So, Brunei.

Got here via two boats and a couple of passport stamping places. There were two Canadian girls and a German guy on the boat so we stuck together to get a taxi from the ferry terminal to the hostel in Bandar Seri Begawan. We headed out to an awesome Indian place to get some dinner - my new favourite dish is chicken roti! Next we headed to the mosque to see it all lit up at night. It looks really impressive and I have some pretty good photos with the sun setting near the mosque.

Yesterday morning we went back to the Indian place for more roti for breakfast, then we went to the market to get some fruit. I love the markets here- they have so many amazing types of fruit. They will also prepare the fruit for you so we got a couple of pineapples all pealed and ready to eat. Then we headed to a nearby park with a waterfall in it. We sat to feast on our fruit and saw monkeys in the trees nearby!!

We then headed to a food court recommended by a local guy Abdul. He's kinda like a tour guide here except he isn't trying to rip anyone off. He is an amazing source of information. He also got his friend who works in the place where the food court is to take us up to the 18th floor of the building for some cool views over BSB.

Abdul also organised a boat tour for only B$20 per person - compared to the tour agencies who charge $60 this is a pretty good deal! We saw the mosques and water village then sailed down the river some way to a place where the probiscus monkeys can be found! We spent a bit of time there watching the monkeys before heading back and sailing through the water village. It is pretty much an entire community on stilts - there are schools and mosques, and even a fire station all on stilts over the river. The government are maintaining it rather than trying to pull it down which makes a nice change to finding places like this in disputes with local governments who want to get rid of such places. We spent nearly 3 hours on the river and saw so much for the bargain price of $20 - if ever you come to BSB seek out Abdul at the youth hostel to arrange a boat tour rather than paying three times the price at a tour agency for a third of the time spent on the river.

This morning the German guy left but me and the Canadians went and had a relatively Western breakfast before heading out to another park at the edge of the city. This one had a hellish climb up seemingly endless stairs to the top where there was then a path around the summit, including a couple of rope bridges. It was a pretty nice place, but it was so hot and humid that it was really hard work. By the time we finished we were absolutely soaked in sweat - places we didn't even know you could sweat from were dripping! A cold shower never felt so good!

This afternoon we are going to check out the mosque and then escape the heat in a shopping centre. Unlike KK, there is no sea breeze here to cool you down so the heat and humidity is such a killer.b