My experiences in Brunei

This post covers my friend Badri and my experiences in Brunei. Brunei — officially Brunei Darussalam — is a country in Southeast Asia, located on Borneo island. It is one of the few remaining absolute monarchies on Earth.

On the morning of the 10th of December 2024, Badri and I reached Brunei International Airport by taking a flight from Kuala Lumpur. Upon arrival at the airport, we had to go through the immigration, of course. However, I forgot to fill my arrival card, which I filled while I was in the queue for my immigration.

The immigration officer asked me how much cash I was carrying of each currency. After completing the formalities, the immigration officer stamped my passport and let me in. Take a look at Brunei’s entry stamp in my passport.

We exchanged Singapore dollars to get some Brunei dollars at the airport. The Brunei dollar was pegged 1:1 with the Singapore dollar, meaning 1 Singapore dollar equals 1 Brunei dollar. The exchange rate we received at the airport was the same.

Our (pre-booked) accommodation was located near Gadong mall. So, we went to the information center at the airport to ask how to get there by public transport. However, the person at the information center told us that they didn’t know the public transport routes and suggested we take a taxi instead.

We came out of the airport and came across an Indian with a mini bus. He offered to drop us at our accommodation for 10 Brunei dollars (₹630). As we were tired after a sleepless night, we didn’t negotiate and took the offer. It felt a bit weird using the minibus as our private taxi.

In around half-an-hour, we reach our accommodation. The place was more like a guest house than a hotel. In addition to the rooms, it had common space consisting of a hall, a kitchen and a balcony.

Upon reaching the place, we paid for our room in cash, which was 66.70 Singapore dollars (4200 Indian rupees) for two nights. We reached before the check-in time, so we had to wait for our room to get ready before we entered.

The room had a double bed and also a place to hang clothes. We slept for a few hours before going out at night. We went into Gadong mall and had coffee at a café named The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf. The regular caffe latte I had here been 5.20 Brunei dollars. On another note, the snacks we got us from Kuala Lumpur covered us for the dinner.

The next day—11th of December 2024–we went to a nearby restaurant named Nadj for lunch. The owner was from Kerala. Here we ordered:

• 1 paneer pepper masala for 5 Brunei dollars (320 rupees)
• 1 Nasi goreng pattaya biasa for 4.50 Brunei dollars (290 rupees)
• 1 plain naan for 1.50 Brunei dollars (100 rupees)
• 1 butter naan for 1.80 Brunei dollars (115 rupees)

So, our lunch cost a total of 12.80 Brunei dollars (825 rupees). The naan was unusually thick, and didn’t like the taste.

After the lunch, we planned to visit Brunei’s famous Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque. However, a minibus driver outside of Gadong Mall told us that the mosque would be closed in half-an-hour and suggested we visit the nearby Jame’ Asr Hassanil Bolkiah Mosque instead.

He dropped us there for 1 Brunei dollar per person. The person hailed from Uttar Pradesh and told us about bus routes in Hindi. Buses routes in Brunei were confusing, so the information he gave us was valuable.

It was evening, and we had an impression that the mosque and its premises were closed. However, soon enough, we stumbled across an open gate entering the mosque complex. We walked inside for some time, took pictures and exited. Walking in Bandar Seri Begawan wasn’t pleasant, though. The pedestrian infrastructure wasn’t good.

Then we walked back to our place and bought some souvenirs. For dinner and breakfast, we bought bread, fruits and eggs from local shops as we had a kitchen to cook for ourselves.

The guest house also had a washing machine (free of charge) which we wanted to use. However, they didn’t have detergent. Therefore, we went outside to get some detergent. It was 8 o’clock, and most of the shops were closed already. Others had had detergents in large sizes, the ones you would use if you lived there. We ended up getting a small packet at a supermarket.

The next day—12th of December–we had a flight to Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam with a long layover in Kuala Lumpur. We had breakfast in the morning and took a bus to Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque. The mosque was in prayer session, so it was closed for Muslims. Therefore, we just took pictures from the outside and took a bus for the airport.

When the bus reached near the airport, the bus went straight rather than taking a left turn for the airport. Initially, I thought the bus would just take a turn and come back. However, the bus kept going away from the airport. Confused by this, I asked other passengers if the bus was going to the airport. The driver stopped the bus at Muara Town terminal— 20 km from the airport. At this point, everyone alighted, except for us. The driver went to a nearby restaurant to have lunch.

I felt very uncomfortable stranded in a town which was 20 km from the airport. We had a lot of time, but I was still worried about missing our flight, as I didn’t want to get stuck in Brunei. After waiting for 15 minutes, I went inside the restaurant and reminded the driver that we had a flight in a couple of hours and needed to go to the airport. He said he will leave soon.

When he was done with his lunch, he drove us to the airport. It was incredibly frustrating. On a positive note, we saw countryside of Brunei that we would have seen otherwise. The bus ride cost us 1 Brunei dollars each.

That’s it for this one. Meet you in the next one. Stay tuned for the Vietnam post!