In Pursuit of a Bear

“Travel is the gorgeous feeling of teetering in the unknown” Anthony Bourdain. Flying from the conservative kingdom of Brunei into the neighbouring Malaysian state of Sarawak, it’s not likely to be very different, is it? Absolutely wrong. Kuching is full of life and adventure.  To put this into perspective, in 1839, a British adventurer called James Brooke was handed the state as a thank you from the then Sultan of Brunei for helping him put down a small rebellion. James went on to work extensively with the local tribes to rule and stabilise the land. Charles, his nephew continued to expand the territory and unite the locals to live peacefully with each other. Rather than having fiercesome battles, in 1872 Charles introduced a long boat regatta to allow local tribes to challenge each other and decide the champion with less blood shed. The regatta happily coincided with our visit along with an international dragon boat. The traditional long boats have a hornbill head on the bow, the...

 The Sultanate of Brunei is a place that we've all heard of, however who knows exactly where it is on a map - it is in Borneo between the two different Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak. Not easy to access by road, the simplest way is to fly. The Sultan, (whose official name is nearly as long as this blog), is 78 and is the ruler and Prime Minister of Brunei. A wealthy country with lots of lovely oil and gas means that the citizens are well provided for, creating a relaxed and harmonious feel to the country. This is quite helpful as there is no alcohol anywhere and believe me, we triple checked. The Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque was opened in 1958, it welcomes visitors and is quite spectacular. The Taj Mahal was used for inspiration, if anyone was thinking that there's a similarity. The $5 million dollar mosque Nice Lampshades Brunei is not really geared up for foreign tourists, so a week long visit requires attendance at all the attractions. The Regalia Museum has everything ...