A Day Trip in the Capital of “The Most Boring Country In Southeast Asia” — Posh, Broke, & Bored

RIGHT, ENOUGH PRETTY PICTURES & INTERESTING TRIVIA. LET’S HEAR THE DRAMA OF MY TERRIBLE EXPERIENCE!
When did I realise that my well-laid plans would unravel? Quite literally from the moment I stepped foot in the country. I flew into Bandar Seri Begawan on the first, early morning flight from Kota Kinabalu with plans to take the evening (about 6:00pm or so) flight back. As I got off the plane, trundling sleepily toward immigration, I was met by airport staff bearing a placard with my name on it. Sweet! Am I being singled out for special treatment? Not really. The airport staff asked me, apologetically, “Miss Yip, were you made aware that your return flight this evening has been delayed by 3 hours?” I blinked as I registered the fact, and half-jokingly said: “No, otherwise I wouldn’t have got on my flight here.”

But that’s fine…! I would simply take a more leisurely pace on my day trip in B.S.B. Unfortunately, it’s hard to go slower in a city where the pace is already glacial. Two of the attractions I wanted to visit – Bubungan Dua Belas (Twelve Roofs House) and Istana (Palace) Nurul Iman were closed to the public Not even a verrrrry slow walk around Galeri Seni (Arts Gallery) at Customs House, depicting Brunei’s relationship with Singapore, could help while away the extra hours. And there were a lot of extra hours – B.S.B was a lot more compact that I had prepared for; and even its landmarks did not warrant more than an hour per visit. I spent up to 2 hours at these 4 destinations above – also out of necessity, as the rain came down hard which made a visit to the floating villages seem like a very bad idea – and yet the hours dragged on.

When I reached the airport, I learnt that my flight was further delayed…to past midnight. At least 6 hours past the original departure time, in a city where time is not of the essence. I narrowly escaped another mishap when I resisted the urge to book another flight back to Kota Kinabalu: at the last minute, that flight too was delayed to past midnight. I couldn’t have boarded my (very, very delayed) flight quickly enough. When I finally landed in Kota Kinabalu International Airport – hot, sweaty, exhausted, and bored out of my mind – I practically wept and kissed the tarmac, vowing to never again complain that Malaysia is dull!