DimitriosFan: A stopover in the Sultanate of Brunei

Since that time I first remember myself being introduced to the world’s geography and history, my curiosity was always keenly animated by the prospect of visiting that tiny sovereign state, situated on the north coast of Borneo, called Brunei.

It was something about the aged stories of the powerful Bruneian empire reigning across Borneo and the South Sea, narrated by the great adventurers of the discovery age.

Something about the fables of its aforetime almighty sultans, their excessive opulence and their ostentatious palaces, which had made me regard that little piece of land through an exotic and romanticized scope.

Being finally in Borneo, after the years, the time to give my curiosity’s fancies satisfaction had come.

To get there I took a public bus from Kota Kinabalu which covered the separating distance in 8-9 hours.

A great deal of this time was consumed by the boarder controls.

First crossing from the Malaysian state of Sabah to the one of Sarawak, then from Sarawak to the eastern Bruneian district of Temburong, back to Sarawak, and, finally, again into Brunei, which whole thing amounted to seven boarder crossings and two wasted pages in my passport, all in one single day.

We arrived in Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei’s capital, some time about late afternoon. By that time, already, nothing was moving.

The streets were deserted, the shops hermetically shut and the air bereft of any sound traveling through it, as if in the outer space.

The whole image I faced gave me the impression of a ghost-city… a desolate, utterly depopulated city, recently ravaged of some pernicious pestilence or something.

That, deadness, would also be and the principal characteristic of this city, as I was to further observe during my brief staying.

A city of about 50.000 inhabitants, I would compare its vividness to a – Mediterranean, let’s say – village of 100-200 people during the early mornings, and to the farthermost dunes of Sahara during the nighttime.

The aforesaid unliveliness of this city, would definitely render one’s time there as dull and uninteresting as watching a movie in an unplugged screen, if intent on spending there a length of time exceeding two or three days.

As, though, in my case, the length of my sojourn did not last more than two complete rotations of the earth, I found this characteristic of the city ideally cooperative to my ramble-around-in-peace mood.

Continue reading (Incl. Pics) at: DimitriosFan: A stopover in the Sultanate of Brunei

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Rain in the Borneo Jungle

Picture this, if you will. It is a sultry afternoon. Your boatman, with a practiced hand, guides the motorized canoe upstream over the heavy brown water of the Temburong river, navigating a series of rapids.

You squint in the harsh sunlight at the dense green vegetation stretching into the sky. A white bird lazily flaps its wings.

You climb up a hill, sweat pouring off every inch of you, even though you are shaded by the canopy of branches hundreds of feet above.

You listen to the music of the cicadas. You climb up a series of metal ladders to the very top of the canopy, and look out on to an ocean of deep green in every direction.

On your way down, the rain starts, small droplets at first, and then a deluge. You walk over the smooth pebbles in the bed of a stream to a little waterfall.

The rain drums on the trees, drowning out the sound of the falls, and of you singing to yourself as you sit on a rock, lost in those drums.

You sit there for what could have been a long time – you are not sure. Time has paused.

The green is now, impossibly, greener. The clouds kiss the tree-tops, now wreathed in mist. You head back, through rushing rapids and stinging rain.

Sounds like magic, doesn’t it? You can experience this yourself if you are willing to pay the price ( both literal and figurative).

This was the first day of our all-too-short trip to Brunei. We had flown into Bandar Seri Bagawan (the capital of Brunei) the night before.

One can stay in BSB, taking in the Sultan’s majestic glory at the Royal Regalia Museum, but the sounds of the jungle called to us, and we headed to the Sumbiling Eco Village in the Ulu Temburong national forest at the top of the morning.

Continue reading (Incl. Pics) at: Rain in the Borneo Jungle

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Amazing Encounters in Ulu Temburong National Park, Brunei

Ulu Temburong sounds like a faraway place owing to its name of being in the depths of the jungle. And indeed, it is as obscure as a hidden treasure tucked away to be found & marvelled at. Nestled in the midst, is Ulu Ulu Resort, by the banks of Temburong River, a terrain of pebbly rocks smoothen by the rapids.

The journey begins in the heart of Bandar Seri Begawan, where we boarded the Flying Coffin (fast ferry speedboat) to weave through a Nipah grove along the muddy banks.

This is also a place where big crocodiles sunbathe out in the open. The 45 minutes ride led us to a harbour in Temburong where we took another 40 minutes bus ride to a small jetty to embark on another 15-minute ride upriver. This might cause you to grip the side bars along the longish, narrow motorised boat as it tilts & turns.

Each boat seats 5 persons, with our plastic bag-wrapped belongings, cruising became the adventure of averting splashes & collision with overhanging branches that sometimes, rests a Kingfisher.

Surprises at every turn, sightings of perched Oriental Darters, Swifts & the ever elusive Crested Wood Partridge, caused a stir amongst the participants. A flock of 6 partridges flew across the river while our boat was cruising pass, sending all who saw them into squeals of delight. Sightings are rare & to see an entire brood is even rarer. It is no wonder why birders are going deeper into the forests to document birds.

Half expecting the legumes to turn into a beanstalk inviting an ogre to descend, the perspective of size is evident in just the roots of this tree. I can’t even be Jack to climb pass the root, let alone cutting down the beanstalk. Not that I was about to cut anything but fantasical things come to mind when you have a vivid imagination.

Landing at the banks of Ulu Ulu Resort, I felt like I had developed sea-legs & swayed as I disembarked. The gigantic trees (Legumes) structured the banks bowled me over with the towering stature. Every growth has its place in this pristine ecosystem. Birds & butterflies abuzz, each going about its own way.

Ice cold pandan-infused lemongrass tea with condiment tray of curry puffs & appam welcomed us at the reception. Just as we attended the briefing, a pair of Whiskered Treeswifts began to mate  outside the room on bare tree, sending the birders into a frenzy.

The race hasn’t resumed yet as breaks were an imminent part of the game. How can we contain our excitement when we are prominently situated at the heart of Bruneissic Park??

Continue reading (Incl. Pics) at: Amazing Encounters in Ulu Temburong National Park, Brunei

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Relax with Sultan of Swing in fairytale Brunei

 

THE Sultan of Brunei has 7000 cars in his private collection and built the hotel you're staying in for $1 billion from the money his country makes from oil and gas. Yes $1 billion.

Some days he drives one of his 7000 motor vehicles - he is said to favour his Lamborghinis on Sundays - to your hotel, as his security entourage struggles to keep up on the highway out of the capital, Bandar Seri Begawan. If you don't get to see him, you'll feel his otherworldly presence around this, the Empire Hotel and Country Club.

The hotel features more gold than an ancient Incan city and the lobby more Italian marble than Florence, and the club's links course was designed by the world's greatest golfer, Jack Nicklaus.

A visit to Brunei is like visiting a children's fairytale. It's one of only two sultanates left on Earth and is a place of Islamic grandeur with its gold-domed mosques and a ruler (from the oldest reigning monarchy in the world) who resides in the largest residential palace on Earth.

While Bandar Seri Begawan is one of Asia's sleepiest capitals (and its driest - non-Muslims are permitted to bring alcohol into Brunei but you won't find a single bar selling alcohol anywhere in the country), Brunei's greatest attraction is that nothing is far away, including bars across its border with the Malaysian state of Sarawak.

When you come to play golf at the Empire, the wildest jungles of Borneo are only a short journey away.

Brunei is one of the world's smallest countries - the last remnant of an empire that once included all of Borneo - and so accessing its virgin rainforests, which are its greatest asset and are among the best preserved in South-East Asia, takes barely any effort at all. In fact, it can be done in less than a day before you're back in the golden grandeur of your hotel.

I took a water taxi past the city's historic floating villages and the mangroves of Sungai Brunei where shy, rare, proboscis monkeys (you'll find more of them here in Brunei than anywhere else on the planet) jumped from tree to tree and crocodiles lurked in the shallows, through the open sea of Brunei Bay and further east along the Sungai Temburong River. After a short bus ride, traditional longboats took me to the Ulu Temburong National Park.

It was a thrilling ride in - although barely three hours' journey from my hotel - down a fast-flowing, chocolate-coloured river where gigantic hornbills fly by and one of the world's most diverse ecosystems waits.

The Iban river people, who paddled my boat, live there. Most of Brunei's population now live in or around the capital but the Iban prefer to live as they always have. They guided me through thick jungle, past tailless Bornean gibbons, to one of the world's longest rainforest canopy walks, which takes hikers 50m up past the trees and into the skies.

Continue reading (Incl. Pic) at: Relax with Sultan of Swing in fairytale Brunei

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Ulu-Ulu Resort, Brunei eyes green award

By Azaraimy HH

Ulu-Ulu National Park Resort is expected to be a candidate to receive the Asean Green Hotel Award presented during the upcoming AseanTourism Forum (ATF) 2010 Travel Exhibition.

It's an award that could further promote both the Resort and Temburong as a top destination among locals and foreign travel buyers.

As the theme of 2010 ATF is "Go into the heart of Green", it is only right to nominate the Ulu-Ulu National Park Resort, which has been given a thumbs up as nominee for the award as the resort is situated right in the middle of the vast Ulu Temburong National Park Rainforest, on the banks of the Temburong and Belalong Rivers.

The Weekend Bulletin observed this yesterday during a telephone conversation with the tourism chief Sheikh Jamaluddin Sheikh Mohamed - the CEO of Brunei Tourism.

"We are actually trying to put Ulu-Ulu as a nominee for the award," the chief said when asked whether any of the local hotels are being nominated since Brunei is hosting the ATF 2010 from January 21 to 28, where TRAVEX (travel exhibition) will also be held in tandem.

The selection criteria for the award ranged from environmental policies and action for hotel organisations, in collaboration with community and green organisations, energy and water efficiency, to air quality management based on the Asean Green Hotel Standards.

The Ulu-Ulu National Park Resort is still relatively less known amongst local holiday seekers thus its nomination during the ATF 2010 will hope to boost the Ulu-Ulu tourism market. Nevertheless, the impact will be more significant with the fact that more than 1500 delegates will be converging in the Asean Tourism Forum, according to tourism officials.

"I believe in Brunei, there is only Ulu-Ulu Resort which could match the 'green standard' required for the nomination, and the hotel is situated right in the middle of natural surroundings with access to a natural waterfall formation", said Kamil Abdul Hamid, the Sunshine Borneo Tour's Director of Business Development.

"We have promoted it extensively in Brunei, it is a little wonder why there are still many locals who are ignorant of the fact that there is a resort type hotel in Temburong," he added.

"Otherwise, we have received quite encouraging comments on our online booking at www.uluuluresort.com from our European travellers, such as from Spain," he added.

He hoped that the nomination could promote both the resort and Temburong as a hot destination amongst domestic travellers.

Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin Weekend
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Hidden treasures of Temburong, Brunei

By Tony Alabastro

Temburong's Heritage Art and Cultural Gallery is housed in one of district's oldest buildings, a government office built in the 1950's.

Brunei's second smallest and least populated district is peopled by Muruts, Kedayan Malays and a handful of foreign overseas workers. With a 9,160 population as of Dec 2008, seven persons live per square kilometre in the 1,303 sq km district.

According to the cultural gallery, the Muruts, who named some of Temburong's hills, rivers and villages, came from the Indonesian tribes that migrated to Borneo a thousand years ago.

The Malay Kedayan helped in the spread of Islam in Temburong when they settled in 1916, after the first world war, in search of better life, worked in the rubber plants and sago industry in Batu Apoi.

Chinese tionghua came in the 1920s to work in Temburong's rubber plantations. More Chinese were imported from China, Malaysia, Singapore until the decline of the rubber plantations forced the sending back of the Chinese labour force. Those who stayed started small business and settled in the capital, Bangar, and in Puni, which now produces salted egg.

The best dishes in Temburong are udang galah (king fresh water prawn whose head is bigger than its body) and also known as Bruneian lobster; Wajid Temburong or pounded Temburong hill rice slowly cooked in palm sugar and coconut cream then tightly wrapped lengthwise in fresh green Nyirik leaves, and cendol Temburong, a dessert of pandan green starch noodles, palm sugar and coconut milk.

Temburong has nine longhouses, where immediate and extended families live together under one roof.

Team Philippines led by Philippine Ambassador to Brunei Alexander B Yano, a retired four-star general, finds these hidden treasures during a one-day-two-nights outreach programme in Brunei's second largest and least populated district, where seven persons live per square kilometre.

During a courtesy call, he tells Temburong District Officer Awang Matusin bin Otrang Kaya Sura Haji Tuba that Philippine technical cooperation to Brunei in rice production can be expanded to Temburong.

Laila padi has been planted in three areas, and 1,000 hectares near the border will be developed, says Awang Matusin. He says he is the first Temburong-born to be named district officer in the district where he was raised.

"For the past 50 to 70 years, the district officers came from Bandar Seri Begawan," says Awang Matusin, a former schoolteacher.

"The Filipinos in Temburong are well behaved and well-educated," the District Officer told the ambassador, and Armed Forces and Defence Attache Emmanuel Cacdac. They are accompanied by May Abrera, senior nurse at the PIHM Hospital, who has been in Brunei for 21 years, and the only remaining Filipino at the Sultan Hassan Secondary School, Elibeth Lamberte-Rombo, who has been teaching maths for 15 years. She is also an active officer of the 26-year-old Filipino Association in Brunei, which is older than the establishment of the Philippine Embassy.

Awang Matusin initiated the Excellence Village Award, which in 2005-2007, was won by the Belais dan Buda-Buda Village Consultative Council. The village has a tourism destination with a recreational park. Mushroom is cultivated and chicken are reared in farms there.

Other winners were the village consultative councils of Amo, known for its handicraft, and Sibut, where tourists go to the red water falls at Tasek Buluh Aie Merah, and dragon fruits are produced.

"Temburong is the only district implementing the one kampong one product concept" in its 17 kampongs, Awang Matusin says.

Juriani Udan, acting nursing officer, PIMM Hospital, member of tourist information centre, member of Persatuan Lun Bawang Murut Brunei, introduces Team Philippines to the homestay programme in Temburong.

Homestays are offered at the Iban longhouse along Jalan Batang Duri in Kg Sibut, Amo. Its facade is made of concrete following a fire that hit the place.

Salmah Ampiri, homestay chief coordinator, translator and emcee, says visitors can have a glimpse of Iban life and culture at the longhouse at along Jalan Batang Duri in Kg Sibut, Amo. The longhouse offers overnight stays, a day visit, cultural night, daily visits, handicrafts, Iban mock wedding, ngajat dance, Iban food like chicken cooked in bamboo, food wrapped in leaves, fishing, and visits around the village.

Visitors sleep on the open veranda on mattresses and pillows. They are served local vegetables like banana shoots and palm shoots. The evening activities include cooking with us, eating on the (ruai) veranda. Fishing on the river infront of the house costs $1 an hour. We use traditional fishing rods, using bread mixed with flour as bait, says Salmah.

In Kg Tanjong Bungar, the top rice producer in Temburong, is a 20-year-old longhouse occupied by 12 Iban families.

Rosalind Anak Jalak, weave pua kumbu, a traditional multicoloured cloth, using a handloom, in the wooden longhouse with satellite dishes and washed clothes hung outside to dry on the veranda in Kg Tanjong Bungar.

Mathews Ak Janlita, the son of ketua kampong Awang Janlita @ Jonlita Anak Mingan, entertains visitors and offers an Iban headdress for Ambassador Yano to wear.

At the end of Jalan Batang Duri waits the temuai, the 10 to 15-foot longboats, powered by 20-30 horsepower outboard motors, glide along the glass-smooth river to the interior at Ulu Temburong, Brunei's first national park.

If the water is shallow, the longboat's flat bottom scrapes the sandy and gravel-strewn river floor. Male passengers have to alight and push the vessel to the deeper part of the crystal-clear river.

Thick, green and undisturbed foliage grow robustly on both sides of the riverbanks. The man-made structures along the way are the Outward Bound Operations Centre, the National Forestry Park buildings, and the Brunei Darussalam Field Studies Centre near Kuala Belalong, where Brunei's lowland tropical forest is studied. A helipad and a concrete bridge are being constructed across the river at the end of the water journey and where the climb to the canopy walk above the trees tops starts.

Kindergarten teachers Ruvie T Lamberte and Lea V Tungala and Joyce, a beader and Alive supporter, and nurse Luisa Balgos make sure Team Philippines feel at home in Beth's Bangar residence, during the upriver river journey across 25 rapids, up the mountain and over the treetops.

From the Temburong riverbank starts the 385-metre wooden canopy walkway that leads to the foot of a 250-metre high aluminium canopy walkway. The ascent is higher than the 110-story Empire State Building in New York, once the tallest building in the world, at 381 metres.

Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin
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