What to do in Brunei & What to do in Bandar Seri Bagawan
Brunei is definitely an interesting place to go – free health care, education and zero income tax is what the locals are mainly benefiting from. Why did I wanna visit? It’s probably the curiosity for the more remote places so I was really excited to go and see what this very small and isolated country is about. So here is my travel guide Brunei:
Bandar Seri Begawan is the capital and the small country on the island of Borneo only has about 460.000 inhabitants but still belongs to one of the richest countries due to its natural oil and gas reserves. The Sultan of Brunei rules the country, it is an absolute monarchy and recent media attention was mainly about the prince marrying on the 14th of January. The Sultan is one of the richest men in the world while the economy also has one of the highest per capita wealth in the world.
Going into this very short day trip, I did not expect much, but, honestly we met the most amazing people, everyone was so so friendly and open and welcoming. I expected more of a ghost town but the city was more lively than usual I guess, with everyone being excited about the upcoming royal wedding.
Entry & Exit by Air or Land
We arrived by plane from Kuala Lumpur, as the prices for a flight are similar to flights from KL to other places in Malaysian Borneo and Brunei is a cool starting point for visiting Borneo. For Germans and many other nationalities there is no visa required, just an e-arrival card (status: Jan 2024).
In case you want to further explore Borneo from Brunei, to continue your Borneo trip, you can either leave by boat, bus or plane. The plane is the most expensive option, while the bus is the most direct. It only leaves every 2 days though (check here).
We chose: the ferry. In order to go by ferry to Kota Kinabalu you have to go to Labuan Island first, which you can reach by taking a first ferry from Serasa Ferry Terminal in Brunei. The ferry leaves twice a day, we took the one in the afternoon at 4:30pm (the other one is in the morning). From Labuan Island check LabuanPay.my for all schedules (we had to stay overnight on the island and needed to take the ferry to Menumbok and then the bus to Kota Kinabalu from there, which worked out super well for us).
Preparation pre-entry of Brunei:
Definitely download the App Dart! It’s like Grab or Uber and super important to get around, as buses are super unreliable and the pricing is fairly okay.
What to do in Brunei:
The country is not very big so I will focus my to-dos on the city and surroundings. One of the best things to do is walk around and explore the center by foot.
Definitely don’t miss out on:
- Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddin Mosque (consider Muslim prayer times, as they limit the times you can enter as a non-Muslim)
- Jame’ Asr Hassanil Bolkiah Mosque
- Brunei Waterfront & Water Village Settlement to go there, take a water taxi (1$ Brunei) to the other side to go to the Water Village Settlement (there are also Airbnb/Hotel options on that side). And walk around there. It’s super cool to see how people live, mostly fishers but the houses are pretty nice.
- Boat tour to see crocodiles, the mangroves and the Proboscis monkeys. Tours usually take 1&half hours, you can just book them there. Just make sure the person you are going with an actual tour guide and doesn’t scam you. Pay max $20-25 Brunei dollars per person (negotiate a better price for groups). Also ask them about the best timing (better with lower tides to really see the crocodiles).
Where to eat:
I think it’s quite easy to find some food, but some of the best places for sure are:
We went to one of the restaurants at the “Waterfront” called MenuBrunei, it was super nice and cheap.
Where to stay in case:
•Co Living Hostel Bandar. a hostel in the center of Bandar City. We didn’t stay but could drop our luggage for a while & it seemed ok
Overall, Brunei is a small country but still so worth to visit if you are in the area. The country is really fascinating and totally different from everything else. So I hope you enjoyed my travel guide Brunei!
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