The Sultan is very good to us

Day 25 - Bandar Seri Begawan  

We hadn't really timed our visit to Brunei very well, as our only full day there was a Friday, the Islamic holy day, which meant many attractions and places of interest were closed.

We decided to book a morning city tour to ensure we saw the key sites before leaving, so at 9am we were collected and joined four South Korean ladies who were spending a week in Brunei.

Our tour guide had very good English (it is taught in school) and she was very good at explaining how this tiny, but extremely wealthy, country operates. Some of what she told us sounded a little like propaganda, as she was continually praising the Sultan and how he looked after his people. 

We visited a local market, followed by a Chinese temple then a stop at the magnificent Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque, which tourists couldn't enter on a Friday.  The mosque has an enormous lagoon out the front complete with a full size replica of a 16th century Royal Barge. It was very hot so we all scurried back to the cool of the van once we'd had a good look.

From there we visited the government handicraft training centre where the seven main art forms of Brunei were taught and showcased (nearly everyone in Brunei works for the generous government/Sultan). There were things like leatherwork, weaving and metalwork, but strangely no ceramics. 

We then visited the outside of the Istana Darussalam, the old wooden palace where the current Sultan of Brunei was born, before visiting the Istana Nurul Iman, the Sultan's current palace and the world's largest private residence of a monarch. We stood outside the gates and peered in, before jumping back into our van to escape the heat.  

We finished off our tour by visiting the impressive Jame' Asr Hassanil Bolkiah Mosque, complete with an incongruous private escalator to take the Sultan to the top floor.

After returning to the hotel around 11:40am we thought we'd get something in the hotel café, but as it was Friday this meant everything had to be closed between 12 and 2 for midday prayer. Strangely though we could still get room service during this time. 

That afternoon M went for a walk into town, walking along the waterfront across from the floating village (which had been rebuilt by the Sultan after a fire), then visiting the food market where families were spending their afternoon.