Going up ASEAN Bridge(coz the bridge is super high) will cost you B$3, unless you're driving a bus and trucks. Somehow my truck was categorized as a saloon car. ASEAN Bridge is about the same height and length as the bridge to Sibu, but the one in Sibu will cost (tol) you RM10! And who says everything in Sibu is cheap?!?!?
Anyway, as soon as you enter Brunei (Sungai Tujuh), the atmosphere will be different. The road is smooth and straight, just like the ones in West Malaysia, but to your left and right you'll see virgin forest! When I mention virgin forest, it means that the trees are mostly large, greener and looking a lot fresher. Since oil is their main source of income, they're not in use of timber for money (for now la owh, maybe they're for the next generation).
The Brunei highway stretches all the way to the heart of Brunei, Bandar Seri Begawan. However, if you're planning to drive straight to Limbang, cutting routes through old roads will actually save you 1 hour rather than using the highway to the Limbang-Brunei checkpoint. Since the old route basically goes through smaller villages and towns, one can easily get lost.
Say hello to my friend, GPRS! Without it, I don't think we could have gone out of Sibu easily.... that is how useful a GPRS can be. But we didn't plan to go straight to Limbang. Since we're passing through Brunei, might as well we drive around and take a few photos.
An incident occured when we were going through Brunei. You see, since we're going to drive for a while, we stopped at a near petrol station for toilet break. A car suddenly pulled over behind us and suddenly talked to my sister's bf. He was lost and he basically followed us because he was assuming we were going to Limbang. If you're driving a car with a Malaysian plate number, you'll either going to Limbang/Lawas/Sabah or to Miri/Bintulu/Kuching. Malaysian don't really go to Brunei as a tourist ba...mahal..and nothing much to do (no booze..no pork also..haiya).... Anyway, he told us that he'll tag along with us until Brunei-Limbang border, from there on he knows his way la.
At that time, we haven't jalan-jalan, but he insisted that he'll just follow us. We drove to city center, took photos of the famous mosque (the one with gold plated dome), went to Kampung Air (they even have their school built above water!!) and also... well, that's it. Like I've said, nothing much in Brunei. We stopped for a while at the Kampung Air area to have a drink and light snacks. Dad talked a little with our tail-gater. He's heading to Lawas from Sibu. The guy is half Iban and half Lunbawang. It's a good thing we helped him la, coz mana tau he's related to my gf. Lunbawang is such a minority in Sarawak that you can basically assume they're all related.
Anyway, we found out he was running out of petrol and he doesn't have any Brunei dollar. To make things worse, in Brunei we (Malaysia) can't purchase their fuel. It's because their's are very cheap! I took a peek and their diesel is like B$0.56, that will be like RM1.20 per liter. Here, diesel is RM1.80 per liter, that's 60 cents cheaper!!!! So that's why we can't buy fuel there. It bothers me a little, because that dude was running out of petrol and common la... it's not like we want to fill full tank... any amount that can ensure he reaches the nearest petrol station in Limbang will be enough. I guess it's true that most Brunei people looks down on Malaysian simply because they're 'richer'. We stopped at a few stations, hoping that someone will have some pity, but it never happened. No choice but to take the risk to drive on to Limbang-Brunei border.
We had to drive slowly, just in case his car habis minyak.... then along the road to the only road to Limbang-Brunei border, there's a petrol station and there were a few Malaysian cars there. He wanted to give it another shot and dad gave him B$10... well, not all Brunei people are that bad eh... with B$10, he nearlly filled half of his tank..wow! After that detour we drove on and we bid farewell to the stranger at the Limbang-Brunei checkpoint. He went on with his travel to Lawas while we followed our trail to Purnama Hotel Limbang, as shown by our GPRS....
(to be continued)
