Brunei, a secret gem
Well, the fact that this post is taking place while resting in the Brunei airport, much could happen in my near future to push me to amend this posting. But so far, the travel experience has been one to remember! Brunei, I recently discovered is a small country on the northern coast of the Island of Borneo. Apparently, a very wealthy nation, rooted in oil. Well, this was to simply be our layover point for our trip from Sydney to Bali, where we are heading to spend some QT with my cousin Matt Bergdahl.
Our itinerary showed us Royal Brunei Airlines and a 5+ hour layover before we would be heading to the island paradise of Bali. When first booked, our faces showed a touch of angst and anxiety. 5 hours?!? In an airport?!? In an unfamiliar place?! In a Muslim country!?!? To say butterflies were fluttering as we ate breakfast this morning would be a bit of an understatement. We were serious when we spoke about Stacy covering up, wearing black (well, that's about the only color she has in her bag anyways) and trying to be low key - who knows what's in store!? But, in good Bergdahl Traveler faith we affirmed smooth sailing (well, flying really) and felt confident that the gale force breezes that have been blowing us around thus far for the past 99 days wouldn't fail us now.
Affirmation #1 was to hope that we would not need proof of an onward ticket out of Bali. As we have discovered when you travel into a foreign country, you must show documentation that you are planning to leave that country. Well, we had heard differing opinions about this fact from fellow travelers and even a travel agent in Sydney! And, we were not sure how long we would want to stay in Bali or where we'd go afterwards. So, the Bergdahls decided to chance it w/o ticket. We had our tickets for Sydney to Brunei to Bali but that was it. We'd researched options to Kuala Lumpur and then to Bankok, thanks to Mattie's help, but hadn't booked. Affirm, Affirm. Well, that hope last until about minute 2 at the check-in counter, when the kind fellow, Aldo quite graciously informed us we'd need this onward ticket. Damn! OK, what can we do? We had figured this to be a potential snag and figured we could always book the flight on-line in the terminal somewhere, no biggie. Unfortunately, there were no printers connected to these computer kiosks and paper documentation was needed (wouldn't you think we'd be beyond paper in this day and age? I guess not). Crap.
Lucky for us, we had Super Aldo, the Royal Brunei Man of Steel on our side and equally lucky for us there were 0.0 people in line behind us. Aldo said we could book the flight to Kuala Lumpur and have the itinerary emailed to, get this, HIS personal email. He'd run upstairs to their offices, print them out and we would be good to go. I'm sure the incredulous expressions on our faces spoke volumes to our dismay and appreciation. Sure enough, after finally getting a computer, booking and seeing Aldo run off to save the day our Brunei experience would start to be molded into what it is now. As we waited, 3 other interested and cordial agents chatted with us, asked about our adventures thus far, told us about future immigration sites to explore and one of the ladies even gave Stacy info on a dive spot in Bali! We also learned that since we had a 5 hour layover, we were entitled to a complimentary 2 hour site seeing shuttle trip around Bandar, the capital of the tiny country - we'd be taken to Mosques and to a market. These people were amazing. We felt taken care of and at peace, despite the anxiety that often comes with foreign travel and airport snafus, we were fine. And then, as if he leaped the stairs in a single bound, Super Aldo appeared with white paper in hand. Yippee!! We were official. And, unfortunately, unless we wanted to sacrifice the $170US, we'd be leaving Matt and heading to Malaysia on June 12th. I guess now we have that figured out. We were checked in and Aldo escorted us though customs and to the security check point. I felt like a hug was in order, but no, a handshake would have to do. We scrambled around a bit through duty free, looked for Stacy's momentarily lost wallet and jumped in line to board and got to throw a couple more smiles at, you guessed it, Super Aldo as he checked our tickets and let us board. He's everywhere!
Those butterflies from earlier where still around despite our coddling at check in. We still were heading to a Muslim country and from the books Stacy and I just finished last night, A Thousand Splendid Suns and Infidel, respectively, we thought to pack them away rather than read them on board may be the prudent way to go. Probably a stupid worry, but we were newbies in this region and played it conservatively. The crew on board our flight from Sydney was equally impressive as that on the ground. Beverage service at every turn, ear to ear smiles, delicious food, warm towels - again, WOW! The flight was a bit rocky at times, quite actually, but we caught 2 movies, ate like sultans and had a most memorable Brunei experience thus far. We eventually landed early after 7+ hours in the air and were told about the shuttle and what we should do in the meanwhile. Everyone we spoke with was all smiles and so nice.
If you'd asked me a month ago where Brunei was located and would I want to go, I'd say the Middle East? and no! But ask me now and I know its on an isle in SE Asia and even if all I got was a flight on Royal Brunei Air and 5 hours in a\the airport, I'd be all for it!
Shuttle leaves in 30 minutes. Hope the big wheels keep on movin for us!
Our itinerary showed us Royal Brunei Airlines and a 5+ hour layover before we would be heading to the island paradise of Bali. When first booked, our faces showed a touch of angst and anxiety. 5 hours?!? In an airport?!? In an unfamiliar place?! In a Muslim country!?!? To say butterflies were fluttering as we ate breakfast this morning would be a bit of an understatement. We were serious when we spoke about Stacy covering up, wearing black (well, that's about the only color she has in her bag anyways) and trying to be low key - who knows what's in store!? But, in good Bergdahl Traveler faith we affirmed smooth sailing (well, flying really) and felt confident that the gale force breezes that have been blowing us around thus far for the past 99 days wouldn't fail us now.
Affirmation #1 was to hope that we would not need proof of an onward ticket out of Bali. As we have discovered when you travel into a foreign country, you must show documentation that you are planning to leave that country. Well, we had heard differing opinions about this fact from fellow travelers and even a travel agent in Sydney! And, we were not sure how long we would want to stay in Bali or where we'd go afterwards. So, the Bergdahls decided to chance it w/o ticket. We had our tickets for Sydney to Brunei to Bali but that was it. We'd researched options to Kuala Lumpur and then to Bankok, thanks to Mattie's help, but hadn't booked. Affirm, Affirm. Well, that hope last until about minute 2 at the check-in counter, when the kind fellow, Aldo quite graciously informed us we'd need this onward ticket. Damn! OK, what can we do? We had figured this to be a potential snag and figured we could always book the flight on-line in the terminal somewhere, no biggie. Unfortunately, there were no printers connected to these computer kiosks and paper documentation was needed (wouldn't you think we'd be beyond paper in this day and age? I guess not). Crap.
Lucky for us, we had Super Aldo, the Royal Brunei Man of Steel on our side and equally lucky for us there were 0.0 people in line behind us. Aldo said we could book the flight to Kuala Lumpur and have the itinerary emailed to, get this, HIS personal email. He'd run upstairs to their offices, print them out and we would be good to go. I'm sure the incredulous expressions on our faces spoke volumes to our dismay and appreciation. Sure enough, after finally getting a computer, booking and seeing Aldo run off to save the day our Brunei experience would start to be molded into what it is now. As we waited, 3 other interested and cordial agents chatted with us, asked about our adventures thus far, told us about future immigration sites to explore and one of the ladies even gave Stacy info on a dive spot in Bali! We also learned that since we had a 5 hour layover, we were entitled to a complimentary 2 hour site seeing shuttle trip around Bandar, the capital of the tiny country - we'd be taken to Mosques and to a market. These people were amazing. We felt taken care of and at peace, despite the anxiety that often comes with foreign travel and airport snafus, we were fine. And then, as if he leaped the stairs in a single bound, Super Aldo appeared with white paper in hand. Yippee!! We were official. And, unfortunately, unless we wanted to sacrifice the $170US, we'd be leaving Matt and heading to Malaysia on June 12th. I guess now we have that figured out. We were checked in and Aldo escorted us though customs and to the security check point. I felt like a hug was in order, but no, a handshake would have to do. We scrambled around a bit through duty free, looked for Stacy's momentarily lost wallet and jumped in line to board and got to throw a couple more smiles at, you guessed it, Super Aldo as he checked our tickets and let us board. He's everywhere!
Those butterflies from earlier where still around despite our coddling at check in. We still were heading to a Muslim country and from the books Stacy and I just finished last night, A Thousand Splendid Suns and Infidel, respectively, we thought to pack them away rather than read them on board may be the prudent way to go. Probably a stupid worry, but we were newbies in this region and played it conservatively. The crew on board our flight from Sydney was equally impressive as that on the ground. Beverage service at every turn, ear to ear smiles, delicious food, warm towels - again, WOW! The flight was a bit rocky at times, quite actually, but we caught 2 movies, ate like sultans and had a most memorable Brunei experience thus far. We eventually landed early after 7+ hours in the air and were told about the shuttle and what we should do in the meanwhile. Everyone we spoke with was all smiles and so nice.
If you'd asked me a month ago where Brunei was located and would I want to go, I'd say the Middle East? and no! But ask me now and I know its on an isle in SE Asia and even if all I got was a flight on Royal Brunei Air and 5 hours in a\the airport, I'd be all for it!
Shuttle leaves in 30 minutes. Hope the big wheels keep on movin for us!
posted by Stacy @TheZenGirl at
3:16 AM
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