Soon I will be making a flight out of New Zealand, away from the cold winter, to the hot tropics. I recount the trip I made a few years ago, and found that this post which I did for my other blog;
http://ann-mythoughtsandphotos.blogspot.co.nz/2009/09/brunei-airport.html
was featured in
http://worldmedia.mitrasites.com/brunei-airport.html
Brunei Airport
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It is a great privilege to be listed and getting a lot of viewing. I don't know how long they had been listing it, as I don't normally check my blogs. But I did get a lot of views. May be I should make a detour during my next trip and drop in and get some VIP treatment.
We arrived from Auckland via Brisbane on Brunei Airlines. It was a long haul and we arrived in the morning.
This was a big column, the windy stairs leads up to the
first class lounge. It also lead downstairs to the mens and ladies,
there were showers, baby rooms, short term bed rooms, and a prayer room.
The information center had a lot of brochures but no personnel.
Upon
arrival, you are greeted by masked health personnel. If you have a
temperature, they make you sit outside the transit lounge.
Here's the sign where you can sign up for the various tours and the free tour if you are a transit passenger.
Sam
and I flew on July 2 at 3 am from Auckland. It meant I had been up from
Wednesday morning, and there wasn't any point to go to bed on Wednesday
evening. Why did we fly Royal Brunei? Well, beggars can't be choosers.
This was an impromptu trip and we wanted the cheapest flight even if it
meant a transit of ten hours on our way there.
The
flight was uneventful, and I had been told by my friend D who had flown
before that they blessed the flight before flying. To the uninitiated,
it is quite a long prayer. There no alcohol, not that I complain because
I don't drink very much. I was unimpressed by the food though. A flight
of nine hours usually would have a decent meal. They consider kids
seventeen and below as kids, and Sam felt quite funny when the
stewardess gave him a kiddy pack. Sam enjoyed the computer games.
Just
before arrival, we were given a health declaration form as it was the
height of the H1N1. After getting off the aero-bridge, we saw giant
scanners. All the personnel in the airport wore masks. This included the
cleaners and staff at the duty first shops. I noticed a row of
passenger with masks on sitting just outside the transit lounge. I
presume they had a temperature and were refused entry into Brunei.
The
stewardess told me in the plane that Royal Brunei offered free city
tour. But for B$40, we could get off and have a meal and do some
shopping.I paid for the later, and met a Middle East Mum and son, and a
British couple. We had a good tour of mainly palaces, mosques, big
buildings. The guide took us to this I presume a Government tourist info
place and eating stall. For B$1, you get to eat some rice and veg and
curry meat. We ate, and I spoke to two friendly Brunei girls. I suppose
being a mum and son, we are less threatening, both men and women would
talk to us. I did my bit of promotion for New Zealand.
After
the meal, Sam was so hot. He went to the men's room and drenched
himself slashing water all over him. He went to the bus saying he didn't
want to tour any more and wanted to get back to the airport.
Fortunately, they refunded our money. We still had about five hours to
muck around. People were lying across chairs and sleeping. This was
because the flight from Auckland to London had a ten hours stopover in
Brunei, and Vice versa. Passengers from London had the same wait.
Here's
a funny story about Starbucks and internet. I was transit for 10 hours
in Brunei on my way to Singapore this July. There was a sign, free
internet at the Starbucks. Of course i didn't want to be "Shameless"
according the Chinese saying, or don't want face. So I got a muffin for
Sam, and we surfed the net to our heart's content there were no other
customers.
At 7 pm, we left Royal Brunei and arrived in
Singapore at 9pm. I told my sister Grace and Deborah that we could have
arrived in London if we had taken a normal flight. But I can't
complain, I got a bonus holiday to
Mulu caves, which was such a fantastic holiday.
Two
weeks in Singapore and some days in West Malaysia, meeting up with
friends and relatives we have not seen for 3 year was such a nostalgic
time. All too soon, we were off again.
On our way back,
we headed to the same Starbucks. This time there were a lot of
youngsters ,but I was just before them, and I just typed my first email,
when everything went blank. Sam was still queuing for his muffin. I
even got to talk to three Canadian girls who had spent a couple of weeks
in Thailand, and they were going to Australia.
The
Starbucks employee came to tell us, the computers were for customers. I
told her my son was queuing to buy some food. The Canadian girls didn't
have any more Brunei money. There was no internet connection, the
youngsters suspected they turned the computer off.
Then it was time to board the plane. On this flight, there were no stewardess, all handsome men and young too. What a grand finale.Goodbye Brunei, we are going back to New Zealand.
I have been posting snippets of our
holiday on my other blog: http://ann-mythoughtsandphotos.blogspot.co.nz
You may like to pay a visit.
http://ourworldtuesdaymeme.blogspot.com/
At Garden-NZ we don’t like to blow our own trumpet, but when the
challenge was offered by reader, Ann Chin, for us to identify this
plant, we called in the cavalry.
