The first leg, Auckland-Brunei, is ok - even manage to get some sleep having taken the "stay up really late" approach. We're sitting out the 10 hour stopover in Brunei with the help of a free 1.5 hour tour of Brunei, which goes in a couple of hours. Be right back...
Tour done. The morning was filled with, um, writing some of this, watching Ingerland finally defeat Egypt 3-1 at Wemberly, which event so gripped a number of Indians or Bangla Deshis that they had to be chivvied to their flight. We also had teas and buns upstairs in "The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf", a pretty standard hot beverage ad buns facility. I changed NZD to Brunei $ to do this, which later proved to have been a Good Thing.
About 13.00 we went over and stood by the Transfer desk to be collected for the Free Trip, an assortment of people, including an Anglo lady and Anglo/NZ lady who when talking together generated vast amounts of angst about their lives and minor discomforts. Jack? was our tour guide for the trip, and he started right off with the 36 degree temperature. Exiting the airport it felt ok-ish, but then when you stepped out from under the canopy, the full weight hit you. Dense, suffocating tropical heat, that you wear like a heavy blanket or a greatcoat. Felt good!
Anyway the trip was quite fun, we just zoomed around a few of the comedy typically Sultanate-type buildings with Jack throwing in minor jokes and telling us about various aspects of Brunei life, especially the "free house for gov't workers" stuff and the cheap petrol and Jap cars. The travelling done, the rest of the time was spent at a local mall and food place - since I'd already changed some dollars we were in good shape. The mall stuff was ok, lots of touristy souvenir materials, and some more practical everyday stuff too, like Man Utd stickers ;-).
The food court was much more like it, fantastic smells, I didn't know where to start. So, like all beginners, I went for a place with the food pictures. This turned out to be Thai food, run by a very nice lady who was in fact Thai, married to a Malay guy who was also there. It also turned out to be her first time doing this, her first day on the job in their stall! Jen and I watched her prepare the food - fascinating and not very complicated. She waved a spoon of chili mix at me and asked if that was enough - "yes" is the only reply of the terminally unconfident but easily embarrassed and emasculated in such circumstances, so that was what she got. This was in the prawn salad, Tom Yang? - $3. And yes, it was pretty hot but the prawns were very tasty and I haven't died yet. Lucky eh? There were tomato slices, basil, onions and some other kind of stalky veg, possibly coriander. Truly yummy, with a sourness and flavour that really set off the prawns. Even Jen enjoyed a test prawn! And then Jack and the others wandered out, so I had to finish it up quickly, grabbing a can of jasmine iced green tea ($1) on the way. Clearly lots to be discovered in a culinary sense here…
The food court was much more like it, fantastic smells, I didn't know where to start. So, like all beginners, I went for a place with the food pictures. This turned out to be Thai food, run by a very nice lady who was in fact Thai, married to a Malay guy who was also there. It also turned out to be her first time doing this, her first day on the job in their stall! Jen and I watched her prepare the food - fascinating and not very complicated. She waved a spoon of chili mix at me and asked if that was enough - "yes" is the only reply of the terminally unconfident but easily embarrassed and emasculated in such circumstances, so that was what she got. This was in the prawn salad, Tom Yang? - $3. And yes, it was pretty hot but the prawns were very tasty and I haven't died yet. Lucky eh? There were tomato slices, basil, onions and some other kind of stalky veg, possibly coriander. Truly yummy, with a sourness and flavour that really set off the prawns. Even Jen enjoyed a test prawn! And then Jack and the others wandered out, so I had to finish it up quickly, grabbing a can of jasmine iced green tea ($1) on the way. Clearly lots to be discovered in a culinary sense here…
So what of Brunei? Seems like a pretty typical monarchy, king says "do this" or "do that: and people do! It's a 600 year old setup, so people are pretty ingrained with it, especially the Sultan I suspect. They have a new Parliament building, but for the life of me I can't see what they'd be talking about, if the boss does most of the disposition. And it turns out that the Brits saved the monarchy in the 60s when there was some kind of revolution attempt. Hmm.
The last two sections of the trip - Brunei-Dubai-London are just long long long... Jen remarks that she's not going to complain about the day trip to Toronto again! A mixture of disturbed sleep and relentless playing of MahJongg on the ship's computer gets me through once the book runs out, interspersed with food. Bleuch.
And it's Heathrow, and waiting for luggage, and brrr - it's cold! The bus trip reveals nothing except that there are roadworks on the M4, and the taxi driver from the station is incredibly random. The house is cold, looks abandoned despite the kids' efforts to tidy up...
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