If I had to compare them, I’d probably have to say that the people of Brunei are even friendlier than those of Sarawak. I was told that the direct bus to the capital of Brunei was broken so I took a series of local buses to get here. At the second stop, I asked someone which was the next bus and was immediately told that it left at 1pm, an hour away. That gave me time to explore a little.
When I came back, a driver got into his bus and began tooting to let the passengers know that it was time to board. A guy in a red shirt that I thought I recognised from the previous leg of the journey boarded and I followed him, noting that it was almost 1pm. Before I even got a chance to check whether it was the right bus, a guy came running up to stop me, pointing to the correct bus. He must have overheard me saying where I wanted to go earlier. “That bus goes back towards Miri,” he told me.
A few minutes later, the same guy jumped into the driver’s seat of that bus and began tooting his horn. When I got on, he smiled and said, “I didn’t want you to go back. You’re not even here yet.”
In the capital, most people smile and say hello as my path crosses theirs.