Unexpected City Tour in 15 minutes

Upon leaving the hotel for my flight back to KK, I was joined by the other 2 hotel guests that requested to be dropped off to Muzium Brunei. It was located on the opposite direction of the city and off-road to the airport, at first I’m afraid that I maybe late on my flight, but it turned out to be a good journey. During this few minutes on the road, I suddenly had an unplanned city tour. I’m able to have a quick chat with the driver, and what I learned from this?

• The only product of Brunei is oil.
• The long structures on Kampung Ayer are schools. Each water village has it’s own school.
• Across the Chinese Temple, walk a little further and you will see the day market.
• When you go further the Museum, you will see another day market and behind it is a Catholic Church.
• The Parliament Building is painted with white and has a blue dome - looks like another mosque.
• Nearby the Parliament Building is the Finance Building, so far the highest normal building (not mosque) in Brunei.

Leaving Brunei

Upon reaching the Departure Area, read on the Flight Status display. Find which code (there is only A or B as your choice) is you flight. If you believe that it is your time to do the check-in but your destination is not yet displayed in counter, ask the desk officer and they will let you check-in and give you the proper boarding pass. Prepare 5BND for the Brunei travel tax. After the Immigration, this is the first airport I have seen to be using Machine Readable passport (too bad, mine is only the maroon biometric passport). If you still have spare time, roam around the airport - there are restaurants, coffee shop and souvenir shops.

There are also television sets attached on the walls for entertainment. There are only 8 gates in the departure area, where gates 6-8 are on a separate area, so be careful to proceed further until you see the actual Gate 8 (Air Asia AK6213). This is my first flight with Air Asia, for those who are traveling, if you have a hand-carry baggage then be sure to follow the allowed size and weight. Upon boarding, you will be directed to place your bag/luggage to the weighing scale - it be fitted in the container and weighing equal or less than the designated weight.

To the travelers, please bring enough money if you believe you will have excess baggage or better yet, just travel light and buy things that is just enough to fit your hand carry bag.

My flight back to KK was delayed for almost an hour, but all is well.

Thank you to the driver who have been helpful in my hotel-airport transfer, the Jubilee front-desk attendees, Filipinos in the Thai Restaurant and Souvenir shop in Yayasan Complex.

As my new “thing to do” while traveling, while I make an opportunity for myself to see a foreign place, I’ll try to carry Philippines with me for them to see it too. Below is the first Philippine postcard I left in a hotel where I stayed - as a token of my appreciation to the room keeper who makes my stay comfortable.