THE SULTAN OF BRUNEI is a mythical sort of guy, inescapable and aloof, both everywhere and nowhere in his country. His portrait hangs in every restaurant, his photo often in the newspaper, his face on at least one TV station at any given time. But public appearances are rare, and his notoriously expensive palace (pictured below) is visible only sort of from a single park. … Continue reading 10 Fun Facts About the Sultan of Brunei
“I KNOW, I TALK,” our boat driver tells us as we step aboard. “I don’t know, I don’t talk.” What he means, I think, is that he’ll tell us what he knows, but he doesn’t know everything. He knows, for instance, that his name is Lokman, that he is 46-years-old, that he became a boat driver at age 18 because he hated school, that he … Continue reading Folks on the Water
AN IRISH BACKPACKER ASKED ME, in the Kuala Lumpur airport the other day, where I was headed. “Brunei,” I told him. He didn’t hear me. “Phucket?” No, Brunei, I repeated, on the jungle island of Borneo. He looked confused. “Never heard of it,” he said. “What country is it in?” Brunei is accurately and often exclusively described as a small oil-rich Islamic state in Southeast … Continue reading Brunei, of Slums and Sultans
A Long Way Back 