After Brunei, Next Impression on The Empire Hotel & Country Club

Empire that is facing the sea

When client given us a choice to select the suitable venue to host the press conference, the Brunei counterpart suggested The Empire Hotel & Country Club and Sheraton Utama Hotel.  We approached both the hotels, until today, officially only Sheraton has replied, in fact almost instant response from Mathew of Sheraton.  Additional information required was also been addressed in the subsequent few e-mails and phone calls.  Bravo to Sheraton Utama Hotel.

So when Adiman of BARA suggested Harry and Suk Ling to visit The Empire Hotel & Country Club, my impression on Empire was rather on the slow side, since there is still no response on the request we sent.

However, the spectacular view and building structure immediately changed my perception on Empire.

Entrance with Jaguar waiting for its passenger

Based on the official information available on its website, The Empire Hotel and Country Club was an ambitious project; employing over 300 highly skilled designers, technicians and craftsmen throughout its six-year construction. Since it opened on 16 October 2000, The Empire has become synonymous with Brunei: reflecting the country’s majestic and cultural heritage.

The architecture of the hotel is very much a mixture of Islamic arts with modern luxury style.  The marble, gold and light brown color scheme with a red combination seems to be everywhere throughout the hotel lobby.

It reflects a lot of transparency with its huge glass piece that allow guests to admire what is awaiting for them outside of the hotel – beach and garden to walk about.  There is also a marina in Empire.

We had about 30 minutes at Empire before heading back to JP Polo Club for the dinner, so we walked and checked out the place in shortest time possible.

Layers of floors

We were then sitting at its cafe for a drink and also getting to know our Bruneian friends better.

Beautiful structure and almost everything to the perfection, seems to be the way how Bruneian works.

There is one thing I feel a little not too friendly to elderly as well as disable person in Brunei would be the airport.  The airport has very few lanes and walkway designed for the elderly and disabled.  Also many steps and stairs to climb before reaching the departure gate.

Another thing that I have learn over my stay of 3 days in Brunei was the punctuality of things, the airport security will not open the departure hall gate until 2pm as earlier is the lunch break.

But one thing I feel that I could learn would be the loyalty towards their king.  I then realised it is the same way I should be to my God, my King, to be loyal to Him.

I enjoy speaking and listening to Bruneian speaking either English but especially when they are speaking Bahasa Malaysia.  The Bahasa sounded like a mixture of Indonesian Bahasa and Malaysia.

Bruneian are very polite and the word ‘Anda’ is widely used ‘Awda’, which means ‘awang’ and ‘dayang’, also means ladies and gentlemen.