Brunei Darussalam

I'm now sitting here at one of the few cafes to be found in Bandar Seri Begawan, the capital city of Brunei Darussalam in northern Borneo. It is all very different from the rest of the region. It's very calm and relaxed, almost soothing. Cars drive past you slowly, noone seems to be out in the streets at all. The only sound that strikes you are the prayers from the minaret of the national mosque. It's not necessarily a bad thing, but a very strange feeling when you have gotten accustomed to the intense pulse of Asia.

The Omar Ali Saifuddien mosque in central bandar Seri Begawan

 Brunei is a tiny oil magnate, run by the sultan Hasanal Bolkiah himself without a government (His father, the former sultan banned all political opposition). It's a muslim country with a mostly malay population, that seems to be very warm and loving. The sultan is one of the richest people in the world, his own palace seems to cost as much as the sporadic infrastructure of the rest of the country. It's weird to see that one single person can manage pull that off. To use the whole nations assets to fund your own private interests, and still be loved and worshipped by the people. Paradox?

Lots have happened on our way here to Brunei though. We left Kuching behind us and took a ferry ride to Sibu. Did I feel nouseous or what. Atleast I wasn't alone having my stomach twisted inside out while the captain of the boat, probably considering going that fast with big waves in the side simply, "fun"!?

Sunbeams from a hole in the cave roof.

 That same evening in Sibu I started feeling very ill, which doesn't occur very often. My head was spinning out of control, I was sweating heaps, while freezing at the same time. it seemed I had all the symtoms of a proper dengue fever attack. I wasn't very happy. It lasted for about another 48 hours but then I felt fine. Lucky me. I remember in the Gili Islands in Indonesia two years ago when my dear friend Mick got the dengue, layed in bed for 10 days without eating or drinking and lost maybe 10 kilos. It's horrible.

Niah Cave

On our way to the bordertown of Miri we stopped over at the Niah caves National park, to check out some of the worlds largest caves. Inside the caves they appear to have found the oldest evidence of human presence in all of Asia. Apparently bones dating 40.000 years back have been found inside what appeared to be an ancient burial ground. Pre-stone age wall paintings can be seen accompanied by approximately 500.000 bats and equally as many swallow birds. The locals in the area today make a living, climbing bamboo poles 10-50 meters up in the roof of the caves to collect the swallow birds nest, consisting of feathers and saliva. For one nest alone, they can earn up to US$ 1000, because they are considered a delicacy in... wait for it.. yes of course... China!! When dogs, discarded human fetuses or seahorses simply aren't enough. let's get some bird's saliva!

Tomorrow it's time to hop on the bus again, this time towards Kota Kinabalu in the Malaysian province of Sabah. We are going to have to cross a lot of borders to get there, since Brunei is divided into two parts enclaved by malaysia. So after another 9 hour busride and 8 stamps in the passport we'll both be looking forward to heading up the trail to climb Mt Kinabalu. the largest mountain in SE Asia.

Peace out - Sauerkraut!