok".

There is a story behind the name Nasi Katok. It was begun by a couple of teenagers who were feeling very hungry after a midnight practice. They went to a place where they normally bought their food. This place was actually a residential house, which offered Nasi bungkus (a pack of rice with chicken and egg) even in the middle of the night. At any time you could just Katok (knock) on their door, and the owner will come up with fresh hot Nasi Katok. And that's how it became Nasi Katok. (all taken from wikitravel =p)

The "Nasi Katok" which only cost 1 Brunei Dollar!

The local currency is the Brunei Dollar (B$) but many of the shopkeepers might use the term Ringit too.. but it does not refer to the Malaysian Ringgit though.. Our currency value is like lesser than half of the Brunei Dollar. I changed 60B$ that's equivalent to RM144! rate was at 2.4!

Oh and also. FYI, Singapore Dollar and Brunei Dollar can be used interchangeably so yeah, you can use Singapore$ in Brunei and vise versa..

Then as we reached into the Bandar, we were greeted with it's trafffic jam.. kinda enjoyed the moment.. made me think of the traffic back home.. lol..

Oh then as I was busy snapping away with my camera... the climax of the day reached.. I knew it would happenede but didn't knew it was so soon.. My camera batter died even before we could get down from the car! @#$%&*!

I was so so so freaking upset and was bitching all the way till my friends couldn't take it they went to the mall and everyone searched around for a camera shop that offer charging service or some kind but fail..=( Then we decide to just go to Coffee Bean or Starbucks to sit and charge.. 'coz smart me already predicted that this would happen and brought the charger along.. So off to Coffee Bean we went!

Coffee Bean.. Ok it's the same -La.. just took for fun..=)


Sam sleeping while waiting for my batt to charge for an hour or so..


while the rest of us camwhore..


Ok just me-La..


Oh, while we were at the mall looking for the camera shop, I stopped by a cosmetic shop and bought these masks, hair colors and mega-plump 'lips collagen' LOL! All for 1 Brunei$ each! That's like RM2.40..

While waiting, we went out to get a smoke and so I was sitting down outside Coffee Bean, about to light my ciggarette when we all noticed this..


WTH!!!


=______=" So could not believe it.. There was also this list of places where we couldn't smoke which includes practically everywhere and anywhere except for your own house.. sweat!

The government really really is trying to discourage smoking by taking such disastrous acts.. Think restricting public smoking is bad enough.. see this.. lagi wth! Would you still smoke when faced with such pictures every time you take a cigarette.. Well I think it would work on ladies.. giving psychological effect.. double sweat...

To give you all a picture of how Brunei looks like..

Similar to KL?


Haha! Ok continue in Part 2.. damn long dy-La this post..