Empire Hotel and Country Club – Improved High Tea Commended

Having spent just short of four years in Brunei, we have been to the Empire Hotel and Country Club a number of times. This self-proclaimed 6-star hotel may not quite be 6-stars in quite a few people’s opinion but it is certainly a hotel that does things BIG and has lovely grounds.

Everything in the hotel is a bit OTT and it is a fun place to go to for an afternoon out and is always popular with visitors. And whenever we do have visitors to Brunei, this is on the to do list – usually for the weekend high-tea followed by a walk round the grounds.

Unfortunately though, the last few occasions we have gone for high tea it has been well below standard (eg. coffee taking 45 minutes to arrive) and was topped off by uncooked BBQ chicken being served the last time we visited. Because of these disappointing experiences we had not been for quite sometime, until today.

We thought it would be a nice way to celebrate a birthday so made a booking to go there this afternoon and we are pleased we did. The set up is slightly different. The weekend high-tea has always been a buffet (as opposed to a 3-tiered cake stand of nibbles on weekdays) but unlike previously, where a large table in the centre of the lounge held all the buffet food, the food this time was placed on individual small tables and scattered round the central area of the lounge. It looked good. The food spread was also good and unlike previous visits, the quality of the food was excellent.

All in all it made for an excellent afternoon out for a celebration and High Tea at The Empire Hotel is back on our ‘ recommended list’.

More pictures now that I am back from holiday:

The Nexus Resort – Five Star(ish)?

As the week long half term holiday comes to an end I thought I would do a quick review of the resort where we have just spent a few days.

When making plans for the half term holiday we decided it would be easiest to go somewhere near by and meet the little ‘uns grandparents there. We decided on Kota Kinabalu (KK) in Sabah. Just under a year ago MAS Wings – the Malaysian Airlines Borneo brand – started flying to Brunei, once again connecting Brunei and Kuching (following the cancellation of the route from RBA) and also increasing frequency and competition on the KK route. We were able to book return flights to KK for B$104 for the three of us – which was pretty much all tax!

Flight times were also convenient. The flight is scheduled for just 35 minutes but the off the ground time is much less. With MAS Wings using the ATR-72on this route you get a good view as you mostly remain below the clouds. It was amazing to see just how many areas have been cleared in Brunei for building work. It was also remarkable (and saddening really) to see just how huge the housing complex is that is being constructed between the Mentiri highway and Jalan Muara.

A chunk of cleared greenery.

Further land being cleared by the Muara-Tutong Highway.

An example of the cleared land for building.

A bit more work going on by the highway, just before landing in Brunei. You can see our house if you look carefully!

We were soon in KK and then proceeded to get a taxi coupon at the taxi desk (as required for all taxis from the airport). This is quite a good system as you pay the desk not the driver and the prices are fixed. The Nexus Resort in Karambunai is 30 km from the airport and takes around 40 minutes in a taxi. The taxi costs RM75 for a small taxi but we needed the larger one to the bags we had with us (blame baby not golf clubs!) which cost RM105. We did only pay RM90 for the return from the Nexus though but I think this was because they charged us for a small taxi despite giving us a large one.

Upon arrival at the resort we were fairly efficiently checked in although it would have been nice to have been offered a welcome drink then and there while waiting rather than being given a voucher to claim an orange squash drink at a later time! Once we received our key cards we were driven down to the room which although was only a 5 minute walk from reception was easier to be driven with the bags.

The rooms were lovely, spacious and comfortable. The bathroom was big with shower and a bath and plenty of space for things. The bed was comfy and there was a largish couch and a desk. There was also a big balcony with table and chairs that overlooked the pond by the room. All very picturesque as you can see from the photo’s.

Looking back from the balcony. Clean and roomy with traditional Borneo decoration.

Sink, cabinet and shelving. Clean and modern.

Spacious bathroom with a big bath.

Separate shower section.

Desk area.

Very spacious balcony area.

We were in Borneo Deluxe rooms, a quick walk to the sea and white sandy beach and also to the pool.

Clean, white sandy beach.

View to the sea.

The reason for the title of this blog post is I wanted to highlight some of the excellent things about this resort but also some of the things I do not think are up to scratch with (a) the price paid and (b) the image the resort portray of themselves. The positives first. The grounds are magnificent. Plenty of areas to walk around, surrounded my greenery and ponds. You can see plenty of wildlife, especially on the attached golf course. The pool is big and well cleaned. There is a shade sail over the shallow kids pool and there are three other sections of the swimming pool that are deeper. There is an in pool bar although we didn’t really use this and it didn’t seem to be regularly staffed. The golf course attached to the resort was excellent and very well kept. It is expensive unless you are a resident of Brunei, Malaysia or Singapore in which case it is very reasonable.

Right, the not so positives. Breakfast was included in our rate but for a place that charges 5* prices the breakfast was at best 3* (generous). Coffee was usually warm not hot, choices were heavily Asian based and the food was not kept hot. I am not naive to think there should not be Asian food on the menu in an Asian hotel – in fact I quite like Asian food – but there should be a good selection of world foods in any 5* resort restaurant. A good coffee can make such a big difference. The breakfast restaurant was very crowded and staff did not seem to have much care and attention towards guests.

Beyond the breakfast I thought the staff were polite but not that clued up. Communication was an issue and problems weren’t easily solved. An example being the high tea we were due to have in the lobby lounge. Ordered at around 5pm it was still not with us by 6pm so we had to leave and go back to the room as it was the little ‘uns bath time then bed time. We (eventually) arranged to get the food sent to the room but once it finally arrived there were no plates or cutlery! I should add that it was nice food, and quite well presented, just a shame that we couldn’t enjoy it as planned. To their credit, they eventually apologised properly and it was not billed to us.

The resort had 5 or 6 restaurants / eateries on site but it wasn’t until the penultimate day of our stay we found one we thought was suitable for our needs. The location of this restaurant was good, on the beach front, and the menu was mainly Italian. It was well priced and food quality was good although was in line with the common Asian problem of sweetening all western sauces.

I don’t mean for this post to be a rant about the resort, it comes more from a frustration of seeing how much potential the places has given the location and facilities yet let down by customer service and food option not being 5*. As readers of my last post will now, it’s the little things that make a big difference in quality in hotels. Had there been a few more simple yet quality items (such as decent coffee) available at breakfast then the experience would have been a whole lot more enjoyable.

The resort did have a shuttle bus service every 2 hours to and from KK which also stopped at 1Borneo. We utilized this twice during our stay and it worked out quite well. The charge is RM24 per return journey and it takes a little longer than a taxi – around 1 hour into KK. It was good to have it on offer though and was useful. I managed to get a game of golf one afternoon on the attached course. There was plenty of wildlife on and around the course.

Enjoying the island life!

Spot the beautiful kingfisher.

Picturesque course.

Trying hard not to create too many divots!

It was still a good place to relax and I am pleased we gave it a chance I think in conclusion though I would try out some of the competition before going back.

A quick and convenient get-away

Wow, it’s been ages since I last blogged! Lots has happened since but I just haven’t had the commitment to come and blog about it! So to get back on the blogging straight and narrow this blog is a quick trip report of one of my favourite quick get-aways from Brunei. (This was partly inspired by being asked a couple of times lately what this trip is like).

Brunei is great; peaceful, fairly quiet and easy going. But sometimes it’ s nice to leave the place, usually to feel like you are away from the place you work.  As Brunei and the community is so small, it is easy for work to spill over into other parts of your life, whether meeting people when out and about or just ending up talking about work when you socialise seeing as most social circles include colleagues. So for a quick and convenient get away we enjoy a trip to Miri, more specifically to the Miri Marriott Resport and Spa.

The Miri Marriott Resort and Spa – a favourite getaway!

It’s luxurious, spacious, comfortable and not near work. It takes about 2 and a half hours drive to get there from home (including the boarder crossing) so it really feels like you have ‘gone away’. The food is excellent and it is easy to relax – helped by how welcoming, friendly and professional the staff are there.

Our stays are made more economical through membership with Club Marriott (which is separate from Marriott Rewards, but perhaps more on that later). For an annual membership fee a booklet of vouchers are provided for discounted rates on rooms – including free nights. Additionally, discounts on dining are available. If you stay there more than two stays a year it is certainly worth it – so a no brainer for us!

On this occasion we decided to just visit for one night. The advantage of doing this on a Saturday night on a regular weekend is that we can leave Brunei quite early and get there for lunch, making the most of the afternoon and then check out late the following day making the most of both days. There’s no problem heading down for two nights on a Friday, it just means you lose most of your Friday.

We arrived around mid-day and checked if our room was available yet (which it usually is as they are very good at having our room ready if they know when we are arriving). We dropped our bags off in our room then went straight to restaurant for lunch. Through one of my membership cards we are entitled to 50% off when two of us dine (the little one is already free of course which continues until she is 6, I think). The normal lunch buffet price is RM 68++, or around £16 per person. During our last few visits I have noticed a shift in the food on offer from large quantities to smaller ones but I think this has increased the quality. There is always a fine selection of salads, western main dishes, BBQ/Grilled meat and then also Asian dishes. Pictures below.

Chicken and beef satay – a great ‘local’ way to start the weekend!

After lunch we went back to our room as it was soon the little ones nap time (another reason we time our departure from Brunei to arrive around lunchtime. She sleeps in the car on the way down, is awake for a while, we have lunch before she is too sleepy then after a play she is ready for her nap again). This time, through a room upgrade we were in the main building. The hotel consists of the main building then about 8 or 10 blocks spread out in two wings from the main building. These rooms are very nice and are classed as Garden or Pool rooms depending on their location and all have balconies. The Garden rooms are the cheapest on offer, then pool rooms (which are the same price as main hotel rooms on the front of the building which do not have a balcony). The next category is rooms on the back of the main building over looking the pool that do have a balcony. The balcony is also a little bigger than the Garden and Pool rooms. It was one of these that we were staying in for this visit.

King rooms have a large double bed, a sofa, desk, chair and coffee table as well as a table and two chairs on the balcony. The bathroom was spacious and there was a big wardrobe to hang up clothes along with a safe for locking valuables. The room also has a fridge, stocked with a variety of drinks (including beer and wine) for purchase. All rooms have flat screen TV’s (not sure of the size, but more than big enough). The TV sits on a cabinet that has 3 large draws. The room is all carpeted, different from the Garden and Pool rooms which are either part carpet part tile (upstairs) or fully tiled (downstairs). I must admit, I prefer the fully carpeted room – it was also great for the little one as she was crawling around lots, so much kinder to her knees! The room is probably the same size as the Garden and Pool rooms, perhaps slightly bigger. The real winner is the balcony as it has a fantastic view over the resort pool and out to the South China Sea as well as being a little bigger.

Comfy king size bed and modern decor

Sofa & coffee table (comfy for lounging on while using the wifi).

Desk and chair if you require wired internet

Overview of the room towards the balcony

Safe, slippers and robe that are provided in each room

Tiled and clean bathroom

Towels and mirror

Shower and bath – perhaps one of the few aspects that could do with an upgrade

One of the best features of the room, an excellent balcony over looking the South China Sea

We spent the time relaxing in the pool, enjoying the fine food in the restaurant and watching the sun set from the balcony. A good way to refresh and make the most of a weekend!

Relax!

Pakistani food – desi style

We visited our ‘local’ Pakistani restaurant today for lunch and as it is one of my favourite restaurants here in Brunei I thought I would blog about it.

Seri Damai (which I think means Peaceful Place in Malay, but correct me if I am wrong) is located in Kuilap. A smallish restaurant at the end of a row of shop houses that looks no different from many Malay restaurants in Brunei.

Seri Damai in Kuilap

Since we last visited they have done up the menu and changed some staff. The menu is good – a fine selection of various traditional Pakistani dishes but not so extensive that you get lost in the choice.

Authentic Pakistani Cuisine (in the Abode of Peace)

A fine selection to choose from

Plain Lassi

Their plain lassi is a must for a beverage to accompany your curry. There are flavoured ones but I usually opt for the plain one (which can be taken sweet or salty).

Today we ordered; chicken ginger, aloo gohbi, beef sheek kebabs, roghni naan and tandoori roti. All orders arrive with a small side dish of raita (yoghurt chutney) and chaana masala (chickpeas in gravey).

The food took about 15 – 20 minutes to arrive (exactly as stated on the menu!).

The freshly cooked bread is always excellent here. The chicken has such a rich flavour and the yoghurt base for the sauce compliments the fiery spices used with the ginger. There were a generous number of thin chicken strips and the coriander finished the dish off nicely – as it does in most Pakistani dishes.

Chicken Ginger and Aloo Gobi

We enjoy aloo gobi when we eat out as it is not something we cook at home. The sweetness of the cauliflower makes it an excellent side vegetable dish.

Beef Sheek Kebabs

The beef kebabs were cooked well too. Although they were nicely spiced they could have had a few more finely chopped green chillies added. They work well as left overs too, heated up in a panini press!

Freshly (and perfectly) cooked

We thoroughly enjoyed our meal in the simplistic décor of the restaurant with posters of a few famous Pakistani landmarks scattered around the walls.  We must make more of an effort to head there for a meal more often! I would recommend paying a visit to Seri Damai if you are looking for a different type of curry than the usual Indian based ones offered here at places such as Le Taj, Sagar or Tandori.com.

Delicious!

So, do you like Pakistani food? Where’s your favourite restaurant? Have you been to Seri Damai? If you live in Brunei, where do you like to go for a curry? Let me know your thoughts!

PlaneSimple

Dining at Home

Living as expats in this part of the world we are fortunate enough to be able to employ a maid. Although the main reason for doing so is to look after family member #3 when she comes along in December, we have enjoyed getting used to having someone ‘live in’ and complete the chores and prepare some great meals.

This blog post is going to showcase this coming week’s meals prepared by our hard working maid, May. Usually May cooks 4 or 5 evenings in the week. She is happy to follow recipes out of books (in fact, I think she prefers doing this) so it is great fun browsing through cook books as though they are menus!

We have pencilled in the following meals for this week – subject to change of course; Pork stir-fry, Bindi (Ladyfiger / Okra) Curry and Lemon Chicken with Broccoli.

Let me know what you think or if you have any recipes you think we would enjoy!

[Pictures to be updated each evening this coming week. Make sure you keep coming back and checking the blog!]

Monday - Stir-fry pork with Chinese greens, broccoli and celery.

Tuesday night - 'Bindi' Curry (Okra / Ladyfinger) with chapati

 

Wednesday - Broccoli Lemon Chicken

The Broccoli Lemon Chicken was followed by carrot cake that May had made during the day – a nice surprise!

Carrot Cake!

-PlaneSimple

The blog is not (quite) dead!

I begin to write this next blog post feeling like a naughty school boy standing in the headmasters office about to apologise. Why? Well, not having posted anything since 15 June. So I will just post about all we have been up to for the past couple of months.

The end of the school year finished in a flash with plenty of goodbyes, parties, meals out etc. The end of an academic year is an interesting experience full of mixed emotions; sadness from goodbyes, relief from a year’s hard work, excitement for upcoming travel and complete exhaustion from the many high pressure moments that a year of teaching brings. I often also feel the need to complete a few last tasks to round everything off but just can’t muster up the energy to complete them thinking ‘they can wait until August’. Of course, August is now here…!

We had the pleasure of a friend visiting us for two weeks as school broke up for the holidays. It was enjoyable to spend time with them along with visiting the various parts of Borneo in a ‘PlaneSimple Tour Opperator’ tour! On a weeks whistle-stop tour we flew over the Borneo rainforest in a turboprop plane, went snorkelling in Kota Kinabalu, shopped in the Filipino market in KK, enjoyed curries on the waterfront, said ‘hi’ to the Orangutans while they ate breakfast and swung through the jungle in Kuching, enjoyed a riverside walk in Kuching, stayed in a fancy hotel in Kuching and finally enjoyed a couple nights relaxation in the Marriott in Miri (that has an amazing swimming pool).

We then travelled to Kuala Lumpur before heading back to the UK for three weeks to shop, visit family and friends, eat forbidden foods, drink wine that tastes like it is worth the money you paid for it and enjoy some English and Scottish sunshine (!). We do enjoy travelling back ‘home’ in the summer time. It is exciting to catch up with friends and family having been away for the last year but it is tiring travelling around so much and living out of a suitcase. We travelled getting on for 2000 miles around the UK I think. We ate many great meals and enjoyed the fruit and veg that is hard to get in Brunei (Strawberries, Raspberries, Nectarines, a variety of fresh salad etc.).

We were fortunate enough to have my dad travel to SE Asia for meetings then on to Brunei with us for a few days R&R. This meant that we could bring back some extra luggage with us which was certainly needed!!

During the last few days I have tried to upload some HD videos that we have taken on our digital camera, now that we have a new laptop. I hope to upload some more via YouTube onto the blog (eventually, at some stage!) but for now, here are two videos (HD) that I have uploaded to YouTube from a couple of our recent holidays. Enjoy!

PlaneSimple

Ahoy there!

So last night we attended a reception dinner on board Pakistan Navy Ship ‘Saif’. It was great fun – although a little nervy at the start.

We arrived up at Muara port with time to spare before the 7pm start – given that we had never been into the docks before to board a ship in Muara! We had to park the car outside the first gate entrance to the docks and then proceed on foot to the ship – a task that would have been avoided had we been privileged enough to have diplomatic plates!

We were not the first guests to board the ship but there were not many when we arrived. The guard at the bottom of the ‘ramp’ (with rifle) saluted us before we walked up to be greeted by the captain, Deputy High Commissioner (that I had met earlier in the week to arrange details of the walkathon) and the commander, Asad Ali (who we later had a lengthy conversation with, more to follow). Two of the sailors then escorted us to rear of the ship (presumably where the helicopter normally sits) where there was a tent covering and the table was set up for a buffet dinner (you can make this area out in the picture shown).

PNS Saif 253

This was the most awkward part of the evening. We first met the High Commissioner and his wife. We chatted more with his wife and she was interested to know we had lived in Murree, where her and her husband were from! It was awkward as diplomat after diplomat arrived on board and were were not always certain of who to chat to and the ettiquette required!

Eventually when there were probably around 150 – 200 on board, the ceremony began as the captain introduced the purpose of the evening. The ship has recently been aquired by the Pakistan Navy having been manufactured in Shanghai, China. The first port of call for the new ship was Muara, Brunei. The ship arrived on Friday morning and departs on Sunday night or Monday morning. The ship will then make it’s way back to Karachi, Pakistan, calling at Thailand, Indonesia and The Maldives along the way. It is due to arrive in Karachi in a months time, on 4 November.

A cake was cut by one of the high up defence personnel from the Brunei Armed Forces and the High Commissioner of Pakistan. Then we all tucked in to the wonderful array of Pakistani food on offer which included; channa curry, chicken korma, biryani, lamb, fried chicken, salad, paratha, raita and various other odds and ends! All very delicious.

As the evening went on we chatted with the sailors who were keen to ask questions about where we were from and why we are in Brunei. They also seemed to appreciate the interest we showed in their ‘mission’ and taking the boat back to Pakistan. Naturally we regularly discussed the fact we had both lived in Pakistan. The crew were also impressed and excited at my ability to talk Urdu (almost a party trick really)!

Commander Asad Ali was one of those who was delighted to talk about out time in Pakistan, esspecially since he had been educated at Lawrence College – a nearby local private school to MCS where we were! We used to play football and basketball against them.

We were very impressed with the friendliness and hospitality shown by the crew and had a most enjoyable evening. Even when the rain started we were kept fairly dry and at the end of the evening a minibus was provided to shuttle us back to the entrance where we had parked earlier that evening.

Today we attended the Walkathon, discussed in my previous blog, run by the Pakistani High Commission to help raise awarness, and funds, for the flood victims in Pakistan. It was nice to see some of the sailors we had met the previous evening and again they were most friendly in coming up and saying ‘hi’ while thanking us for attending the evening before. Of course, we considered the pleasure to be ours as we really had enjoyed the evening after the initial awkwardness of feeling slightly out of place!

Have you ever attended a fancy ‘do’ where you have felt out of place? What about attending a reception on a ship? Do comment and let me know!

PlaneSimple

The Fund Raiser

Last night we hosted a Pakistani dinner to help raise money following the floods in Pakistan. A few weeks ago I had the idea and you can read my thoughts on the floods in Pakistan on my previous two blog posts here and here.

The calm before the storm!

I put out an email to all the staff at school explaining I’d be hosting a dinner catered for by a favourite Pakistani restaurant of ours here in Brunei – charging guests for the evening. There was a great response, both from those interested in coming along to the meal but also many just offering donations. So this blog post is a report of the evening – which we raised over $1000 (Brunei) from after costs (and still expecting a few more donations).

The various tasty dishes on offer!

Friday is a half day for us at school, so we had time to prepare for the evening during the afternoon. I had ordered the food the previous weekend when we had lunch at the restaurant. We were expecting 35 people, so set up seating outside and inside.

The first guests (who shall remain nameless!) arrived an hour early having misread the starting time! Not to worry, it allowed for a G+T and a catch up before the rest of the guests and the food arrived.

Guests started to arrive from the 6.30 start time onwards – but still no food! I text Amjad to make sure everything was okay and sure enough he was on his way. 15 minutes later, the food arrived; Chicken ginger, beef seikh kebabs, bindi (okra / lady’s fingers ), chana masala (chickpea), plain biryani, tandoori roti and roghni naan! All smelling delicious!

Enjoying the evening.

Guest continued to arrive – just about finding parking spaces along the simpang. At 7pm we took the lids off the food and we all tucked in.

The evening continued on with lots of chit-chat, drinks and continuing ‘picking’ at the food – obviously so tasty there was always room for ‘one more bite’!

Just enough seats!

All in all a great evening that I think most guests enjoyed and best of all, plenty of money was raised that will be sent to help rebuild communities in Sindh, southern Pakistan, following the floods.

PlaneSimple



Hello world!

Hi. Right, I’ve decided to start a blog! So what? There are about 75 million words on wordpress from today’s blogs alone! Well, that doesn’t matter. Last week I read a really good F1 blog on wordpress (I was going to link that but haven’t been able to find it since, bad start!) and also Martin Brundles excellent blog / column on the BBC Sport webiste. I thought hey, he’s said a lot of what I think.

Now, I’ve been tempted to start a blog for a while, but never been able to decide upon a topic. And, even though I liked a few blogs I read about the last F1 race and agreed with many points, I know that my blogs won’t be as well read and published as those!

As I thought about it I decided I’d be better off writing something even if once someone visited and read my blog they never returned (please come back!), than not write anything for anyone to read at all. So then I decided actually, what I write about really doesn’t matter.

I also read some good comments and blogs about the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and one such blog that was the first time I saw a public comment echoing my thoughts – that the US are not squeaky clean and innocent in all this mess. Who guzzles ridiculous amounts of oil each day and demands for it to be so cheap?

So that is what helped me to decide to start a blog about whatever I want to talk about. Sometimes sport sometimes business, one week about interesting plane stories (yup, that’s where the name comes from!) and the next week about the difficulties my Maths class are having. Sometimes you’ll (hopefully) like what you’re reading and be interested by it and other weeks you may not relate to what I have to say. But hopefully, you’ll return quickly to read the next one and see if it is more your cup of tea.

So I leave you today with a light hearted story. If you are feeling grumpy, it’s worth taking a look.

PlaneSimple.