Driving in Brunei

My daughter and her husband live in a somewhat isolated neighborhood and there is virtually nothing within walking distance for entertainment.  No shops, parks or even paths for walking (the Sultan who lives just down the road has yet to invite us over for tea).  We are entirely dependant on the car just to get away from the house for virtually everything.  So, in order to prevent myself from going completely shack-wacky and to break myself from the complete dependency on my daughter and son-in-law for transportation, I have started to drive in Brunei.

It has been a somewhat harrowing experience.

Brunei is a country of some affluence and the Sultan has seen to it that his people are receiving the benefits of the country’s riches.  With virtually no public transport and the cost of gasoline at around $0.45 Cdn, one of the results is that Brunei Darussalam has one of the highest car ownership rates in the world.  Unfortunately the highway infrastructure is completely inadequate for the load.  All that is to say that the amount traffic on the roads here is ridiculous.

However, the most daunting aspect of my driving ordeal is the fact that the people of Brunei drive on the wrong side of the road and the drivers here sit in the passenger seat of their cars. (I guess that is appropriate considering the steering wheel and all the pedals are there.)  It sure has taken some getting used to.  In the beginning, every time I went to signal a turn, the windshield wipers would turn on.

And then there are the rotaries and other just plain weird road designs.  My problem with the rotaries is just learning to look in the right direction and knowing who has the right of way.  One of the strangest things that I have seen here is how one crosses a dual carriageway to get to a side street on the right.  At the location of the street there is no break in the centre median to make the crossing.  Instead, you drive a hundred yards or so past the street to an opening in the median and make a u-turn into oncoming traffic to get back to the street for a left turn.  Strange . . . really strange.

In any case, I am getting out and driving a lot more and slowly getting used to it.  When I get back on Canadian roads, you might recognize me as the guy travelling down the wrong side of the street and making some very unusual u-turns.