One
of the places that gives excitement in traveling to Brunei is this
palace. Not only because it’s the largest palace in the world, but also
because it’s designed by a Filipino Architect, Leandro Locsin. Istana
Nurul Iman means Palace (Malay “Istana”) and The Light of Faith (Arabic
“Nurul Iman”).
The
house is the official house of His Majesty and open only to public
during the three-day Hari Raya Aidil Fitri festivities at the end of
Ramadan. Another way to check the palace is to take a water-taxi cruise
or to stop by the riverside pavilion at Taman Persiaran Damuan.
The
palace was constructed for 2 years in a 200,000sqm land and was
competed in January 1, 1984. It has a total of 1,788 rooms with 257
bathrooms, five grand swimming pools and a largest banquet hall that can
accommodate up to 5,000 guests.
The Palace has mixes of Malay and Islamic elements with the sweep and oversize grandeur
of an airport terminal. It’s four times the size of the Palace of
Versailles and three times larger the Buckingham Palace.
One
of the breathtaking characteristics of the palace is, it has paintings
of world-known artists, including one of the French artist Auguste
Renoir painting bought by the Hassanal Bolkiah in 1980 for a record of
$70 million.
To
prove how rich Brunei is, the windows and doors of the house are made
of pure gold. It has an air conditioned stable for the 200 beloved polo
ponies of Sultan and an underground garage for 110 cars.
I
really wanted to get see the inside but it’s not that time of the year
so I just contented, again, myself to taking pictures from the gate. I
wish I can see its own Mosque that they said can accommodate more than
1500 worshipers.
Address: Jalan Tutong
0 comments:
Post a Comment
Thank you for reading! Please share and like my Facebook page :)