Trip Report: Brunei & KL '22
Summary
- Brunei is a great destination for Singaporeans on an eco-tourism package. Singapore dollars are used everywhere, and the jungle landscape (seems) lovely.
- Kuala Lumpur is a great place to work remotely.
- Coffee hand grinders can make airport security suspicious.
- Airports don’t have Wi-Fi.
2022 Aug 07 Sunday
The commute Changi took 30 minutes, from my front door in Geylang to the East-West line to Changi T1 and the Skytrain to Changi T3. Singapore’s trains are well oiled machines.
If you never miss a flight, you’re spending too much of your life in airports. I’ve always arrived 3 hours before my international flights and I’ve never missed one of them. To cut back on my airport time I arrived at Changi 2.5 hours before my flight, and on reflection I could have comfortably arrived a mere 2 hours before.
Flight TR 430 SIN-KCH (Scoot)
The flight was right on time. We started taxiing at 18:05, took off at 18:20, landed in Kuching at 19:28 and seatbelts unfastened at 19:33.
I had no checked baggage and no one weighed my carry-on (7kg exactly). The flight was completely full, I got the last overhead compartment. Just as well, I’d have had to check my carry-on as it was too big to go under the seat!
Kuching Airport
For the first time ever, I booked a connecting flight as a separate ticket. Scheduled touch-down at 19:35 and take off at 21:30, just shy of two hours to transfer. This panned out well (because neither flight was with AirAsia), but it did require some fleet footwork at the airport
Flight TR 430 landed at the gate right next to my next one. I asked the staff if I needed to go out to get my ticket and they said, sadly yes, you rascally Australian you. I cleared immigration in no time (Passport stamped) and lined up at baggage check-in to get my boarding pass.
The staff at check-in were super suspicious that I was travelling to Brunei. Their eyebrows cocked as if to say, no one goes to Brunei for tourism, you rascally Australian you. They inspected my Passport, but not my vaccine certificate. On my phone, I showed them my e-health declaration and travel insurance - thankfully the airport had Wi-Fi even though ‘Airports don’t have Wi-Fi’. They were a little suss of my travel insurance, possibly because Brunei requires insurance in case of Covid but my policy looked like generic traveller insurance. It passed muster nonetheless. I got my boarding pass.
I moved on through emigration. The staff cocked their eyebrows and noted that I was in Kuching for only a day - less than that I corrected them, I’ve just come out and in to get my boarding pass. They didn’t say anything and let me through (Passport stamped). By 20:42 I was back where I started at the gate for my next flight.
The transfer took 45 minutes all up, a snappy manoeuvre thanks to the fact that the airport was small and its flights uncrowded. Larger airports would require a full 2 hours.
Flight BI 856 KCH-BWN (Royal Brunei)
I was too tired to time this flight.
Brunei Airport
Immigration was split into Brunei Passports, ASEAN, Other, and Duty. I lined up for ASEAN because everyone else seemed to be doing it and Australia’s in ASEAN right? Instead needed to go to Duty to buy my Visa on arrival. It was $20 SGD and they took Singapore dollars (as does everywhere in Brunei, their currency is pegged 1:1 to SGD). Passport stamped.
The airport had six free Wi-Fi networks, but none of them worked because airports don’t have Wi-Fi. Fortunately my airport shuttle guy found me as soon as I emerged from emigration. We waited five minutes for the other shuttle-ees to emerge - turns out they were the couple before me at Kuching check-in.
Brunei looked super modern on the ride to the hotel. The road was lined with manicured lawns and gardens within roundabouts. However, the tarmac was patchy and I’d see in the morning that many surfaces were rough or cracked.
2022 Aug 08 Monday
Bandar Seri Bagawan, Brunei Darussalam
tl;dr a pretty serviceable city centre. I came to get work done without distraction and it certainly delivered. For normal travellers, Bandar Seri Bagawan is probably better as a hub for catching a speedboat up to an eco-tourism park.
I ended my tour-a-pied of the city by ducking into a nice cafe to work on personal stuff.
Piccolo Cafe
Very nice long black and a bulletproof coffee. They had a $20 minimum on PayWave but they waived it (badum-tish) each time because I was taking too long to pay with QR code. Should have brought more Singapore dollars!
I spent five hours there cleaning my financial transaction data from 2016-2020. Goes to show that good data science is 70% data cleaning, 20% conceptualisation and 10% coding. Hopefully I’ll have some data visualisation to share soon.
Roasted Sip (Cafe)
A perfectly fine cafe with a range of quiches, no Wi-Fi and no PayWave minimum! I spent two hours cleaning financial transactions from 2020-2021. The sun was really hot out, I should have brought an Akubra!
Back to the hotel for dinner and to enjoy the sunset from the balcony.
2022 Aug 09 Tuesday
Brunei Airport
The shuttle dropped us at Brunei International at 07:45. I should have completed my online check-in at the hotel using their Wi-Fi. Instead I tried to check-in at the airport but I face-planted because airports don’t have Wi-Fi. I lined up at the AirAsia baggage check to pay $11 SGD for my boarding pass. They checked my Passport and weighed my bag, at 7.3kg I was 300g overweight, you rascally Australian you, but the staff didn’t care. No one checked my vaccine certificate. I got my boarding pass.
Security rifled through my bag as they were very intrigued by my coffee hand grinder. I gotta keep it, but n.b. coffee grinders might trip up biosecurity elsewhere. They took my water bottle, which was no great loss. I cleared emmigration to issue (Passport stamped).
Flight AK 273 BWN-KUL (AirAsia)
Quick flight is a good flight. I was in the seat by 09:15, we started taxiing at 09:29 and at 09:38 achieved liftoff. We flew over the main Riau Island which was cool (see photo).
As we began our descent the in-flight announcement warned us about Monkeypox. How fast the world turns. Wheels down at 11:47 and seatbelt undone at 11:52. I cleared the gate at 11:59, which goes to show that when sitting all the way up the back only takes 7 minutes to leave the plane (sample of one, but still useful to know).
There are great airports like Changi, there are small airports like Bandar Seri Bagawan, and there are Heathrow-level airports like Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA). I cleared the gate at 11:59 and cleared immigration by 12:25, I only needed to show my Passport (Passport stamped). The train from KLIA to the city arrived at Sentral at 13:22.
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
You can catch an airport train from KLIA to Sentral, and it's great but it does take a good 45-60 minutes to arrive. Once there, however, you're right in the heart of KL.
Yew Yew Cafe
The fine reviewers at Google Maps informed me that Transparent Cafe was very good. However, Grab Car struggled to plot a path from Sentral to that fine establishment, so I went to Yew Yew Cafe in Chinatown, which Google also endorsed.
The drivers’ English was plenty good to be understood, but it’s a step change from Singapore. Never hurts to dial up the friendliness to 11 and wave around unambiguous indicators of intent - show them on your phone where you want to go, point at the Visa sticker and do your best “do you take PayWave” face.
Yew Yew’s long black was really good, would seek out on a return trip. I think it’s a chain, as a billboard in KLIA 2 promised one would open there soon.
Kuala Lumpur City
I blew off everything else on my Google Maps ‘Want to Do’ list because I had a large backpack and felt like working. However, one doesn’t come to KL to only work from cafe. So I walked through the most central of the central business district in a giant loop back to Chinatown, from whence I could indeed work from cafe.
Coconut Club
This place ain’t the fanciest, and I had to point at the menu to order a kopi. But by gum was the kopi with condensed milk nice and the Wi-Fi lickety quick. The interior decor was plain old industrial chic, but the cafe opposite was a beguiling Chinese terrace encased in creeping vines.
Flight 3K 688 KUL-SIN (Jetstar)
This time I failed to break my habit of arriving too early at airports. The flight was 21:20 and the train reached KLIA station at 18:06. Despite faffing about on my way to KLIA 2 (you see, KLIA is just for Malaysia & AirAsia, KLIA 2 is for serfs like those of us who fly JetStar). After a light mountaineering expedition, I found the KLIA-KLIA2 shuttle bus station at 18:32. The shuttle took me 18:46. There's a heart stopping moment where the shuttle drives a few kilometers away from KLIA 1 & 2 towards KL, but then u-turns over the highway to take the KLIA 2 entrance ramp.
I cleared check-in at 19:18, cleared emigration at 19:23, and through security at 19:53 after much loitering at the gift shop. I worked on some R coding for an hour, boarded at 20:55 and had my seatbelt on at 21:02. We began to taxi at 21:15 and achieved liftoff at 21:21 an exemplar of punctuality. Global reports of mass cancellations weren’t seen on this trip.
We landed at 21:57 ahead of schedule by 30 minutes! The flight staff even announced it on touch down. Seatbelt off at 22:05 and through the gate at 22:12. Through immigration at 22:18, I caught the MRT at 22:31, reached Aljunied by 22:57 and through my front door at 23:07. Just over an hour from touchdown to my front door.
What a belated, brief and beautiful trip.
Reflections
Brunei a land of contrasts
- Good coffee, no alcohol.
- Lush gardens, cracked surfaces.
- Gorgeous mosques, dilapidated offices.
- Patchy pay-wave, accepts Singapore dollars.
AER Travel Pack 3 Notes
- Load lifters made a small but noticeable difference, less weight flying around behind me.
- Padding felt good, at least walking through the airport. See how it goes for long periods of walking in heat.
- Was a bit of a pain to hang in the bathroom stall. I suggest that you clip a carabiner around the top loop for ease of hanging.
- Top pocket was excellent for stowing all my pocket gear for the security metal detector. Laptop really easy to access to put through too, much better than the LBB Peloton.
- Fit within the AirAsia dimensions easily, although it was only half packed by volume on this trip.
