The Empire strikes back

by Yeoh Siew Hoon

The last time I saw The Empire, she had just been unveiled to a long-waiting and adoring public.

Billed at that time as the world’s most expensive hotel ever built, she was all grand, gold and glitter and was in full polish for her first coming out party, the ASEAN Tourism Forum, which remains to this day the biggest and most international event the Empire Hotel & Country Club in Brunei has ever hosted.

I played my first ever round of golf there, I slept in my first ever “golden” suite – I remember gold-plated taps in the bathroom, and I saw my first ever camel made of Bacarrat crystal. I was told then there were only four in the world of which two are at the Empire. Each camel cost US$250,000, I was told. That’s some serious hump of crystal.

I think my fellow travel industry colleagues and I walked around the resort with our jaw wide open most of the time. It was, at that time, a hotel that was so out of place in a tiny place like Brunei, yet so at home in such a place as Brunei – if you know what I mean.

She was uber luxury before the term was invented and she was more than just a hotel – she was an empire unto herself. She had several wings, several pools, her own cinema and bowling alley and a private discotheque.

Since that visit, I have to confess I have largely forgotten about her. From time to time, I interviewed a few general managers, who’ve come and gone, and who would keep me updated about her comings and goings. They would tell me things they were trying to do to put the Empire and Brunei on the map.

A couple of months ago, I got an invitation from Manfred Keiler, the current general manager, and his team to revisit. “You must come back and see the place,” he said. “See how it’s changed.”

Well, I did one day a couple of months back. The first thing that struck me when I got on the Royal Brunei Airlines flight was how near Brunei is to Singapore in distance, yet how far away in mindset.

It’s just over an hour away yet it is not the first destination that comes to mind for most Singaporeans when they are looking for a quick getaway. In a world of low cost flights and where you can fly anywhere for relatively low prices, Hanoi or Phuket sound decidedly more exotic and alluring than Brunei.

On the drive from airport to the Empire, I felt I hadn’t left Singapore and that I was just on an extension of the East Coast Parkway that links Changi to town. The highway is as modern and as beautifully-landscaped.

As we drove, my sense of anticipation was building up. I was looking forward to a reunion with my old friend. Has she changed? Has she got more wrinkles like me? A bit frayed around the edges for instance?

Let me tell you, that sense of arrival still takes your breath away. The scale and grandeur of the lobby is still “wow”. It takes you a moment to catch your breath and tear your eyes away from all that marble, all those pillars, all those colours. But as your senses adjust, you zoom in on the only thing that counts in any hotel – big or small, budget or luxury – the staff.

And they are as warm and friendly as I remember. The Bruneians, to me, blend the best of Malaysians and Singaporeans – the natural-ness of the former and the efficiency of the latter.

Some though are a tad too stiff and formal for what Keiler wants it to be – a resort destination. Perhaps it comes from the environment they work in. The power of a place to affect the manner of an individual cannot be underestimated, but you can feel the Empire has mellowed, even relaxed, over the years.

It makes no apologies for its physicality – it is still as opulent and luxurious as I recall it. But it seems more toned down somehow. Perhaps it’s just me or perhaps it’s just that the Empire is a concept whose time has come. Yesterday’s opulence is today’s luxury. Since the Empire was built, grand and opulent have become as common as camels in the desert – look no further than Dubai’s Burj Al Arab or Abu Dhabi’s Emirates Palace.

My friend David who is with me and who is seeing the Empire for the first time is overawed. His jaw is slack. I feel a bit smug about it. “Wait till you see the suites and oh yes, the camel,” I said.

The two camels are still there – one is in the lobby, encased in a glass cage, the other is in a suite.

I was impressed by how well-kept the whole resort is. Often when you revisit a grand place after a few years, you find it peeling and frayed in places. It must cost a bundle to upkeep this sprawling resort but they obviously believe in maintenance being the best policy.

On a tour of the resort – you have to do it by buggy otherwise it might take a day or so, I say hello to my golf course to which I remain faithful having not played another round since, pop into the cinema where they’re showing “The Transformers”, poke my head into the disco where I can remember a great party was had by one and all during ATF and revisit the wing in which I stayed and the bed on which I slept. I was told they’re opening a new villa wing which has just been completed.

At sunset, over cranberry juice, I watched the sun go down over the horizon and reflected on why such a magical place so close to Singapore and several major Asian markets remains so far away in their imagination.

Perhaps it’s to do with the lack of awareness – most people think of Brunei as small, boring, nothing to do, the way people used to think of Singapore actually. Also Brunei is dry, so there’s a feeling that you can’t have much fun without booze. Reality is, you can bring in your entitlement and you can drink privately if you wish to. And perhaps it’s okay to do without booze for a few days anyway. But human nature being what it is, what is forbidden makes it sweeter.

The hotel was running 40% occupancy the day I was there, Keiler told me. Chinese tourists have discovered it, combining it with Sabah, as have the Koreans and Taiwanese. Keiler wants to market it more aggressively as a resort and when you look at the range of things to do at the Empire as well as the grandeur and luxury of the hotel, you see no reason why this couldn’t be an alternative quick break for the ever-seeking traveller living in Asia.

The trick though is to get the word out and in today’s world where so many destinations are competing for attention, it is easy for a grand hotel in a small place to get lost amid the clutter.

I am glad though the Empire and I are reunited and that unlike me, she has aged gracefully.

Catch more of Yeoh Siew Hoon every week at The Transit Cafe