Royal Regalia Museum

As I said in my previous post we have actually done no sightseeing in Brunei so yesterday we decided to go to the Royal Regalia Museum. It was a beautiful day and wasn't too hot which was a nice change.

We couldn't find it at first because it turns out the building I thought was a mosque was in fact the museum:

As soon as you enter the lobby you are met with this:

This was the vehicle that the Sultan rode down the streets of Brunei on his Coronation. It was huge and spectacular. Our first words were 'WOW!!!' The whole museum was pretty much the same. There was gold EVERYWHERE! We saw the crowns, presents the Sultan had received from other countries, ceremonial clothes, gold cannons, etc. It was beautiful and showed off just how rich the Sultan is. We weren't allowed to take the camera with us in the museum but were allowed to take pictures in the lobby as we were leaving.

(Shields and spears used during one of the ceremonies)

(Yusuf has mastered the peace sign pose)

(These were REAL gold!!)

(The inside of the dome)

(Yusuf especially loved the gold cannons and said he wanted one....)

(This was my favourite piece becasue not only was it solid gold, it was decorated with real diamonds! What's more there was 6 of them. I was very tempted to get one and run like crazy- so pretty......)

Well that concludes the first part of our day. We went to see the Omar Ali Saifuddin Mosque after that which is also in Bander Seri Begawan and was walking distance (its the only place in Brunei where pavements exist!). More on that in the next post.