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Rafting is one of the many water-based activities that can be enjoyed in the pristine Ulu Temburong National Park. While Ramadan involves much ado about fasting, Hari Raya is all about celebrating, eating well, dressing well and socialising – though not with booze. The sale and public consumption of alcohol was banned in Brunei in 1991, although foreigners can legally bring in 12 cans of beer and two bottles of wine or spirits per person, and drink them in their hotel rooms or on their hotel balconies. If you prefer to quench your thirst in lavish surrounds with a sea view, the best hotel rooms in Brunei belong to the Empire Hotel & Country Club. It was built by the royals a decade ago at a reported cost of US$1.1 billion, and is claimed to be the most expensive hotel ever built. Edging the South China Sea, and surrounded by luxuriant swimming pools, this sumptuous palatial hideaway is strewn with Italian marble, giant gilded columns and shimmering chandeliers. It boasts a breathtaking atrium, 503 rooms and suites, and outside lies the Hotel's own Jack Nicklaus-designed golf course. Beyond the city, Brunei is swamped in exotic Borneo jungle. More than 70 per cent of the country is untouched primeval rainforest, meaning there's a wealth of wildlife- spotting opportunities. One evening, before sunset, I joined a water taxi tour that specialises in searching for the cute but odd-looking proboscis monkey. We glimpsed several leaping between the trees on Bandar's outskirts, but they seemed fairly shy and we struggled to get a good close-up photo of their peculiar, Pinocchio-like noses. Keen to see more wildlife, I headed to Temburong the following day – the eastern slice of Brunei which is surrounded by a chunk of Malaysia's Sarawak district. Zipping through waterways in a motor boat, we passed crocodiles sunbathing amid mangroves, and pig-tailed and long-tailed macaques hopping between branches. My home for the night was the lovely Ulu Ulu eco-lodge and resort in Ulu Temburong National Park. After spending an afternoon wading through a river and swimming in a waterfall pool, I was out for the count by 10.00pm and, despite the jungle's incessant soundtrack of crickets and cicadas, I slept like a baby till 5.00am, when I was awoken by my guide for a pre-dawn hike. It was a sweaty, humid 30-minute trek up to a vantage point overlooking the rainforest canopy, but the prize was well worth the effort. After all, it's not every morning you get to enjoy a magical, almost ethereal, sunrise over Borneo. 90 travel&living