Maybe you don't know too much about the Brooke family, the "White Rajahs", who founded and ruled the north-west coast of the island of Borneo from 1841 to 1946. It was their reward for helping the Sultanate of Brunei fight piracy and insurgencies.
To learn more about the Rajah of Sarawak, click here
So where is Sarawak, I hear you ask? Well, it's on Borneo, the world's third-largest island and Asia's largest island. Both Sarawak and Sabah belong to the Federation of Malaysia; the rest belongs to Indonesia (Padma was born in Samarinda and I worked for TOTAL - Compagnie Française des Pétroles in Balikpapan, both in East Kalimantan).
These days you no longer have to fight pirates or be a "Lord Jim" to live in Borneo; you click on "Sarawak, My Second Home" or get Aramaz to do it all for you. The requirements for a couple to obtain a permanent residency visa are as simple as this: (one Malaysian Ringgit = 32 Australian cents)
- a fixed deposit account of RM300,000.00 (RM150,000 for single)
- a monthly offshore income of RM10,000.00 (RM7,000 for single)
- a clean bill of health
- a letter of good conduct
