| PART
TWO: DODGY PARCEL
Next
day was a visit to the rainforest of Brunei one of the most regulated
and controlled in the World. These trips if taken as a single can
become quite expensive as most tour groups will charge for two people
even if only one is going.
Secret
package
The
secret is to go downtown and see if you can arrange a trip through
the Brunei tourism. This I was able to do with the help of Asri
from the office, at a single rate he even picked me up early a the
hotel, delivering me to the riverfront, finding my mortised narrow
longboat, and left me with a package to give to a Mr Moksin who
would meet me on arrival at Banger.
 |
| Intrepid trio on their final trip to the Brunei
rainforest, near a waterfall |
It
began to feel like a good old fashioned Hollywood adventure, even
more so after an hour up river with the adjacent rainforest appearing
ever denser, the thought too crossed my mind that I had no idea
where I was heading, for how long and whether or not Mr Moksin would
be there to greet me when I arrived, he was.
The
boat after just over an hour turned a bend in the river, the curtain
could have opened on an Amazonian up river port, there was a bridge
connecting both banks, several large concrete building, housing
stores and river houses alongside.
There
were about 800 people living and working here including a teacher
from England who I met on the quayside briefly, she'd been living
in Banger for about five years.
To
my relief, Mr Moksin a very fit looking ex services helicopter pilot
in his mid sixties was waiting for me, Ulrich with Thomas from Frankfurt
arrived on the next boat completed our party.
Malaysia
visit
We
left the town which incidentally lies only two miles from the Malaysian
border, I could even say I had been to Malaysia as I discovered
the boat had crossed through Malaysian river sections several times
on its way to Banger.
Mr
Moksin organises these rainforest trips, the national parks of Brunei
also limits these visits on a conservation basis.
We
arrived at a riverside base where we met up with our two very good
guides and in their company were taken by canoe for another half
hour along the river before disembarking and heading up 1026 wooden
steps to the roof of the rainforest where there was a 100 metre
canopy rooftop walk.
 |
| The
River Port, Banger |
After
returning to the river we took a branch line stream, walking along
a very uneven stream bed and clambering over the sides often with
rope support, we arrived after about an hour at a cascading waterfall
gushing high up from the dense but massively varied shaped and coloured
rainforest.
Tropical
fruit
We
arrived back to a packed hot meal with tropical fruit of course,
before setting off on our return along some fast flowing rapids
and back to Banger and eventually returning to Bandar Seri Begawan,
this time on a very packed and claustrophobic peak time, water taxi.
It
was time to repack for the journey to Australia, and times like
that confirm traveling light and washing more on lengthy journeys
is definitely the way to go.
Brisbane
bound
The
flight to Brisbane was on time though it felt longer maybe because
now I finally couldn't wait to get back, "Down Under"
again. Just one hitch and panic, on presentation of my passport
at Brunei, they could not find my electronically attached visa.
That
simply confirmed my suspicion and lack of confidence in computer
documentation as opposed to a piece of tangible evidence I could
refer to and pull out of my passport.
 |
| Richard
on the top of Mount Cootha overlooking Brisbane |
40
tense minutes later I was informed it had been located in some computer
in Canberra, I refrained from saying it hadn't made much progress
since last February!
Out
of the plane's window I could see the meandering of the Brisbane
River below and the illuminated Storey Bridge. I was back in my
second home and need not have worried about the irrelevancies such
as visas, there was a state of euphoria on the ground.
Australia
had just defeated the Kiwis in the semi-final of the Rugby World
Cup. When I arrived at my pal Bill's in Loganville at Bayside the
priority was to get the video on as soon as possible, unzip a stubby
and relax.
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