Notes from a Wandering Traveller: Bandar Seri Begawan or Bandar for short. March 22.

I had several decent periods of sleep last night even though the plastic airport chairs were hard underneath my folded blanket. The restaurants were open early enough to have breakfast and I was off on the short flight to Bandar arriving shortly after 9:00 AM.

I knew taxis were crazy expensive so I got the hotel shuttle bus and unloaded at the hotel. I didn't want to waste one of my two days here sleeping, although the bed did look inviting, so I got busy making plans. This afternoon I am taking a city tour for three hours.

It is the end of the wet season here and it still rains a little every day. The temperature is 30 degrees today.

There is a large community of dwellings which are on stilts over the river known as the water village. Below I am boarding this water taxi to go across to have a look. Part of the tour was to be a visit to a home for tea. I still didn't know at this point that it was this man's home we were going to.

This is part of a large school. There are a couple of others like it in the community.

Here are some homes along the outside of the group. They have power, gas, Internet and television, everything the land dwellers have.

Here are a couple of the children from the family I am going to meet, waiting to greet me at the dock.

From the dock we walked straight down this walkway to their home, All the houses in the row are connected and there are other walkways that also connect between the rows similar to city blocks. They park the boats underneath the houses.

Here I am in their living room having tea with three of the seven children and mom.

The house was very spread out with large rooms. This room is air conditioned but others are not.

This Mosque is also part of the village.

Next we visited the Brunei Museum which had a wildlife side and a cultural side with an art exhibit in the center. They did not allow pictures.

A visit inside the Jame Asr Mosque was not possible because prayers were being held while we were there but I had a walk around in the grounds.

This mosque was built and owned by the former sultan and is now owned by his son who had already built the Omar Ali Mosque which I will also see today.

I don't know if they had weddings in mind when they designed this stair case but what a place to hold a wedding. It is more likely to be used by the Royals.

Just another beautiful door.

This is all you can see from the street at the Royal Palace. The buildings in the back seem to be no more than two story and reasonably modest, at least from the outside.

You can see the two standing guards.

This one outside the fence was just security.

This very impressive mosque is the one owned by the son of the former sultan who is now deceased. It is called the Omar Ali Mosque. I was only allowed to photograph from outside the fence.

It is surrounded by water on three sides. I have no idea if the boat in front is just decorative or has a purpose.

Standing beside the Omar Ali Mosque and turning my back toward it I can view these houses across a small road. They are on stilts in a muddy but soon to be dry river bottom. Quite the contrast.

Another view of the river houses.

Next I was taken to the Royal Regalia Museum. Photographs were only allowed in the foyer where this Royal carriage is located. It was difficult to get all of it in the photo. When used it was powered by manpower.