Brunei
Monday, June 5th, 2006I tried to think of a craftier title for this entry about Brunei but i guess just the name of the country is all i really need. I really didn’t have much interest in going down to Brunei but thought what could it hurt. There was a group of four of us who took the 4 hour ferry ride from Kota Kinabalu to Brunei. I’ll say that my expectations were pretty low and i’d say that all in all they were pretty much not exceeded. The country itself is very modern in some ways. They have been benefiting from the oil that was discovered offshore. The Sultan of Brunei was at one time the richest man in the world with his riches estimated at over 30 Billion dollars. The residents of the country live tax free. They get subsidized for houses and cars by the sultan as well. It is an islamic country which also makes it conservative. There is no alcohol allowed in the country although you can find it for a pretty steep fee if you want. Gasoline prices are ridiculously low. They pay about 53 cents per litre. I believe there is about 4.5 liters per gallon. So if you convert the currency i believe it works out to a pretty cheap gallon of gas. We took a boat ride through the water village one day and was able to get a look inside one of the houses. I guess some say the village is similar to what you would find in Venice although i highly doubt that it would really compare seeing as it was pretty dirty. All in all Brunei lacks flavor and character. There isn’t much to do. They don’t really have any tourist infrastructure because it’s such a small country and it’s hard to get to. I’ve definitely been there for the last time but it was fun to see and definitely part of the adventure.
Gagnonius