Asia

[Visited: February 2001]

Brunei actually is a small speck on the huge island of Borneo, with which it shares the rainforest. Rainforests know no borders! As you approach Bandar by air, you already notice its vast greenness. While going by boat from Bandar to Bangar in the Temburong area, you only see the earth-brown river, the blue-grey sky and the seemlingly endless virgin forest. Depending on the light its colour shows as emerald, bright, lime, grey, dark, brown.
Bangar is a small town on the banks of the Temburong river. Not very interesting in itself, but a good starting point to explore the area. While the Temburong National Park unfortunately was off-limits for me, I decided to go to Bukit Patoi in the east, near the border of Malaysia. In order to spare the earth as much as possible the walkway is almost entirely constructed using wooden planks.
The walk to Bukit Patoi takes you through the dense jungle, with all its colours, sounds of animals that remain largely invisible, and silence at the same time. The dense vegetation blocks your view of the sky, sunlight trickles through only sporadically, the trees providing for a natural, high roof. Then, suddenly, the forest opens, you see that you have climbed a few hundred metres, and the view is great. Bukit Patoi is a rocky platform from which you can see all around, you can get a glimpse of the ocean, the nearby Sarawak jungle, hills in a distance. But, above all,you can appreciate the power of this enormous green ocean.

Around the World in 80 Clicks

Personal travel impressions both in words and images from Bukit Patoi (Brunei). Clicking on the pictures enlarges them and enables you to send the picture as a free e-card or download it for personal use, for instance, on your weblog. Or click on the map above to visit more places close to Bukit Patoi.
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