On Saturday, bright and early (7.30), we all set off on our first Brunei adventure. We had seen information about Brunei's largest lake, and the natural park around it, and on the island in it, and thought it was worth a visit. In addition, I'm going to a lecture at the university about it's flora and fauna, so it was a bit of a research trip too. The lake is called “Tasek Merimbun“.
We left the urban sprawl where we live, and set out along the coast road, south, towards the Tutong district. The coast road is beautiful, not the smoothest of road surfaces, but not bad (considering the weather these roads have to deal with, they're excellent), and the central reservation is as beautifully planted and maintained as any formal garden I've seen. There are small groups of men in big straw hats always pruning, clipping, sweeping, from dawn till dusk. How they cope in the heat is beyond me, but the results of their labours are wonderful.
Town and concrete soon gave way to forest, with occasional glimpses of the sea to our right. After half an hour we had reached Tutong, a small, unremarkable town, with a few “supermarkets” (shacks), local shops and a gleaming HSBC. It's here that the Tutong river, which rises down in Sarawak (Malaysian Borneo) reaches the sea. We turned left, south, and followed a small road upriver. Again, it amazes me how good the roads are. They have to deal with 30+ temperatures every day, and tropical downpours most nights, and most of the time, they're perfectly good. The road we were on led from nowhere to nowhere, but was fine.
After a while of meandering, and passing many typical Brunei houses (look ancient, built on stilts), we picked up signs for Tasek Merimbun and followed them, mostly through forested areas. When we got there, we saw a sign that gave us quite a surprise. Firstly it was in English (all roadsigns here are in Malay and/or Arabic), and secondly it warned of the lake being inhabited by crocodiles. At this point, I'm getting quite excited and Becca's getting quite concerned. Getting out of the car, the heat hit us (again). It was only 8.30 by now, but a cloudless sky meant that the temperature was heading up into the 30s.
One of the features of Tasek Merimbun is the wooden walkway that takes you all the way out over the lake and across to the island in the middle. We'd seen pictures (see the galleries section on the left of this page), and I was lookig forward to going over.
(Try imagining Indiana Jones music here.) The bridge was, ahem, rustic. It had, no doubt, once been a stunning piece of bridge building. There were shelters along the way, with benches upon which to rest and escape the heat, and admire the (truely wonderful) views. Alas, maintenance was not good. The planks creaked underfoot with every step, and quite a few were flexible enough to inject a bit of bounce into one's step. Every now and then, we passed the remains of a plank that had falled victim to rot and / or termites. Progress was slow. By this stage we were about 20 metres from the shoreline! Becca, thankfully, had her sensible thinking hat on, and refused point blank to go any further. I gladly agreed that we should go back, as being on a rickety, semi-rotten bridge over crocodile infested waters was not my idea of a great Saturday out for all the family.
We got back to the shore (alive!), had a little wander around the shoreline, and set off back home. We found a quicker, less pretty route to take us back, and were home within three-quarters of an hour.
Whatever does live on the island, it's perfectly safe from us!
posted @ Monday, January 16, 2006 5:15 AM