Theme Week Brunei – Bandar Seri Begawan

29 May 2021 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  11 minutes

Omar Ali Saifuddin Mosque © Daniel Weiss/cc-by-sa-3.0

Omar Ali Saifuddin Mosque © Daniel Weiss/cc-by-sa-3.0

Bandar Seri Begawan (formerly known as Brunei Town) is the capital and largest city of Brunei. It is officially governed as a municipality (Malay: bandaran). Bandar Seri Begawan has an estimated population of 100,700, and including the whole Brunei-Muara District, the metro area has an estimated population of 279,924, over half the population of the country.   read more…

Theme Week Brunei – Ulu Temburong National Park

28 May 2021 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Palaces, Castles, Manors, Parks Reading Time:  5 minutes

Visitor registration © Bruneimaju/cc-by-sa-3.0

Visitor registration © Bruneimaju/cc-by-sa-3.0

Ulu Temburong National Park is the first national park to be established in Brunei, protected since 1991. The park is in Temburong District in eastern Brunei, and covers about 40% of the district in the south at 550 square kilometres (210 sq mi). It is within the Batu Apoi Forest Reserve. The park contains unspoiled jungle and is known as the “Green Jewel of Brunei”, described as “the finest example of the sultanate’s successful forest protection policy”. The principal rivers are the Temburong and Belalong Rivers. It is an important ecotourism centre in Brunei and hosts the Ulu Ulu Resort. The Peradayan Forest Reserve is also located in the district.   read more…

Theme Week Brunei – Kuala Belait

27 May 2021 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  8 minutes

© flickr.com - IQRemix/cc-by-sa-2.0

© flickr.com – IQRemix/cc-by-sa-2.0

Kuala Belait, officially known in Malay as Pekan Kuala Belait (literally ‘Kuala Belait Town’), is a town located in the westernmost part of Brunei, in Belait District. It is the second largest settlement in the country after Bandar Seri Begawan, the capital of Brunei, and functions as the capital for the district. Kuala Belait is officially a municipality (Malay: bandaran), as well as a village-level subdivision under the mukim or subdistrict of the same name. Kuala Belait literally means “the mouth of the Belait River” in the Malay language. Its name comes from kuala meaning either confluence of two rivers or the mouth of a river, and Belait, the name of the river and district. It is also known locally as “Belait”. When needed to distinguish it from the district of the same name, it is known locally as “KB town” in English or “Pekan Belait” in Malay.   read more…

Theme Week Brunei – Muara

26 May 2021 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  7 minutes

Muara Port © Balou46/cc-by-sa-3.0

Muara Port © Balou46/cc-by-sa-3.0

Muara is a town in the north-easternmost part of Brunei-Muara District, Brunei. It is officially known in Malay as Pekan Muara (literally ‘Muara Town’) but is administered as a village-level subdivision under the mukim or subdistrict of Serasa. Muara has no municipal body. It is home to Muara Port, the main and only deep-water port of the country. The postcode for Muara is BT1128.   read more…

Theme Week Brunei – Brunei Bay

25 May 2021 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  3 minutes

Panorama of Bandar Seri Begawan, 2018 © Zulfadli51/cc-by-sa-4.0

Panorama of Bandar Seri Begawan, 2018 © Zulfadli51/cc-by-sa-4.0

Brunei Bay is on the northwestern coast of Borneo island, in Brunei and Malaysia. Brunei Bay is located east of Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei.   read more…

Theme Week Brunei

24 May 2021 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Bon voyage, Theme Weeks Reading Time:  12 minutes

Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddin Mosque © flickr.com - sam garza/cc-by-2.0

Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddin Mosque © flickr.com – sam garza/cc-by-2.0

Brunei, officially the Nation of Brunei, the Abode of Peace, is a country located on the north coast of the island of Borneo in Southeast Asia. Apart from its coastline with the South China Sea, the country is completely surrounded by the Malaysian state of Sarawak. It is separated into two parts by the Sarawak district of Limbang. Brunei is the only sovereign state completely on the island of Borneo; the remainder of the island’s territory is divided between the nations of Malaysia and Indonesia. Brunei’s population was 428,963 in 2018. The government is an absolute monarchy under the sovereign rule of Sultan and Yang di-Pertuan, which implements a combination of English common law and sharia law, as well as direct general Islamic practices. The population is at 460,000.   read more…

Theme Week Malaysia – Federal Territory of Labuan

28 November 2019 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  10 minutes

Kwang Fook Kong Temple © CEphoto, Uwe Aranas/cc-by-sa-3.0

Kwang Fook Kong Temple © CEphoto, Uwe Aranas/cc-by-sa-3.0

Labuan, officially the Federal Territory of Labuan, is a federal territory of Malaysia. It is made up of the eponymous Labuan Island and six smaller islands, and is located off the coast of the state of Sabah in East Malaysia. Labuan’s capital is Victoria and is best known as an offshore financial centre offering international financial and business services via Labuan IBFC since 1990 as well as being an offshore support hub for deepwater oil and gas activities in the region. It is also a tourist destination for people travelling through Sabah, nearby Bruneians and scuba divers. The name Labuan derives from the Malay word labuhan which means harbour. Labuan is often referred to as the pearl of Borneo.   read more…

Theme Week Malaysia – Kuching

26 November 2019 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  9 minutes

Damai Beach Resort north of Kuching © flickr.com - Bernard DUPONT/cc-by-sa-2.0

Damai Beach Resort north of Kuching © flickr.com – Bernard DUPONT/cc-by-sa-2.0

Kuching, officially the City of Kuching, is the capital and the most populous city in the state of Sarawak in Malaysia. It is also the capital of Kuching Division. The city is situated on the Sarawak River at the southwest tip of the state of Sarawak on the island of Borneo and covers an area of 431 square kilometres (166 sq mi) with a population about 165,642 in the Kuching North administrative region and 159,490 in the Kuching South administrative region – a total of 325,132 people.   read more…

Theme Week Malaysia

25 November 2019 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Bon voyage, Theme Weeks, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  13 minutes

Fort Cornwallis in Penang, first British colony in what was to become Malaysia © Cmglee/cc-by-sa-3.0

Fort Cornwallis in Penang, first British colony in what was to become Malaysia © Cmglee/cc-by-sa-3.0

Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. The federal constitutional monarchy consists of 13 states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two similarly sized regions, Peninsular Malaysia and East Malaysia (Malaysian Borneo). Peninsular Malaysia shares a land and maritime border with Thailand and maritime borders with Singapore, Vietnam, and Indonesia. East Malaysia shares land and maritime borders with Brunei and Indonesia and a maritime border with the Philippines and Vietnam. Kuala Lumpur is the national capital and largest city while Putrajaya is the seat of the federal government (List of cities and towns in Malaysia by population). With a population of over 30 million, Malaysia is the world’s 44th most populous country. The southernmost point of continental Eurasia, Tanjung Piai, is in Malaysia. In the tropics, Malaysia is one of 17 megadiverse countries, home to large numbers of endemic species.   read more…

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