I Went Back to My Least Favorite Country (Brunei)

10 years ago I went to Brunei and I hated it. I was kicked out of this mosque and yelled at for no reason despite being respectful. I became terrified to hear about their strict islamic laws which involve stoning gay people to death and on top of all of that I found the country to be extremely boring with literally nothing to do except eat. I shared all of my thoughts in a video which was viewed by more than 15 million people on the internet but at that time I was young and naive as a 22 year old backpacker so I decided to go back to give Brunei a second chance with an open mind and a willingness to uncover the true story but I have to admit I am pretty nervous. My face is all over the internet saying bad things about Brunei and surely everyone in the country including the sultan himself has seen the video. What if I am blacklisted? What if the immigration officer captures me and takes me to jail? There's only one way to find out and I'm on my way. There's no chance they would take me to prison right? There's always a chance. If I was blacklisted my name would be on the system for sure. Yeah. I'm unlisting all my Brunei content right now because I'm worried that I'm gonna be caught and seen. Just gotta play it safe. 2013 was the last time I went to Brunei. Must be different. This is actually a new airline for me. Last time I flew AirAsia so Royal Brunei Airways new. Always touch the plane for good luck. That sound is the Quran, the holy book of Islam which makes me feel like I'm on a plane to Saudi Arabia or Yemen. Here goes nothing. It's a weird feeling to be here and like the population of this country is like less than a million. The videos that I made here have gotten over like 25 million views. Let's just get through immigration. Now I can feel better. I was greeted at the airport by a local friend named Bryant who I met just a week before on Instagram. Nice to meet you dude. How you doing? Not too bad dude. I was worried about the immigration. Is that right? Yeah. Brunei is a tiny country in Southeast Asia on Borneo Island in between Malaysia and Indonesia. The population is only 450,000 and culturally it feels like Singapore with a mix of ethnic Malays, Chinese, Indonesians, Indians, and Filipinos and everyone speaks English. Welcome to Brunei. Both Singapore and Brunei are small and clean and the two currencies are pegged to each other which means they always have the exact same value. However unlike Singapore, Brunei is very laid back without many things to do and it's also a lot cheaper. As you drive around the country you'll see an assortment of really cool looking mosques and buildings and a lot of flags on the streets. A lot of this has to do with the government. There is a sultan or a king and he can be seen on every single building and household in the country. So every establishment by law is required to have the two pictures of the sultan and his wife. By law, you can't open up a place without it. Let's just say that the sultan of Brunei is a very interesting man. In recent years he implemented Sharia law which is a strict Islamic code of conduct that bans liquor and forces Muslims to live a certain way under constant surveillance. Thanks to a booming oil industry, the sultan is known to be one of the top 10 richest men on earth with an estimated wealth of 30 billion dollars. Therefore all Bruneians get benefits like free health care, no income tax, and free education. I think to the outside world it's very fascinating because here you know his word is law but I think with Brunei, the sultan he is very very generous and he's very kind. Like whenever I talk to people about Brunei, I'm like oh yeah my country has no taxes, free education, free health care. They're like oh can we move there? If no taxes and free health care sound like a sweet deal, just wait until you see these gas prices. We are rolling up to a gas station now and because Brunei is such an oil-rich country, gas is subsidized and it's super cheap and as Karen said it's cheaper than water. One liter of petrol cheaper than one liter of water. One liter of water is a dollar. Yeah. Hi, how are you? You're gonna be surprised when you see the prices. It cost just 13 bucks to fill up his entire car. In my country, this would be like 120 dollars. After fueling up for the day, Brian took me to get some breakfast at the most local Bruneian joint that's been around since World War II. It is a pretty festive scene in here of a lot of people eating breakfast. I've been to a lot of restaurants in my life and I've never seen a menu that looks like this. Every single item is made from bread, sugar, and eggs. After all, we are in Southeast Asia and that means you can find something different on every menu. Whoa. Yeah. It's really sweet. Really good though. It's like peanutty like a custard. This is one of the stranger breakfast experiences I've ever had but I mean everyone's here and loving it like it's busy. Hi, I hope you enjoy Brunei this time. Very much, yeah. Because the last video you're not really keen on Brunei. What did you think about my last video? The fact, some of the facts not right. Yeah, I know. And there's something wrong with your visit to the mosque. Yeah. Because normally, you don't really stop tourists going to the mosque. I'm gonna head back there and check it out. Yeah. So far, Brunei is a lot better than I remembered it being and I hope that continues throughout the trip. I just want to say like last time I came to Brunei, I did not see this cool hipster graffiti on the walls. I don't know if Brunei has changed or if I just didn't come to the right places. I think you just didn't go to the right places. Dude, I used to love the Simpsons growing up. Hey, you're that guy. Yeah, I'm that guy. You're that guy. How are you? I'm good, man. You live here? Yeah, I live here. What's it like to live here? It's fun. It's such a great place. I mean, very peaceful. I already love it way better like I didn't really know what was going on. Yeah, fair enough, man. I think I saw your video like when it first came out. Do you think all the people here were pissed? I think a lot of people here were pissed. I mean, there was some truth to it. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I understand. It's so crazy to be here, man. Like, I'm getting flashbacks from my last trip here, but it's just different and obviously being with Bryant, like he's taking me to the cool spots and that just shows you like having a local friend is key anywhere you go in the world. Just makes the experience so much better. If you guys want my best tips for how to make local friends as well as how to find the cheapest flights, hotels, and tons more, then check out my ultimate travel hacking course linked down below and I'm offering 30% off only for those watching this video right now. Guys, more than a thousand people have taken my course and it has such amazing reviews and I'm so confident it's going to help you become a better traveler and save money that if you're not satisfied, I'll offer a 100% full refund after 30 days. All right, let's head back to Brunei. As Bryant was driving me around Bandar Seri Begawan, yes, that is actually the name of the capital city, I found out something really interesting about him. So you're in a band? Yeah, dude. It's a pop-punk band. Music similar to like Simple Plan, Blink, most importantly. Show me one of your songs. I feel like I'm in high school again. Middle school. Pretty cool, man. Punk rock aside, I am really eager to see the everyday life of regular people in Brunei away from all the restaurants, mosques, and plazas. This brings me to a really unique settlement along the river which I wasn't able to visit on my last trip to Brunei. Right now, we are cruising around Kampong Ayer which is the water village here of Brunei. You can see the houses are literally made on sticks in the water. So like on this side of Kampong Ayer, people usually drive their cars. They pop and then they can walk into Kampong Ayer. But this side, mostly it's taken boat. There's some fishermen here. You guys catch any fish? Can I see it? Awesome. Have a good day, guys. Thank you. Crazy to be out here and like see this community. There's 11,000 people living out here in this village. It's just surreal. As I understand, that is the current palace of the king. Yep. The king stays there right now. How big is it? Oh, it's huge, man. I think there's about 1,788 rooms in there. 1,788 rooms. So how big is his family? And people here, like are they friendly with him? Like does he go walk around on the streets? There's time to time when he does like surprise visits and like people just love it, man. Everybody loves the sultan here. That's good to hear. It's always a good thing when the people like the leader of their country. Yep. Because most of the time it's the opposite. Yeah, that's true. How many planes does he have? Three planes, two helicopters. Three planes, two helicopters. All right. It's a good life. Sultan many money. This bridge definitely wasn't here last time I was in Brunei. Pretty cool. So we made it on land. Kind of on land. We're still over the water. It's cool. Like it's pedestrian only up here. There's no motorbikes. There's no bicycles. There's no cars. It's just like a sidewalk. Yeah. And you walk around. And so the guy was telling you that the bathroom, like it's just a hole in the ground? Yeah. Everything goes straight into the water. Because there's no plumbing. For these, for the new houses, yeah they do. But the old ones, no. There's this really beautiful mosque right in front of me. Look this out. It's a little blue domed mosque. I must say that Brunei is pretty patriotic because everywhere you go in this country, you see flags waving. The local life up here is pretty cool. You can see just here's the front house of someone doing the laundry outside. Got a garden. What do you think of this place? It's nice dude. It's just very hot. It's peaceful though. It is. Not a lot of noise. You know, no road noise. Yeah we're near the equator down here in Borneo Island man. It's no joke. I mean everything is basically rainforest when you get outside the city. After wandering around the village aimlessly for 20 minutes, Brian took me to his friend's house to try some local Bruneian food. How are you? Nice to meet you. Welcome to my homestead. This is beautiful. Thank you. Thank you very much. This is the interior designer. My son. Okay. What is it like to live here? Yes, we love to live in Kamuha Island. It's very nice in here. Yes. A few of the residents are, have moved on to land as well. So most of the houses are left abandoned here. Gotcha. Yeah. So we are the one of the ones to come back and just make it alive again and share it to people to come and experience the Kamuha Island culture and how people live in Kamuha Island. So Ambuyat is a very traditional dish here in Brunei, mainly known as our national dish. We're actually going to show you how we're going to make it. So it's from the bark of the sago tree which is turned into powder rice. Oh cool. Remember a few months ago when I ate sago on Papua Island? Well, this is the same dish, just prepared a little differently. And we're gonna soften a little bit with a little bit of water. It looks like cotton candy. Well, some people more like it snot, mochi. Yeah, snot would be my second guess. Yeah. Abu, where do we start? So you're gonna poke it a little bit and then you pull it up and then you twist it with that. Poke it? Yeah. And you hold it like this, correct? And then you pull it up and then you twist it. Oh, very nice. Put it in, dip it a little bit. You twirl it around in the bowl. I'm kind of nervous to eat this right now. Cheers! It tastes good because of the sauce. Yeah, without it it's just tasteless. It's the weirdest texture. Epic failure. It's too far away, just put the bowl near to you. You guys only use your hands like traditionally? Yeah, we have this traditional portable sink here where you wash, rinse off your hands. She just, she put it in her mouth and it swallowed into it. Exactly. No bites. So it probably fills you up because it's thick. Yes, yes. So the ampuya is actually, it digests, it turns into water in your stomach. Okay. So it is normal to feel a little bit bloated once you're done. Bloated, good word choice. Yeah. So a whole conversation went out within the community here in Brunei, the fact that you got kicked out of the mosque. Yeah, I really, I really did by the way. I didn't have footage of it because I went in 2013 and then I wasn't filming back then. What, what, after that video went out, what happened here? I mean there was a whole conversation about what happened and I mean I heard from the tourist guide communities because I'm quite close to them and they were talking about it and I feel like, I mean I don't know, have you been there back there since? It's my first time back in Brunei. Okay. I came here to give Brunei a second chance. Yeah. Which as you can see is a lot better than the first time. Yeah. The hospitality that I've received so far in Brunei is incredible and not what I expected. That just goes to show the value in giving a place a second chance with a fresh mind and new perspectives. The call to prayer has just come on. So cool. It's weird to be in Brunei, like so far away from the Middle East and experience the culture here. Also Malaysia and Indonesia are predominantly Muslim. The whole Borneo island is Muslim but I don't know, Brunei, it's just a different, different world out here. I must say that this water village has been fantastic but I'm nervous to head back to the Behind me is the famous Soas Mosque and this is the one that I entered 10 years ago and I got kicked out after respecting everything. I took off my shoes, I had pants below my knees, it wasn't prayer time and I walked in and the guy was like, get out, you can't be here. So I'm gonna give another chance. Have you ever been inside? No, personally I haven't. First time for you? First time. You're gonna try with me? Yeah. All right. I'm sure it's gonna go great but we're gonna enter the Omar, I'm not gonna try to pronounce it. Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddin. Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddin Mosque. Let's go. I may look calm on camera but internally I am shaking. If there's any chance of getting arrested and thrown in the hands of the government, it'll happen right now while I'm re-entering this mosque. I made it in the mosque. We had to leave our cameras outside but we have put on this black thing. Look at him, covering up his tattoos. We made it inside. Nice dude. It's beautiful in here as well. How do you feel in here? Nice, it's very nice. I really like it. I mean this is your country man, it's cool that you get to finally like see inside. This is a crazy moment, like I have very vivid memories of being in here and getting yelled at. So it was through the other door, I think there's a door right there What a moment to be here right now. I'm trying to separate my previous experience at the mosque with the present moment but as any traveler who revisits the site knows, it's difficult to get rid of those preconceptions. All I can say is that I am just stunned by this architecture and the spirit of reverence. So last time I came here I had a bad experience in this mosque, but I just had a great experience. That's why I came back. They just kicked me out for no reason. But this is a pretty special place. Do you guys like living here? It's very peaceful, it's a nice place to live. The air is clean and you know, low crime as well. Very beautiful as well. I like your t-shirt, we are all the same. I'm Jewish, you're Muslim, it doesn't matter. I must say that this mosque is epic. I mean even at night time everything lights up but just walking around this place. I just met like the coolest people that came up to me and I don't know, everyone's super friendly here. That's why you always got to give a place a second chance because when you go the first time there's so many variables that can make or break a trip like the weather or how you're feeling or how you're treated or who you're hanging out with. But you got to come back a second time and things are different, you know. I'm much older and wiser and there's more respectful and more educated and so this time this is so much better than last. Got to go back, see it with a different lens. In the main walking street by the mosque there's all these food vendors and they open up at night and there's one place here selling durian cendol. Cendol is like this dessert. So we're gonna try it out, see how it is. I bet it's good. For those who don't know, durian is a tropical spiky fruit native to Borneo Island and it's famous for its pungent smell and custard-like taste. Put it this way, durian is banned on the metro in Singapore and when you eat it you burp up the taste the next day. But I must say after trying it over 20 times I've come to like it. We don't have durian in America. I'm not sure what to think right now. I could smell that. Smells like durian. Which one is the durian? Upstairs. So not in the bottom? Oh no, you mix it up first. You know you're drinking pure like syrup. Okay. I'm a mess right now dude. I don't know how to approach this. I don't know how to eat this. It's actually pretty good. Yeah? It's good. You have some cream on your mustache. Appreciate that. That is real sweet. Mix it up dude. This is like a heart attack in a cup. Just to show how friendly the people are, this vendor would not accept my money because I am a tourist and she wanted to make sure that I walked away with a positive impression of Brunei. That is amazing. She's so nice. She didn't even want the tip. While it looks like I'm having fun and I certainly am if you compare it to 10 years ago, I must admit that Brunei is very odd. As you've learned from the Sultan of Brunei, there is a lot of wealth floating around this country and you can see it in the form of ridiculous buildings and I mean ridiculous. There is this so-called eight-star hotel and golf course called the Empire Hotel which overlooks the South China Sea in the middle of nowhere. It cost more than 1.5 billion US dollars to build back in the year 2000 and I'm here to see it with my own two eyes. Welcome to Brunei. Oh my god. I feel like I'm in Dubai or something. The street level that we just walked in is the fifth floor. Actually, it goes down. Look, all the way down. There's a big pool right here and that's the sea. I'm really enjoying my time here. This country is really cool and special and unique but I do get slight Turkmenistan vibes here. Gosh, this city is completely over the top and bizarre just because you have these like crazy buildings and cool things around you, beautiful mosques, but the streets are pretty dead. I mean really dead. It's weird that like you would expect there to be a lot of people around and you don't see much of it but nonetheless, it's cool. It's different. It's unique. Yeah, man. I mean it's like the most luxury that you can get here in Brunei. Like people from all over the world, they come here, they stay here and you just have like a good time. What do you think it costs a night? 300, 500 a night maybe. Maybe. For a small room, for like a standard room. We're on negative one floor. I'm so confused right now. I don't know what, I don't know what's going on. There's so much space in here. You could fit the whole country of Brunei in this one building. If I took a golf ball and I teed it up right here, I could take a full swing with a pitching wedge and it would land inside of the building. That's how big it is. It's insane, bro. Feels like a big mall with no stores in it. I've never seen windows this big before in my life. Apparently this hotel has hosted multiple presidents. It's just like the place to be. If you're a tourist and you want luxury, there's definitely no second option of where to stay. This is the place. It's hard to comprehend this multi-billion dollar hotel in the middle of nowhere. I wonder how that money could be used to benefit the local population instead of just showing off. On that same note, life in Brunei is so strict with bizarre laws like the complete ban There is an eerie vibe on the streets because everything is dead. Even the street signs are strange because they're all in Arabic and few people here speak Arabic. Not to mention that we are 6,000 miles away from the Middle East. Right in front of us, there's a Jollibee sign but it's in Arabic. Why? Because all the signs here need to have Arabic in it. Arabic has to be the biggest as you can see like all the different signs here. Arabic biggest, Malay second and then English the smallest. We learned it in school. To write it. Yeah, to write it. Homie. Yeah. Last time I was in Brunei, I remember vividly. It was a Friday night. I could hear a pin drop on the street because there's nothing to do. All the restaurants were closed. All the people went home by like nine o'clock. So I want to challenge ourselves to like have fun. I don't know what that means. It means throw a house party, go to McDonald's, order a bunch of food. Like what do you what do you think we can do? You know what? Maybe we should go to border dude. Which border? The Malaysian border. The Malaysian border? How far away is it? 45 minutes, half an hour. Depends how fast you drive. And what's what's happening there? You'll find out. I imagine on the other side they sell booze. Yeah. For people that want to drink. Yep. So we can just roll up and cross the border. Immigration? Uh-huh. No problem. No problem. We have to do it. Border time. Let's go man. Everywhere you drive in this country is just like another stunning mosque. We're approaching the palace of the sultan and there's like two thousand rooms for just the workers on the side of the house. This is just the entrance right here? Yep. Holy crap. Whoa. That's insanely big. After about 30 minutes we've arrived. We're approaching the Malaysian border and I've never been to Malaysian Borneo before. All right. First time. First time. They don't care going into Malaysia. The last border I was at was the Indonesia-Papua New Guinea border and I got denied entrance into Papua New Guinea. I'm standing in no man's land but I'm not allowed to cross over unfortunately. Sad times. Got it? Yeah dude we're in. Sweet. Oh dude welcome to Mexico. Oh the town is here. It's literally like 20 meters away from the border checkpoint. What the? Dude it's like a full-on party over here. Like wow. I understand why people leave Brunei and come here. It makes perfect sense to me. Right behind me is the actual border and these guys can hear the music of the bars in front of me. So epic man. Let's get some drinks. Bars on both sides. Lots and lots of people everywhere. They're from Malaysia but they're speaking Mandarin. We just left Brunei. Let's go. He opened the beer and went right to her face. Thank you. Thank you. It is insane the contrast here. It is like a full-on party. This is pork. Yep. This is squid. Squid. This is chicken. Oh yeah. It's a party in Malaysia man. This is the best squid I've ever had. It's basically like a hawker center. Yeah. Everywhere around here they're selling different food. It is so hot here and there's a bucket of ice water so you know what I'm about to do. Oh my god. Oh that feels good. You're very busy. Yeah. Thank you. Around like 45 US dollars. Yep. For all of that. Ivy it's so cheap here. You need to pay money. Thank you. Bye bye. Yeah you like it? Yeah. It's a bit like you know right outside the country there's this whole setup. I think when my girlfriend was like right outside the immigration. Yeah. How are you finding the experience? Incredible. Yeah. I'm very shocked. First time good or now better? This is way better. Okay we just ate our food. It was delicious. Now we just cross the street like a 10 second walk and we enter the nightclub. Let's go. How are we near Brunei right now? What started out as my most stressful trip of the year ended in a wild party and local shenanigans. This goes to show that giving any destination a second chance is always worthwhile. My first trip to Brunei was bad and it's been bothering me for the last decade but back then I was young and naive. I didn't know where to go or who to hang out with and maybe I'll admit that I was a little close-minded but travel changes you. This trip taught me that Brunei is a land full of contrast from strict rules to laid-back mindsets from luxury lifestyles to humble societies. I am so grateful that I was able to experience that water village for real this time as well as step inside that lovely mosque that I was kicked out of 10 years ago. The friendliness and hospitality of Brunei is something that will leave a lasting impression until I come back and this party across the border is really something unique. So thank you guys for watching this video. My voice is completely dead right now. I gotta get some sleep. I'll see you next time. Peace.