Boat Right Up To Me

Brunei has one of the highest GDPs per capita in the world, so you would expect it to be pretty wealthy. If the streets of America are paved with gold, then Brunei's should be diamond-encrusted.

Life is pretty good as a loyal citizen of Brunei. A liter of gas is cheaper than buying a liter of water at the market. You don't pay taxes, and education is more or less taken care of. Pretty much everyone in the country can afford a car. Sounds pretty good to me! Well ok, since I visited they did start to enact this whole Sharia law thing, so depending on your viewpoint, you may not be so keen on it.

It was surprising to see just how poorly many of the people lived in Brunei. Sure there's a lot of money, and the Sultan has his opulent golden mosques and clothing, but then you have Kampong Ayer - a water village of 39,000 people built within the capital city of Bandar Seri Begawan. Probably a far cry from the floating slums of Lagos, but it's still not exactly what you would expect for a very well-to-do nation state. Walking around the floating village was pretty cool though.

A Jetty in the water village of Kampong Ayer.