Days 269-270 – The longest flight and no complaints

Sometimes I feel that all my traveling boils down to some kind of an 'airport challenge' game. Every time I pass a 'level' successfully, a new challenge comes my way: flights and layovers get longer, seats on the plane get narrower, and airports get dirtier. Frankly, after this last level – Brunei-KL (2 hours), KL airport layover (6 hours), KL-Tashkent (7 hours + 1 hour of delay = 8 hours), Tashkent airport layover (4 hours), Tashkent-St.Petersburg (5 hours) – I'm afraid to resume the game…

Word of advice: If you can help it, do NOT fly Uzbek Airlines!

On the bright side, this trip gave me ample time to process and catalogue all the impressions I was able to make during my one day in Brunei:

This is a very strange place…

During our 6-star (!) hotel inspection last night we all agreed on one thing: the place is a bit spooky – during the hour we walked around its territory we saw maybe 2 people (both staff); it seems like some mysterious happening made everybody flee in panic leaving its long corridors, huge gyms and posh shops strangely deserted. A ghost hotel...

This morning, we realized that it's not just the hotel that has this ghost feel about it – the entire city seems to be deserted. There was nobody in a huge mosque that can host 10,000 people; there was nobody on the main town promenade; there was nobody but staff (maybe zombies?) in the store we bought the disgusting "king of fruits" durian. This is a VERY strange place…

This is a very dry place…

It is really strange to be in a place where the dry law is in effect. Officially, you cannot buy alcohol anywhere in the country (of course, not true in reality: obviously there are places selling "the goods" illegally). Non-muslims are allowed to bring alcohol into the country, but there's a certain limit per person and you have to declare it.

I hadn't drunk one alcoholic beverage for the past 2 weeks, but of course the second I set my foot on Brunei ground, I was longing for a drink! Everybody felt the same way, so we had a mini-party with rum and coke behind a closed door of our hotel room.

This is a very generous place…

Brunei government offers a lot of benefits to the locals. One that pierced my heart is this: if the University doesn't offer certain subjects that you want to take, as a student you can choose to go study in the UK. Not only your tuition and living expenses will be paid in full, but you will also be given a stipend of 500 pounds a month, and also some money for "warm clothes". Of course, it's impossible to get citizenship in this country…