Beautiful Brunei

Here's the real thing.

Because of its seemingly unlimited oil wealth Brunei hasn't had to deplete its natural wonders which is why I chose to come to the Ulu Temburong national park., I wanted to experience a long boat ride and virgin rain forest.

I visited via Sumbiling Eco Village which is located in and staffed by local Iban people. The (short) longhouse is four doors where Agilla, our guide, and her family live. I stayed in a tent by the river.

The journey there was thrilling on a local speed boat which joins the two parts of Brunei, to Bangar, and then a short road trip to the village.

We had a night walk after dinner which was magical, the birds just carry on sleeping through our photo shoot, the stick insects are huge and the leopard gecko waited until we had his best side, the chameleon kindly refrained from chaging colour so we could get good contrast.

Agilla then took us to her home and showed us her Iban ceremonial dress,  I am not sure we did it justice, her school photo was much more elegant. She also let us see her grandfather's machete which he used fighting the japanese in WWII. The guide books tell us that head hunting was renewed during this period so who knows what action this saw!
We also had a go with the blow pipe, we managed to shoot all the balloons so we were allowed breakfast.

I had a wonderful nights sleep in the forest by the river, waking to the sound of frogs and barking crickets.

The next highlight of my trip was a trip by long boat to the national park, the only way in. It was fantastic, who needs disney world with this transport, I have video of some tof the journey but haven't worked out how to upload it yet.

There has been a lot of rain recently and this has unfortunately led to the closure of the both the hanging bridge and canopy walk due to falling trees, I am glad I wasn't on it when it happenned. 
However every cloud has a silver lining and ours was being able to go to one of the biggest waterfalls as the water levels were so high. I had another fabulous massage here. This is really a rain forest idyll of bathing clear waters in the forest, everywhere else the waters have been murky brown due to land erosion. I thought I found some beautiful rust and cream coloured river washed stones, but the found they were easily broken, they were the washed clay soil from the forest which has been able to keep shape in this environment, our boat man must have seen me looking at the pebbles and presented me with a more solid heart shaped one, this will be my most appropriate reminder of my trip here.

I was sad to leave but my companion Jenni sold me on getting up to the Kelabit highlands despite my leg, so I need to get back to BSB book my flight.

Brunei is an object lesson on what can be done with enough money and autocracy to protect this natural wonderland, BSB is spookily quiet but every thing does work.