Why are taxis so expensive in Brunei?

Brunei. Many people don't know where this tiny nation is located. Well, if you refer to my previous post, you would see a little tiny country located on the north coast of Borneo, lodged within Malaysia. The main reason behind our visit to Brunei is from sheer curiosity. I remembered memorizing the long capital city name for this tiny nation in Grade 6 geography. Bandar Seri Begawan. BSB for short. Such a long name for such a small nation. Brunei is a constitutional sultanate nation, ruled by...well a Sultan and other ministers (mostly family members). The Sultan is highly revered in the nation, as every public place we visited had photos of the Sultan and the Queen on their walls. Bruneians speak a standardized form of Malay, but they did display quite a bit of Arabic on signage around town.

We intended a short stay in Brunei. We flew Royal Brunei Airlines from Kota Kinabalu to BSB in 40 minutes. It was a beautiful 777 plane with really pretty flight attendants.

Royal Brunei Airlines flight attendants

Brunei Dollars, equal in value to the Singapore Dollar

Now, I had to dress a lot more conservatively in Brunei as they have stricter Muslim rules than Malaysia. It was also bloody hot though so I was sweating profusely walking around the city centre. Walking around the small city centre, it was pretty evident that everything is done by the government. There was nothing extravagant about BSB except for a few buildings here and there but the streets were well kept. The city centre also did not feel like a city centre. Unfortunately, BSB seems to be quite sprawled and of course, very vehicle-oriented due to the cheap oil available in their country. There was no way we could've walked from our hotel (which felt like in the middle of nowhere) to the city centre without heat stroke or crossing a dangerous road. Thus, we had to hire a cab...(I'll get to my problem later on).

We toured the Royal Regalia Museum, which is where the Sultan shows off some of his gifts from countries around the world. No photos were allowed though, so I can't share with you all the gift from Jean Chretien to the Sultan... It was a granite sculpture of a seal. When other governments were gifting swords, gold necklaces, and the like, we gave him a sculpture of a seal (or was it a walrus)? After being excessively chilled by the violent air conditioning inside the museum, we headed outside to tour the city centre but then it was pouring rain while it was sunny. It was a strange weather phenomenon. When the rain finally slowed, we visited the post office where I mailed some postcards and visited the Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque, decorated with gold leaf. The attendants were very nice and quite chatty and showed us a separate side where the women pray. Since this is the mosque the royals frequent, there were escalators for their use to their VIP room upstairs...We went to Kampong Ayer afterwards and took a half hour boat road around the village. It was pretty shocking how many people still lived in this water village on stilts without any sewage treatment.

Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque, decorated in a gold-leaf dome

Brunei's version of Teh - with palm sugar. SO GOOD.

It was unfortunate how small the city centre was. Denise and I ended up wandering around the mall nearby and discovered something fun and interesting inside the arcade - it was a karaoke box! We sang 2 songs - Leehom and FIR. That was the most Asian moment of the entire trip. We explored the water village some more by foot and took some photos and then decided to head back to the hotel. Due to the lack of taxis, we went to the Sheraton in the city centre to ask for their assistance in calling a cab. We waited about 15 minutes and a cab finally showed up and we paid the 15 Brunei dollars for the 10 minute ride...Had a pleasant Indian feast for dinner and headed back to the hotel since there was not much to do in BSB at night.

Kampong Ayer (Water village) with the Mosque in the background

Inside of the Empire Hotel and Country Club - $1.1 Billion US was spent on the construction of this place...

The next day, we decided to visit the Empire Hotel and Country Club. The interesting story behind this hotel was that it was built by the Sultan's brother, who was also the ex-finance minister. His brother spent excessively on a lavish life. Apparently, he owns over 90 properties around the world with a 2000+ car collection. Anyhow, he built this country club as a royal getaway for family and friends. In total, he spent USD1.1 billion - a hefty sum considering the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur cost about USD 1.6 billion. It was from all the imported Italian marble and other luxuries inside the country club. The Sultan apparently fired his own brother from the finance minister post and sold a lot of the other lavish and silly facilities his brother wasted money on. 

Now, getting to the question of this entry - why are the taxis so bloody expensive in Brunei? Well, according to our taxi driver who drove us to the Empire hotel, there are apparently only 45 taxis in the entire country. He broke it down for us - about half are waiting at the airport, 10 in other parts of the country, and the rest in BSB. Our cab from the airport to our hotel was 25 Brunei Dollars. Our trips to and from the city centre were 10 or 15 each way. Our ride to the Empire and then to the airport was 50. FIFTY! It wasn't even that long of a drive. So in total, we spent over 100 Brunei Dollars on cabs within 2 days. 

At the end of the trip, I was quite surprised at what I saw in Brunei. Even though the country has the 2nd highest HDI in South East Asia after Singapore and the 4th highest GDP per capita in the world, the regular inhabitants did not seem wealthy at all. They seem to live comfortably without worrying about money but they also did not live a wealthy life. It was obvious the money was controlled by the Sultan and distributed on top of people's salaries. People drove modest cars, dressed conservatively, and had the necessary day to day items. According to my Lonely Planet guide, Bruneians apparently like to shop - but I didn't really see too much evidence of that during my stay.

We waited a lengthy delay for our flight to Kuala Lumpur and was thoroughly bored at the airport. Next entry - Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia!