BRUNEI :Bandar Seri Begawan

Weekend trip to Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei Darussalam.
July 2011 


Flight    : AirAsia AK 262 KUL-BSB
Aircraft : Airbus A320-200
Reg.     : 9M-AFU 

First glimpse of Negara Brunei Darussalam. Looks like an army camp down there.

Sultan of Brunei's private Boeing 747-400 reg V8-ALI, stored at Royal Brunei Airlines hangar.

A bevy of Royal Brunei Airlines aircrafts docked at their home turf. A couple of Airbus A319s on the foreground and two recently acquired Boeing B777-200ERs (leased from Singapore Airlines) for long-haul flights. Note the 'Shell' signage on the aerobridge. It seems that the company has a monopoly on the oil production here.

Most signboards have Malay translation in jawi script.

Aerial view of Bandar Seri Begawan, courtesy of a poster in the terminal building.

Waiting for our ride to the hotel. This particular signboard somehow sparked my interest to seek more translated jawi signages.

Close to our hotel. Probably the tallest building in BSB.

A recently closed olden single-screen type cinema. Last movie shown - 'Avatar'.

60's looking buildings.

Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddin Mosque, viewed from the shopping complex.

A closer view.

Night shot. Went inside but unfortunately not allowed to take any photographs.

Brightly lit streets at night. No, this is not your typical night in BSB. The whole town was decorated in conjunction with the Sultan's birthday which will be celebrated in a few days.

Speed boats plying Sungai Brunei. They provide fast, cheap and convenient transportation service for the folks living in Kampong Ayer, just across the river from BSB. We ended up boarding one to go to the Kampong Ayer Cultural & Tourism Gallery.

Kampong Ayer Cultural & Tourism Gallery.

Neat building but rather bare internally.

Kampong Ayer. The whole village is on stilts and sits over Sungai Brunei. They even have their own school, fire station and petrol station.

BSB, viewed from Kampong Ayer while we waited for our boat ride.

Brunei Water City Mosque in the background.

A full load of tourists. The boat operator must be grinning.

View of Sungai Kianggeh, next to the 'Tamu' (market). Notice the Venician style barber poles. Boat drivers utilises them to assist passengers boarding and leaving the boats.

A busy scene at Sungai Kianggeh, with the boat operators ferrying shopper to the 'tamu'.

One of the entrances to the bridge leading to Tamu Kianggeh. A weekend market selling mainly local produce.

A local fishmonger. Look! he has a few sharks for sale on his makeshift table.

Vegetable seller. Nothing out of the ordinary for sale here.

A stall selling various types of rice, local delicacies and colourful tudung sajis, a type of food cover made of dyed and dried pandanus leaves with bits of coloured paper added.

Took a local bus for a round trip around the town, which took us back to the terminal. They were clean, comfortable (air conditioned) and the fare was quite cheap. Buses are patronised mainly by foreign workers.

Jame'Asr Hassanil Bolkiah Mosque.

Jawi script for McD.

'Pizza Hut', directly translated.

The piece de resistance. The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf is directly translated to Biji Kopi dan Daun Teh. We had a laugh.

End of our short tour of BSB. Back at the airport for our return flight.

A couple of souvenir shops in the departure lounge.

Departure Lounge.

The bird that's going to fly us home. Air Asia Airbus A320-200 reg. 9M-AHR operating as flight AK 267 BSB-KUL. Glad she was on schedule.

It is very difficult to explain, but this trip somehow transported me back in time. To a small town in Malaysia, sometime in the 70's. The town, the shops, the pace of the locals, the street decorations adorning the town (due to the birthday celebration) and almost everything else.  Is Brunei worth a visit? Yes, if you have never been here, but not worth a repeat. Just my thoughts.

AUSTRALIA : Melbourne, Victoria

Checked in quite late at a caravan park in the suburb of Braybrook near Melbourne. Had to arrange special pick-up for card access and cabin keys. Was quite pleased with the cabin that we booked. Stayed here for 3 nights.

A very well designed cabin. Compact yet practical. It has two bedrooms and can accommodate 6 persons. It even came with a balcony.

View of the living room, kitchen and dining. Quite impressive. Nice colour scheme. Very contemporary.

The main bedroom.

Aah! Hearty aussie breakky. Some beef and lamb bangers (sausages). bread, havarti cheese and pure orange juice.

Opted to take the train to Melbourne (kinda worried about the infamous 'hook turn' in the city). This is Flinders Street Railway Station, one of the major meeting points here. It's right next to the Yarra River.

Heritage and contemporary architecture co-exist.

Federation Square, where the SBS (Special Broadcasting Service) Building is located. Interesting architecture.

Loved the way they incorporate the running display boards as part of the facade.

Facade of St. Paul's Anglican Cathedral. The kids have never seen the inside of a church so decided to have a peek inside.

View inside, of the stained glass windows.

Another interior view.

The main altar.

The free City Circle Tourist Trams. Yup, we took one of these and travelled to a few of the tourist spots. Very convenient.

One of the buildings in the Docklands, a redevelopment of the industrial wasteland that used to be Victoria's first port - Victoria Harbour. It has now been transformed into a hip area, containing residential, commercial and tourist precincts even though still not fully completed. 

Colourful and fancy elements.

Well-connected with Melbourne's efficient tram services. The tram stop is located in the middle of the street.

Residential units.

Retail and f&b facilities at Waterfront City, complete with informal ampitheatre for performances.

Offices and residential units across Victoria Harbour.

Plenty to see and do.

Wonderfully designed restaurants at Newquay.

Interesting sculptures.

Public berths at the Docklands. Etihad Stadium is at the background. It is the home ground for 5 Australian Rules Football Teams, namely St. Kilda, North Melbourne, Carlton, Essendon and Western Bulldogs.

Nice balconies.

Another waterside reataurant.

There are bikes for rental. Very 'green'.

Very interesting. So many elements combined together.

Closer view. Look at the cantilevered balconies.

We then head to the Queen Victoria Market for some shopping. Colourful flowers on sale just before we enter the market proper.

These are proteas. South African national flowers, which are also grown in Australia.

Wide selection of cheeses available in the deli section.

Also sausages, olives and various dips.

We then headed back to Federation Square. It was getting dark and the temperature was getting chillier. There was a mini concert there and it was interesting to engage in some people-watching. It was some winter solstise celebration and there were some aboriginal dances.

Would like to stay longer but unfortunately we had a very early flight to catch the next morning. With heavy heart we have to bade Melbourne farewell and took the train back to our holiday park.

View of the platforms at Flinders Street Station.

The following day, even though we arrived quite early, we had to run to catch our return flight to Kuala Lumpur. It seemed that most flights depart around the same time and the queues for security checks and immigration were simply too long. This is somewhere in the interior of inland Australia.

Flying past a volcano in Indonesia.

Flight    : AirAsia X D7 2723 MEL-KUL
Aircraft : Airbus A330-300
Reg.     : 9M-XXA (the same plane that flew us to Australia on our Gold Coast trip in 2010).