Borneo-boy - Brunei

Let me tell you something about Brunei. It’s a small sultanate sandwiched by Malaysia on the island of Borneo. It’s got lots of oil and therefore lots of money . . . but the money doesn’t seem to be shared very evenly. The sultan is one of the richest people in the world and was the richest person until 97. He’s got a couple of wives (you are allowed to have four in Brunei). Oh yeah and it’s a Muslim country so there is no booze allowed. In the capital city of Bandar Seri Begawan, about 30,000 people live on the water. This small country is going to run out of oil soon and is trying to grow its tourism to make up the difference, but so far I’d say it isn’t working.

Let me tell you about my time in Brunei, specifically being there for ‘National Day.’ So National Day is the day where the Sultan comes out to view the people. The army, navy, air force, civil servants, students, business people, etc, parade in front of him and all the VIPs in the nation. It’s really grand and quite impressive. Being one of the only tourists there me and my team got a lot of attention. I was able to meet the Canadian High Commissioner; The team was interviewed by the national paper, the national television station, and the national radio station on a number of different occations; and everyone wanted to say hi to me. It was really cool. Brunei is one of those places in the world where the average citizen hasn’t been turned off by tourists and actually wants to come have a conversation with you. Its one of those places where the kids haven’t seen many tall white people before so they run after your taxi waving with huge smiles on their face. It was such a nice place to be after the chaos of Sabah.

Check out the pictures here.