This(these) JBR's will be split into 3 sections, and , in advance, I thank each and every one of you guys for all the information and banter I enjoy on this forum.
I hope the next three stories are of help of anyone, particularly if flying out of Brisbane.
Here goes..... it's 10.15pm on Friday 7th March, and the taxi has just arrived to whisk us the small journey from our home in Hamilton to the airport. Only now do I really get the pangs of excitement about leaving for Bali...our 3rd time there. I'm not one for counting down the sleeps, I think it makes the departure seem further away !We deliberately booked this flight knowing we would have heaps of time in Brunei , and we wanted to have a look around the place for future reference, and , to hopefully be of use for anyone else doing the same trip. We arrive at Brizzie, check in for our 1.30am departure and decide to head down to duty free to have a look around. First point! This is Brisbane, it's still a sleepy old place, and so what do they do? Yep, close all the duty free shops ! We are then left to while away a couple of hours trying to snatch an hour's sleep lying along seats in other unused ( at this time) departure gates. We board on time , we are flying Royal Brunei , we are due in Brunei at 6.25am. We are greeted on board with 'recovery' towels, and we take off 10 mins early. The flight is totally incident free, only interspersed with the odd soft drink, (no alcohol with RB), and a chicken or fish dish. In flight entertainment is adequate, but I wanted to play chess and two of the button on the controller didn't work. I contented myself with the CD library, although there was no Deep Purple, Led Zep or Black Sabbath to keep me happy.
We arrive at Brunei early... around 6.15am from memory. We had been on a plane that was less than half full, and my better half was refreshed from being able to sleep along the middle section of the 767. Quickly off the plane, and off to the transit and transfer desk. When you go to the transfer desk, the tour company is directly adjacent to them, so you can't miss them. We get our boarding passes for the connecting flight to Bali, and pop across to the tour guys.
Some advice....do NOT do the free tour, it's a waste of space. It is only for 1 ½ hours, and doesn't really take you anywhere. It's a sample tour, and you would come back wanting to do the full tour. From research, and using this forum, I already knew it was $65US to do the 4 hour city highlight tour. Also, Golden Touch tour group and Sunshine Borneo tour group seem to be exactly the same people! We booked our trip for 9.30am, and didn't pay at this juncture. Just said we would pay before we get on the bus... reason? If you go to a money changer, and get $130 Brunei dollars, they accept this as payment for the trip, and is far cheaper than giving them $130us dollars.
Anyway, before I visit the money changer, we go and have a coffee and cake in the holding lounge. Have a look around what few shops are inside and then go downstairs to get our Brunei visitors visa. This has to be paid in SINGAPORE dollars. If you go through immigration with Aussie, US, English money, they will take you out of the line up and sent to a money changer. So a hot tip, make sure you have $5singapore each when you line up. I had already purchased $10singapore from HSBC in Brisbane in readiness for this. So, I now have my Brunei visa, go to money changer, get Brunei dollars and pay for our trip. I knew this trip would have us back at the airport by 2pm(ish) and our next flight isn't until 11pm, so I asked if I paid a bit extra, if we could go back to their local shopping centre. They duly obliged, so we agreed another $20brunei to take us back to the shopping centre and return during the afternoon.
The boarding for the tour is simple. We get on, and we spend time at the Jamer mosque, (the Sultan paid millions for this)...and this alone is well worth doing the trip. It is simply stunning, and I'm not clever enough to put into words just how fantastic it is....go see for yourselves !! We then went to the Royal Regalia museum, and the Brunei museum. The final port of call is a trip by water taxi across the Kampong Ayer, the water city and people. Unbelievable to think that a ¼ of all Bruneians still live on pole homes on water and have their own schools, supermarkets and hospital. Part of the trip is to actually visit a home and see how people live. This was slightly disappointing as this home was obviously a 'fake' tourist spot and the inhabitant didn't really live there. She was just there to serve us green tea and cakes.
A word about our tour guide...Gary... very knowledgeable, and a really nice guy who said he was glad he had a 'R' in his name, or he would be gay. My wife and I spent 4 hours debating whether he was or not ! And he had a really annoying habit of finishing every sentence with 'yeaaahhhh'.
So, a good way to introduce yourselves to Bandar Seri Begawan, and one I can thoroughly recommend. We then went back to the airport, to go back to their downtown 4 level shopping centre. This was fun, we had a meal in the food court on top level, a lemon drink, and visited a heap of shops and market stalls. Take the opportunity to do this to kill some time
Now the drama!! We get back to the airport, and Gary tells us that our flight to Bali has been cancelled ! I thought he was joking. Alas, no, and we are immediately taken to the Orchid Garden Hotel for drinks, dinner and bed for the night. Our flight is rescheduled from 11pm to 5.30am
My wife's glass is always half full. Great she says. We can have a proper sleep tonight instead of bunking again in airport lounge chairs. So true! We are told to be in the hotel lobby at 3.30am for transfer to the airport. We arrive at the hotel, very nice too. We have a buffet dinner with drinks, and retire to bed around 9pm. We awake at 3am , get ready , grab our luggage on back on the people mover to the airport. We check in, and board our flight, and although really late, we will still be at the hotel in Tanjung Benoa for the same brekkie we would have had if the flight hadn't been delayed. We take off... more drinks , and more chicken or fish...we will be in Bali in 2 hours...woo-hoo!!
So, main points in this first recounts
(1) please don't be put off by such a crap departure time from Brizzie
(2) Do the City tour , but pay in Brunei dollars
(3) Make sure you have $5singapore each for a transit visa
(4) Go back into the city after tour and do your own thing for a while
(5) Bruneians are mega friendly and very helpful
(6) Only wear loose clothes, it's hot/humid in Brunei
(7) If your flight is delayed, it's a bonus (...)
My next tale will be of our first week in Bali at the Novotel in Tanjung Benoa, and I'll try my best to remember what we did !!
Cheers for now, and feel free to ask anything you like regarding the above.WHARFIE.