15 Minutes in The Empire Hotel (17. Jan.)

Oh my, The Empire Hotel. Every time I watched a YouTuber vlog about Brunei, the Empire Hotel was never missing. I don't know of any other hotel that has 6 or 7 stars (depending on who you ask).

If you noticed the title, I did spend about 15 minutes here. Trust me that is not enough--but for me at that point, it had to be. I had to be at a particular place at a specific time for my hostess to pick me up and bring me back to her home. Had I missed it, I would've had to wait at the Empire Hotel for about 6-7 hours. That was too much (plus, I needed to do laundry. I was leaving for Singapore the next day).

Here are my few snapshots taken in 15 minutes.

Under the car drop-off/pick-up

The main entrance

There are a couple of people at the doors there specifically to open them for you.

They sure know how to treat all who come in as royalty.

Just as a side note: Anyone can visit the hotel, not only guests. You can even go swimming in their fantastic swimming pool--just don't ask for a towel, unless you're a guest. Then you're good.

When you walk in and look to your left, you'll see the following 2 pictures.

Oh, ok.

The mural (sorry for the blur)

Walk towards the back and see this:

Sorry for the bad quality, but I hope this gives you an idea of how luxurious this place is inside. Another side note: all the gold you see is real.

Whoa, you can see the sea!

Whoa, this place is massive!

It really is 6 floors high!

So I stayed on the 5th floor the entire time. Riding the escalator would've been fun.

I did visit some of the shops (some too pricy, others reasonably priced) and walk outside for a bit.

Yes, there's a Korean Tourism office.

HanaTour should pay me for this.

No wonder this is called "The Empire."

Look at that coconut flower pot on the tree!

Wow, they have their own beach.

Tree with more coconut flower pots.

I called my Dart driver (who brought me there) to pick me up and take me to where I was going to meet my hostess. It all worked out (and I was probably at the Empire more like 30 minutes than 15. Oh well, minor details.)

Hmm, $200/night, I think that's worth it. . . 

Wait, all this gold is real?

Long story short, I made it back, did my laundry, and was ready to fly back to Singapore the next day--which will be covered in the next post!