Ulu Temburong National Park March 23

I started this amazing day at the Bandar Jetty.

This was my water taxi for the 45 minuet trip to the small town of Bangar on the banks of the Sungai Temburong river. It is the only town in the eastern side of Brunei.

My guide met me at the Bangar jetty to begin the road portion of the journey which would take us to another jetty at Batu Duri.

But first we walked across the street and had pancakes for breakfast. These pancakes were thin like crepes and came with a spicy red dipping sauce. It was good. They do eat odd things for breakfast here.

The trip to the next jetty was just over half an hour on a good road. Along the way the guide pointed out this longhouse. He called it five star because it is nice. It houses several families living individually in each unit and communally in the common area in back.

The guide was raised in this community and he showed me his home along the road. He and his family are descendants of the tribal headhunters that were still active as recently as WWII.

The river is the only way to travel to the National Forrest Reserve and there were many beautiful views along the way.

Here I am in the longboat with the driver behind me. It takes skill to pick a safe course through that rocky river.

Here we are landed to sign in at the park entry. It is connected to a high end hotel where the rooms are around $250 US. Across the river is a heli-pad which they use for visiting dignitaries and emergencies.

Strangely, the park is privately owned. They do have strict regulations for protecting it though.

This is the national flower, a Simpur.

Soon we arrived at the trail which leads to the forest canopy walkway. They told me a 500 meter walk but didn't mention it was uphill all the way in the mud.

Surprisingly, they provided me with nifty rubber shoes which had great grip and allowed me to leave my sneakers safe in the car.

When we got to the canopy towers they were quite high and you accessed them by climbing a series of steps inside a wire cage. I was still feeling wrecked from climbing the hill in the heat and I am not fond of ladders so I cheated and asked my guide to go up and take some pictures.

This is the walkway.

Here is a view of the surrounding country with the top of one of the other towers.

He took my picture from the canopy bridge but I am sure he had used the full zoom to get me this close.

Here is the heli-pad that is across from the park entry.

This is my guide on the muddy part of the climb.

After the canopy walk they took me to a waterfall. We walked in about five minutes through this little rocky stream.

The rubber shoes were great here too.

Here I am back out at the river, after seeing the falls, getting ready to get into the boat. This was just before I fell in. It was a refreshing dip and I managed to save my camera too.

The last stop was at a rustic camp operated by my guide for overnight treks. It was a beautiful location. They pulled out a cooler and we had rice, chicken curry, fried cabbage and sweet and sour fish (surprisingly delicious) for lunch. It was home made and so good.

A couple of shots of the camp:

It made me want to stay and camp there.

To get back we reversed the process taken this morning, long boat to van to speedy water taxi. The water taxi ride was a little hair raising occasionally. They use twin 20 hp motors flat out on a narrow curving river so on the curve you were either looking at sky or water.

From Bandar jetty it was an easy walk to my hotel, of course taking photos along the way.

There was one canal in the city where you could hire a boat ride but I don't think there was much to see.

There are thousands of mosques in Brunei as the population is 75% Muslim, and a smattering of other places of worship. Here is a Chinese temple.

I wasn't really planning on speeding through Borneo rain forests on a crazy high-speed water taxi but I thoroughly enjoyed the day.

Tomorrow I have an early flight to KL and continuing on to Penang Island in Malaysia.