25-apr-2025, Welcome back to my third and last story about Brunei.

Let me first start with a disclaimer; I have a great boss and even though I am in Brunei for business, the resorts where I am staying and which you will read about in this post ARE NOT PAID by my employer. The expenses for these resort are coming out of my own pocket, but since I have been working hard and I because can afford it, I treat myself to something nice and it’s worth it.

Last week I already got a small taste of luxury at the Empire resort (an absolute grand 5 star resort). This inspired me to book a few nights at this hotel together with Farah as a staycation in her own city. For those who did not read my previous posts, Farah is a beautiful local woman that I met online. We have become close since our first date, two weeks ago. Farah was able to find a great discount on the hotel and I booked the room for four days. In my last post I already tried to describe this place a bit, but now I will let my photos do the talking.

On a late Friday afternoon, after we both finish work, Farah picks me up at the hospital and we do the five minute drive to the Empire hotel. It has been a long day so first things first; a lap around the pool. It is a gigantic(!) pool, and it seems endless. It takes me nearly twenty minutes to swim all the way to the other end and back. And while I make my way back in the pool, the sun is slowly disappearing behind the South Chinese Sea. The multi-colored sky is absolute magnificent sight!

The next day I convince Farah to go for a short hike with me. First we do something of my choosing and in the afternoon we do something of Farah’s choosing, a perfect balance. We go to a nearby park Bukit Shahbandar and here we do the 9 hills track. It is not a difficult or long track but the weather is already very hot and the 90 minutes hike is enough to get our steps in for the day. It is a nice hike and I enjoyed the diversity of the track, especially hiking over a rocky path makes me feel like I am in the mountains (even though it was just a small hill).

After lunch we do a more leisure activity and hang out by the pool with a cold drink and snacks. We are both reading the same book so and we enjoy the topic of conversation that is being sparked by this book. It is a fun activity and a great way to get to know each other better on a deeper level.

We have an amazing time at this resort and the service and amenities are excellent. But the enormous size of this resort comes with a trade-off. Walking distances to other facilities are far, it feels like a hike to go from one place to the other within this resort. I don’t mind all the walking but Farah has a different idea of a relaxing staycation. And I don’t blame her, we all have are own preferences, but I did challenge her to walk to most places. Even though the resort provides buggies for people to go around, I have a hard time getting in because it goes against my sporty habits. But if this is the only disagreement we had on the entire trip, I think we did pretty well as two individuals who don’t know each other that well yet.

Because we have such an amazing weekend together, I decide to extend my stay with another weekend in Brunei before flying back to Bali. Farah is very happy with my decision and I have no doubt that I will not regret this decision either. The following weekend we plan a short road trip to Miri. Miri is a small city in Malaysia, and a two hour drive from Bandar Seri Begawan. Unfortunately we never had the chance to cross “our” bridge as we are going in the opposite direction.

I convince Farah to go for another hike on a Saturday morning. But compared to last week, this hike is less of a success. We go to the Grand Old Lady, Canada hill. It’s the hill where they struck oil for the first time and apparently there are several hiking tracks in this area. The only problem is that we don’t know this area and there are no maps or signposts to follow. We are very fortunate to run into a local guy, his name is Zool, who is happy to show us the way. We follow him to an overgrown dam that was built by the Japanese during WWII. We got a bit of a history lesson which I found very interesting and I agreed that the brickwork of this dam is fantastic. We didn’t stay long because the mosquitos are killing us and having to whack our way through the bushes under the hot sun is not for the fainthearted. It’s a whole new level of adventure that is not suitable for everybody. After the two hour hike we are back at the car and our dirty and smelly bodies could definitely used a long shower.

For the rest of the afternoon we take it easy and go out for nice food at a western cafe. Walk a bit through the city and go for a massage. The spa is a questionable establishment but we came in as “a couple” during the day… so nothing inappropriate happened. Probably would have been a much different experience if I would go alone and at night. The massage is cheap and not bad, but not great either.

Without Farah, my time in Brunei would never have been this memorable and amazing. I will always look back on my trip to Brunei with gratitude and joy. Except for one minor issue; me driving in her car. I had to leave the country with a bang… Literally!

On my last day in Brunei I caused minor damage to her car, mere hours before my flight. Of course I have lots of remorse of this happening, it was not intentional and definitely not a great way to end things. Although it was a bad experience, I like to see it from the positive side. In a stressful situation like this (Farah was in great shock because it is a new and expensive car), we both showed our real characters and I think we both handled the situation very well. We handled the situation without anger or hate, and we quickly looked for a solution without blame. Of course I will take responsibility for my actions and pay for the damages.

We say goodbye at the airport with uncertainty if and when we will see each other again. We agree to live in the moment and not think about the future. We both know what this trip was and wasn’t. We are very grateful for the things that happened and we leave our hopes and expectations at the door. We count our blessings!

~ THE END ~