October 21, 2006

Brunei



From Niah Caves I jumped on another bumpy bus to Miri where I spent an uneventful night before catching another bus (actually four, with all the border crossing bus transfers) into Brunei. Brunei is one of the smallest and richest countries in the world, with most of it's wealth coming from oil (making it quite a lot more expensive to travel than Malaysia). It's completely surrounded by Sarawak, Malaysia besides the side that meets the sea. Brunei is a mostly Muslim country that successfully banned alcohol in the early 90's. I only spent two days there (I was on a mission, which I'll get to later) in the capital Bandar Seri Begawan (BSB, as it's known) but because it's such a small country I was still able to see quite a lot of it.

I was there in the middle of Ramadan, the month-long fast that Muslims celebrate each year. The fasting takes place from sunrise to sunset and no eating, drinking or smoking is allowed. I would be sitting in a cafe for breakfast or lunch and the surrounding tables would be scattered with Muslim men sitting around chatting and passing the time without even a solitary coffee cup or water glass to talk over. I would try to eat my meals discreetly, very conscious of the fact that I was one of the very few people actually eating in the restaurant. The second afternoon at the bus station, I absentmindedly offered some peanuts to a man who gave me directions. "Thanks dear, but I'm fasting!"




My first afternoon I took a boat out and then decided to walk around Kampung Ayer (water village), which is a house stilt village connected by "streets" of plank walkways. Kids peeked out of windows and three braver ones, siblings, came out and asked me to take their photograph, of course wanting to see it directly afterwards. Near sunset I bought some watermelon and pineapple and walked towards the Sultan Omar Ali Saifudden Mosque (or how about just "the mosque"). The sun setting on the mosque turned the white into an ever-changing beautiful orange-pink that was reflected in the moat below. The evening prayer was blaring out of the speakers and afterwards everyone gathered around picnic tables just outside of the mosque to break fast together. A man offered me a meal of chicken and rice. I declined but had a cup of hot tea with them instead.

When I walked back to the hostel it was only 7:30 pm but it felt much later. The city was quiet and still, dinner was finished and the streets were not alivened with bars and clubs and drunk old men. Everything was closed and everyone was home, going to bed early in order to wake up for the 4:30 am meal before the next sun comes up.