Mar 28, 2007 01:34 AM
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We spent some time in Borneo. The Sultan is very Muslim and builds mosques everywhere, while his brother is a philandering playboy but he was made finance minister. He then left with one hundred billion dollars!
Borneo is the third largest island in the world. About 16 million people living here. It is divided into four regions, Kalimantan belongs to Indonesia, Sabah & Sarawak are part of Malaysia and the smallest, (Borneo), belongs to the Sultanate of Brunei.
We flew into Brunei from Bali to Brunei. This is a little country split into two part. It belongs to Borneo and is at the top of the island. Brunei is in the north west corner of the island of Borneo. The capital city is Bandar. About 22000 live here.We stayed a the Sheraton Utama. I would recommend it to anyone who comes here.
The Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque is the most important building. In the center of the city is the Royal Regalia Museum, ( it was built to celebrate the Silver Jubilee of His Majesty's accession to the throne in 1992).
One building we liked, (that you can enter for free), is huge theme park. The rides are all state of the art and it was like the teletubbies. If I like a ride I'd smile at the staff and say "again" and they smiled back and obliged me!! Then we flew north into Sabah, the other Malaysian state in Borneo. From Kota Kinabalu I caught a bus and when to Sandakan. We stayed at "Uncle Tans" guesthouse. One night for dinner I had an amazing mashed banana flowers in a tangy sauce.
We could visited Sepilo, which is the largest of four Orangutan rehabilitation centers in the world. There's a constant need for these places as jungle gets cleared for palm oil plantations and more and more orphaned Orangutans turn up , (the jungle clearance was one of the really depressing sights in Borneo). I went for a walk and 5 young Orangutans came lolloping down the grass and straight through the "no admittance gate" as if it wasn't there and began climbing all over me.
Orangutans are a species that could be found in the rainforests of Southeast Asia. Today they survive only on the islands of Borneo, (15, 000), and Sumatra, (10, 000). It is very sad that in about 10 years they may become extinct.
Thanks for reading my review.
©Lyla 2007
