Kuala Belait, Brunei Darussalam

19 Dec 06

A spread fit for a king...After the breakfast spread I had at The Swiss Hotel this morning at Kuala Belait, tonight's dinner seemed like a spread fit for a king...!

Too much food! But that was dinner. This morning's breakfast at The Swiss Hotel is something to write about; not for its sumptious, satisfying and sinfully splendid spread, but for the lack of it.

Right! It was not sumptuous, not satisfying, definitely not sinfully splendid and it was spreading it so thin, it shouldn't be called a spread but more like a sprinkling.

The last time I stayed in Kuala Belait some months back, I had to stay at this even more pathetic pad called Seaview Hotel. Yes, it had a sea view alright. Actually, so did The Swiss Hotel. That had a nice Seaview too.

Seaview Hotel must be classified as a 2-star bed and bread-Fast. The hotel was so bare, so minimal, so sparsely decorated, it was more like a cheap one-night stand. On checking in, I was given a piece of handwritten breakfast voucher that was obviously photocopied and torn into little pieces by hand.

The breakfast voucher was good for one breakfast order at an equally sparsely decorated breakfast room that, well, had one saving grace - it's seaview orientation.

The breakfast order gave two choices - eggs - fried or scrambled? I remembered my reaction - WHAT? What do you have again? And the reply, rapid and rude came, "eggs, fried or scrambled?"

I was quite amused! I'd never had that generous, sumptuous breakfast choices before. Even my bed and breakfast in Adelaide, prepared by the rather fierce matronly innkeeper, was still laden with some guise of choice, bacon, eggs, sausages, toast, homemade jam, orange juice, coffee, tea and such.

The Swiss Hotel was somewhat an improvement over Seaview Hotel. It had a "buffet" spread. What a spread! There was oily fried noodles, baked beans, some variety of fruit, 2 types of cereals, 2 kinds of bread slices, a toaster in place for our own helping, and coffee, tea and orange juice of sorts. Oh, they even had some yogurt tubs.

I have to admit it certainly re-defined buffet spread for me from here on. You have to try it. Definitely worth the experience and gives you something to write home about, wouldn't you say?