Tourists disappointed with postponement

DISAPPOINTMENT marred the spirits of many hopeful tourists who have planned their holidays in Brunei to coincide with His Majesty's birthday, only to find out that the much-feted event had been postponed after arriving in the Sultanate.

"It's a bit of a disappointment," said a technical engineer from Holland. "We expected to see parades and people gathering and something totally different from where we come from."

George Vermer, accompanied by interior designer Sanne Weerts, said that they first read about the celebrations in a travel guide. They spent a month travelling around Malaysia and were in Brunei for three days to witness the annual spectacle.

Vermer told The Brunei Times that they had hoped to see His Majesty rejoicing with his subjects during the celebrations, and they were particularly interested since Holland also had a monarchy but not an absolute monarchy like Brunei.

Despite the setback, Verme said that the decision to postpone the celebrations to avoid further spread of Influenza A (H1N1) during such a mass gathering of people was "wise". "If it's for the safety of the people, then it was probably wise to postpone it," he said.

The Dutch tourist said that he was unaware of the pandemic's impact in Asia, adding that H1N1 was affecting festivities and similar events in Europe. He knew Brunei had more than 300 H1N1 cases, but said they were "not worried at all" since they were confident in the effectiveness of antiviral medicines.

However, all was not lost in their visit to Brunei as the couple has been enjoying touring the Sultanate's unexpected treasures, including Kg Ayer and proboscis monkeys. "There aren't many places in the world where you can see these things," Weerts said.

Bill Paetzke, a computer programmer from the United States, was also hoping to witness the celebrations. He found out about the celebrations from a guidebook and was interested in the images depicting the joyous occasion. "It looked really cool, so I wanted to go and see it for myself," said Paetzke, who is on a four-month holiday around the sub-region after quitting his job recently.

He said that it was not easy and cheap to come to Brunei, but would come to see the celebrations in the future, if he was in the area at the right time. He diverted his time in seeing other aspects of Brunei. "Brunei is awesome," he remarked.

Disappointed father and son from Australia, Len and Michael Raphael had booked their holiday in Brunei since April. Accountant Len said that they had been looking forward to witness the event, although it was not the main focus of their visit.

"It's one chance in 365 days to be in the right place, at the right time." They first knew about the celebrations via the Brunei Tourism website, which did not update on the postponement.

"But Brunei is exactly what I expected. It's extravagant. If I was in the area, I would come here again," Len added.

The Brunei Times