Bandar Seri Begawan

October 4–5, 2013

Brunei Darussalam is a microscopic country with enormous amounts of money.

Oil and natural gas have provided the Sultan of Brunei with the largest inhabited palace in the world (in terms of area). And they’ve provided the country’s citizens with an excellent quality of life.

Every Bruneian is entitled to a free higher education. So even the alleys are tidy here.

All the sidewalks are made of poured concrete, painted red with cracks scratched in to evoke stonework.

The traffic lights are somewhat stumpy.

The pedestrian traffic lights are identical to the ones we saw recently in Kuala Lumpur.

And the perforated masts are like the ones in Rangoon or Singapore.

The license plates are unassuming.

A vehicle registration sticker on a windshield.

No parking signs are usually accompanied by a plaque threatening violators with a wheel boot.

The pedestrian’s right hand looks like an elephant trunk, and the left one looks like a tentacle.

A stop sign.

A trash can. Or, rather, four trash cans.

Dumpsters are green and plastic.

Water valves are marked with blue slabs (sort of like in Samoa).

The fire hydrant is laconic, but not quite as laconic as in the Caymans.

The big post boxes look like they’re made out of fuel barrels or something.

The smaller boxes are unremarkable in their appearance, but are located in the most unexpected of places: on the median in the middle of the road.

Storm drains run along the sidewalks and are covered with grates.

Here’s an incredibly beautiful solution: a very narrow storm drain. The only thing that’s unclear is how they clean out leaves and trash.

A view of some payphones over a Bruneian tree stump.

A view of the city from the river.

But that was just one half of the city. The other half stands on stilts over the water.

The two halves are linked by speedboats.

Let’s pop in to see how people live here. In the background, behind the trees, is the aforementioned palace of the aforementioned Sultan of Brunei.

Everything is on the water here. Water homes, schools and shops.

A checkered water taxi.

A water transportation stop.

Water alleys.

Water gazebos.

Water utility poles.

A water mosque.

A water fire department.

A water museum.

And water billboards.

The water taxi drivers are incredibly skilled at operating large motorboats and manage to perfectly calculate turn trajectories between the stilts and poles, like an experienced gamer completing a very familiar level.