Brunei - A good retirement avenue (1)
Friday, March 4th, 2005 | 1:01 am @ SK
Since everything is in pending mode, there’s nothing much that I can really do here. After updated my entry for the day, I decided to take a nap.
It wasn’t long enough when my colleague waked me up on phone as our local partner was on his way to bring us to visit our new accomodation venue for the next trip.
He brought us to Gadong, one of the small town here, which is quite happening during night time. We proceeded to a service apartment here, forgot what’s the exact name though. It’s quite big with 3 rooms, B$1000 per month. Anyway, we decided not to give it a call as my colleague and I felt that it’s smelly and awful.
After been looking around for a while, we came to Grand City Hotel. Coincidentally, I was on phone during that time, so didn’t have a chance to look around. Anyhow, according to them, it’s very clean and the price is quite reasonable as well, only at B$61 per night (published rate). However, since our partner is under tight budget, they might to have a work around on this. I hope this’ll be fine, since it’s Wi-Fi connected as well, convenience enough for me to online and of course, to update my blog!
It was almost 8pm when we reached the RMS Portview Seafood Restaurant at the Bandar Seri Begawan. This was my first time in the city since I landed at Brunei. We were very lucky as our partner’s boss specially requested the Italian chef to stay back and cooked some delicacies for us. We had pasta, pizzas, freshly catched seafood, it was so great! Wines and whisky are being served too.
A floating village is just opposite the restaurant which is called Kampung Ayer. Accordingly, that’s the initial settlement of Bruneian until Al-Marhum Sultan Haji Omar Ali Saifuddien, who is the late father of His Majesty Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah developed the then called Brunei Town. His illustriousness made him fondly remembered as the Architect of Modern Brunei. There were boat services across the river, to serve the locals who work across the mainland. I manage to talk to a few locals there and grabbed some info about the service. I had been told that tourist can take a boat ride around the floating village for B$10. But what attracted me the most is, boats to Limbang and Labuan are available too! Wow, seems like there are so many places for me to visit, must plan well then.
On the way back, we passed through Yayasan Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Foundation Complex, used to be one of the hotspot for shopping. The rental is so expensive until most vendors move to Gadong, which is another latest hotspot. Then we came to Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque. It’s so grand, so elegant, all kind of words that you can actually think of. What a waste that I don’t have any camera with me. Next, the Istana Nurul Imam, the Sultan’s official residence and seat of government, said to be the world’s largest residential palace! I was left speechless, just by looking into the entrance, ONLY! Security is so strict there, just wondering how would I turn out to be if I just simply take a snapshot. :-|
In fact, I already seriously shortlist Brunei as one of my retirement avenue. Reason wise is very simple as I’m so sure that I can achieve and enjoy that kind of quality of life here, which is a totally impossible priviledge in KL. Well, let me do some drafts first, then I’ll share more about the social-economic wise of staying in Brunei in my coming days.
I’m back to KL tomorrow, for weekend. But for sure, I’ll be back again very soon, probably next Wednesday.
Probably missing of Brunei later? Maybe ….