Bandar Seri Begawan has been great (see the posts here and here). But, aside from curiosity, we had an important reason for wanting to venture out of the city.

Today was another afternoon-transition day. These are always a bit hard to handle. How -- other than by just sitting in the hotel lobby -- do you arrive at your next conveyance (in our case the plane home) in a reasonable state of cleanliness? The challenge was doubly difficult this time round: A. Because it's REALLY hot in Borneo at the moment, and B. Because most businesses in Brunei shut between 1200 and 1400 for Friday Prayers (so our original idea of whiling away the waiting hours over the hotel's buffet lunch wasn't possible).

We'll hire a car for 24 hours, we said. That gives us something to do for the last day, gets us out of town into pastures new, and provides a way of getting to the airport at the end (not that this last was difficult in itself).

So we picked our vehicle up at the airport yesterday (we could have had it delivered to the hotel, only we didn't know that), and pointed it towards the sunset.










So that was all good. And today, after another of Al-Afiah's stunningly good breakfasts (with an even more breathtaking array of kuih than usual, in honour of Friday, presumably), we pretty much covered the rest of Brunei's coastline:






Kuala Belait is right at the far end of Brunei, a stone's throw from Malaysia. It's a pleasant place, with broad streets and colourful houses. But we didn't really catch it at its best, as everything was about to close for Friday Prayers.




If you head back towards Seria, you'll find the Billionth Barrel Monument. The park has been laid out very nicely, but on a scorching day like today, you can't help thinking: What have we done, with our billions of barrels?











And then we carried on back east. We avoided the motorway at first, and took the quieter road. Past mosques disgorging supplicants, past British Army camps, past extensive oil facilities... We stopped for a cup of tea and an egg tart at a quirky little place in Tutong.

And then all we had to do was collect our bags from the hotel, tank up, return the car, and change our clothes. It was a last day well spent.


Brunei airport is very pleasant. Not crowded. Not hassly. A nice place to end your journey.