Azzans Adventures

Brunei
We checked out of Malaysia and made the 20 mile journey across to Brunei to the port of Maura, a really nice run. Again we motored, so filled we filled all the water tanks as we wouldn't be able to make water once there as it is a large estuary. A short dinghy ride from the anchorage had us at the Immigration, customs and Marine department jetty for our 14 day visa processing, in an easy process and all very helpful.
We anchored outside the Serasa Royal Brunei Yacht club and joined as temporary members, at a cost of $5 Brunei a day, this is pretty good value as it gave us access to all the club facilities (pool, workshop, restaurant, air-conditioned wardroom, showers, laundry and most importantly jerry cans to cart the Fuel at 31 cents a litre for diesel.
We don't usually order beef steaks here in Asia as the quality is not what we get back at home, but we were assured the steaks were excellent so had to give it a go, it was great NZ tender beef, so a fair few were consumed over the next 2 weeks.
While here we arranged to do a trip inland to Brunei's Tamburong national park, with an Australia tour operator, Intrepid Tours. The Brunie rainforest is regarded as some of the best left in Borneo as it is relatively untouched . Our trip was a great mix of experiences, firstly we travelled through Brunei bays mangrove islands in a 30 ft cabin cruiser Taxi, powered by twin 250 HP out boards a 45 minute ride to reach our destination of Bangar township, from here we had a short bus ride to our Long-house accommodation on the Tamburong river. The long-house is a Borneo Iban native living tradition where whole family groups live in the one dwelling, very communal. We were presented with a lovely local dish of chicken cooked with a few local herbs in a Piece of bamboo, really interesting and nice flavours. We travelled with another couple, Steve & Pat from the yacht Silver Tern from Canada, Steve is a Marine Biologist, so we got to learn all the correct terms for most fauna & flora. Our Guide was a local man D-nose, who knew the area well and was very entertaining and informative. We had an early 5am breakfast, again traditional food and then a short bus ride to catch our longboat (Temuai) for a trip up river, amazing vessels powered by 15hp outboards. The boats are balanced so that the propeller has just enough water to drive it up through the rapids, amazing skills by the driver as well. This trip took us about an hour through some really spectacular untouched rainforest and waterways, well worth the trip. The next leg was a 1000 step climb up into the mountains to a forest Canopy walk in the hope of spotting a gibbon monkey, no luck there but we could hear them calling across the valley to each other. Again great views of the rainforest and surrounding areas. We were also in luck weather wise as no rain and clear skies, a rarity in these parts. The trip back was as spectacular as the trip up, a short stop at a waterfall and some interesting little fish that attack you so that they can eat the dead skin off your body, not fussy where they eat either!!!, A lovely lunch on the stony river bank and then a rock skipping compitition, Jamie kicked arse, years of practice.