I just got back from living in Brunei for 5 yrs. If you have a young family it is a great place to live. Though for kids, the older you become the less appealing it is. (Im 16 at the moment.)
However it is quiet, peaceful and safe. There are a lot of expats within Brunei. This is because you have the sultan's money maker (Shell), the British army, school teachers and of course RBA. The Shell and Army expats live in Seria 100k away from the capital (Bandar Seri Begawan) where RBA is based. (see map)
However if you try to have anything done in Brunei you will be constantly
banging your head off the wall as everything goes in slow motion.
The country has one decent private school.
www.jis.edu.bn that has a staff made up of mostly expat teachers.
There are no taxes in Brunei
and it is a dry country. But you can drive for 20 mins or so and jump over the border into Malaysia where you can buy booze. Also there is a huge amount of fake CDs, DVDs and anything else you can think of. The cost of living is much cheaper.
The food is not as good as in Australia but it is alright. The sultan owns his own ranch larger than Brunei in NT that supplies all the meat to Brunei and the meat is much cheaper than here. But vegies, fruit etc. has to be flown over so it's a bit more expensive.
If you enjoy travelling it's in an excellent position for going to anywhere in South-East Asia.
Also RBA are planning on purchasing new aircraft and expanding their route network. They have just starting flying to Vietnam.
If you have any other questions just email me.
Cheers
Mark
