I took a late afternoon bus to Brunei today, to head on towards Kota Kinabalue. The main concept was to go via Brunei, and since there was no direct bus from Miri to Kota Kinabalu. I wasn't sure if going to Brunei would allow me to get a new 3 month stay in Malaysia or whether they would stamp it as still departing for 4th September, so I wanted to leave myself enough time to explore Sabah.
The bus left at 3.45, and only took 40 minutes or so to get to the immigration check point, where we all disembarked and had to be processed through.
By 4.50 we had finished with all the checks and were now officially in Brunei. It was only at this point that I realised that my Malaysian sim card would not really work there, so I had no internet to keep in touch and update saying where I was unless I acted at that moment before losing Malaysian signal!
We reached Bandar Seri Begawan for 7.15, and I fended off the multiple taxi drivers trying to win fares, since my plan was to go to the youth center, which was within easy walking distance.
I managed to find an HSBC bank where I took out $100 brunei, which I felt would be enough to cover accomodation and food, then headed to find the youth center.
It initially looked closed, so I started trying to work out how to get to the hostel out of town , when someone in the youth center got my attention and indicated I could get in via the gate further along.
The hostel has no wifi so I had no means to check information for my onwards journey.
There was a mix up with the checkin process, and as I was checking the receipt noticed that I had paid for 3 nights instead of two nights, so went back, much the the person's disappointment, as he had to edit the triplicate receipt to show 2 nights payment instead. Apparently this was the first time in the 20 or so years he had worked there that such an error had been made!
I decided to hunt for a place that had wifi, and thought that Jollibee might be such a place, though I was mistaken. I ate a joy burger and fries anyway, and then headed to a coffee shop that I had been recommended for by teh Jollibee staff.
I got the wifi, and since Hotlink had sent me an SMS advising I could buy some roaming data at a good rate deciedd to top up for that too - though the customer services had been unable to top me up over the phone - I had to use the wifi.
I got back to the hostel, and headed to sleep.