Today we sailed into the port of Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei. We caught the ship’s shuttle service for the 45 minute drive to the capital city of Brunei, Bandar Seri Begawan, past jungle mixed with housing estates.
We were on familiar ground here as we have visited Brunei in past years when Steven’s sister worked as a nurse in the Sultan’s medical clinic for a few years.
We took a leisurely walk along the rickety catwalks in the water village of Kampung Ayer situated in the mangroves of the Brunei River . We were fortunate to see builders at work standing in the mangrove mud hammering in new wooden stilts into the mud for a house renovation with water taxis whizzing past up the river and under the bridge.
Kampung Ayer is the world’s largest stilt village and was mentioned in writing’s as long ago as 1521. The present day collection of 28 villages is home to around 30,000
We walked around the perimeter of the Omar Ali Saifudden Mosque on Jalan Pretty.This classical Islamic style mosque was built in 1958 and is surrounded by its own man-made lake and is one of the most magnificent mosques in Southeast Asia.
Beginning to feel the effects of the humid weather we wandered into the Yayasan Complex Shopping Mall where we purchased a new camera battery to replace the recent lost one.
Back at the cruise terminal we spent time on the internet. Trish took the opportunity to purchase some more souvenir’s for the family back home.
Another sunset sail away, out of the river mouth and past Malaysian island of
Labuan heading North and around Borneo to the East past the oil rigs with their plumes of flame and then on to Bali…..