I arrived in Brunai late last night with 24 hours to wait until my London flight. I am coming back the long way in order to save money. I am baffled by airline economics that seem to defy reason and make it cheaper to go from
Birmingham to Spain than NuL to Lancaster. There are very few passengers in Brunai airport as you can see from the picture of the departure lounge at rush hour. As I had not thought to book a hotel a helpful bloke in charge of toilets, showers etc. told me I could have a room for transit passengers for £20. A bargain! The price of a coffee in Brunai city. The room was more or less an ensuite prison cell and if it was not for the 'please come again.' sing on the door I would have assumed it was for holding illegal immigrants and criminal suspects. But it was clean and comfortable. The bed was so new that the plastic was still on the mattress and headboard. I did wonder if I was supposed to unwrap it and the put a new one in for each new guest. Like those toothbrushes and little bars of soap. This is Brunai after all. All owned by the Sultan ex-richest man in the world. I think he may have been overtaken by some Russian gangsters now.
Anyway, I left the bed unwrapped and still had a very comfortable night.
In an earlier post I mentioned Lao 'sucky' rice. That should have been 'sticky'. There is a predictive text thing on the iPod and without fast Internet it is very difficult to correct the sometimes bizarre suggestions. The sticky rice is steamed, using coconut milk I was told, and comes in a little basket with a lid. It is meant to be eaten by hand and because of the stickiness it is ideal for dipping into sauces. Much easier to eat with the fingers than Indian rice that always seems to mostly end up in my lap.
I shall try to make long grain sticky rice at home. The other thing I want to introduce into my cooking is the SEA use of breaking fresh herbs into the meal, mint, basil, coriander and the like. It makes the blandest food come alive. As usual the best food I had was not in restaurants but a buffet in the market and an open air grill.
A salted grilled fish with lap (stick rice coconut and herbs) followed by Fresh fruit Lao beer and a cigarette is an almost perfect meal. Laos is actually a very sensible country about smoking. Though tobacco is widely available and there are no health warnings on cigs, smoking is not advertised or encouraged and the policy seems to work. I saw fewer ordinary people smoking than I did backpackers and tourists.
Birmingham to Spain than NuL to Lancaster. There are very few passengers in Brunai airport as you can see from the picture of the departure lounge at rush hour. As I had not thought to book a hotel a helpful bloke in charge of toilets, showers etc. told me I could have a room for transit passengers for £20. A bargain! The price of a coffee in Brunai city. The room was more or less an ensuite prison cell and if it was not for the 'please come again.' sing on the door I would have assumed it was for holding illegal immigrants and criminal suspects. But it was clean and comfortable. The bed was so new that the plastic was still on the mattress and headboard. I did wonder if I was supposed to unwrap it and the put a new one in for each new guest. Like those toothbrushes and little bars of soap. This is Brunai after all. All owned by the Sultan ex-richest man in the world. I think he may have been overtaken by some Russian gangsters now.
Anyway, I left the bed unwrapped and still had a very comfortable night.
In an earlier post I mentioned Lao 'sucky' rice. That should have been 'sticky'. There is a predictive text thing on the iPod and without fast Internet it is very difficult to correct the sometimes bizarre suggestions. The sticky rice is steamed, using coconut milk I was told, and comes in a little basket with a lid. It is meant to be eaten by hand and because of the stickiness it is ideal for dipping into sauces. Much easier to eat with the fingers than Indian rice that always seems to mostly end up in my lap.
I shall try to make long grain sticky rice at home. The other thing I want to introduce into my cooking is the SEA use of breaking fresh herbs into the meal, mint, basil, coriander and the like. It makes the blandest food come alive. As usual the best food I had was not in restaurants but a buffet in the market and an open air grill.
A salted grilled fish with lap (stick rice coconut and herbs) followed by Fresh fruit Lao beer and a cigarette is an almost perfect meal. Laos is actually a very sensible country about smoking. Though tobacco is widely available and there are no health warnings on cigs, smoking is not advertised or encouraged and the policy seems to work. I saw fewer ordinary people smoking than I did backpackers and tourists.