Brunei

We took the bus in the morning to Brunei.  They seem to have discontinued local buses to Brunei or they were lying to us.  I can never tell if they lie or are incompetent in Malaysia.  They are doing everything to make it shit or difficult for independent travellers here.  We arrived and checked into the only hotel that was near budget range.  We had wanted to spend 2 nights here, but given the prices we were always going to be limited to only one.  It was budget, but it was the most expensive hotel we had had on our trip, discounting the first one.  People are super nice here.  Really, really nice.  It was a refreshing change from Malaysia (Cameron Highlands excepting).  We visited the mosque with the boat, which is really pretty and then went for a wander along the waterfront and through the floating village.  It is impressive to see the contrast between the floating city and the modernistic other side of the river.  We got on a bus to the Brunei Museum, but they took us to the wrong one and gave us our money back.  How refreshingly nice.  No Malaysian fuck you, why don't you pay double for your mistake attitude.  Malaysians are beginning to join Laotians on my shit list.  We went to both the Royal Regalia Museum and the Borneo Museum.  Neither of them are world beaters, but they are free and pleasantly informative.  We got some nice food and walked to the palace.  You can get around very easily by public bus and they all cost $1 Brunei.  The palace was not worth the walk, but everyone was very helpful with directions. We decided we would leave early the next day to get to Kota Kinibalu in one day, as we had seen most of the things we wanted to see.  We found an internet cafe in the shopping centre and then went to bed early as it was an early start.

We managed to grab a bus at 6.20am to Muara.  It cost us only $1, but then you have to walk at the other end.  They wanted us to jump on a special bus, but we decided to walk and got picked up by the women working at the port.  They gave us a lift to the ferry terminal and sold us a ticket to Labuan for $17 including departure tax.  It was a brief stay in Brunei.  Cannelle does not believe its a real place.  Its pleasant enough, but quite dead with limited atmosphere.  Everyone is very nice though.  On the boat we got a random Chinese movie with the worst subtitles you will ever see.  It made no sense.  Nevermind.  We were back in Malaysia.  Oh the joy.  Sabah for two weeks and then the Philippines.