Stopover in Brunei

One of the guys I met at the hostel in Kota Kinabalu turned out to be from Brunei. Since I had a stopover there on my way to Bangkok, I decided to ask him about some of the sights...whether or not it was worth it to head out of the airport. In the end, he offered to take me around : ) And so, I got picked up at the airport. Yay!
On a side note, Royal Brunei Airlines was great! Drinks and candies even for a 30 minute flight. Although I have to admit that the blessing prayers before take-off caught me a bit off guard...

Brunei's wealth comes from oil. The money has allowed the country to provide free education and medical care to its citizens; they have no income tax as well. But this all comes with a price - alcohol is prohibited, censorship is enforced, and "Big Brother is watching". So I don't want to say anything more. Given that oil is Brunei's only industry, who knows what will happen when the supply runs out.

In all honesty, there is not much to see there. The sultan's palace and his mosque are the main attractions. Apparently, a new mosque & palace is built each time a new sultan takes office (?). Of course, the new buildings have to be grander than the one before - the son outdoing the father. Such a waste of money in my opinion.
This belongs to the current sultan:

3 hours later, after seeing 90 % of the sights Brunei had to offer, I was back at the airport to catch my flight to Bangkok, connecting to Colombo. Long flight day.