Return to Borneo - Day 15

LAST DAY

This morning Shanon had organised for a man to show him the sights of Bandar Seri Begawan (the main city in Brunei). They visited a mosque (more gold and marble), the Royal Regalia Exhibition Hall, some markets, & got a view of Istana Nurul Iman, official residence of His Majesty the Sultan of Brunei Darussalam. I saw this palace from the plane - no one needs a house that big! Apparently it's the largest residence in the world. He also learned all sorts of interesting facts and figures about this interesting little country and it's royal family. It's a really peaceful little place - a strict Muslim country where alcohol is banned, serious crime is virtually non-existent and the residents don't pay taxes. They really seem to love their Sultan. In 1997 he was the world's richest man. His fortune has since shrunk dramatically, no thanks to his disgraced little brother Prince Jefri who used to be in charge of the country's finances. Prince Jefri ended up squandering billions on bad investments and living a playboy lifestyle, causing quite the scandal. The Empire Hotel is basically the result of his gigantic ego.

I spent the morning reaping the benefits of this incredibly mis-spent wealth at the hotel. Since I have no intention of ever being rich or famous I had to enjoy living the life of someone who is while I could. So I wandered the grounds, swam in one of the pools, talked to people, and wondered why on earth our room needed 4 telephones.

The inaugural Brunei Open professional golf tournament was taking place at the hotel this weekend. It's the second time we've found ourselves with free entry to professional golf events in our travels so obviously it's a sign we need to become big golf fans. Most of the other guests were players, which was fun as many of the players on the Asia Tour are in their 20s. Many of them are Australians and about a dozen, plus the lone Kiwi, were on our flight this evening. None of them seemed to be ranked too high - one joked that as a result of the weekend he'd moved up from last to almost last. But perhaps I should of got a picture of myself with them all in the departure lounge anyway....just in case one of them makes it really big one day!

At the airport I dropped my cardboard ticket folder and accidentally put my foot right on top of it. I caused a security guard a bit of panic as I went for a little slide next to him, but surprisingly I managed to stay upright. A few minutes later I broke a soap dispenser. I hurried to leave before anyone noticed, but I couldn't find anything to dry my hands with. So I picked up a roll of toilet paper and somehow managed to fling it clear across the bathroom, toilet paper streaming everywhere. As an airport worker was watching by this point I completely panicked and made a right mess of cleaning it up, getting bits of paper all over the soles of my shoes. Not a classy way to end my time in Brunei. It looked like my bad luck was going to end when on the plane we discovered we had wonderful personal screens. Not so - my remote was stuck in it's holder and while Shanon and all the other passengers on the plane joyfully watched movies and played games I tried everything I could think of to get the remote out.