Our Journey on the Boat

I really felt obliged to help with the KNK or Kenali Negara Kita programme. So today I brought the kids and their cousins on a package tour to the last bastion of pristine jungle in Bumi Bertuah or for that matter Borneo! It is so ironic that the kids have been to variety of places during our travel but never to our own backyard - Temburong.

I could recall that the first 'Visit Brunei' campaign programme was back in 2001 and was expecting a lot has been done especially with Temburong being the jewel of the eco-tourism. I am happy to say that a lot has been done although they should also look at those little details as well. For example, the jetty and waiting area for the boat to Temburong were quite basic. The ticket booths look like cardboard boxes and the waiting area was small. And there were no information sign showing the boat schedule or the price. This might be acceptable for the locals but would be quite an inconvenient for tourists who need to be guided by easily visible information.

The outward trip was on the standard speed boat which took 45 minutes to reach Bangar. That was fun. Although the return trip was much better, on a bigger and faster boat. That one only took 30 minutes. I asked the driver what was his maximum speed. I could hardly believe it when he showed me the speedometer - 42 km/hr.

For those like us who seldom go on a boat, the river scenery was breathtaking. First was when passing through the brackish water territory and seeing a never ending sight of mangrove trees lining up the river banks. Then as soon as the tidal influence reached its limit further up the Temburong river, we could see the mangrove trees started to disappear and to be dominated by normal trees.