Thursday, January 11, 2007

'Spirit of Adventure' in Brunei


By Achong Tanjong

A group of 180 veteran tourists from England were bowled over by the country's hospitability during their brief tour of the capital yesterday.

The group was on a brief stopover at Muara Port, as part of its round the world cruise on the cruise ship 'Spirit of Adventure'. The world tour "Inspiring Cruise of Discovery", includes stopovers at several Asean countries including Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Philippines and Brunei.

The half-day city tour was handled by Exotic Borneo, a travel agent based in Sabah dealing with sea cruises, and local travel agent, Freme Travel Services Sdn Bhd.

According to a crewmember of the cruise ship, the group has been travelling around European countries before coming to this region.

The crewmember who joined the ship in Dubai said, "This is the first group to visit Brunei and the tour is part of efforts to bring more tourists to Southeast Asia."

The cruise ship had earlier made a stopover in Sabah prior to coming to Brunei. The ship arrived in Muara Port at 7.30am yesterday and left on the same day at 5pm for Kuching, said Mr Chang from Exotic Borneo.

While in Brunei, the group was brought to several tourist spots and places of interest as part of the city tour organised by local travel agents. Amongst places of interest they visited were the Brunei Museum and Royal Regalia Building.

Brunei Museum recorded a total of 53,884 visitors last year, while in 2005, the Museum recorded a total of 34,466 visitors from January to August. The Museum was closed to visitors for three months in 2005 for renovation works.

Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin

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