SUNDAY, FEB 28TH--BRUNEI

It is 1pm and we just got back on ship from our “Panoramic Brunei” scheduled 3 hour tour that lasted 4 hours and did not show us what it said we would see. It said we were to see the Sultan’s Palace but we could only see the roof from two miles away. His palace has 1788 rooms! I gave you the cost of it in yesterday’s port. Brunei is approximately the size of the state of Delaware but the Sultan gets about $140 million a day from its oil and gas production. That is why he provides medical care and education free for the less than 400,000 citizens. They have a very small military and very little crime. Alcohol is banned here. I did manage to get some nice photos of a couple of Mosques. We also stopped for tea and very nice snack buffet at the 5 star, Empire Hotel and Resort. As you will see it is a grand hotel and very beautiful. We are only about 50 miles from the Equator so as you would expect it is very hot and humid here. The people are all happy since the Sultan is very generous with them. Their houses (partly subsidized and then given 50 year interest free mortgages) are quite nice, especially when compared to what we saw in the Tahitian and Indonesian islands. A lot of people live along the Brunei River, actually in the water, on houses built on stilts. I will be attaching a photo of that also. Good news is our ship’s internet is back in operation. We could not even call off the ship for about two days. Just in case you were wondering why no posts to blog, that is reason. Rebecca still has head cold but seems to slowly be getting better. She has not felt well for the past two weeks and says she is tired of being sick! Great dinner in dining room last night as we both had French fried soft shell crabs for appetizer and the beef Wellington for entrée. Fantastic show with ship’s young singers and dancers last night. Bjorn, the Chief Engineer, called our suite yesterday evening and personally invited us to join him for dinner on March 3rd. He will be flying back to Dallas when we arrive in Hong Kong, March 10th. Well, we sail out at 4pm and will be at sea tomorrow before arriving in Manila on Tuesday. We will be going to church service at 5:15 this evening. Remember to read the post below this as I am putting them on blog at same time so you haven’t read it yet.