阿聯酋(6) – Chasing numbers
In the movie “Up in the air”, George Clooney wanted to accumulate airline mileage for the sake of earning 10 million miles. In real life, there is a website www.mosttraveledpeople.com for people to claim themselves to have travelled to the most places out of the 872 countries and territories recognised by them. I can’t guess the motive of those people who have travelled over 800 countries, apart from travelling for the sake of country count. Closer to home, many people chase the number of friends on Facebook. How many of them are really friends in the true sense?
I don’t chase numbers, I travel because I enjoy it. I don’t mind revisiting nice countries even though the trip wouldn’t increase my country count. Travelling shouldn’t be about numbers however, I made an exception on my recent trip to the United Arab Emirates.
The UAE borders with Oman. The boundaries of the two countries are not very clear cut with pockets of Oman surrounded by the UAE in many regions. In some places, in order to travel to certain destinations in the UAE, the road runs right through Oman. This is great for increasing country count, because people can claim themselves to have physically been to Oman by driving through 20 km of highway, even though they might not set foot on the ground. The tricky thing is, many car hire companies prohibit their cars to enter Oman without separate additional insurance, or at all. This restricts the movement and the choice of destination somehow. If one is unlucky enough to encounter an accident on the Omani stretch of road, uninsured, it can cause a major problem and will be very costly.
We are law abiding citizens and didn’t risk driving to Oman, especially knowing that the UAE and Oman have the world’s second and third highest number of road deaths annually. But it is so tempting to cross the border when we are so tantalisingly close. Quick fact – Oman and Brunei are the only two sultanates in the world. I just had this fetish to visit both of them. Don’t ask me why other than for the sake of it!
We read some guidebooks and found the perfect destination on the east coast of the UAE. Dibba is a little town governed by 2 emirates and 1 sultanate, Sharjah, Fujairah, and Oman. People and car can freely move across different parts of Dibba. Bingo! We drove there, parked our car and walked towards the border. The border guards were friendly and nice and told us we could drive across. We said we only wanted to walk across to the other side, which looks identical to the UAE side. The guards must think we were crazy foreigners. We walked across the border, “ding”, our country count has gone up. We took a few pictures and satisfactorily walked back to the UAE, claiming we have been to a new country! It’s the shortest visit in a country for us, ever!
I feel a bit shallow and silly to chase the country count like this, but at least I am not sad enough to pin it on the Facebook apps and tell everyone how many cities I have been to.
Brunei – Practical Information
Planning a trip to Brunei is easy. I share with you in this blog some practical tips when planning a trip to Brunei.
Travel books
Brunei is not big in tourism, there is only limited tourist information on the country. I bought a pdf version of the Brunei chapter on the Lonely Planet website, which costs me only US$1.75. It provides sufficient information to plan the trip so I didn’t read the Borneo Lonely Planet guide.
Flight
Royal Brunei Airline codeshares with Dragonair and flies direct to Bangar Seri Begawan. I booked my ticket on Royal Brunei Airline’s website, which mysteriously costs less than the Dragonair flight, even though they actually are the same codeshare flight. It costs me only $1800 for the air ticket (including taxes and charges), while it uusally costs more than $3000. Just keep checking until you find dates that have cheaper flights if you are flexible. Flight duration is 3 hours, but flight times are not that good. Departure flight leaves HK around 3pm. Return flight leaves BSB around 11am. So there is not much you can do on the first and last days of the trip apart from flying.
Hotel
MUST STAY at the Empire Hotel. I stayed in Sheration and went to visit another 5-star hotel Rizqun Hotel. Empire Hotel is so much better than the other two 5 star hotels, but doesn’t cost much more. Empire Hotel is further away from the city centre, but it is served by public bus. It is worth spending the extra time to travel to the Empire Hotel. The sheer extravagance of the hotel makes it a tourist attraction in its own right.
For budget travelers, 3-star hotel costs around HK$400 a night. However, smoking is very common in Brunei, so don’t be too upset if your room smells of cigarette. You get what you pay for. [click title for more......]
汶萊(2010年2月4日)
最後一個full day in Brunei，由Empire Hotel搬去市中心的Sheraton，the only international five star hotel in Brunei。我之前住過世界各地不少Sheraton，所以都知what to expect，但我真的taken by surprise，這是我住過最醜樣的Sheraton，都不知何來五星級！個泳池細到似魚缸，都幾失望。香港有不少平一點的旅行團不住Empire Hotel而住Sheraton，真是天淵之別，千萬不要揀不住Empire Hotel的旅行團呀！
BSB是一個很unique 的亞洲首都，没有大城市的感覺。因為蘇丹不准許有高樓高過清真寺，所以最高的buildings都只是十幾層。我們熟悉的銀行都exist in BSB, Standard Chartered, HSBC, Citibank,全部都有亞拉伯文名，都幾得意。
走在街上，是感受不到汶萊的財富。街上的車都很舊，是舊到不會在香港見到的。人們衣著十分樸素，我没有見到人穿名牌。街上的人我看不出他們富有，但就感受到大部份人都生活安定，個個人都面帶笑容。去了幾日，未見過beggar or poor people，是少有的Asian city。地方sanitise到似Sinagpore，但比Sinagpore有character。
在city行下映下相，主要interest是水上村Kampong Ayer。對岸看來似木屋的urban slump，居然住有很多原居民，他們不是窮人，而是真的喜歡住在那環境的水上人家。政府甚至會在水上興建新的公共房屋去滿足本地人的taste。來往Kampong Ayer靠小小的木船，條河very busy。我們一走到去河邊已經有很多船夫來叫我們去對岸參觀，asking price 我相信是local price 的十倍。但好在他們一點都不煩，會take no as an answer。我覺得汶萊人都幾laidback and friendly。[click title for more......]
汶萊(2010年2月3日)
天未光，guesthouse 就被對面清真寺好大聲的prayer broadcast嘈醒。洗唔洗呀？真的有需要未天光就咁大聲祈禱嗎？一點都没有照顧到非回教徒的感受！
我們坐船回到首都，然後就去參觀Royal Regalia Museum， 我是第一次入museum要除鞋！ 裏面收藏蘇丹從世界各國收到的禮物和他在登基和出巡時用過的物品。展館頗大，display得好好。在未有Microsoft之前，汶萊蘇丹是全世界最有錢的人，所以展品中有不少奢華的真金的衣服和用具。眾多由外國送給蘇丹的禮物中，没有發現由Ireland送的。難怪，蘇丹是回敎徒，不飲酒，不會去pub，how to talk over a pint?
之後我們回到第一晚住的酒店拿取我們left behind没有帶去Bangar的行李，再去曾志偉介紹的七星級酒店Empire Hotel。 我們問酒店個staff how to get to Empire Hotel，她說没有public bus，連去附近的巴士都没有，只可以坐taxi，然後很快就幫我們call taxi。來到的車是一個private local tour的車，收費B$30，巴士只是B$1一個人咋。後來我們去到Empire Hotel，人地大大隻字列出public bus schedule，正正在hotel門口落車。Very not impressed那個幫我們call車的hotel staff講大話。雖然是石油有錢國家，人民生活無憂，但都一樣有貪心人揾遊客笨。防不勝防！[click title for more......]
汶萊(2010年2月2日)
汶萊天氣比香港熱，大約３０度，我們去的那幾天好好彩地miss了之前一個星期的non-stop rain，我們天天都有non-stop的藍天白雲，個太陽晒下來會有燙的感覺。BSB又不pedestrian friendly，没有樹蔭或任何摭陰的地方，走在街上乾晒都幾熱。但因為汶箂是回敎國家，對衣著都比較保守，所以出發之前我已check過女仕的dress code，不可以太暴露。我就唯有大熱天時流晒汗都不穿小背心或短褲。當地女回敎徒都要帶head dress，有些要穿長袖衫褲，看見她們我都覺得熱。做香港女人多麼自由平等！
早上再去那個landmark清真寺，天氣是picture perfect的blue sky fluffy white cloud，襯出清真寺金頂的閃亮。日間看清真寺更加impressive。所要入寺的內部，男人必須穿長褲，我不知道女人應著甚麼，因為security一見到我就叫我穿上掛在門口的黑色長袍。所有人入寺都要除鞋。[click title for more......]
汶萊(2010年2月1日)
好細個的時候，我在電視看過汶萊的熱帶雨林和清真寺，覺得那個國家很特別，已經想去旅行。幾年前曾志偉那一輯「向世界出發」介紹Empire Hotel的浮誇，又再一次喚起我去汶萊的興趣。不過，一直都覺得有比汶萊更好玩的地方，所以最終等到今年才成行。
今次決定去汶萊的原因很簡單，就是Royal Brunei Airlines機票的promotion。機票連稅才2000元，再加上check了港龍codeshare的同一班機奇怪地要貴成千多元，所以特別顯得Royal Brunei Airlines抵坐。
很多人都不知道汶萊的英文是Brunei，亦很多人不知道汶萊這個石油國家不是在中東，而是在馬來西亞沙巴附近，距離香港只是三個小時的機程。
汶萊與沙巴在地理環境都屬於熱帶雨林，文化上都是回敎國家。但令汶萊與所有其它東南亞國家截然不同的，就是它的石油蘊藏。豐富的石油生產使這個國家富裕到國民可以享受免費的敎育，醫療等等公共設施，國家不設入息稅，國民都熱愛蘇丹國皇。
出發之前我不知expect汶萊是怎麼樣，因為我認識去過汶萊的人不多，去過的都只stay in resort，對於當地文化我不甚了解。這令我更加好奇和興奮。[click title for more......]