Muara, Brunei Feb. 26th, 2007

Welcome to Brunei, can we check you for fever? Yes, you guessed it, all passengers had to have their temperature taken in their ear before they were allowed access to this country! That was a first for us. Luckily, none of us had a fever, so they let us in. They have been testing here ever since the SARS virus came out! I did not ask if any passengers were declined. No news is good news!! Kathleen and Nicholas were not all that happy with the prodcedure but these two gals stood between them and meeting one of the richest people in the world! The Sultan of Brunei!! This country is wedged between the Maylasian state of Sarawak and the South China Sea, on the vast island of Borneo, the tiny sultanate of Brunei is unlike any other Southeast Asian nation. It has been ruled by the same family since the 14th century, it became a British protectorate in1888 and OIL was discovered here in 1929. Today, the oil is still flowing and for it's size, Brunei is one of the richest countries in the world. The people here get free medical care and free educations! There is no tax here!! Over 80% of Brunei is untouched rainforest. Hundreds of thousands of acres are yet to be explored for plant varieties. Who knows how many different kinds of cures for diseases could be in this dense vegetation! A much differnet feeling here than anywhere we have been. You'll see from the pictures. The population of Maura is only 60,000. That made it seem like a really small town!! The exchange rate was $1.6 Brunei dollars to $1 American dollar. The current Sultan is Brunei's 29th Sultan. He is Hassanal Bolkiah. He has ruled here since 1967. He runs everything here. He was once listed as THE wealthiest man in the world, having $40 billion dollars US. However, his extravagances are legendary and his personal holdings now are somewhere around $10 Billion US!!!! Much of his money has gone to his new palace. It has 1,800 rooms, 257 bathrooms, 10 elevators, five swimming pools a 110 car garage and air conditioned stables for his 200 throughbred polo ponies. The Sultan enjoys collecting things like, 350 Rolls Royces, eight jets and instead of buying his daughter a car when she turned 16, he got her an Airbus!! We did not get to have tea with him, darn it, maybe next time we will give him more notice and we will get some pictures of some of those bathrooms!! We had a great day despite not meeting the Sultan. I hope you enjoy our day as much as we did...

Are you really going to put that in my ear??

This is a mosque. They had speakers outside calling all Muslims to come in and pray. Then another shot of the mosque from the mall area.

Inside the mall, you can find Prada, Chanel, Versace, you name it. All the women wear wraps of all color and kind. I have no idea who buys all these other beautiful clothes, handbags, shoes and makeup!! Escalators in this part of the world are 10 times faster than the ones in the US. They get you there quickly. This mall was also ready for the New Year.
Do you notice anything different about this street compared to most places we have been? No cars, buses, bikes, motorcycles trying to run you over! We crossed streets without fear. That was nice. Charles and Kathleen were tempting fate by standing in this road too long though!

This is a shot of the non-busy street that looks out to the Chinese village on the water. Many peopple choose to live on stilt houses on the water. Connected by boardwalks. We decided the only real plus would be that it is probably cooler over there on the water. They all have little boats to ferry themselves across to the mainland. It is only about 400 yards across the river to get there.

Kathleen stated dancing in front of this Royal Regalia Building which holds the crown jewels of the Sultan. I did not know if dancing was allowed, so that was the end of that! Did not want to leave her in the Brunei jail!

There were two things the kids had never seen. A book mobile and a counter full of typewriters! The typewriters were selling for about $15 US dollars!! It was funny to see them. Has been a while for us too.

Look closely at the picture with Kathleen and Nicholas next to the stand with the green top. If you look above Kathleen's head you can see a picture of the Sultan. His face is on all their money and on most every street corner. We have been collecting flags and could not find one from here! Bummer. A funny thing though, every house, no matter it's size, had a national flag flying on it. It must be a law. Their flags were everywhere.




We saw this man making shoes! I guess some people's shoes do get taken from those mosques and they have to come here and get a pair made!

Whoops! Here we go again! They want our shoes. I got smart and put a pair of socks in my purse. The thought of being barefoot was more than I wanted. It was muggy and hot. I did not need dirty feet. Charles and the kids had socks on already.

They provided a stacking area for the shoes. This is the building where the jewels are kept. They do not allow pictures inside, so you have to make a trip here yourself if you want to see them!







You will never guess what this place is. Look carefully. What would at any given time $1.80 Brunei dollars exchange for in American dollars? ONE DOLLAR!!! This is their DOLLAR TREE!!!!! It was hilarious. We went in, looking for a flag and everything I saw was marked $1.80. It didn't take me long to figure out that I was standing in the middle of a dollar store on the other side of the world! The kids loved it. We picked up many items. Kathleen even got a pin for her collar that lights up and says " I love Brunei", how cool/redneck is that!!

Oranges are in abundance here. Oranges are a sign of good luck for the Chinese New Year.

This guy did his best to get us to go for a quick spin over to the Chinese village by water. After our last boat experience, we passed. He smiled a lot and was nice, but we managed to stay on land this time!

These ladies were waiting for their boat to come in! They had adorable children. A set of precious baby girl twins!

Are the drinks cold? Many stores have canned drinks but they are warm. Finding a cold coke is a big deal. This place had cold drinks for all of us! And straws. Somewhere along the way someone told Nicholas not to drink out of cans, he doesn't. He either packs his own or asks at the stores!!! I on the other hand am just happy to find a diet coke. Most places have coke light and that is NOT the same.









Excuse me do you speak English? We found these 11 year old girls waiting for a boat as well. They had been to a volleyball game. One of the girls spoke English very well. They were all WAY shorter than Kathleen and when I told that girl that Kathleen was 11, like they were, she was hoping Kathleen could join their team! They were very cute little girls.

It did not take any time to get them to start posing for a team photo. Very cute. Notice the granite sidewalks. This was the norm here.

This is a shot of an oversized page out of the Koran. The message is that as a good Muslim, you must travel to Mecca at some time in your life at least once.

It was overcast and rained some. Again, we did not take rain gear, as Nicholas got bad information again. Tomorrow we will be in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia. We get there early in the morning and are only there a few hours. We will have a quick tour and do the best we can to send you some good photos. For the map lovers out there, we are at 5 degrees 32' 35" N Latitude and 115 degrees 08' 11" E Longitude. It is 80 degrees outside at 10:45 p.m. and we have 100% humidity! More tomorrow...we have heard that there are vilages with stalls of shopping that go on forever. We will try to mail some postcards from this next stop, they are suposed to have pretty stamps.