Last weekend started the Year of the Monkey. I had off
Saturday through Wednesday, and it was my last big holiday from Guangzhou.
So I got out of town. As the only country not a small island
in South, East or SE Asia I hadn’t visited, I aimed for Brunei. It was
tough to finagle as flights are limited, but I swung it!
I wound up having to fly into Miri,
Malaysia and stay there for
a day before taking a bus to Bandar
Seri Begawan. For me, that was just another excuse to
go to Malaysia,
a country that I must love because this was my fifth trip. I had a blast, even
though I really was only there for half a day. Bought some cool stuff for
presents and just enjoyed it.
This trip depended on a lot of travel falling in place, and
wonder of wonders, it did. First, Malaysian Airlines, despite planes dropping
or being shot from the sky, was awesome. The food was even HOT. Then the bus,
which said it “could take up to 17 hours and 33 minutes” took less than five
hours. Once in BSB, it turned out to be a totally walkable area, and then the
flight back to Kuala Lumpur
was on time (the flight actually boarded in 20 minutes) and the 12-hours
layover in the KL airport was just fine. I’d figure at the worst, I’d be home
by 4 p.m. I was home at 2:30. Just a blessed travel trip, for sure.
Anyway, the bus ride was fine. I’d found some internet sites
that said what would happen, so I was prepared with the stopping for the border
and such. I’ve crossed borders by land in buses, so I kind of knew the drill.
We arrived around 8 p.m. and I walked straight to my hotel, which was a really
nice one. They even had a city shuttle, which I took a couple of times.
Oddly, even though I saw taxi queues, I never saw a taxi. I
did have a couple of people stop and ask if I needed a ride. At first, I
thought it was a little weird but realized it was normal.
BSB, at least the inner part of the city, didn’t have a
whole lot, but what they had was fascinating. There is an entire community of
30k on the water – all the houses are on stilts. There were also mosques that
were light up nicely in the evenings.
But I didn’t really find a lot of souvenir-type stuff. There
was a handicraft school but I wasn’t into their particular kind of batik, and I
didn’t see anything, really, that caught my attention. It took awhile to even
find a magnet that I liked.
I always try to find magnets of something that I’ve seen
during my travel to wherever, and BSB really didn’t have a whole lot. I’m glad
I went – it was country No. 47 – but outside of the houses on stilts, it was
kind of ho-hum.
The second morning, I took a walk to what was billed as a
nature walk. BSB is super hot, and about 20 minutes in, I was soaking in sweat.
I’d gotten up early to walk and hadn’t had breakfast, so I figured I’d just
circle back. The “nature trail” wasn’t too impressive, so I left it and went
back down this incredibly steep road that I’d walked up before.
When I got almost to the bottom, something ran across the
street. I thought, “Man, that looked like a monkey!” I figured it had to be a
rat, but I knew its butt had been way higher than a rat’s would. But I was just
off a main road and didn’t think there could possibly be a monkey right there.
And then a much bigger one ran across the road. And then
another. I guess they sent the baby up ahead. I stopped and pulled out my
camera and tried to find them. I realized there really were several more
monkeys all around; I could see the trees moving as they jumped. It was some
sort of 9:30 a.m. monkey crossing, I guess, because I went back twice more that
day but never saw another.
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