Steve and Cathy's Blog

The day begins with a spectacular sunrise as we approach our next port of call.  This bodes well for our day in the Sultanate of Brunei.

Brunei is, in and of itself, an artificial construct, much as you would describe Law Vegas NV.  Without the power provided by Hoover Dam, how would a city, in the middle of a desert, blazing with lights, exist?  In the same way, Brunei exists as a modern, prosperous kingdom because Royal Dutch Shell convinced the Sultan of Brunei that he’d be better off staying independent, and the subsequent petroleum revenues have made him one of the world’s wealthiest individuals and his subjects the beneficiaries of that wealth.

We only had twelve hours to spend here, so Cathy and Steve chose the eight-hour Temburong Cultural Experience as today’s excursion, and it indeed was an experience.  We will get to that particular tour in a few paragraphs, but you cannot discuss a visit to Brunei without introducing this unique country of 2,226 square miles (in other words, less than half the size of Connecticut).  The quickest and most organized way to present the information necessary to begin to understand Brunei is for me is to once again borrow some of the Wikipedia entry. Here goes:

“Brunei(/bruːˈnaɪ/ broo-NYE), officially the Nation of Brunei, the Abode of Peaceis a sovereign statelocated on the north coast of the island of Borneoin Southeast Asia. Apart from its coastline with the South China Sea, the country is completely surrounded by the Malaysianstateof Sarawak. It is separated into two parts by the Sarawak district of Limbang. Brunei is the only sovereign state completely on the island of Borneo; the remainder of the island’s territory is divided between the nations of Malaysia and Indonesia. Brunei’s population was 423,196 in 2016.

“At the peak of the Bruneian Empire,Sultan Bolkiah(reigned 1485–1528) is alleged to have had control over most regions of Borneo, including modern-day Sarawak and Sabah, as well as the Sulu Archipelagooff the northeast tip of Borneo, Seludong(modern-day Manila), and the islands off the northwest tip of Borneo. The maritime statewas visited by Spain’s Magellan Expeditionin 1521 and fought against Spain in the 1578 Castilian War.

“During the 19th century, the Bruneian Empire began to decline. The Sultanate ceded Sarawak (Kuching) to James Brookeand installed him as the White Rajah, and it ceded Sabah to the British North Borneo Chartered Company. In 1888, Brunei became a British protectorateand was assigned a British residentas colonial manager in 1906. After the Japanese occupation during World War II, in 1959 a new constitution was written. In 1962, a small armed rebellionagainst the monarchy was ended with the help of the British.

“Brunei gained its independence from the United Kingdom on 1 January 1984. Economic growth during the 1990s and 2000s, with the GDP increasing 56% from1999 to 2008, transformed Brunei into an industrialised country. It has developed wealth from extensive petroleum and natural gas fields. Brunei has the second-highest Human Development Indexamong the Southeast Asiannations, after Singapore, and is classified as a “developed country“. According the IMF, Brunei is ranked fifth in the world by gross domestic product per capita at purchasing power parity. The IMF estimated in 2011 that Brunei was one of two countries (the other being Libya) with a public debt at 0% of the national GDP. Forbesalso ranks Brunei as the fifth-richest nation out of 182, based on its petroleum and natural gas fields.”

The country is ruled by Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, who is 71.  This Wikipedia excerpt is necessary for anyone to understand him and his kingdom: “Hassanal Bolkiah, GCB GCMG (full name: Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Mu’izzaddin Waddaulah ibn Al-Marhum Sultan Haji Omar Ali Saifuddien Sa’adul Khairi Waddien Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam; born 15 July 1946) is the 29th and current Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei. He is also the first and incumbent Prime Minister of Brunei. The eldest son of Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddien III and Raja Isteri(Queen) Pengiran Anak Damit, he succeeded to the throne as the Sultan of Brunei, following the abdication of his father on 5 October 1967. Sultan Hassanal was also known as the Chairman of ASEAN in 2001 and 2013 due to the hosting of the ASEAN summits to those due dates.

“The Sultan has been ranked among the wealthiest individuals in the world; Forbes estimated the Sultan’s total peak net worth at US$20 billion in 2008. Following the death of Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej in 2016, the Sultan is the wealthiest monarch in the world.”

Just a few more words that help to understand his rule: “Under Brunei’s 1959 constitution, the Sultan is the head of state with full executive authority, including emergency powers since 1962. On 9 March 2006, the Sultan was reported to have amended Brunei’s constitution to make himself infallible under Bruneian law. Bolkiah, as Prime Minister, is also the head of government. In addition, he holds the portfolios both of Minister of Defense and Minister of Finance. As Minister of Defense he is therefore the Supreme Commander of the Royal Brunei Armed Forces, as well as an Honorary General in the British and Indonesian armed forces and an Honorary Admiral of the Fleet in the Royal Navy. He appointed himself as Inspector General of Police (IGP) of the Royal Brunei Police Force.”

On to the tour.  We board our bus – our first bus, we should say – and meet our guide Elvie.  That is no doubt his “guide” name and he explains that he is “local Chinese.”  72% of the population is Malaysian Muslim, 10% are Chinese and 18% are the indigenous peoples.  As always, he provides many tidbits of information as we travel, which I will write up in bullet point form.

First, he describes the excursion.  We are going to the Temburong District, one of four districts in Brunei. The oil revenue allows the government to eschew normal development, unlike the rest of the island of Borneo.  While more and more of Borneo is being converted to agricultural purposes, especially to produce palm oil, Brunei has been able to retain 96% of Temburong as forest.  In fact 72% of the entire country is forested, which Elvie tells us gives Brunei exceptionally good air full of oxygen!

He also talks to us about the Sultan Bolkiah with great admiration and affection.  Here are some of his remarks:

• The man has been ruler since 1967 and is 71 years old.
• He has been married three times. The first woman he married bore him six children, one of whom is the heir apparent.  She is still considered the queen of the country as they are still married.  As required, she was a member of the royal family, of which there are 4,000 members.
• Wife #2 was a flight attendant for the country’s national airline. They divorced in 2003.  She gave birth to four children.
• Wife #3 was married to the sultan in 2005 when she was 33. They had two children together, a son who’s 12 and a daughter who is 9.  They were divorced in 2010.  She was previously a Malaysian news anchor.
• Sultan Bolkiah, besides being the ruler of the country, is also 1) the Prime Minister, 2) the Minister of Defense, 3) the Finance Minister and 4) the General of the Army. As a military man, he is trained to drive a tank and pilot his own helicopter and plane. In fact, he is qualified to fly a Boeing 767, one of which is his personal airplane.
• His palace contains 1,788 rooms and is over 2 million square feet in floor area.
• Among his possessions are 300,000 automobiles. No, that is not a typo.  Three hundred thousand automobiles.

Naturally the subject that people want to next know about is about benefits that citizens of Brunei enjoy.  They are considerable, the three most impressive being:

• No income tax.
• Virtually free medical care, with free care continuing even if it is necessary to send the patient to Hong Kong or Singapore for whatever treatment is required.
• Free education, which includes the four universities in Brunei and, if you pass a specific test, free education at a college of the country.There are certain requirements to qualify.

As for citizenship, it is very restricted.  In fact, there are over 150,000 foreign workers in Brunei, mostly from India, the Philippines, Thailand and Laos.  They can never become citizens.  However, women who marry citizens may share in her husband’s benefits, and the children of that marriage become citizens.

Okay, those are the subjects that Elvie covers during our one hour bus ride to the Water Village (more on that later), where we are to board a speedboat for a 45-minute trip through the rainforest to the village of Bangar-Temburong, at which point we board a bus to anothervillage where we board small boats and travel upriver to a half-mile long stream bed that we traverse to a waterfall.  Got that?  Okay, here we go.

We arrive at the jetty and board a speedboat that holds around twenty people and is powered by two 200-horsepower Yamaha outboard engines.

These boats can move, and we spend the forty-five minutes racing through the rivers with mangrove and palm forests lining the banks.  It is a great ride and an absolutely beautiful day: here are just a few of the scenes we see:

We arrive at Bangar to a reception center, hit the Happy Room, and then board 16-passenger buses for a 20-minute trip farther into the interior. At the end of that trip, we are at a nice little place where we will eventually return and have lunch.

But first, we must don life vests and water shoes (Steve and Cathy opt to keep their sneakers on.  A good move, this turns out) and be given a quick safety talk.  Then we all board the shallow, narrow Iban long boats.  Each boat holds five people, all in a line sitting on wooden slats with a narrow wooden backrest.  These boats are powered by 30-hp outboard engines, and are expertly piloted by young men from the indigenous peoples of the district.

We are now headed upriver on the Temburong River, a river that is, in most places, probably 100-200 feet wide and only a few feet deep. It flows at a pretty good clip, and so our journey upriver is probably at five to eight miles per hour against the current.  There is a lot of maneuvering for the pilot to do to avoid shallow areas, rocks and shore vegetation hanging over the water.

In about forty minutes, we arrive at the mouth of the stream we will walk through for half a mile to reach the waterfall.  This part of the trip was not in the tour description, mind you.  And our guides explain that this was supposed to be a dry stream bed, but it rained yesterday and so we are to walk up this flowing stream bed on nothing but round, slippery rocks which we can no longer see because the water is full of runoff from the banks.

Please picture this: we are a group of about fifty people from the cruise ship Insignia, fifty people whose average age is probably seventy.  And we will rock-hop through this stream for half a mile.  I must say: as much as Cathy and I sometimes tire of our fellow guests on board Insignia complaining too much about the slightest things, this group is a bunch of troupers.  Everyone is very careful, and everyone – well, almost everyone – sucks it up and makes the best of it.

Thank God for the boat pilots.  These young guys are so helpful and so polite, and provide a great deal of help to us as we put one foot in front of the other trying to find footing.  They actually put their arms around some guests at certain points to make sure they don’t fall.

After a half hour or so, we arrive at The Waterfall.  The guides have warned us that this waterfall is nothing to marvel at, and they are dead on.  It is very nice, all 35 feet of it.  But it was our objective, and so we stand around admiring it.  We are in a very beautiful spot with rainforest all around and sunshine coming in through the trees.

We all stand around (the group is very spread out, so there are about 20-25 of us at any one time at the foot of the falls) and take photos. No doubt there are a few people thinking “Shit, I hope I don’t get hurt on the way back to the boat” and a few others that are thinking “I’m going to kill my spouse for talking me into this!”  But for the most part, we take on the challenge and meet that challenge. No, this ain’t the Zambezi we are fording, but it’s a lot more than we expected.  We wade back into the stream and follow it back to the river, clamber back into a longboat, and start downstream.

The downstream trip is a breeze.  As mentioned, this river runs pretty swiftly, and we make it back to the pavilion where we will have lunch in about fifteen minutes.  It’s a very fun ride.

Now here is how Cathy saw this part of our trip: [The boat rides were really fun. Especially the smaller boat because it was very peaceful and beautiful. Think Bogey and Hepburn in “African Queen.” Then we see the boats ahead of us stopping at the bank and the people getting out IN THE WATER ! AND WALKING UP A STREAM ! that is pouring out of the jungle. And there’s no choice because the boats drop you off and then leave! The stream is rushing over many slippery rocks and is knee deep in places. There was NOTHING in the tour description about this. All I could think was “leeches!” but then I remembered they are in still water and this was rushing. So we slip and slide for what seems like forever until we get to this wimpy waterfall. I stopped just in sight of it when I saw two people slip on the rocks and fall on their keisters. So then we get to go back. What an effing nightmare. But the guides were great and so were the others in the group (which is very unusual) so I just did my best and didn’t fall or break anything. Then we got back on the little boats and had a quick ride back since we were now going downstream. Lunch was the same thing as yesterday: gristly beef, bony chicken, rice and undercooked cabbage. I guess that’s what they eat in Borneo. The bananas were yummy: little sweet ripe ones. We had a nice chat with a couple from Minnesota, it started raining, the buses came, we rode back to the next place, got on bigger boats, rode back to the next place, got on bigger buses, stop at two mosques (I stayed on the bus), then back to the ship thank god. Interesting day. But Borneo is indeed beautiful and we did not see any headhunters…!]

At the lunch location, the staff members help us stagger out of the boats and up the hill where we shed our life vests and water shoes. In another five minutes, we sit down to lunch.  Cathy described it above as she saw it, but Steve enjoys his, maybe because he is ravenous after all this exercise.

Our guides explain that there will be a half hour delay before the buses arrive to take us back to Bangar and the other boat.  Apparently, today is a school day and these buses double as school buses, which is throwing their schedule off.  Cathy and Steve find a table to sit at and are joined by Judy and Al from Minnesota, two people with whom we have an instant friendship.

Just before we board our bus, it begins to rain.  Our timing couldn’t be better.  It rains pretty heavily for the entire trip, and stops just before we arrive at the tourism center in Bangar.  It’s a few minutes before we are able to board our speedboat, and then it is off we go for another fun ride.

The weather has cleared up, and when our ride is over, it’s back on the bus for the trip back to the ship.  We sort of drive through the capital city but the place looks empty. Everyone is at work or school. Our guide Elvie explains that there is not really any public transportation in Brunei as almost everyone can afford a car.  Hence there is traffic, just not a lot of people alongside the roads.

We make two photo stops to view two magnificent, enormous mosques.  We are not allowed in, but we do get to take pictures from outside.

Elvie provides us with a bit more information:

• Sultan Bolkiah must pass down the crown while he is alive. This is a commonsense requirement to fill the void of the missing ruler and prevent civil war among the brothers.
• Sultan Bolkiah therefore crowned his eldest son Prince in 1998.
• As Shell Oil is the sole company extracting petroleum from Brunei, there is a long-standing agreement that the revenues shall be split with 51% going to Brunei and 49% going to Shell.
• However, a deal has recently been signed with a Chinese oil company, who has agreed to invest $80 billion in a new refinery in the country. Supposedly 20,000 people will be hired.  The revenue split will be 70% Brunei/30% China.  This will happen in 2022. [Talk about an offer you can’t refuse!]
• Defense of Brunei is provided by Great Britain. Of course Brunei has an army and navy, but the real protection comes from the Brits.  There is a 1,500-person garrison in Brunei.  (As we are proofreading this post, Cathy asks the intelligent question: If Shell – a British/Dutch company – is replaced with a Chinese oil company, will the Brits still provide the country’s defense?   Good question.  Not sure that the sultan will want the Chinese military as his primary means of defense.  Talk about the fox guarding the henhouse!)
• There is a parliament in Brunei, but the sultan chooses all the members! One of the requirements to be chosen is that the person be retired from his full time job.  The parliament building is the building shown at the beginning of this post.
• We do see a fair amount of litter, and someone impertinently asks why.Our guide is prepared for anything. He says there are two factors: 1) there are a lot of older people and they weren’t taught not to litter and 2) many Malaysians keep cats, who roam around at night breaking into the plastic garbage bags left out for collection.
• A question is asked about the water village we saw when we got off bus one to board the speedboat. Elvie says that 60,000 people used to live in these houses on stilts, but they are losing popularity among the young people of Brunei, so the population is down to 18,000 people living here.  He adds that this is most certainly by choice.  Most of the people in this village are rich.  In fact, for many of them, this is a second home.

We are back to the port of Muara and climb the gangway on to Insignia around 4:00pm.  We have learned so much about Brunei the country and Temburong the district.  We have had much more of an adventure than we envisioned eight hours ago.  Cathy and Steve are glad to have gone and equally glad to be back “home.”

Around 6:00pm, it begins to rain … no, better said, it begins pouring.  We go to dinner in the Grand Dining Room around 6:30, and the rain is sheeting off of the windows on the starboard side of the ship.  We are due to sail at 8:00pm, and we pity the poor longshoremen that will have to work in this continuing downpour.

Around 7:30pm, Cruise Director Ray comes on the PA system with an announcement.  There is “an electrical problem in the starboard propulsion system.”  In other words, the ship won’t start!  The problem is being attended to and therefore we will be delayed in our departure until 8:00am tomorrow morning. This will not  effect our arrival in Kuching, however, because we will make up at the time during tomorrow’s Sea Day.

An interesting end to an interesting day.  The ship’s electrical engineer had a bit more than he bargained for today.  Then again, so did Cathy and Steve.  But all has ended well for us and will for Insignia.