A friend of mine from Hong Kong recently consulted my advice on what he should know, if he ever considers migrating to Brunei.
As a person who’s lived here and a few other places in my lifetime, it was easy for me to point out some plus and minuses right away!
Below are some of my notes for my friend. My underlying message is, please come! We warmly welcome you and your family here!
| What I love about Brunei? | What frustrates me about Brunei? | |
| 1 | Seriously Good Fry Kwea Teow / Kolo Mee / Roti Pratha | $19.99 for a large pizza in Brunei, seriously?!!! (It’s $5.99 in the US – see above) |
| 2 | 60 Cents Kopi | No Starbucks?!!! |
| 3 | Cheap & tasty Pasar-Malam Food | Lacks: Money-Can-Buy top notch cuisines |
| 4 | It’s who you know | It’s what you drive |
| 5 | 10 – 15 minutes drive to / from anywhere (5 minutes if you live in where I live – Menglait) | Dude, where’s the cycling tracks, taxis and MRT? |
| 6 | No Speed Cameras | Crazy Drivers |
| 7 | Good sense of community | A little too good at times… |
| 8 | People are polite | For goodness sake, tell me what you really think! |
| 9 | Cheap DVDs | Lousy Internet Connection |
| 10 | Blessed, wealthy little country | (We think) We own the universe! |
| 11 | Cheap foreign labours | (We think) We own them too! |
| 12 | Lack of competition (business opportunities) | Seriously bad service. (See…) |
| 13 | Teaches you patience | Tests your patience |
| 14 | Not illegal for Maki* to poop anywhere! | Illegal for Maki to go anywhere: No Park, No Café, No Public areas… |
| 15 | 53 cents per litre of Premium Unleaded, and you don’t even need to get out of your car to refill! | $9.20 / bottle of fresh milk (2ltr) [appx 9x price of our oil] / Amazon.com delivery takes 6 weeks! / No PayPal (@anthony_er) |
| 16 | Lack of decent shopping | Ditto: lack of decent shopping! |
| 17 | You have time to smell the flowers | Dude, where’s the flowers?! |
| 18 | Highly educated generation | It’s who (not what) you know |
| 19 | Central location to anywhere in Asia… | RBA, oh RBA… |
| 20 | Lizards (beautiful creature) | Mosquitoes! |
Maki in Australia (the new immigrant to Brunei)
What’s not listed –
Pros of living in Brunei:
No tax on income.
You can use Moneybookers to send/receive money.
Beaches are close by.
No booze in public – less incidents of drunk-related crimes.
Cons of living in Brunei:
Don’t go shopping on Payday (end of the month), you won’t find parking 😦
Only 1 24-hour place to eat out.
No Subway 😦
No booze in public – have to go to the border to find some.
No Krispy Kreme, No Hungry Jacks, No Chicken Treat, No Red Rooster, No Nandos, No Wendys, No Hooters, No Yoshinoya, No Burger King, No A&W, No Sizzler, No Mos Burger, No Carl’s Junior, No Boon Tiong Kee, No Taco Bell, No Dominos, No Dunkin Donuts… (Smells opportunities to me)
Another con is the general lack of choice in local bookstores, although that is another downside that can be circumvented by taking a trip across the border.
On the topic of books, is ‘The Heart of Service’ on sale anywhere in Brunei?
P.S. Maki is so cute!
Thanks for the compliment on Maki. She’s our pride and joy.
Re- Book store: I used to have the same complaint until I discovered iBook on ipad. Now, you can move me to Antartica, and I wouldn’t complain about books.
Heart of Service – it’s not published on hard copy. I have emailed the eBook to you.
Item 15(Con) Should be clarified. There is Paypal. But unfair paypal service for Brunei.
At this moment (oh, since how long ago. . .) Paypal does not allow Bruneian account holders to receive payment in. I find this unfair.
Paypal, to date, has not explained why Brunei is being denied this opportunity. Malaysia has it. Singapore has it. Why can’t Brunei have it, too?
In an extensively wired world today, this denial of service actually harms business opportunities. It is also unfair that, up to now, we can only use Paypal to “push” money out of Brunei, much to the happiness and advantage of overseas business enterprises. BUT, there’s no return favour.
Please re-consider allowing payment gateway opportunity for Bruneian businesses to be engaged in international business as well. Just as I happily use Paypal for remittances to offshore accounts (e.g. USA, UK, et al.), we need to be given the right to receive payments in-bound into Brunei via Paypal,
Paypal, are you listening? Brunei may be small, but let’s talk business. Otherwise, why bother being Paypal?
Sorry PayPal, you don’t piss off my teacher. No body messes with Mr.Er. I have no ctrl button for this… : )
Halid said on his post (on November 10, 2011 at 5:45 am) that “You can use Moneybookers to send/receive money.”
I am heartened to know this. BUT, because of the nature of my business, I need to sign up to a service provider from the USA. The provider’s requirement is for me to use “Paypal” and all transactions that occur in my business would be calculated on percentage of this traffic. Now, if I can’t receive payment for my services via Paypal, I can’t do business. Period.
Paypal, are you a pal for business or a leech?
Paypal’s reply to me a couple of years ago (2012) is they are working on giving this option to Brunei as well, but the infrastructure or something on both paypal and our local banking requirements,just wont allow it at that time. So I dont think we will have the option anytime soon, or maybe ever!! :s