After a fairly smooth sixteen hour journey, we landed at Brunei airport just after 10 o’clock in the morning (local time). It took a little time to run through the usual processes here, despite having no luggage to reclaim since that was checked all the way to Sabah, and we eventually caught a taxi to the Orchid Garden Hotel to arrive at the doorstep around midday. This establishment was to be used as a stopover, since we had almost 12 hours in transit in Brunei before meeting our last flight to Kota Kinabalu. The Orchid Garden is handily situated only about 5 minutes from the airport, and is located right next to what looked like the major sporting stadia of the country. After having a delicious stuffed roti with dahl for lunch, I foraged around the greenery in the hotel surrounds for birds. The area seems quite open, with plenty of vegetation, despite the housing and road network throughout. In the 2 hours that I spent wandering, it’s likely that I unearthed most of the common species that could be found. Most obvious were numerous Yellow-vented Bulbuls, diminutive Zebra Doves, and raucous juvenile Asian Glossy Starlings. Directly in front of the hotel was what looked like a swimming pool complex, surrounded by a small manicured plot of flowering plants. Along with Tree Sparrows here were Olive-backed Sunbirds. Soaring around the hotel were small collections of swifts, which proved to be mainly Glossy Swiftlets, but amongst them were the much larger scythe shaped Grey-rumped Treeswifts. Adjacent to the football stadium was what was to become a very busy Ramadhan market. Just opposite here, and in the slightly more open habitat just beyond were some very interesting oddments such as Pied Triller, Yellow-bellied Prinia, Pied Fantail, and small collections of Black-faced Munias. I also startled a fairly large monitor lizard from the grass.