Brunei

After leaving these great people we hopped into a car with a guy who was going to drive us to the border. We were pretty drunk, but Dave was in a worse state than I. Our driver was trying to get us there fast because the last bus in Brunei left at 6pm for the city center & taxis were hard to come by apparently. But when we arrived at the border there was a huge line of vehicles. Our guy ran over to one of the border officials & flashed some kind of card at him. This had the remarkable result of allowing us to bypass every car & get to the front in a minute. We grabbed our bags, thanked our driver & hotfooted it across the border. We slumped down at the bus stop & wasted about an hour waiting for a bus that never came. 

Our hotel

Finally we managed to get a ride from a couple who took us right to the hotel we'd pretty much decided on-The Terrace Hotel. It was ok-not great but had AC which was the main thing. We ate some of a disgusting meal of spaghetti in the hotel restaurant first night & didn't return until our last night for a surprisingly delicious desert of apple pie & banana split!

The next day we set out to explore this country.

Brunei is a small yet prosperous country situated on the island of Borneo and flanked by the  Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak. It is an oil-rich land is known primarily for the astounding wealth of its Sultan and its inhabitants, where the citizens live a tax-free, heavily-subsidized existence. Most people who live here do very well for themselves. 

We noticed straight away that the architecture here is outstanding. We were constantly in awe of the amazingly designed buildings. However the place had a bit of a run down feel to it--This was simply in the maintenance of the buildings like they needed cleaning or a new coat of paint. The official buildings however were all well maintained, & we constantly saw people painting or cleaning them with high powered water jets.
                            

There were many buildings such as this-so cool

What can I say?

The people were very friendly towards us & several times cars would actually stop to help us out with directions or suggestions of things we might like to do here. 

As drinking & smoking is illegal here, we saw no one actually drinking but we did see a lot of people surreptitiously smoking by shielding the cigarette with their hand. 
Dropping litter held a maximum penalty of prison, and even though there were very few trash receptacles there was virtually no litter to speak of. Any homosexual act carried a penalty of $30,0000.00 & when we came into Brunei at the border there was a sign telling us that coming in with the wrong papers would mean you'd get 3 canings! So there a few crappy things here. Apparently they want to be something like Dubai but haven't quite pulled it off. It's not as cool or hip as Dubai. It feels, as I said, a bit kind of shoddy. But, the architecture is so stupendous it really is worth seeing just for this alone. Oh & another thing-In Brunei they are really into JUICING! Yes-they love it, even more than in Malaysia! And in every food court there are many vendors selling a myriad of different kinds of juice served from large plastic canisters for a mere dollar. 

The toilets in this country were not the best

Yeah-they have miniature cup cakes here too---not as tasty as their classic sweet deserts though

This lady made us the greasiest egg on a bun I have ever had in my life. I actually felt a bit nauseous but very full after eating it. Those chips in a cup were delicious-all for just a dollar.

Food hall eating

Stilt Village

We spent three days here & today we left to take a bus, a ferry & then another ferry to Kota Kinabalu which is the city capital of Sabah as well as the capital of the West Coast Division of Sabah. It faces the South China Sea and is set against the backdrop of Mount Kinabalu which we plan to climb in a few days.

Ferry to Kota Kinabalu-the AC was pumped up so high on this boat that we were all wearing fleeces & coats.