I second Brunei, I didnt know quite what to expect, came and left overland from/to Malaysia. Definetly an interesting place, as everyone seems to have some kind of a job, even if its not productive, like 20 workers at a museum visited by one or two people a day.

Syria was also surprising in summer 2005. Absolutely the nicest and most welcoming people and a high level of safety.

Too bad on the way back through the US, I got special treatement from Customs just because I visited Syria and Jordan.
The typical ignorant redneck customs agent could not for the world understand why anyone would want to visit the middle east with "all that stuff going on"