My 1980’s classic comedy binge-watching continued on 16th May at Peter’s house, with the film Airplane, and several of the Yes Minister series. Then I decided that Sunday (19th) would be my day to fly back to Singapore, so I cycled into Kuala Belait and reserved my “open” ticket for the midday flight at the Jasra Harrison travel agent.

Wai-Fong had mentioned that since Friday and Sunday are the weekend days, staying Thursday and Friday night at her house might be good if I wanted a change of scenery during my last few days. I met Peter for lunch, told him the plan, and said I’d be back on Saturday evening for one more night. I packed but managed to watch Monty Pythons Holy Grail before I actually left!

Zaleha, Sabariah’s sister, picked me up towards the end of the afternoon and took me to Brunei Shell Petroleum’s Airport, at Anduki, where Sabariah was working in the control tower. This was where I had originally met Sabariah in 1989, since our seismic exploration work required us to get permission from the control tower in order to lay sensors within the airport perimeter.

The airport is principally for helicopter flights out to the oil platforms in the South China Sea – I had actually twice flown on choppers in 1989 to install our navigation beacons on unmanned platforms.

We went up the control tower, and sat with Sabariah as she finished her shift. No night flights are allowed, and at sundown the airport closes.

Then we all drove to Wai-Fong’s house to pick her up, and to leave my backpack. This was actually the first time my 2 Bruneian friends – Sabariah and Wai-Fong – had met each other! We all went to the house of a friend of Sabariah, and were served delicious Malaysian food. Eventually we headed back to Wai-Fong’s house where, as planned, I spent the night.

In the morning (17th May) I walked to the travel agent in Seria and changed my Singapore flight to the late afternoon – this was because Peter had mentioned a party at Tadhg’s house on the Saturday night, which made the midday flight on Sunday (19th May) less appealing! After a leisurely lunch with the family, the rest of the day slipped by, chatting to Wai-Fong, and watching a couple of films on TV. Wai-Fong wanted to hear more details of my trip to date, and was fascinated by my descriptions of the different countries in Latin America.

On Saturday 18th May, Wai-Fong went to work, but Sabariah, Zaleha, and Nida (who all had the day off) picked me up mid morning. They told me to bring my passport – the plan being to drive over the border into Malaysian town of Miri for the day. We crossed over the Sungai Belait river on the car ferry and were soon checking through border control.

Soon we were in Miri, strolling around, and checking out the markets for different things that the girls wanted to buy – prices are a lot lower in Malaysia. The day wore on without achieving anything other than laughing a lot and trying different tasty snacks. By mid afternoon we were heading back, and in the queue for the ferry. I hopped out to take a photo. Though it was Zaleha’s car, Sabariah was at the wheel, and when she tried to restart the engine to drive on to the ferry, the battery was flat and the rest of us had to push the car on to the ferry!

We succeeded in bump-starting the car to get off the ferry, and the battery seemed to be charging normally. Back in Seria, before dropping me off at Peter’s house, I persuaded the other 3 to let me treat them to a restaurant meal later on. Having still not had quite enough British comedy, I couldn’t keep my hands off Peter’s Fawlty Towers VHS tape while waiting for the girls to come back.

Sabariah and Zaleha duly returned and we met Nida at the restaurant for a spicy Malaysian meal. During this it transpired that by a strange coincidence Nida works with Peter’s friend Tadhg, and she was also going to Tadhg’s party, to which Peter had invited me… I actually ended up driving Nida’s car to the party, while Nida went with the other 2 girls to return later with Sabariah’s other sister Jamalia who had been invited also! A strange and small world…

The party was lively, and a great way to say goodbye to Brunei. The Muslim “ban” on alcohol in Brunei definitely does not extend inside private houses.. not even for the Muslim population!