Brunei an unspoilt, exotic paradise for royal watchers

Brunei an unspoilt, exotic paradise for royal watchers

By Andreas Heimann

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN (DPA): Many people associate Brunei with
Arabian deserts, camels and sheikhs yet this tiny state is not
part of the Arabian Peninsula, it is in southeast Asia, in
northern Borneo.

The error is still understandable though since Brunei
Darussalam, as the state is officially called, is a sultanate and
it is thoroughly Islamic.

Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, the ruler of Brunei, takes religion
very seriously. In 1991 he banned the sale of alcohol throughout
the country. It is also forbidden to drink beer and wine in
public. Even bars at international hotels serve only freshly
squeezed fruit juices. Royal Brunei, the state airline, also
serves no alcoholic beverages and prayers are offered to Allah
before every take-off.

None of this has contributed to making Brunei a top tourist
attraction although the territory has many merits. There are no
violent ethnic conflicts, no political unrest and crime is
virtually unheard of. "It is one of the safest places in the
world," said Klaus-Peter Brandes, German ambassador in Brunei's
capital Bandar Seri Begawan since May 1999. And unlike the
Indonesian southern half of Borneo, the rain forest in Brunei has
remained largely untouched.

Brunei has so far had no need to attract tourism. The sultan
is one of the richest men in the world with an estimated fortune
of US$36.5 billion. His 330,000 subjects have also benefited from
the country's oil reserves -- the country has the highest per
capita income in southeast Asia. Now it hopes tourism will
provide another safe economic stake.

One of the biggest attractions to foreign guests is the royal
family itself. Sultan Bolkiah certainly has a certain glamour
factor. He has two wives, 10 children, at least 200 horses for
playing polo, and good many cars. He recently gave one of his
daughters an airplane for her birthday, complete with an on-board
swimming pool.

His palace Istana Nurul Iman has nearly 1,800 rooms and 257
bathrooms, although visitors can usually only marvel at it from
outside. But if you wander through the capital Bandar Seri
Begawan -- known as BSB for short -- you stumble upon many traces
of the sultan's family, such as the splendid Omar-Ali-Saifuddin
mosque, which Bolkiah's family had built in 1958.

Just around the corner from here is the shopping mall that the
present sultan had built in 1996. The shops here contain nothing
at all reminiscent of the orient, but are full of expensive
western designer labels like Gucci and Cartier.

A little further north is the Royal Regalia Museum, opened in
1992 on the 25th anniversary of Hassan Bolkiah's coronation.
Basically it is a celebration of the royal family itself. After
taking off their shoes at the entrance, visitors can peruse
photos of the ruler's ancestors, the sultan playing polo, playing
golf and even taking part in a tug-of-war contest.

Other exhibits include a throne adorned with a tiger skin, and
the robes the royal couple wore for their coronation. To mark the
Silver Jubilee of his accession to the throne, the sultan had the
Jame Asr Hassanil Bolkiah mosque built in green gardens adorned
with fountains. Brunei's largest mosque with four symmetrically
placed minarets is open to the public - visitors are expected to
wear modest clothing.

The Kampung Ayer quarter offers a glimpse of the way the city
might have looked before the streets were asphalted and new
concrete housing blocks were built. This settlement built on
stilts in the Brunei River can only be reached by boat.
Individual houses are connected by wooden piers, many of them
made of ramshackle planks.

At first sight, these dwellings seem to have all the flair of
a corrugated iron hut, but they are all equipped with modern
fittings, right down to the satellite dishes. The washing is
dried on the veranda, cats stretch out on the piers in the sun.
Alongside the local hospitals and mosques in Kampung Ayer, there
are also a number of schools in which the children take their
lessons in classrooms just above the water level.

Bandar Seri Begawan does not have a reputation as an exciting
metropolis. The night life certainly does not match up to
European expectations. If the local people go out at night, it is
to the Night Market in the city center, consisting of a
collection of small stalls next to each other, covered with
plastic sheeting.

They sell raw ingredients, and fish is fried on the grills
alongside meat kebabs or chicken wings. You might like to try
local delicacies such as Ayam Goreng, chicken with rice, which
you can also take away in styrofoam bowls.

There is plenty on offer for the sweet toothed - chocolate
cake with desiccated coconut is not typical of the local cuisine,
but a big favorite in Brunei.

Information in the Internet at www.visitbrunei.com.