Brunei - March 3rd - UPDATED

Map by Wikipedia

Our ship docked this morning in Brunei around 11:30 AM.  We had been told ahead of time that our tours would be delayed until 2:00 PM as Friday is the holy day and prayers take place between noon and 2 PM. 

 

Brunei is a tiny country on the island of Borneo. Malaysia and Indonesia occupy most of the island (see map). It is a monarchy with a Sultan/King.  After the passing of Queen Elizabeth II, he is now the longest serving monarch currently in power…he has been in power since 1967. The country gained its independence as a British protectorate in 1984.

Brunei has extensive petroleum and natural gas fields making their monarch one of the richest men in the world.  The population is about 450,000 and 85% of the people work for the government.  There is free education through university, free medical care, and no taxes.  When you turn 18 you can apply for housing for which you pay $300 per month and then own after 5 years.  They have one of the highest per capita incomes in Asia.  They pay just over $1 per gallon for gas. There are 1.2 million cars for the population of 450,000. Given the country’s long relationship with Shell Oil, this has been referred to as a shellfare state.

 

The sultan has the largest palace in the world with 1788 rooms, 257 bathrooms, a banquet hall that seats 5000, airconditioned stables for 200 horses, and 110 garages.  He is a car collector and owns 7000 cars valued at $5 billion US dollars.  He also has a gold-plated jet.The official language is Malay, but English is their 2^nd language.  Muslim is their state religion and 86% of the population is Muslim.  No alcohol or cigarettes are sold in the country and there is no “nightlife” although our guide said food is their passion and they gather in restaurants in the evening.  He told us that the young people cross the border into Malaysia for their nightlife.

 

For our tour we had a cruise up the river to the mangroves to see the proboscis monkeys. These monkeys are native to Borneo and feed on mangrove shoots.  The longer the nose of the male, the more attractive he is to the females.  The females are prized by males for their long tails.  These monkeys are endangered.  We saw the monkeys up in the trees.

After viewing the monkeys, we headed to the water villages where we visited a home of a family that had lived there for 5 generations. There are extensive water villages along the river with 23 Kilometers of board walks. About 10,000 people still live in the villages but for 80% of them it is their vacation home, and they also have a house on land.  The government maintains the bridges, but the homeowners are responsible for all other maintenance.  

The home we visited

 

Inside the home

We were served a variety of local delicacies and were allowed inside to view the house (see pictures).

The food we were served

I expected with all the wealth that the country would be more like Singapore.  For the most part, the architecture in the capital city was uninteresting and many building seem to need repair.  We passed by several beautiful mosques, the largest of which cost 1.2 billion dollars to build.

 

The Sultan imposed harsh laws that banned gay and extramarital sex…making it punishable by death by stoning.  In response, a number of wall street banks and actors such as George Clooney, Elton John and Ellen DeGeneres called for a boycott of the hotels owned by the Sultan, including the Beverly Hills and Bel Air hotels. The Sultan did eventually back away from the death penalty.

Women have more rights in Brunei than in many muslim countries.  Although they are encouraged to cover up, it is not a requirement.  They can pursue higher education and have most of the same rights as males. However, males can have up to four wives if they can afford them, but not without the agreement of the first wife.  Also, only the sons can become the king.

It was an interesting visit, but I have no desire to live there.

From Chris:

Over the past 4 days on board the ~500 passenger cruise ship Nautica, we’ve gone from Singapore to Brunei and today into the port city of Kota Kinabalu in the state of Sabah (part of Malaysia) located on the northwest coast of Borneo. Connie’s blog will fill in the details and provide pictures, I will note our relief at finally seeing some sunshine yesterday and today, and with less rocking and rolling at sea. Brunei again illustrates the fractured history of Malaysia as it was envisioned by many after WWII to join with peninsular Malay and Singapore to create a unified and multicultural federated Malaysia. But, as Singapore was being kicked out, Shell Oil was whispering into the Brunei Sultan’s ear that if he opted out of the federation he could keep all the revenues of his billion barrel off shore oil field to himself and not have to share it with anyone. Connie details how this absolute monarch spends his cash and how his loyal subjects benefit from what is now commonly referred to as the Brunei Shellfare State - and also live under the illusion that their British Commonweslth status will protect them from foreign invasion. What really protects them is that the Sultan has already given away all the land in Borneo (name comes from Brunei) that his Royal dynasty once ruled, and the little parcel that’s left is split in two by another giveaway piece to Malaysia. We learned, however, that this plays well with all his younger subjects in this land of Sharia law and abstinence as they regularly drive into that small Malaysian wedge for booze and nightlife. Unlike the Brunei folks who don’t even have to slow down as they drive across their border and into Malay Borneo, our Nautica passengers were unduly delayed this morning by sleepy “Malay Authorities” who finally allowed us to disembark in Sabah (Kota Kinabalu) for our various tours and excursions. But our speedy bus drivers made up the time by flying over their many Sabah potholes on their single coastal road to lead us back toward Brunei and into river boats to search for endangered golden proboscis monkeys, unique to Borneo. While we were successful in our search, I was actually wishing we could’ve headed further north to visit a few of the five different eco zones, ranging from tropical jungle to arctic habitat, along the flank of 13,455 ft high Mt. Kinabalu a national park and UNESCO World Heritage site majestically visible from the center of town. Oh well; Connie and I will be returning to eastern Borneo in another week — but right now we head back out to sea and are due to dock in the southern Philippines tomorrow at 10am.