Brunei

I was able to tick off another country with my first business trip to Brunei. Many people think Brunei is in the Middle East because it is an oil-rich Sultanate (a country ruled absolutely by a Sultan). It tends to get mixed up with Bahrain. However Brunei is in SE Asia on the island of Borneo. Also on Borneo is part of Malaysia and even an Indonesian territory. So Brunei is small, but quite interesting.

The Sultan has been named the richest man in the world in certain years. He has two wives. Wife #1 is the main wife and he is now on his second wife number 2. The first wife #2 was a former Singapore Air stewardess who he divorced. The second wife #2 is a former TV personality. He has 5 sons and 7 daughters with his 3 wives. He lives an extravagant lifestyle to say the least.  It is said he owns 3000-5000 cars worth about USD 4B.  Many of them are one of a kind.  He also has a 747 with gold plated furniture.

His brother, Prince Jefri is famous for stealing money from the Brunei Investment Authority he once ran.  The BIA is one of those so-called Sovereign Wealth Funds that held the significant foreign reserves of the country.  It is said he stole and spent over USD 27B.  Both the Sultan and his brother have many palaces and own hotels such as the NY Palace Hotel.  The Sultan's main palace is huge - something like 1400 rooms.

However, there is some sharing of the wealth as all the citizens of Brunei get free education and free healthcare.  Also, there is no individual or corporate income tax.  95% of their revenues are from oil.  And to think, the Sultan and his brother lived like this when oil was $12 a barrel!

We stayed at the Empire Hotel which was built by Prince Jefri.  It is an amazing place and the pictures below are just of the atrium and do not do it justice.  There are something like 4-5 thousand guest rooms.  They also have a grand function hall, ballroom, movie theatres, bowling alleys, a country club with badminton, tennis, basketball and squash courts, multiple pools, and, of course, a Jack Nicklaus designed golf course with lights for night time playing.  I definitely want to bring Lauren and the kids back here for a long weekend and just run amuck in this place.

Only one downside - Brunei is a "dry" country - no booze!  Apparently, you can bring some in, but it is limited and there is no place you can get booze in Brunei (although I would wager there might be some at the Sultan's palace)

Cheers,

Jed