With a 3.30am start we were in the shuttle from Motel by 4am for check in and the usual airport waiting round. Kissed goodbye to Mum at 6am and off we went. First flight was to Melbourne, which was a really good one – recommend Qantas if you are flying with kids! Waited around for a few hours and flew Royal Brunei to Brunei. We arrived in Brunei at around 6pm and obviously the heat on arrival hit us all as we were dressed in our winter gear having left chilly morning in Auckland. We were ushered through customs and through the front door quickly without any of the usual bag checks. Maia our HR rep was waiting to greet us. Our gear only just fit in the back of her car and by the time Jas had finished loading it in he was drenched in sweat. Maia drove us to our apartment which is in a very quiet housing estate almost a ghost town really with not many of the apartments occupied. It is dry and dusty at the moment as there hasn’t been any rain for a few weeks so the grounds of the complex resemble what you might find in the middle east. We are on the 3^rd floor, which meant lugging our luggage up 4 flights of stairs in the heat. 

The appearance of the apartment complex from the outside is average at best, however when we unlocked the door to the apartment we were pleasantly surprised with the inside.

Maia had put some fruit and bread in the fridge so the kids had sandwiches for dinner and went to bed pretty soon after. The lounge and each bedroom has air con, so we cranked them on but still only need a sheet on the bed to sleep under (if that).

We have a free hire car for 2 weeks, it hasn’t even done 2000kms! So we decided to clock up some kms by going for an explore to find food and the CfBT office so that we could get internet access and Facebook our safe arrival. We did a bit of shopping for a few house things and food at a strange store that sold everything from TVs to chicken pieces to mops.

Got lost a fair few times trying to get to CfBT, as most places are connected by motorways where you need to take exits (all written in Malay) carefully to go from one side of the road to the other with circle of death roundabouts to encounter along the way.

In the afternoon we got in touch with Suzanne and Andrew (fellow NZs ) and found their apartment down the motorway in a much nicer and busier housing estate. We had coffee with them and made plans to go to the night markets for dinner after a visit to the “Giant” supermarket down the road, again selling a random range from pushbikes through to prawn chips.

Noah has his first Noah moment

The outdoor markets were certainly an experience. An open air market with food stalls with produce and cooked food. Most of which none of us were keen to (or brave enough) sample. Most things are $1 or $2 for a meal. Suzanne and her family showed us around and helped the boys find something for dinner that they were brave to try – noodles, rice and a sausage on a stick. Jas and I were about as brave as the kids in our selections, it was hard to look past the hygiene differences to NZ when ordering.

Once we had own food we headed off to find somewhere to eat it. We were walking past the ‘Fish Market’ when Noah had a Noah moment and wasn’t paying attention to where he was going. Over here the drains are extremely deep (about 60cm) to cope with the heavy downpours which frequent Brunei. Most drains are deep and open – without grates or covers. Noah managed to step on to a rusted and broken grate, which his foot slipped right through. Me, watching every moment in slow motion from behind him. As he fell in, his leg was sliced open by the broken metal and the screaming began. His foot was trapped in the grate for what seemed like an age as we tried to pull him free, it was at this stage I felt blood pouring out of his leg and knew that Noah had done some serious damage. There was a massive and deep gash down his leg. I whipped of the top I was wearing over my dress and tied it around the wound to try and stop the bleeding, which seemed to work well. Jas scooped him up and we raced him to the car and I had my first Brunei driving experience as I followed Andrew to the Hospital, which thankfully was only a few minutes up the road. On our arrival we were given a number and a temporary bandage for the leg and sat and waited, and waited, and waited. Finally we were seen by ED doctor who said it was far too deep for their capabilities to suture and the orthopaedic surgeon was paged, and paged, and paged. Finally after 4 hours of waiting he arrived to say that it would require surgery the following day. So the wound was cleaned a little (without pain relief) and redressed and we were sent to paediatrics for the night. Ethan had gone home with Suzanne and family for his first sleep over. Noah was told to stay nil by mouth from 12am hoping he would get into surgery early in the morning. The doctor came around at 8.30 and said “fasting to start at 9”, he had been bumped due to more serious cases needing the operating room. All the while Jas and I are petrified at the risk of infection due to falling in quite possibly the most rancid place in Brunei. They had started IV antibiotics during the night so we hoped that this would help. He went into surgery at 3pm which thankfully appeared like a much more hygienic area of the hospital to the others. They gave the wound a good clean and stitched it up. He had sliced down to the muscle layer in his leg but not through muscle. Op took an hour and he was wheeled back down to ward before he had even woken up. We discovered that in Brunei the family do most of the nursing, the ‘nurses’ are solely medicators and the family do the rest. Noah woke about an hour after operation and quickly devoured an iceblock. Jas went home to collect Ethan and get a decent sleep in bed. I curled up next to Noah in his hospital bed and we both slept well – neither of us had much choice as it had been a very draining couple of days.

 

The next morning the doctor came and said he was happy to discharge, the nurse said I will go and work out the bill. My jaw dropped as we had been told under 12s were free but it turns out that because my working visa hasn’t been issued yet, that doesn’t apply. So I sent out mayday texts to HR and Welfare officer and was reassured not to worry they would sort out “finance”. Bill came to $909 (basically equivalent to NZ dollar give or take a few dollars) which was reasonable considering Orthopaedic Surgery.

Boof head has bounced back quickly and is walking/running around on his leg without much thought. He will get dressing changed in a week and continue with antibiotics. Stiches will come out in two weeks. We will monitor closely for infection as that is still our biggest concern. We will be laying low for the rest of the week and do our sight seeing by car, providing tweedle dum and tweedle dee can sit next to each other in the car for more than half and hour.

Welcome to Brunei Valois’