Monkeying Around the World

Ivan, Jennifer and I checked out of the Hotel Pantai View on May 25, 2009.  We walked to the pier.  Ivan bought 2 bottles of wine at a shop.

We boarded the ferry at 11 am.  It took an hour and 15 minutes. 

We went through Immigration.  Ivan declared that he had 2 Litres of Alcohol.  It only took a few minutes.

We took a taxi to the K.H. Soon Resthouse.  We checked in there. 

We walked to the DeRoy@lle Cafe. 

Ivan had a tuna sub.  Jennifer got a chicken mayo sub.  I had a sub with bananas and chicken.  The subs were good.  This cafe offers free wi-fi. 

We walked back to the Resthouse.  Jennifer and I chilled in the room.  Ivan walked around to find a place to cut his hair.  A lot of the places were for women only.  Finally, he found a place and got a haircut.

We walked to the Brunei River.  Ivan talked to a boatman.  We were going to see the Water Village for an hour.  We sat down in the boat.  The boatman told us that over 30,000 people live in the Water Village. 

The houses are built on stilts.  We saw many homes but also the fire station, mosque and the school. 

They have water taxi that take people to the city.  Also, there’s school water boats that pick up the children.  The boatman drove really fast around the village. 

It was great seeing the water village.

We walked back to the Resthouse.  We relaxed in the room for awhile. 

We got a taxi to the Excapade Sushi restaurant.  Ivan read that this restaurant has the great sushi – according to some the best they’ve ever had. 

They have a train that carries the sushi around.  It was a cute idea.

Ivan and Jennifer ordered salmon sashimi, miso soup, fish balls and unagi maki. I had to special order banana sushi.  The sushi was good but we all agreed that it wasn’t the best we’ve ever had.  

We took a taxi to an internet cafe.  Unfortunately, it was already closed.  We walked to DeRoy@lle Cafe.  It’s open 24 hours.  Ivan started using the internet.  A guy came over and said hi to Ivan.  It was Stan, the Belgium guy from the Iban longhouse.  Ivan and Stan talked for awhile.  I was reading a book.  Jennifer used the laptop to use the internet.  We said goodbye to Stan.  We went back to the Resthouse.

Ivan, Jennifer and I had breakfast at Coffee Bean on May 26, 2009.  Ivan had a tuna panini while Jennifer got the chipotle roasted chicken panini.  I placed a banana on a bagel.  The food was tasty.

We checked out of the K.H. Soon Resthouse.  We got a taxi to The Empire Hotel.  It’s a 6 star hotel. 

We checked in to The Empire Hotel and Country Club.  The lobby is gorgeous. 

The whole place is actually beautiful.  Wow!  It’s definitely the best place we’ve stayed in on this trip so far.  It is really big.  It has a few pools, a beach, a country club (with a golf course, tennis courts, bowling badminton and more), movie theatre, spa and lots of restaurants. 

We got an upgrade to a Seaview room.  The room is spacious.  It has a jacuzzui and a walk-in shower.  The lights automatically turn on when you come into the bathroom. 

We had a nice view from the balcony. 

The hotel has buggies to take you around the hotel.  Yes, it is pretty big.  We took a buggy to the country club.  Ivan wanted to try golf.  But, it was a bit expensive.  Jennifer thought that it would be hard since neither of them have ever played golf.  Ivan suggested that they try the driving range.  A buggy picked us up. 

Ivan and Jennifer got a basket filled with 100 golf balls.  Unfortunately, they don’t have monkey-sized clubs so I couldn’t play.  Ivan and Jennifer started hitting balls.  One friendly man was helping them with how to hit the ball.  He was a funny guy.

Jennifer hit the balls farther at the beginning.  Ivan kept practicing and he was consistently hitting it farther. 

It was actually hard hitting the ball.  It takes a lot of practice. 

The restaurant at the golf course has the employees wear cute golf outfits. 

Ivan took a picture with one of the happy employees.  The employees at the hotel are really friendly.  Some nice hotels have snobby employees. 

We took a buggy back to the pool.  We were in time for the feeding of the turtles and fish.  An employee gave us stale bread.  We fed the bread to them.  They seemed really hungry.

We walked back to the room.  Ivan and Jennifer put on their swimsuits.  We walked to the pool area.  It’s so beautiful out there.  We got a big seat right by the pool.  There’s a big pool and a saltwater pool right below the big pool.  Ivan and Jennifer ordered a strawberry and chocolate ice cream scoop.  I got a banana scoop.  It was yummy.  I took a monkey nap.  Ivan and Jennifer watched part of the movie Meet the Fockers. 

The sunset turned out really nice.  Ivan and Jennifer swam around for a bit.  We headed back to the room shortly after.

We went to the Atrium Cafe for dinner.  Ivan ordered the risotto while Jennifer got the Nasi Goreng.  I got a nice dish of chicken stuffed with bananas.  Ivan’s risotto was way too cheesy.  We headed back to the room to get some rest. 

Posted on June 7th, 2009 under Borneo, Brunei, Food • RSS 2.0 feed • Leave a response, or trackback