To Walk or Not to Walk

Or to cycle perhaps?

Let's admit it guys. Have you ever really been on a public bus here in Brunei? With the exception of shuttle buses that take you from the parking area to the venue that you wanted to go to i.e. hospital, festivals with limited parking or a field trip. 

The reasons not to are quite straightforward. Bruneians can afford to buy a personal vehicle, fuel is cheap and roads are not (yet) overpopulated, although there is a noticeable increase in the number of cars on the roads these days. Recently, I saw a car with "BAU" license plate, and if I'm not mistaken, we've only started with "BAA" in 2009. It didn't take long to go from A - U, leaving us with 5 more letters until we start with a new plate. 

Typical lunch hour drive

One of Brunei's National Vision 2035 (Wawasan 2035) is to have a dynamic and sustainable economy. In 2010 (or so), the government proposed for an LRT/MRT under the National Masterplan for Sustainable Land Transportation System for Brunei Darussalam. The video below shows the simulation for the proposed route: 

I remembered the proposal being viral once, and how supportive Bruneians were with the idea, however, a press release made in 2014 stated that based on the studies made by CSPS, having LRT/MRT would not be feasible in Brunei yet due to "low population density and high price tag of the system." Full article on the release can be found here. Recommendations made were more focused on improving our current bus system, and its facilities. As I don't take buses here, I can't personally make any comment on this. Further discussion on having LRT in Brunei can be found in /r/Brunei. 

Brunei's public transportations are not exactly convenient. While buses are cheap, taxis are not. Also, there is not much pedestrian pathway either. A recent initiative made was the launch of DART Taxi (much like Uber), Brunei's first taxi booking app, which complies with the metered taxi system launched in September 2016. Still too soon to speak of it, but let's hope this will bring more convenience not only for tourists but also locals. 

Frankly, I would've loved to have an LRT system here or trains to get me from one district to another. Having your own car is cool, but the hassle of finding a parking spot is really frustrating. 

But ah, having an efficient, convenient and systematic public transportation system is real work of art. 

Here's another video with lazy editing from my past travel

London was my first. Having lived there for 5 years, I didn't really utilize public transportations until my final 2 years because we were spoiled with our own driver, and that my parents were there to drive us wherever we wanted to go. I opted for buses than going on the tubes because of my claustrophobia and anxiety, plus I've always enjoyed people watching from the upper deck (additionally with a student oyster card, buses are free!). Since most places are within walking distance and bus stops or stations are strategically located, public transportations are the better choice. 

When I travel, I often spend more time studying their transportation system, to see what would cost me less. Conveniently, I would normally go for hotels with good locations and accessibilities so I could just walk and save even more money! I love the comfort of cars, but how can you possibly experience a country if you don't experience their transportation culture, right? 

So far, I've been on several LRT, MRT, Trains, Tram, Buses and even Shinkansen trains. I've also tried Tuktuk, cheap and luxurious taxis. I've even rented bikes if I could, took boats or ferris. But here's the strange thing, most of the cities with popular traffic jams I've been to, I would almost always hire a private driver! Admittedly, they're not cheap as you could only hire them for a maximum of 12 hours per day. Imagine having to be stuck in traffic for 2 hours each time, and not really been able to explore as much as you hoped. 

The idea of crazy traffic scared me so much that I couldn't imagine going on a public transportation. I don't know why but I often assumed it would be better to be comfortable in a car than having to face my phobia in a crowded city, hence crowded buses or trains. My stupid thoughts had made me missed the experience of going on a Jeepney, Ojek, Bajaj, riding my own scooter and so on.

Speaking of Ojek, if you don't know what that is; it's a motorcycle taxi and the fastest form of transport especially in Jakarta. And every time I dropped by Jakarta, local friends and even the driver I hired would recommend me to take an ojek instead (Yes, one time, my driver didn't want to pick me up because he wanted me to take the ojek home). I was over my head anxious and was luckily saved by a friend who fortunately came with a car (hah, please I'm spoiled aka a pussy). 

Out of mere curiosity, I started checking out Hannah Al Rashid's vlogs on Youtube. Hannah is an actor, model and tv presenter based in Indonesia. I've honestly only seen her on Halfworlds HBO, and always knew that she's a good friend of Marissa, but after watching all of her vlogs, I was left questioning my ego. Hannah did this beautiful, funny and honest depiction of Jakarta, FROM AN OJEK, and she lives in a boarding house. This woman is down to earth humble, and super hardworking. I've never been on an ojek because I was too scared and too uncomfortable, but all of her videos (like above) made it seem so liberating. Sometimes you don't really see much from a car, especially if you're sitting in the passenger seat at the back. If Hannah's mom could make it through, I'm sure I would too. If I made it to Jakarta again this year, going on an ojek will be the first thing I would tick off from my list. PS: Thank you, Hannah, for letting me use your video for this post! 

^ I always find some sort of attachment to this city for some unknown reason, I think I finally figured it out. Oh Ojek, kok sampe begitew. 

So maybe Brunei won't be seeing drastic changes in public transportation system but who knows, maybe in 2035 we'll finally live like the Jetsons or stay as we are or build more bridges, roundabouts, add more traffic lights and more highways to lessen traffic. 

Out of everything though, if I could choose, I would very much prefer to walk given that the weather is not too hot or too cold or too wet. Hehe!