brunei
January 1st... Time to begin my quest to learn more about the world. Where do I begin? ...By going onto my iPad to find a list of all the countries in the world. How many countries? That is open to interpretation I soon discovered, but it is safe to say at least 193. So where do I start ...Alphabetical order would have me start in Afganistan. But as I was reading down the list my eyes fell upon Brunei. I had never seen nor heard the word and was appalled to realize I was only in the B's and had already discovered a country I did not know existed. So thanks to the ease of finding information on the Internet, I spent the day exploring Brunei. Brunei is located on the island of Borneo which I discovered is the third largest island in the world. (Greenland is considered the largest, and Papau New Guinea is the second largest.) It is a small but very wealthy country due to oil and gas reserves located on the South China Sea and is surrounded by the Malaysian federal states of Sabah and Sarawak. An odd fact about this country is that is is broken into two pieces as you can see on the map below. I discovered that the Sultan of Brunei lives in the largest palace in the world, 4 times the size of Versailles, with 1,788 rooms and current sultan is believed to be one of the richest men in the world! The sultans have ruled the country for over 6 centuries and for a period of almost 100 years from the 1888 to 1984 Brunei was a British Protectorate. The country is predominantly Muslim and Sharia Law has been imposed that violates human rights, especially for women. Because of it's wealth, all health care and education is free. Much of the country is covered in rainforest and mangroves and travel by water is the easiest way to see most of the country. One of the sites I would like to visit is Ulu Temburong National Park - Brunei Rainforest. You must access the park by long boat. There are canopy walks built through parts of the forest. There are 83 mammal species in Brunei Darussalam, of which 1 is critically endangered, 7 are endangered, 7 are vulnerable, and 1 is near-threatened. Almost 10% of all the people in Brunei live in one city which is built entirely on water. Stilt houses and wooden walkways make up Kampong Ayer - or the 'Venice of the East'. The city is home to 30,000 people.
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