Royal Rainforests And Coastlines

I’m Colin and I was raised in Brunei Darussalam as a half breed; a mix of Chinese and the indigenous ethnic tribe of Lun Bawang.

- Colin Tan

I’m Colin and I was raised in Brunei Darussalam as a half breed; a mix of Chinese and the indigenous ethnic tribe of Lun Bawang. One dear friend still makes fun of me and refers to me as a head hunter because of the tribe I was born into – just to be clear, there is no such initiation to manhood in this 21st century.

Turn on your car engine, because I’m taking you on a tour. But on a serious note, you do need a car to go around Brunei, especially to the places I’m going tell you about in this article, and if you’re planning to go from one end of the country to the other. Here we go.

Brunei is home to a majority of Malay followed by Chinese, indigenous and other ethnicities. We are a small population of about 428,000 people compared to Singapore’s 5.39 million. However, we are larger in geographic terms and we preserve about 70% of Brunei’s rainforests. Islam is the main religion and yes, this is the country that has made headline news for implementing Shariah laws but things are normal here, really.

I always have people dishing me odd comments about Brunei, like when one turns on the tap, oil flows out and that is why everyone is so rich here. This is no doubt a myth, my dear friends. Although our economy runs heavily on oil and gas, the majority of our population live on median income.

The government looks after the less fortunate population by providing affordable government housing schemes, and Brunei is a quiet place if you’re looking for peace but want to still be in contact with modern civilisation.