Since most people have no idea where Brunei is, I thought that maybe I should include some maps of where it is. The country is located on the island of Borneo. The following map shows the relative locations of Singapore and Brunei with respect to Southeast Asia.
The following map shows the places that I visited in Brunei and East Malaysia.
We started our journey in the morning from Singapore's Changi Airport. It is constantly voted as one of the best airports in the world due to the amount of amenities it offers to travellers.
The following shows the distinctive control tower of Changi Airport.
An interesting design for the Crowne Plaza hotel that is attached to the newest terminal building at Changi Airport, Terminal 3.
Terminal 3 from the outside. We used Terminal 3 from out flight from Vancouver and it is an ultra-modern terminal with an emphasis on lots of sunlight and a garden theme.
For our flight to Brunei, we used the older Terminal 2. While it isn't as new as Terminal 3, it is very well maintanined so that it doesn't actually feel that old.
Checking into our Royal Brunei Airlines flight to Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei. All the flights from Singapore depart at around 10 am and arrive in Brunei at 12 pm. Because of a lack of competition, the 2 hour flight was not cheap. It cost $400.00 per person round trip if memory serves me right.
One of the reasons why Changi Airport is consistently voted one of the top airports in the world. There are tons of amenities for travelers including this massage/spa located after security.
Including some small gardens...
And free Xbox 360 game stations...
And free LAN gaming computers...I think Singapore would be a great place to transit on a long flight. Too bad only Australians or New Zealanders could probably take advantage of this on their long flights to Europe.
Some pictures of the rows of Singapore Airlines planes parked at the terminal.
Inside the terminal.
Our in-flight meal. It's surprising that they still served a full meal for a 2 hour flight. Airline service still counts and matters in Asia unlike in North America where you are treated like cattle. By the time we finished eating the plane was almost ready to land. The meal itself was so-so tasting.
Arrival at the airport in Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei, the capital city of Brunei. Because the country is so small, people just refer to the city and country generically as "Brunei".
It's really odd that a country with so much oil wealth has such a lousy airport! There wasn't any air-conditioning inside or it wasn't turned on!
Notice the Arabic lettering on the signs. Although Brunei and Malaysia both use the Malay language, Brunei still uses the Arabic script adapated for the Malay langage which they call Jawi for formal signage. In regular life people just use the standard Latin script for representing the Malay language.
By the time we arrived at my cousin's house in Brunei and unpacked, it was already mid-afternoon so she suggested that we go see the Royal Regalia Building in downtown. The museum is the home of the Coronation & Silver Jubilee Chariot, Royal Regalia of the coronation of the present Sultan of Brunei and numerous gifts from state dignitaries.
The official website of the museum is here.
Admission was free and we had to take off our shoes inside the museum.
The building has an odd shaped design. I think it looks like an ice cream cone. Because there are no signs telling you the name of the roads in Brunei, thats how my cousin described the building to us in order for us to find the building.
Unfortunately we were not allowed to take any pictures except for the area in the main atrium which housed the coronation chariot.
This being Brunei, all the gold on the chariot is real!
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