BSB AND SURROUNDS


Clockwise from left: rain doesn’t stop the fun, walking BSB; the Royal Regalia Museum; golf at The Empire Hotel and Country Club; Kampong Ayer


that live on the rickety wooden walkways have access to satellite television and you’ll fi nd a mosque, schools and a police station there. “Kampong Ayer is unique to Brunei,” says Kuoni’s Sharon Frame. “Visiting the water village gives you a real insight into Bruneian life. Take a water taxi for a thrilling ride through the waterways and see the boats whiz past each other with just millimetres to spare!” Further upstream from this civilised settlement,


the Brunei River weaves deeper into the jungle and the riverside settlements give way to twisted mangroves, backed by thick wild jungle. A boat trip to spot saltwater crocodiles and the strange- looking endangered proboscis monkey, unique to Borneo, in their natural habitat is a must add-on to a stay in BSB. Paul Deane of TUI commented: “It’s a unique


nature tour because of its proximity to the city. To go from very modern to totally natural surroundings in half an hour is incredible. We saw white egret, gibbons rustling in the tree and proboscis monkeys, which are ginger in colour with distinctive long noses. They can be a challenge to spot but that shows it’s a natural and unforced environment.”


GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY


A QUESTION OF SPORT Around 40 minutes from BSB is the Jerudong Park and Country Club. Here, you can wander amongst an eerie and largely abandoned theme park – the largest and most expensive in South East Asia or peer into the country’s colonial past.


“BSB is really small so you can easily see the key sights in a walking tour – visit the Chinese Temple, the stunning white and gold Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddin Mosque and the bustling waterside Kianggeh market to immerse yourself in a typical Bruneian day.” Andy Rae, STA Travel


Club you can see fi rst- hand what it takes to breed and train the horses as well as taking a ride along the beach yourself.”


Brunei’s coast stretches for miles and its unspoilt sandy beaches are mostly backed by forests.


“Brunei has a rich heritage in polo,” says Andy Rae of STA Travel, “and at the Country


SCUBA DIVING


Margaret Ashton, Advanced BSAC diver from Devon


What made you


decide to dive in Brunei? A previous trip to Borneo gave my husband Steve and I a taste for wreck diving so I searched for Borneo wrecks online and the top fi ve that came up were all in Brunei. Knowing about the Sultan’s wonderful palaces we assumed we wouldn’t be


able to afford it, but Ocean Quest proved very reasonable, professional and helpful.


How does the diving compare to other destinations? Between us we have clocked nearly 3,000 dives but we were blown away by the unique reef diving as well as the wrecks. The most memorable thing was the incredible blue of the sea fans. Each wreck is individual – an oasis of colour, teeming with life, and great briefi ngs


revealed a fascinating history. We’ve already recommended Brunei as a top dive destination for the discerning wreck diver with the right experience.


What was your itinerary? A week in Sabah diving Kapalia, Mabul and Sipidan; fi ve days in Brunei; then Lankayan Island (northwest of Borneo).


Favourites include Serasa, where the Royal Brunei Yacht Club and the Serasa Water Sports Complex is located, offering jet skiing, windsurfi ng, kayaking and sailing; Jerudong


Beach by the Empire Hotel and Tungku Beach, a serene spot popular with surfers. Golf is big business in Brunei and there are


fi ve main courses. The most impressive is the Empire Golf and Country Club. The 18-hole course designed by Jack Nicklaus is set by the beach and dotted with towering tropical trees. “The best thing about the Empire’s golf course is that guests can tee off at night,” says Triona Doran from Ian Allen Travel. “Brunei can be very humid during the day so players not acclimatised to the weather can still play a comfortable round.”


Think of diving in South East Asia and you think of Thailand’s Similan Islands or perhaps Malaysian Borneo’s turtle haven Sipidan. So it should come as no surprise that the waters off Brunei are as bio diverse as the rest of Borneo. Brunei boasts shallow coral dives for beginners as well as a range of reefs and most impressive of all, a selection of wrecks to occupy all levels of diver.


Commercial diving is in its infancy in the Sultanate and there are just a handful of dive shops in Brunei. However, this means that scuba tourists are likely to


fi nd they have each dive site to themselves, with March to November offering the best visibility to spot rays, sharks, tropical fi sh and a kaleidoscope of hard and soft corals.


www.bruneitourism.travel 7


IN FOCUS


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