Images of Brunei, Part II

Although we would have loved to head to the jungles of Brunei, which surely is the most exotic aspect of traveling in Brunei, we stayed in the cities/towns, with some country road driving in our rental car, especially the lovely road out to Labi from our hotel in Kuala Belait. Having two young kiddies with us, especially our less-than-one-year-old son, prompted us to not do any jungle trekking. However, we still found much to do and see, for Brunei is relatively family friendly, and some of that even included drives around neighborhoods to see what life was like away from the main attractions. Thus, I have quite a few photos here of housing styles (in somewhat affluent and middle-class neighborhoods).

Perhaps these photos aren’t the bread-and-butter, award-winning travel pics that are featured in the likes of National Geo, but a running gazelle doesn’t tell you as much about the culture of a place as shots of someone’s home, where you might see aspects of daily life (okay, that’s a bit of a stretch just to give me a sense of purpose here). One aspect of living there, which I don’t see in Taiwan, where we live, is the secure feeling that the homes and neighborhoods exude. Taiwanese single-family homes, similar to some of the ones in this blog, which are relatively rare, are barred on the windows and fenced in with ten-foot walls to ward off intruders, with security cameras scanning the perimeter of the home. In the pictures here (and when we were driving around the places), I don’t notice as many security measures. How I’d love to live in a place that still has that sense of safeness.