Supper at the Sultan's Palace

This week we were fortunate to get an invitation to dinner at the Sultan's Palace (Istana Nurul Iman) in Bandar to celebrate his 67th birthday. Big Man had to wear his formal uniform and I had to wear white from head to toe, which is definitely not my usual sort of clothing! This event is one of the highlights of the social calendar in Brunei. Now the Sultan's birthday is actually in July, as I mentioned in my post on the 9th of that month but this year it coincided with Ramadan so the occasion was postponed until September.

Late afternoon on Tuesday we travelled up to the capital in the army charabanc, being careful not to transfer any smudges of camouflage cream remaining on the seats onto our white apparel and enjoying the relaxed, child-free outing.

On the drive into the palace grounds, there was decorative lighting for the occasion and many people making their way up the road.

We were shepherded through security where we had to scan our bags and into an extremely large venue where we were placed on a long table amongst six thousand other people! Here we are in our white outfits enjoying orange juice and mineral water.

Eventually a few words were spoken, the royal family and dignitaries were seated in their golden inner sanctum and the lid was removed from the silver tureen so we could tuck into the food, which was a selection of curries and rice. At this point we were so hungry we would have eaten a small horse. I had intended to have a snack before setting off but was deterred by the thought of soiling my clothes!

Some time after dinner, people began to stand at the other end of the hall, and we were shuffled around into a suitable formation. The Sultan moved along every table, shaking hands with each and every guest. This picture shows him in the white jacket in the next row to us. His entourage included his grown-up sons, one of whom is the Crown Prince, and his two younger children by his third wife (non-consecutive).

We weren't sure exactly what the protocol was so Big Man was taken by surprise to be spoken to but I have been told since that he often likes to engage with the British people.

Then it was home time and after a few entertaining requests for photos from local girl guides (who possibly had us mixed up with somebody important) we headed back to the bus for a little snooze. The exertion of consorting with royals in far flung countries was starting to get to us!