Brunei - Relaxed and Charming

Brunei is the tiniest country in the world.

For some reason I was really looking forward to seeing Brunei. It just seemed so 'out there' to me, a place few have visited, something different. Brunei is one of the richest countries in the world thanks to someone sticking a spear in the dirt and discovering oil just laying under the surface of the soil. It is the size of Delaware, 50 miles from the equator, and has 400,000 inhabitants, the majority of whom are Islamic. It is 80% rainforest. The forest, everywhere is dense, thick and green. Very pretty. It is ruled by the 67 year old Sultan who's worth today is around 10 billion, down from 40 billion in recent years. He pulls in about, Oh, 140 million a day, from his gas and oil production. He is a bit on the extravagant side, living in a newly built 2,000,000 square foot marble $400 million Palace of Light. In this palace are 1800 rooms, 257 bathrooms, 10 elevators, 5 swimming pools, a garage for 110 cars. Why so large? you may ask. Well, he currently has 2 wives and 11 children. Most of his children are grown and gone but there are still those 1,000 servants hanging around. I can only imagine the family gatherings. Instead of a car for his daughters coming of age gift, he purchased and furnished a full size airbus for her private use, well, for her and a few close friends. We did see the top of his palace from the bus. It reminded me of Cinderella's castle where you drive for miles through some lush gardens and then have to be actually IN the park before you can see the castle itself.

Back to Brunei, it was a nice clean place to come visit and I would even come back, unless the Sultan reads my blog. The people here maintain a high standard of living due to the generosity of their Sultan. Everything related to education, books etc is provided by the government. Free health care, even if that means having to leave the country for this care, provided. The Sultan provides a 50 year interest free mortgages for all. The largest Mosque in the world is here, complete with 24 carat guilded domes, a gift to the people from their Sultan. The price tag to build this mosque is never discussed as this is impolite. Beaches with restrooms, toilets, BBQ grills, free parking as well as plentiful parks and free rides in all amusement parks are provided. Did I say NO tax? Gas price, lowest in the world. No crime here. No alcohol here. Banned. Women cover yourselves. The Sultan rules, everything and everyone and even 'decides' salary levels. There is no criticism of government here.

We had a boat ride in a old wooden boat to the water village, Kampong Ayer, or Venice of the East. There are 4,200 structures including homes, shops, restaurants, schools, hospital and a firehouse built on stilts. They sit on the BruneiI River. I took way too many pictures. We were told people want to live here. Most were fisherman and craftsmen. We visited one home. It looks like a slum from the outside but was quite modern on the inside, including plumbing, air conditioning, satellite TV and the Internet.

We had lunch buffet style at a local restaurant which truly delighted me and all my senses., I had a roll with butter and tried a few things. There was nothing written to tell you what you were eating. Maybe that was a good thing. Heavy vegetarian but meat, chicken, fish, squid and all sorts of interesting colors, textures, and shape. Spicy and jell-o-ey. One of my table mates asked if it was a maggot in her dish, but we all thought naaa..... Another adventurous eater ate something that looked like melted cellophane. He could not get it in his chopsticks or on his spoon to get it to the sauce. When he tasted it, he was not keen on it.....We later found out it was a dish unique to Borneo, ambuyat, a paste made from sago (Meghan??) ....translated tree bark. Yummm It was a staple in WWII we were told later.