Our first views of Borneo!! This is probably on the coast between Brunei and Kota Kinabalu
It's so beautiful!!
This was my extra-yummy lunch! Fish with tamarind sauce and rice and CILANTRO! Yum. Fitting since it's from a chain called “Yummy Chicken”.
One of the most beautiful sunsets I've ever witnessed...from a plane, right as we were landing!
Our first glimspes of Brunei. This is the Sultan's Mosque in the center of town - the name is waaaay too long to actually remember. It has like eight names.
We arrived during the month of the Sultan's 63rd birthday, so the town was decked out in Christmas lights totally Vegas style. Every business tried to show how loyal it was by competing for the biggest happy birthday banner using one of three photos of the Sultan. Here are the two biggest we could find.
I hope you're starting to get a sense of the amount of glitz used in two blocks of downtown BSB.
The intersection at Jalan Sultan. We seriously need some of these raindrop lights for burning man.
This is our view from the front of Terrace Hotel. During prayer hours (which are five times a day at least) one side of the street gets totally jammed up with people on their way to the mosque. EVERYONE has a car in Brunei.
It's a rather austere downtown. Without these decorations it would not be very visually appealing.
The mosque and the Brunei flag.
Arabic inscription in the gateway to the mosque.
This is a replica of the royal ceremonial barge.
Me in front of the Sultan's Mosque
Our first glimspes of the water village!
Fun snacks for sale at a vendor at the Yayasan shopping complex.
Awesome rattan trinket vendor. Most of these rattan items are from Iban native tradition.
This one's for Kate - it's my first Iced Milo in SE Asia in two years!! :)
Mmmm seafood claypot.
Mee. That's fried noodle. I think this is kolok style? I forget, but it was spicy. And note the yummy calamansi (citrus fruit halfway between a lemon, a lime, and an orange) that comes with every dish on Borneo.
I snuck a picture of the cool art behind us at this restaurant (Nonya?). Plus some Brunei schoolgirls in uniform. Woot.
Bryan's in front of it now!
That's me in my burqa. And Bryan didn't have to change a thing.
And, the backyard of the glorious mosque. These are some of the poorer residents of the water village.
A rather peculiar sculpture in downtown BSB. We are interpreting it as a representation of the human reproductive process.
Bryan on a toadstool in the park across from the hotel. Some of these tables had umbrellas with things growing out of them!
See!
This tree has a lot of roots. or vines? It's hard to distinguish.
Table upon table upon table of longan for sale at the night market. I didn't know anyone liked longan *THAT* much....
Bryan bought a chocolate chip crispy crepe!
Sees, he's happy about it.
There were some yummy looking hawker stalls.
Bryan's tea tarik - or the traditional tea with milk.
aaaah nums nums roti pratha!!!
It comes with TASTY curry :)
A glimpse of the jungle on the way to Ulu Temburong National Park. The vines grow so thick they make a carpet that smooths out the surface of the jungle.
The boat we rode down the river in.
We were in the boat with these fun brits who were traveling with their children.
I am SUPER EXCITED to be going through the rapids!
They had to hop out and pull us along because it was so shallow.
That is exactly what you think it is - construction equipment crossing the river. Wow.
This is the national flower of Brunei. It fruits before it flowers.
Eeeew freaky spider along the trail.
Our climb up to the canopy walkway was virtually vertical. It was kind of crazy.
Try to count the number of species you see in this picture of primary rainforest ;)
So many vines and trees had thorns growing them! They were actually kind of soft/flexible.
This is what a jungle canopy outside of the US looks like. Steel scaffold, 50m tall. EEEEEK.
It was like 300m long I think.
Are we SURE this will hold us?? (Note the PERHATIAN!!! [DANGER!!!!] sign..)
Bryan took this picture b/c I was shaking too hard to make it to the lookout at the highest point. Pretty cool shot!
See? That's my look of sheer terror.
This is what we climbed up and down.
Bryan is perfectly happy.
I survived!!!
This was some kind of special, rare beetle. I forget what it is called now.
Jungle monster coming at you!
We stopped here for lunch
Bryan swung from a vine into the water, Tarzan style. My camera freaks out because everything is too green!
This is legitimately the color of the growth on the riverbank. It's about as green gets! My camera did NOT like to take pictures of it!
This is a modern Iban longhouse
Each doorway or different floored area belongs to a different family
Inside there's a long communal living patio. Everything from dinner to chores to celebrations happens here.
They sell their handiwork to supplement their income. Some receive state stipends for being Muslim, or being the community leader, but traditionally they were an agricultural society which had no form of commercial business.
Bryan chats with our fantastic guide, Mr. Hadi from Hasa Tour.
Clouds are heavy over the Sungei Brunei.
These are the nicer water village homes - kind of their version of a McMansion. On stilts.
The roof of the one Chinese temple downtown. Lots of pretty embellishments.
Down our river trip the next day!
Hopefully there's a monkey in there!
Along the way we passed a gravel/granite quarry. They load up these enourmous barges with the stones and then transport them. It's a little creepy.
LOOK A PROBISCIS MONKEY!
One was sitting right above us...
Plastic money is the best. Especially with transparent windows!
