This photo of supply boats on the Sungai Belait (Belait River) is the last slide I shot in brunei.
I was further south, or upriver at the commercial port. These supply boats are moored at the brunei Shell port to which public access is restricted. To the left of the leftmost supply boat you can see the breakers in the South China Sea. The supply boats were used to run supplies and personnel between the shore and the offshore rigs generating wealth for the state.
Just behind these supply boats a ferry used to run between Kuala Belait on the east bank and Kampong Sungai Teraban on the west bank. Back in 1989, the ferry was the only way to cross the river by car. When our visa's needed renewing we'd take a car run down to the border station with Sarawak. If we were lucky, we'd carry on by car for a night in Miri, but if the schedule didn't allow, we'd park the car, walk through the brunei side of the post to get our exit stamp, walk into the Malaysian side to get our entry stamp, walk around the building and then into the Malaysian side for an exit stamp, then onto the Brunei side for a new entry stamp, back into the car and back to work. We probably only left Brunei for five minutes, but that was enough.
On the Malaysian side there was a sign (scan of the print below the supply boats photo) that read:
Immigration Warning
malaysia welcomes bona fide tourists but not hippies. You are therefore advised at all times to dress, behave and live decently in hotels as becoming a bona fide tourist. If you are found dressed in shabby, dirty, or indecent clothes, or living in temporary or make-shift shelters you will be deemed to be a hippie. Your visit pass will be cancelled and you will be ordered to leave malaysia within 24 hours failing which you will be prosecuted under the Immigration Laws. Furthermore you will not be able to enter malaysia again.
(Mohd Khalil B. HJ Hussein K.M.N.)
Director-General of Immigration
Malaysia
The Brunei authorities didn't care too much for hippies either. One of my colleagues had shoulder length hair. He slicked it back for his residency card photo but when he went to pick up his card the authorities refused to give it to him until he got his hair cut to a ‘short back and sides'.
The ferry stopped running in 2008 since a bridge was built across the Belait River rendering the ferry redundant.
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