Exploring the Ulu Temburung Rainforest

The last two days of my Brunei trip was definitely the highlight since I have booked us an overnight tour to the Ulu Temburong National Park, which covers a big chunk of the Temburong rainforest. I am not really a nature lover, but since we didn’t have that much to do in Brunei anymore, I figured that it would be a change of scene and a whole new adventure for me. Had packed the night before, bought some water and some snacks since I figured we’d end up starving over the course of this 3-hour journey to the our guesthouse in the middle of Brunei nowhere.

We were picked up by the owner of the tour agency from our hotel at around 2:30PM, dropped us off at the Brunei waterfront and waited for the local water taxi to bring us to Bangar, the capital of the Temburong district. It was a whole new experience riding the water taxi, passing through a network of rivers and channels around the back of Brunei Bay, watching the dense mangrove islands as we passed along and having this Fast & the Furious moment since the water taxi was speeding like crazy. It took us about an hour to arrive in Bangar to meet our guide, July, who was waiting for us at the Temburong terminal.

Before dropping us off at our guesthouse, we visited some of the locals in the Bangar area, a number of which were actually pagans, not just Muslims, who occupy most of the country. July told us stories about their history, tribe rituals, to stuff about tribe beheading, inter-family marriages to cannibalism. Now we’re talking! Haha! We arrived at our guesthouse around 4PM, tried to rest for about thirty minutes and departed for our evening river safari tour. We traveled along the mangrove banks for almost 3 hours, enjoying the wildlife and watching out for some weird animals to pop out of nowhere. We were lucky enough to catch a glimpse of the Proboscis monkey, hornbills, a group of fireflies, some huge weird lizards, and oh yeah the crocodiles. We were also able to step into Sarawak, which was just about a few seconds’ swim from the Temburong riverbanks. So technically, I was able to visit Malaysia as well, though immigration was about 30 minutes from where we stood during that time. After the 3-hour long river safari tour, we had dinner at a local restaurant and retreated back into our guesthouse for some much needed rest.

Woke up around 6AM the next day, packed all our stuff, checked out, and had some breakfast before venturing into Batang Duri for the Ulu Temburong rainforest. We arrived at the riverbanks again and departed using a longboat. Had our lifejackets on, and thoroughly enjoyed the views and the sights from the river. At that point, with the sounds of the river water splashing against the boat and the peaceful sounds of the morning jungle surrounding us, it was definitely an amazing feeling.

We arrived at the Ulu Temburong National Park about an hour and a half later and started our rainforest trek. We weren’t able to cross the hanging bridge since it was destroyed when some of the large trees fell on it because of the typhoon that hit the region a couple of weeks ago. The most awaited part was crossing the 1200 steps to the base of the 60-meter Canopy Walkway Towers, where we climbed up all the way to the top of the 196-feet wobbly structure in the middle of the jungle. Crossing through the steel suspension bridges that connected the canopy towers was scary and at the same time exciting. Actually, I didn’t find it scary at all but Ann was scared to death, but she has no choice, I needed someone to take my pictures. Haha!

After absorbing and enjoying the view from the top of the jungle, we all went down back to meet with July, who was waiting for us to take us back into the riverbanks, where we had lunch, kinda like a little picnic before we journeyed downstream back to Batang Duri. We then went to the Temburong terminal to catch the water taxi back to Bandar with July, where he dropped us off on our hotel to rest for a few hours before we pack all our stuff back since our flight leaves in 6 hours.

After sleeping for a couple of hours, we got a call from the reception desk, informing us that Tita Lorna, our newfound friend from our flight a couple of days ago was downstairs at the lobby. We went down to meet her and as promised, she brought us a bunch of pasalubongs, which made me very, very happy. I don’t care if it’s just a bunch of chocolates and mei goreng noodles, I just love freebies and I love thoughtful people. We exchanged numbers and told her that when we return to Brunei, we’ll definitely contact her the next time around. After we’re done packing, we decided to have dinner and walk around the city some more.

We had arranged for the hotel to have their driver bring us back to the airport to catch our flight back to Manila. Along the way, we passed by the Sultan’s Palace, and our driver was kind enough to bring us inside and took some pictures of that beautiful place. It’s one of those moments that my jaw literally dropped open, trying to digest the magnificent sight in front of me. I just needed some background music ala “A Whole New World” and it would’ve been perfect. I wanted to stay a little longer but we needed to be at the airport to catch our flight back to Manila. Brunei may be tagged as a boring place, but I enjoyed every moment of it. Very relaxing, very quiet, just peaceful enough for me to enjoy and de-stress. And the people there are also one of the kindest and friendliest bunch I have met so far. Will I be back in Brunei? Definitely! I got this as a planned sidetrip for our Kota Kinabalu trip early next year and I can’t wait to tour some of my friends here the next time around.

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Brunei : The Abode Of Peace

Brunei would probably be the last thing anyone would think of as a vacation place. Considering its size and the limited places to see, people were raising their eyebrows when they found out I’m going here for a few days. Everything just fell into place that time Cebu Pacific announced a seat sale to Brunei. For just P4,000 for a roundtrip ticket from Manila to Bandar Seri Begawan, I knew I had to grab it. It was an absolute steal! I mass-texted a number of my friends to see who would like to join me and Ann was the only one who said yes. Good thing she did otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to book that flight. Of course, I am not into solo-travelling and I needed someone to take a lot of pictures of me, so having a friend join me was a requirement. Knowing that Brunei is a small country and there’s not much to do except visit the beautiful mosques, I booked us for three whole days. The flight schedule was just perfect since it was around the weekend, so it did not affect our work schedule that much.

While checking in for our flight, one Pinay passenger approached us and asked if she could have one of her bags checked in together with our luggages under our ticket. I was hesitant of course since I’ve heard horror stories about drug carriers doing the same thing so I was really cold towards her during that time. Ann said that’s probably not the case since she was able to go through the security checks earlier so we agreed and have one of her bags checked in with the rest of our luggages. She was pretty chatty the entire time that she even requested that she be seated besides us during the flight. I told Ann to talk to her since I was not in the mood and was very sleepy then.

Our flight arrived at around 2AM in Brunei, and had arranged for the hotel to have their driver pick us up at the airport. Tita Lorna, our new-found friend there, actually is a resident and has lived in Brunei for more than 30 years. She offered to bring us to our hotel but we told her we actually have somebody picking us up already. She wanted us to visit her and her husband on their house, but we told her we don’t think we’d have much time since we will be doing an overnight stay in the Ulu Temburong rainforest the day after. We gave her our hotel’s name instead, which was the Jubilee Hotel, after she insisted that she’d be dropping by there to bring us some pasalubongs to take back home before we leave Brunei for Monday.

Our hotel’s location was just perfect. Located at the heart of the city, Jubilee Hotel is just a few minutes’ walk to the central business district, shopping malls, food stalls, night markets, cafes, international restaurants, and the cultural and religious centres. I was suprised to find out that our contact at the hotel was actually a Filipina and was more surprised when I was informed by the receptionist while checking in that Sitti, our contact, has upgraded us to a suite room at no additional charge, which made us very happy.

At around 3AM, we were able to unpack and tried to catch some very much needed sleep and woke up around 8AM for breakfast. The hotel offered a free 45-minute tour around the city so we took advantage of that first. We needed to familiarize ourselves with the area before we venture on our own the rest of the day. Maps were also available at the reception, so it was a big help for us while we navigated around the area later that day. Our driver took us to a number of tourist sites, more like one mosque after another, but it was all worth it. We went to the Jame’Asr Hassanil Bolkiah Mosque, the Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque and the Istanan Nurul Iman (also known as the Sultan’s Palace). Nothing much to see afterwards so we asked our driver to drop us off Yayasan, a popular shopping complex, just a couple of minutes away from our hotel. Situated just between the Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque and Kampong Ayer, it was the perfect place for us to relax and unwind after suffering a little from the heat outside. We then had lunch at Jollibee, which was very, very popular in Brunei. Didn’t taste as good though.

In the afternoon, we decided to visit the Royal Regalia Museum and Kampong Ayer, the water village. We hired a water taxi to drive us around Kampong Ayer for BND15 and it was such a beautiful sight to see hundreds of houses seemingly floating on water. Constructed on stilts above the Brunei River, it kinda reminded me first of the squatters area in Manila, but it was nothing like that. Every house there has airconditing, schools were actually located in the water village as well, there are foot-bridges, concrete jetties, a police station, a fire station, piped water, electricity and telephone lines, clinics and a number of shops were also there. Situated after the Brunei Bay, it is estimated that around 39,000 people live in the Water Village, representing roughly ten percent of the nation’s total population.

We had dinner in Yayasan and continued exploring the area at night. We had to take pictures of the Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque at night since I’ve seen pictures of it and it was just magnificent. Nothing beats the real thing though. I know this word has been overused every time I describe a beautiful tourist spot, but it was amaaaaaaazing. Knowing that it’s made of pure gold, the way it glitters at night made me feel like I was in an Aladdin movie, waiting for the genie to pop out. I took so many shots of the majestic mosque, trying to find the best vantage point for me. Had to head back to the hotel afterwards to pack for our Ulu Temburong Rainforest trip the next day.

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