Aug 2008

Court found the best way to way to get from BSB to Kota Kinabalu (KK) in Malaysia online before we left Japan. We took a little time yesterday double checking that this info was accurate, which it was. However, for reasons beyond our control, our travel day didn't work as smoothly as planned. The plan was to take a bus to the ferry terminal outside BSB, then catch the ferry to Pulau Labuan in Malaysia, and finally a high speed ferry to Kota Kinabalu. This would give us more than enough time to square up our bill for the river cruise, eat, and get out the airport for our flight.

Now, here's what actually happened.

We got up, finished packing and checked out of our room before 7:00. We had arranged a taxi to take us to the bus station for the 7:20 bus. So far, still on the plan. The bus left on time and we got to the ferry terminal in time for the 8:30 ferry. We had to go through immigration and all that good stuff. We actually got on to the ferry at 8:28 which should have been our first clue things weren't quite right. At this point things started to go off plan.

The ferry actually left the dock at 9:00 not 8:30. This wasn't too bad but it came back to bite us later on. We arrived in Labuan and had to do Malaysian immigration. We got through and went to buy tickets for the 1:00 pm ferry to Kota Kinabalu. Except the ferry was full. I asked how we could get to KK today and the ticket lady laid out how to do it. A lot of buses and speed boats in Malaysia won't leave until they are full. We remembered this from last year.

I quickly rounded up the other European travelers and arranged for us to travel together. There was a couple from Poland, a Spanish couple and a French family of four. We all ended up on the same boat to Menumbok. I figured if we had lots of people in our group, we'd fill up any bus or boat we arrived at. The boat ride was again uneventful and not too bad.

The next step was to take a bus from Menumbok to KK. This was a lot harder than we thought. We arrived at the “bus station” to find about 50 other people waiting for the bus. Except no one really knew when the bus was going to arrive. We heard somewhere between 11:30 and 12:30. But we also heard some people had been waiting for hours. We tried to find out about taxis but there was no one to help. It was quite frustrating.

We eventually got some help from a local guy who explained we should take a mini bus to Beaufort then catch another bus to KK. I was fine with this plan. At least we would be moving and not waiting around forever.

We jumped into the next mini bus that came along. There was us, the Spanish couple, and the Polish couple, plus four local women. We all got in the minibus, then they crammed our bags in, mostly on top of Court. It was full. It took us about an hour and a half to get to Beaufort.

Once we got to Beaufort we had to wait for another bus to come take us to KK. Again, no one really knew what time the bus was going to come. We waited. Luckily 30 minutes later the bus arrived. First a small bus came then a big bus came. Everyone was trying to get on the small bus and then quickly everyone shifted over to the big bus. We didn't get on the big bus quick enough to get a seat so we had to take the small bus.

The big bus left while we still waited. We saw our driver get off and have a smoke. Then we waited some more and more. It started to pour rain. I was glad we were on the bus. And we waited more and more. We had no idea what was going on. No one told us anything. We waited for a good 45 minutes then we found out the bus driver was waiting for more people to come fill up the bus. Once we knew that we understood, but we were still frustrated by having to wait. Especially because the big bus left an hour before us.

We got on our way but Court and I were both worried: our bus sounded like a lawnmower. We thought it was going to take an hour to get to KK. But it took us about 2 hours to get there. It seemed like we were going sooooo slow.

We eventually got to KK and tried to ask someone to tell us where we were on our map. But no one would. One guy kept asking us where we were going, and we repeatedly told him the general area. He kept saying you need a destination. Annoyingly, this went on for 2 or 3 minutes. We left his company, and split a cab downtown with the Spanish couple.

We dropped them off at their hotel and we convinced our cabby to help us run our errands. First we had him go by the tour office so we could square up our river cruise. The cabby was sure the office was closed. He was nice enough to let us use his phone to call. The office was closed. Not only was it closed, but the office had also moved. The woman from the office agreed to meet us and the cabby found out where the new office was. Court waited in the cab for me to run and pay our bill.

I went in to square up but they didn't accept credit card and I didn't have enough cash to pay. In the end we didn't get to square up our bill. We'll have to pay when we get to the lodge.

Finally the cabby agreed to take us out to the airport for our flight from KK to Sandakan. I figured Court would feel a whole lot better once she got out there. The day left her feeling a little worse for wear.

We were quite early for our flight We checked our bags and went to get something to eat.

We waited around for our flight which was quick up and down flight. Then caught a cab to our next hotel in Sandakan to see some highlights from the Olympics. Tomorrow we are off on our Kinabatangan River cruise.

Our last day in Brunei. It was time to see the last few sites in BSB.

We woke up around our usual time and got ready. We also ate breakfast in our room. We learned from yesterday and bought our own food. At this point we headed back out into BSB. The first stop being the Coffee Bean for a morning pick me up.

Here are some shots from around BSB.

This was in the intersection. There was a clock face on each side. Each clock displayed a different time. Not sure if the times were of significance, or if some of the sides were just busted.

It's me.

This is the sultan's polo field. Well, we think it's a polo field.

Then we went on the hunt for the “tourist information office”. We thought it was in the post office, but it turns out it moved. The security guard gave us a map to the new location which I somehow managed to throw out before we actually made it to the place. Needless to say, our nav skills were on and we found it. Word to other travelers: the tourist information office in BSB isn't really a tourist information office. It's a tour operator who also gives out free pamphlets. If you know this going in you're fine. If not, it could be a surprise.

The lady there wanted us to go on a monkey watching tour and a 4 hour boat tour. We made sure it was a 4 hour tour and not a “3 hour tour”. But we turned it down anyways. We figured we could organize our own tour later on. We politely excused ourselves and meandered on our way.

We went down to the waterfront to find a water taxi to take us on the tour of the water village. But there were a lot of guys there all yelling at us and I had to go to the bathroom. See the previous paragraph regarding the Coffee Bean. We went into the mall where we ate lunch yesterday and found a bathroom.

Court hadn't been feeling good most of the morning and at this point she realized she was out of medication from the last doctor and she wasn't feeling better. It was off to find another doctor. Luckily there was a clinic in the mall and they weren't busy. Court was in and out of there within 20 minutes with some new pills.

The Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque is near the center of town. It is pretty big, but it is not the biggest in BSB.

It is closed to non-Muslim visitors on Thursdays but we heard that it may be open on Fridays. We went to check this out. Luckily it was open to non-Muslim visitors on Fridays, but unluckily not at the time we were there (it opens for only a half-hour, 16:30-17:00, in the afternoon). We would have to come back later on. We did wander around the grounds for a bit. The mosque has a "lagoon” with a boat in it. The boat couldn't go anywhere and we couldn't go out on it either.

At this point it was getting hot. We got some grub and went back to the hotel for Court to rest and to get out of the heat.

It turns out we both fell asleep. We got our stuff pulled together in time to go to the mosque. However on the way to the mosque we realized we didn't have enough money to pay for the ferry tomorrow and most of the shops closed at 5:00 pm; the same time visiting hours for the mosque finished. I quickly ran to the money change shop and exchanged enough money to get us through the next day. Then I ran over and met Court at the mosque.

You can hear the call to prayer from anywhere in town. We heard the call to prayer as we were walking around town around lunchtime. Everyone takes a break at prayertime, even the bus drivers.

Before we went in the mosque we had to remove our shoes, which is the common practice. Then just as we entered there were two men there asking people to sign the guest book and giving everyone robes to wear as they looked around the mosque. Court was smart enough to bring a scarf to cover her head. The men at the mosque did say she looked very beautiful wearing the head scarf. I think they were very appreciative that she wore it.

We weren't allowed to take any pictures inside the mosque. But it was gorgeous. The carpet that was in the mosque was very intricate and beautiful. They inside of the dome was full of stained glass laid out in an exquisite pattern. And everything else was immaculate. I really enjoyed the ability to enter and look around the mosque. Afterwards we talked briefly to the men there and asked some simple questions about prayer time.

This is the mosque around sunset.

Once we left the mosque we went back down to the waterfront to take a water taxi tour. We ran into one guy who eventually talked us into going on a ride with him. His big selling points were that he would go with us to tell us what we could see and that they life jackets for us to wear. We settled on the price and got in the boat. Then we asked for the life jackets. I think he was kind of surprised that we asked for them. Our theory was if he charged a premium because he had life jackets we were damn well going to use them.

Over 20,000 people live in the water villages. There are approximately 14 separate water villages. There were a lot more but some have been destroyed by fires. When there is a fire the government gives the family money to rebuild their house on land. I think the government wants to reduce the water villages. In the villages there are lots and lots of schools, we saw a fire department and a police department. They also have power stations and pipes running fresh water out to the houses.

We also took a quick swing near the sultan's palace. We couldn't get very close to it.

It's not regularly open for visitors. The sultan does open his palace to meet the people once a year after Ramadan. This is usually sometime in October. One of our taxi drivers said he went in and it was absolutely amazing. The sultan's palace has over 1000 rooms. We also saw the sultan's son's palace, complete with over 100 rooms. It was also quite ridiculous.

At this point the boat driver tried to convince us to go see the proboscis monkeys. We asked if it was included in our agreed on price. It came as no big surprise that it was not. We decided not to go and they took us back to town.

Afterwards we started to make our way back towards our hotel for dinner. There was a night market across the street from our hotel. We strolled over to check it out and settled on some fried rice and fried noodles. All for the price of $2. It was a great meal to end the day.

Because of our early planned start for the next day we had to head back to the hotel to pack while obviously watching the Olympic Opening Ceremonies. Except we had some poor New Zealander doing the commentary. It's like they picked some random guy and told him to make some comment about each country as they come out. But, they weren't very informative and they were usually kind of negative. “Oh, this is their 4th Olympics and they are still looking for their first medal.” It was still exciting to see the Canadian team; Court was looking to see if she could spot one of her schoolmates from Harvey. We were kind of disappointed that the Brunei team didn't register any athletes and aren't participating in the Olympics.

Tomorrow's an early start and a day of travel back to Malaysia.