We didn’t have any pressing matters to get up early for, and slowly worked our way to the breakfast buffet. It seemed like there were 200 people down there pawing and coughing on everything in sight as is a requirement for all buffets. We retreated back to the room shortly thereafter. We had no plans for the day and eventually rolled out to do some shopping.
We were able to get a keychain that can possibly double as an ornament, as well as a new addition to our family — this proboscis monkey you see before you. We shall name it Milo, named for the ubiquitous chocolate powder drink that seems to be the unofficial drink of Malaysia. Today is also the last day of the regatta, so it was very active along the waterfront. I ended up buying a t-shirt from a merchandise stand at the regatta — a fairly unique souvenir I figured.
We spent a little while hanging out in the pool area of the Hilton. It would appear that all the children have checked out as it was quite chaotic earlier this morning. We then began the slow process of packing our bags for another flight this evening. Our plane doesn’t depart until 955pm, so it was a bit of a lost day, but our bodies are also quite sore from the previous day’s hiking, so we also needed some recovery.
I went for one last stroll along the waterfront and saw one of the final races of the regatta from the bridge spanning the river. Nicole was able to negotiate a late checkout of 6pm, which seemed reasonable enough. We had dinner at the Hilton after checking out. I had some sort of Indian-style curry/biryani thing. Nicole had a margherita pizza. Then we took what could be our last Grab of the trip as we headed off to the airport. Check-in was easy enough, but we soon discovered that the airport design is very much lacking.
While the domestic portion of the terminal area had various food options and stores, the international section had nothing. In the interest in fairness, there was one place to get food. Nicole took this picture as proof. Should the 400 or so people in the international section require food or beverage, surely they could figure out a way of splitting a croissant amongst each other.
It’s bad enough that there are no services on the international side. What made matters worse is a Kansas-City airport-style security setup. You go through security at your gate and then you’re stuck there. Nowhere to go, nothing to do. We actually left security to walk around the dull terminal just to have a change of scenery before reentering the checkpoint at a later time. We were far from the only people to do this.
Our Royal Brunei A320 left almost twenty minutes early, and we were soon taking off into a rainy night over Borneo. The flight took about an hour to reach Bandar Seri Begawan (BSB) in Brunei. As today’s blog-worthy events were pretty sparse, it gives me an opportunity to talk a little bit about our next destination.
Brunei is one of the richest countries in the world thanks to its oil deposits. It is also one of the smallest and newest. It had a sort of reluctant independence from the United Kingdom and has been a country only since the 1970s with full and official independence happening in 1984. There is a bit of controversy due to the fact that its laws follow sharia law. Those two words get thrown around loosely on 24 hour news networks without much context, and usually just to elicit fear. Basically it just means that the state’s laws are based around Islamic texts and less separation of church (or mosque) and state. No alcohol, no drugs, no homosexuality etc. Sharia law is something that right wing pundits and talk show hosts claimed the Obama administration was conspiring to enact in the United States years ago. The irony of course being that the religious right’s perfect America would actually have a lot in common with sharia law. It would effectively criminalize gay and trans people which seems to be the most important thing to conservatives in the last few years.
Getting into Brunei was easy. We were through customs, picked up our checked luggage off the carousel and were in a Dart (Brunei’s less sophisticated version of Grab) and were on our way toward our hotel at the time that our flight was originally supposed to land. The Empire Hotel has a bit of a weird vibe. It is absolutely massive. The ratio of staff to guests is maybe 20:1. To be fair, we did arrive late at night, but it was still a bit jarring. The decorations harken back to an era where opulence was defined as overstated and silly. I’m going to cut it short now because we have to get up early tomorrow for a river tour in hopes of seeing some more Proboscis types like Milo. Wish us luck.
passports & pepto bismol 