24 Hours in Brunei's capital, Bandar Seri Begawan
Brunei Darussalam is one of the smallest countries in Asia, roughly twice the size of Luxembourg and nested between the territory of Eastern Malaysia in the island of Borneo.
Brunei, however, is a rich country thanks to its oil and gas reserves, or at least its Sultan is (besides being an absolute monarch, he has a fortune estimated in some $30 billion).
At some point before the rise of the internet billionaires and for a number of it was even considered the richest man on the planet.
One thing it isn’t, though, is a tourist hotspot, although it is quite easy to get to from the region’s main hubs, such as Kuala Lumpur or Singapore. It has even a flag carrier, Royal Brunei Airlines, that operates a fleet of Dreamliners to destinations as far away as London.
So, during a recent trip to Malaysia I came across a cheap Air Asia ticket from Kuala Lumpur to Bandar Seri Begawan and, despite the really early wake time (the flight was around 6am!), I decided to give it a go!
Getting to Brunei
As mentioned, I flew to Brunei from Kuala Lumpur (although not on the plane depicted here!), which is a bit less than a two hour flight.
Visitors from a relatively long list of countries, which include most European states and the US and Canada, don’t need to request a visa in advance before traveling to Brunei. Although it is necessary to fill in a form online before passing through customs.
Luckily Brunei airport has good public wifi (although some technical glitch prevented me from completing the customs form at the first attempt), so once you have completed the form you get a message on your screen with a reference number that you must show to the border control officer.
The airport is small and tidy, a bit like the rest of the capital.
One piece of advice is that you print your boarding pass for the return trip, because for some reason they only accept paper boarding passes to access the air side of the airport.
Another important thing to take into account is that public transportation options are very limited. One thing that becomes apparent immediately is that Brunei is a very motorized country and people move everywhere by car, to the point that even downtown the streets are often deserted. To be fair, there is a public bus, but I was told that it doesn’t really have a set schedule, so you may end up with a rather long wait.
Also, if planning to order a taxi, bear in mind that neither Uber nor Grab (its south-east Asian equivalent) are available in Brunei. There are a couple of local alternatives, but since I didn’t feel like starting the whole sign up and ordering process (which involved receiving some sms that never arrived) I ended up messaging the hotel and asking them to arrange a transfer for me (from what I read in online forums, it seems to be, ultimately, what many people staying at hotels do.
Once you have this sorted, it is a pretty short ride to the very center, less than 15min. The roads are really good and tidy, possibly the best in the region (except perhaps Singapore).
Things to see in Bandar Seri Begawan
The capital of Brunei, Bandar Seri Begawan, is really small, or at least the downtown is (from what I could see from the plane when approaching to land, it looks like most people live quite spread out in the suburbs). But when I say “small” I mean very, very small. The downtown proper, which is next to the river front is literally a grid of 4-5 streets.
Since I had barely 24 hours in the country and well aware of the lack of public transportation, I picked up a pretty central hotel (which turned out to be a great choice as you will see further down the text).
Next are the few things I did, I think they are pretty much the top of things to do in Brunei’s capital, but I am sure that more experienced travellers can point towards some additional ones.
City center and Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque
The Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque is THE landmark of the city and its most recognizable sight. It is located downtown by a lake that makes for great picture-taking (well aware of the needs of the Instagram era, local authorities have installed a giant frame at the nearby park, right at the spot that allows you to take the iconic picture).
Next to the mosque there is a park and what looks like the only mall downtown. There are quite a few traditional shops in the adjacent streets, many of them selling jewellery, but most, let’s say, “modern” shops are in this small, which has also a small food court and seems to be one of the major gathering points downtown (although, just like the rest of the city, it was very, very quiet, no matter what time of the day or the evening I passed by).
On the positive side, Bandar Seri Begawan’s downtown is walkable and it feels safe.
I just happened to visit a few days before a major royal wedding and the city streets were all adorned and embellished for the occasion and, presumably, for some sort of parade or motorcade.
I post, here below, a picture of one of the major thoroughfares crossing downtown, not a single pedestrian to be seen. In fact, most of the other people (not many) I came across during my walks were, very visibly, fellow tourists.
Like many capital cities, Bandar Seri Begawan, is located next to a major body of water, in this case the Brunei river, which is also home to a significant share of the city’s population as we will soon see when I describe my visit to the Kampong Ayer floating city.
There is a short promenade along the banks of the Brunei river, with views of the Kampong Ayer floating city on the water side, while there some shops and food joints (I wouldn’t really call them restaurants), land side.
Here below is some street art encapsulating the main sights in Bandar Seri Begawan.
Brunei’s Museum of Royal Regalia
Although, at first, I was not too keen in going to museums, preferring to just walk around and see the sights, I had around 3 hours before the start of my Kampong Ayer river tour, so I decided to go see the Museum of Royal Regalia, which happened to be just around the corner from my hotel. It proved to be a good decision and the museum didn’t disappoint!
The Museum of Royal Regalia exhibits many of the ceremonial elements used by the court of the Sultan of Brunei as well as many of the gifts he has received from dignitaries of other nations.
I must say that the scale and the way in which all these items are exhibited makes for quite an interesting sight. Like in the rest of the city, I was pretty much the only visitor at the time.
The visit is done barefoot (you leave your shoes at some sort of pidgeon-holes set at the entrance for this purpose). There is also a visitor’s book where you can write your name and place of origin when you come in. It offers a glimpse of the number and profile of visitors that are following more or less the same route as you!
The displays of ceremonial gear are quite something and, while they are used very sparsely, it must be quite impressive to see them put to use for real.
As an aviation enthusiast, I couldn’t avoid remarking that aviation was well represented at the museum. This applies, both to the gifts section, like, for example, these two scale models of Antonov planes brought by an Ukrainian delegation, and to another exhibit showing the Sultan’s wide-body, long-range jets.
The museum offers also a glimpse (at small scale) of some aspects of palace life that are usually not in the open, such as the large ceremonial hall with capacity for 5,000 attendees.
The floating city of Kampong Ayer and Brunei river tour
One of the highlights of the trip was the river tour that took me to the Kampong Ayer river city and to see some stretches of jungle near the city.
The tour, which was arranged by the hotel, started in this canal right by the city center. It costs the equivalent of €30 and it takes about 3 hours.
It is pretty much the only way to see Kampong Ayer, which is an interesting part of Bandar Seri Begawan because it lies right in the middle of the river. In fact this so-called “Venice of the East” is home to between 10,000 and 20,000 people living on houses that are built on top of stakes that protrude from the water. It is considered the largest floating city in the World and it was mentioned already by travellers in the 16th C.
So, it turned out this was going to be an individual tour, after all! Here is my guide (Hj.Sofree Hj.Aji, who can be reached on “Padi Boat: +6738788261 or +6738788651 ”). He happens to be a resident of Kampong Ayer himself!
When heading into the river we took a little detour to see the bridge from up close. There are two large bridges in Brunei, this one, built by South Korean engineers across the Brunei river and another longer one (30km), recently completed, which unites Brunei’s mainland with its eastern enclave to the east, providing geographical continuity to the country.
And here are some views of Kampong Ayer, which is a proper city with houses, schools, fire and police station…all built over water.
We cruised along the “streets” without stopping and headed to the jungle a bit further out from the city…
It doesn’t take long to get into the jungle, even if not far from the city center and in a relatively urbanized area, it is possible to spot quite a few animals here.
And, indeed, it didn’t take long to spot a few monkeys. This, to my understanding, are some species of proboscis monkeys, a type of monkey recognizable by its really long nose which is typical of Borneo. We also managed to spot a saltwater crocodile, but it disappeared under the water very quickly!
And here is a glimpse of part of the palatial complex of the Sultan. Brunei’s royal palace is said to be the largest residential building in the world, with 1788 rooms and 257 bathrooms. The palace is not open to tourists, so one of the ways to see some parts of it is from the water.
And here below is the riverfront of downtown Bandar Seri Begawan, it practically fits all in this picture!
Where to stay and where to eat in Bandar Seri Begawan
The Brunei Hotel
I picked this one up online mainly on the basis of its very central location and it turned out to be a very good choice.
It is a four-star hotel, reasonably priced, very clean and with nice service. I think there are some slightly cheaper options downtown, but I am not sure they offer as much value.
The staff were very friendly (in general I found people to be very friendly throughout my stay!) and they gave me an early check in (my flight arrived quite early in the morning), gave me a room with canal views and helped me arrange the airport transfers and river tour.
The wifi connection worked really well. The hotel has also a restaurant, although I didn’t try it (seen the issues I had later finding a place to dine, possibly I should have given it a try!).
I also liked the fact that there are purified water stations in the corridors and you have a bottle in your room that you can refill whenever you want.
Some pics of my cozy room at The Brunei Hotel, complete with views of the canal (this course of water is barely 100m from the main river and it is from here that I would later start my river tour)
When it comes to food. My main piece of advice is: be careful with the schedules! I tried to have dinner at around 20.30 only to find the mall’s food court closing down.
This meant that the only other options at hand were some fast food joints, none of which was particularly appealing, so I ended at Pizza Hut, and a couple of ice-cream parlours (this was very good, I must say!).
Earlier in the day I had lunch at the aforementioned food court. There are 4 or 5 restaurants serving different types of Asian food. I opted for these seafood noodles and it was very tasty and reasonably priced, hence my later attempt to go back to the same place (the city is not exactly bustling with eat-out options!)
And that’s what my 24 hours in Brunei offered…just to close this post, here is one more image of the iconic Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque at night!
