My goal was to fly from Kupang in Indonesia all the way to Brunei. I was taking my first flight to Jakarta, at least this is what I was expecting. Instead of flying to Jakarta with a direct flight, I had a transit in Surabaya.
Surabaya airport
Now I was sitting in Surabaya being annoyed, because of booking a direct flight but having to transit in a not that nice airport. I had to get out of the airport and check myself in again, because they were changing the method of flight. Due to that I had to get myself a new boarding pass. It was all quite unnecessary, but nothing to do about it. Everything was quite annoying. In Jakarta I wanted to meet up with people from Couchsurfing because of my long layover over there. This wasn’t an option anymore.
The airport had a bad signal, so I was using my mobile data, which I luckily had by now, not like after getting ripped off at the same airport I was in at that moment. Of course this made my mood not much better, when having that in mind.
The airport in Surabaya was making super loud announcements which were so loud, I didn’t even understand anything, while trying to make a phone call. Usually even when there are announcements it is possible to have a phone call, but not there.
At least I was able to eat my donuts I bought in Kupang. The time went past somehow and then it was time for.
Jakarta
After arriving here the first thing happened, there were locals who tried to rip me off inside the security region. I had to change the terminal, in order to get my flight to Kuala Lumpur airport. They said, the only option is to take a taxi there, which would cost me “just” $10, for few kilometers. They took me to the side and it felt super official which for sure would lead many people to pay the money. For me it already felt like a scam, because why should there not be any public transportation, when it is a terminal transfer?
I just risked it and left them, which was a good choice. In Jakarta airport, there is a train which goes from one Terminal to another and is free. You just need to get out of the airport and walk a bit, there are people who will guide you the way.
It felt really bad and also I felt just bad for the people you would fall for.
After being in the other terminal, I found myself a quite comfortable seat and was relaxing there a bit for the few hours I still had in front of me. It was already slowly getting dark.
Kuala Lumpur airport
After arriving in Malaysia, it was actually quite nice, the first airport on this day. There were not many people due to it being night. I found myself a comfortable seat and was able to sleep for a few hours. I slept around four hours or so.
My gate was changed, but still easy to reach. I had just one flight to go, while being really exhausted. Also you should read the article about the Kuala Lumpur Airport for which I was doing a review.
I was getting into a section, where no European looking person was anymore. This was the moment where I realized that I chose the right destination! Surprisingly enough the person before me at the boarding was actually from Germany, so we started talking. She was doing a big trip inside Southeast Asia, while her boyfriend was living in that region too and worked for a German company. She flew just to Brunei, due to it being the cheapest flight to Borneo island, which was the most interesting thing I heard. For me it would have been cheaper to fly to Malaysia on Borneo island and take transportation over to Brunei, I just didn’t have much time.
Arriving in Brunei
After arriving and getting checked less than expected, it was time to get a sim card and the cheap time was over, it was actually quite pricey, when comparing it to Indonesia. I received the internet right away and at least I didn’t get scammed. It felt good already. The best thing was, I was able to use my money from Singapore, because both currencies are equal to each other, even though the bills look differently.
I was with the German girl waiting for a bus, actually it took forever to come, because the locals don’t really use public transportation and honestly I could have waited forever. Luckily I was just randomly asking some guy, who was from Pakistan, if he could drop me to the town, sadly they didn’t have space for the German girl as well. Also we had to drive in different directions. Basically that was hitchhiking as well.
He was super nice and friendly. I was also happy that I was visiting his country back then and we shared some good talks with each other. We were exchanging phone numbers and also I exchanged phone numbers with the girl.
Booking a guesthouse
I felt surprised as well, but I wasn’t staying with a local, was actually booking a room, to relax and also because I wasn’t finding anyone.
I had my own room there and I thought it would be a chill trip. Once I was entering the guesthouse, I started talking with a couple from the USA and a guy from Germany. I got myself right into the next session of exploring, which I wasn’t planning to. In the end it was probably good that I met them, because otherwise what would I have seen in the country?
Sometimes I need someone who gets me hyped and motivated, which is not that hard to be fair, I am sometimes just lazy and want to relax more.
Exploring of Brunei
We went out, booked a shared ride and went to Masjid Omar Ali Saifuddien. which is a royal mosque in the center of the capital Bandar Seri Begawan. There we also met the German girl again, who I invited. We went inside the mosque and it was beautiful. Everything was so clean, it was hot and almost no tourists were in sight. Amazing.
For me something like this is always something I fully enjoy. Not many tourists, clean surroundings and nice things to see. Usually it’s nothing which you can find in combination.
We went to eat something in some actual local place, there were no foreigners and it was on a side street. The food was tasty, but I was careful with the spicy level over there. Everything looked spicy, but I survived. It was cool to kind of explore in a little group, we were five people.
It was after getting some energy time for doing more sightseeing. We went to the village on the water, before that I was getting myself sunglasses, where I negotiated the price. Sunglasses are the only things, besides keys, which I lose super quickly, at least the keys are always appearing somehow after a while.
We got for one Brunei $ per person a ride to the village. The boat ride was short, but there was no way of getting there easily and cheaper, instead of walking a long way around, which would have been a disaster in the heat.
Floating village
There was quite a lot destroyed, it didn’t look super safe walking along there, but somehow it was still okay for many to live in. Some houses were completely destroyed and it was possible to look into them!
We were seeing some locals living daily life, it was weird to see, because Brunei looked so far like a really clean and rich country. What I heard from locals was, that mainly the royal family is super rich, the country itself isn’t. Still there are many people with money, but there are also poor people.
At the village was also a free entry museum, which was quite interesting, but the best part of it was the AC!
We walked in the direction of a mosque (front picture), which was located in that place, but somehow it was super hard to reach, always getting further away from it. During normal temperature that wouldn’t be a problem but there it was like hell. We negotiated with a local boat driver for the one Brunei $ for visiting the Mosque and going back to the mainland, which was a nice price actually.
The mosque was closed and quite rocked down, but still an interesting looking mosque! We drove back to the mainland and wow, he was fast! I thought often we would hit some bridges, but surprisingly it didn’t, it felt dangerous though. He wanted to get rid of us quickly because he wanted new customers I guess, but there were none.
What is up next?
Next you will read about a visit at the German embassy and also more about Brunei, stay tuned!
