Return to Borneo - Day 14

EMPIRE HOTEL

A very short flight (25 mins!) took us to Brunei today. We had reservations at the very fancy Empire Hotel and Country Club and were personally met at the airport by a man in a very shiny jacket (poor guy - it was well over 30 degrees!) who whisked us off to the hotel in a very expensive looking limo.

On our arrival at the hotel grounds the 3 guards saluted and our jaws dropped as we got our first glimpse of this amazing place. The Empire Hotel is one of the worlds finest resorts and is completely over the top. Fortunately for us the hotel didn't originally exist to make money so the rates aren't anywhere near as high as you'd expect and we were able to afford a night here. Apparently the hotel was originally envisioned to be the private estate of Prince Jefri, the brother of the Sultan of Brunei and cost an estimated 2.7 billion US dollars to build! It was opened as a hotel in 2000.

We stopped briefly at the main building to pick up Chong, who was in charge of our check-in, before being driven to our building. The very friendly Chong escorted us to our room and proceeded to spend the next half hour telling us EVERYTHING possible about the hotel and the room. It was quite hilarious, especially when he started pointed out everything in the room going 'These are drawers for your clothes.', 'These are the taps for the bath', 'This is your TV' and so on. He actually told us that usually he's more talkative, but he was losing his voice today. No wonder!

By the time Chong left it was quite late in the afternoon so we rushed to go and spend sunset down in one of the pools. The saltwater lagoon pool is easily the biggest pool I have ever seen and incredibly warm. I really can not describe just how cool it was!

Dinner was of course magnificent and afterward we went to the movies. There's a cinema complex with 3 theatres on the property. The theatres are great (although I'm sure I've never come across leather seats at the movies before), the tickets are cheap, and the popcorn is quite possibly the most delicious ever. We saw 'Batman Begins' which put me to sleep, but it was a great night out anyway.

On the way back to our room we took a midnight wander through the huge (6 or 7 storeys I think) and deserted atrium and said 'wow' a lot. Although not our taste at all, we really couldn't help but be awed by all the gold and marble and general massiveness of everything.