Brunei, a country on the island of Borneo in Southeast Asia once controlled most regions of Borneo at the peak of the Bruneian Empire. Capital city: Bandar Seri Begawan
Flying there
Fly directly with the Royal Brunei Airlines directly from London, Heathrow Airport (LHR) to Brunei, Bandar Seri Begawan Airport (BWN) for as low as £600 (US$850) on a 16-hour flight. Alternatively, fly in from Singapore with Singapore Airlines on a 2-hour flight (US$380).
Why visit Brunei?
Nature
While tropical wildlife may be familiar to people living in the region, the Ulu Temburong National Park is in the Temburong District. Borneo is home to around 222 mammals, 420 birds, 100 amphibians and 394 fishes. 10-20% of these species are endemic where they are not found anywhere else in the world. (Source: WWF).
Naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace worked on the island of Borneo in Sarawak in 1855, where he studied birds. His correspondence with Charles Darwin showed that both of them had conceived the same ideas on the evolution of species (Berkeley: Understand Evolution).
This also known as the Sarawak Law where he stated:
"Every species has come into existence coincident both in space and time with a closely allied species" --Wallace
See BorneoPostOnline
Ulu Temburong National Park
Diving
Just off the coast of Brunei, Brunei Bay is a great diving location with a number of reefs and wrecks to explore. Expect to chance upon a great diversity of sponges, coelenterates (e.g. jellyfishes), flatworms, segmented worms, molluscs, crustaceans (e.g. crabs, lobsters, shrimps), echinoderms (e.g. seastars and sea cucumbers), bryozoans (abundant small colonial animals bound by hard cover), tunicates (sea-squirts), fishes, reptiles, and mammals (Source: Peter Engbers)
Read more here about diving in Brunei: https://mellsays.com/2017/09/15/on-the-outside-diving-in-why-dive-in-brunei/
Source: MeSixty Sdn Bhd
Source: JourneyMalaysia
I look forward to visiting Brunei! Perhaps not diving, but definitely walking into the forests to view the natural sights. Drinking tea, always.
-tysler
