https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8P_xTBpAcY
So I’m still in Kota Kinabalu, but due to fly back to Jakarta tomorrow. While I was here, I thought I’d take the chance to visit Brunei. I’ve always wanted to go… for no real reason other than it’s there.
Everyone I’d spoken to who’d been said, politely, that it’s not the most exciting place in the world. So me visiting during Ramadan… well…
One thing I didn’t fully clock is that during Ramadan in Brunei, it’s not just that Muslims fast during daylight hours. Even as a non-Muslim, if you buy food or drink you can’t consume it in public. You can’t be seen eating or drinking. So shops are open to sell food and drink to non-Muslims… but you cannot consume it onsite.
This insight changed my plans. I decided to get some work done on my laptop during the day, then planned a simple evening: walk a couple of kilometres to a local night food market after sunset, get some food, see what it’s about. Easy.
About halfway there I’m walking along a big main road and a car pulls up alongside me.
“Hey, where are you going?”
“The night market.”
“Oh, I can give you a lift.”
I politely declined, saying I was happy to walk, take in the sights, see what Brunei is about.
The reply was something along the lines of, “There is nothing to see on this road. Let me give you a lift.”
He kept persisting, and his wife was in the front seat, so eventually I thought: he really wants to give me a lift and he seems nice enough.
So I jump in the back and we start chatting. Turns out he went to university in Swansea. He asks what I’m doing while I’m there and I say, honestly, “No idea… just taking it as it comes.” He asks what football team I support, I say Arsenal and that I plan on finding a place to watch them the following night. He suggests that I should come to his house to watch the game. I gave the kind of answer that isn’t a yes or a no… polite, non-committal.
He drops me at the night market and asks for my number so he can message about tomorrow. I give it, don’t think much of it, and head into the market feeling fairly hungry.
And the place is… basically empty. Everyone’s wrapping up. I’m thinking, hang on… you’ve just finished fasting. Surely this is when it should be busy? But no, it’s closing down.
So I thought, right, I’ll go into the city centre. It’s the capital after all. At worst I’ll have a wander.