Brunei travel guide: Kampong Ayer, Temburong and a dry sultanate

Quick answer · where to go in Brunei

Base in Bandar Seri Begawan and give it two days: Kampong Ayer by water taxi, the two great mosques, and the Royal Regalia Museum for the hour that explains the rest. Then cross the bay to Temburong, where Ulu Temburong National Park is reached by longboat and climbed to a canopy walkway above the trees. If a third day is going spare, run west along the coast to Tutong for Tasek Merimbun and on to Seria and Kuala Belait, the oil towns that paid for everything else. Hire a car or use the Dart app: the bus network will not carry an itinerary.

All regions Bandar Seri Begawan & Brunei-Muara Temburong & the rainforest Belait & the oil coast Tutong & the interior

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1 Brunei city guide

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Bandar Seri Begawan

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Fun fact

One number worth knowing

Brunei Shell Petroleum produced its billionth barrel of crude from the Seria field on 18 July 1991, from a field first struck in 1929. The Billionth Barrel Monument on the Seria beachfront marks it with six arches, one for each decade of production that got there.

Stereotypes, sorted out

What people think they know about Brunei, what is actually true, and how to behave once you land.

"There is nothing to do because there is no nightlife."

The realityThe country is dry, so the evening economy is food rather than bars, and it is a real one: night markets, riverside stalls, kedai kopi open late and a nasi katok counter on most corners. What the absence actually costs a visitor is a certain kind of holiday, not a certain amount to do. The daytime list runs from the largest stilt settlement of its kind to a canopy walkway over primary rainforest, and none of it queues.

"Everyone is rich because of the oil."

The realityThe state is wealthy and it spends on its citizens: schooling and healthcare are effectively free, there is no personal income tax, and subsidised fuel and housing are ordinary rather than exceptional. That is not the same as a country of millionaires, and it does not describe the migrant workforce that makes up a sizeable share of the population. Read the wealth as public provision rather than as private display, and the place makes more sense.

"It is an unwelcoming country for foreigners."

The realityOrdinary interaction is unhurried and courteous, English is widely spoken, and visitors are unusual enough to be met with curiosity rather than indifference. The rules are real and stricter than most of Southeast Asia, which is a different claim: they are published, consistently applied and mostly about public behaviour rather than about you being here. Read the law before you fly and the trip is uneventful.

"You can see the whole country in a day trip from Miri or Kota Kinabalu."

The realityYou can see the capital in a day, and people do. Temburong is a separate half of the country across a bay and takes its own day at minimum, and the western oil towns are a couple of hours the other way. A day gives you a mosque, a boat ride and an airport. Three days gives you the country.

That Kampong Ayer is a museum piece. It is a functioning settlement with schools, clinics, mosques and a fire service, and people live in it because they want to.That the whole place is one shopping mall for the royal family. The palace is closed to visitors for all but three days a year, and the parts of the country you can actually enter are ordinary towns and a great deal of forest.That being dry means being difficult. Non-Muslim visitors may bring a declared personal allowance in and drink it where they are staying. It is the restaurant list that changes, not the trip.That the rainforest is a manicured attraction. Ulu Temburong is reached by longboat because there is no road, and the canopy walkway is a steel and aluminium tower you climb on your own legs.That Malay is a barrier. Malay is the official language, English is taught throughout school and used in business, and signage is routinely in both.That there is one mosque worth seeing. There are two, they are a short drive apart, and they were built for different sultans in different decades.

How to behave in Brunei

Use the right hand to give, receive, eat and point. Pointing with a finger is impolite either way; the Bruneian gesture is the thumb of a closed right hand.
Dress covered in public, and more so in government buildings and mosques. Shoulders and knees are the working rule for everyone, and shorts can get you turned away at a public counter. Mosques lend a robe and a headscarf at the door.
Take your shoes off at the threshold of a home and of any prayer hall. Watch what the person in front of you does and copy it.
Do not eat, drink or smoke in public during daylight in Ramadan. This applies to non-Muslims as well, it is written into the penal code, and it is the rule visitors most often trip over.
Keep public affection to nothing. Holding hands between an unmarried couple can be read as an offence under the Syariah code where one party is Muslim, and the safest posture is simply not to.
Do not criticise the Sultan, the royal family or Islam, in conversation or online. It is illegal, it is taken seriously, and there is no version of that exchange worth having.

Famous Bruneian faces

A reigning dynasty, a national captain, a boy-band bassist and the man who wrote the anthem. Pick a field.

Hassanal Bolkiah

The 29th Sultan of Brunei and the head of state, on the throne since his father abdicated on 4 October 1967 and crowned in August 1968. He is the longest-reigning current monarch in the world, and he also holds the prime minister, defence, finance and foreign affairs portfolios.

Al-Muhtadee Billah

The Crown Prince and heir apparent, born in 1974, the Sultan’s eldest son and a senior minister in the Prime Minister’s Office. He is the public face of the government on most days the Sultan is not.

Prince Abdul Mateen

The Sultan’s son, a serving officer and a polo player for the national team, and the royal with the largest international audience the country has had. His marriage to Anisha Rosnah in 2024 was watched well beyond Borneo.

Faiq Bolkiah

Captain of the Brunei national football team and a nephew of the Sultan. He came through academies in England, and in December 2021 became the first Bruneian to sign for a Thai club when he joined Chonburi.

Maziah Mahusin

Hurdler and sprinter, born in 1993, and the first woman to represent Brunei at an Olympic Games when she ran at London 2012. She has held the national 400 metres record since those Games.

Wu Chun

Born Goh Kiat Chun in Bandar Seri Begawan. Actor, model and businessman, and a member of the Taiwanese group Fahrenheit from 2005 to 2011, which makes him the most widely recognised Bruneian in East Asian pop culture.

Aziz Harun

Singer, songwriter and actor, and the Bruneian pop artist with the largest following in neighbouring Malaysia. His writing pushes local musical texture into mainstream Malay pop rather than away from it.

Paula Malai Ali

Television presenter and actor, known across Asia first as a Channel V VJ and later as a presenter on Fox Sports Asia. The Bruneian face most familiar to a regional audience that has never been here.

Queen Saleha

Queen consort since 1967 and crowned alongside the Sultan in 1968, born in 1946. Mother of the Crown Prince, and the constant presence at every state occasion of the reign.

Prince Abdul Muntaqim

Born in 2007 in Bandar Seri Begawan, the eldest child of the Crown Prince and second in line to the throne after his father. The generation the succession is already planned around.

Shah Razen Said

Striker, and the joint record goalscorer for the national team. He was joint top scorer of the 2006-07 Malaysia Super League season with DPMM FC, which remains the high-water mark of Bruneian club football abroad.

Besar Sagap

Musician and composer, 1914 to 1988, who wrote the music of Allah Peliharakan Sultan, the national anthem. The country has sung his tune at every state occasion since.

Abdul Aziz Juned

Poet, publishing under the pen name Adi Rumi, and the State Mufti of Brunei. The unusual combination of a working religious office and a substantial body of published verse.

Matussin Omar

Writer and scholar who began publishing poetry, short stories, essays and song lyrics in 1962 and became one of the country’s recognised authorities on Bruneian literature and culture.

Must-try Bruneian food

Sago, sambal, palm sugar and a lot of rice. Pick a category.

Ambuyat

The national dish, and unlike anything else in the region. Sago starch worked with hot water into a translucent, deliberately flavourless paste, wound onto a split bamboo fork called a chandas and dipped in a sour tamarind gravy. Swallowed rather than chewed, and eaten from a shared pot.

Nasi katok

Rice, fried chicken and sambal, wrapped in brown paper. The name comes from knocking on the seller’s door after hours, and it is the cheapest full meal in the country and the one every Bruneian has an opinion about.

Soto

Spiced broth over rice vermicelli or compressed rice cakes with chicken or beef, finished with fried shallots, herbs and a chilli sambal on the side. The standard breakfast at a kedai kopi.

Rendang

Beef simmered in coconut milk with lemongrass, galangal and chilli until the liquid has gone and the spice has caught on the meat. Slow, dark and served in small quantities against a lot of rice.

Nasi lemak

Rice steamed in coconut milk with pandan, plated with sambal, fried anchovies, peanuts, cucumber and egg. Shared across the Malay world and eaten here from morning onwards rather than at lunch.

Nasi campur

Point-and-pick rice: a plate of rice and whatever is in the trays behind the counter, priced by what you take. The fastest way to eat several Bruneian dishes in one sitting without ordering any of them by name.

Kelupis

Glutinous rice cooked with coconut, wrapped in nyirik leaf and steamed. Eaten plain with a peanut or curry dip, or with dried shrimp worked through it, and always present at a celebration.

Pulut panggang

Glutinous rice parcels filled with spiced coconut, shrimp or meat, wrapped in banana leaf and grilled until the leaf chars and scents the rice inside.

Keropok udang

Prawn crackers made properly: minced prawn worked into starch, dried in the sun and fried to order. Sold in bags at every market and eaten before anything else arrives.

Kuih cincin

A lattice ring of rice and wheat flour sweetened with dark palm sugar and deep fried, crisp at the edge and chewy in the middle. The souvenir tin most visitors end up carrying home.

Penyaram

A fried disc of rice flour and palm sugar, thick and soft in the centre with a crisp frilled rim. Sold warm at night markets and best eaten in the first ten minutes.

Air batu campur

Shaved ice over red beans, sweet corn, grass jelly and palm seed, poured with rose syrup and evaporated milk. The answer to an afternoon that is both hot and humid, which here is most of them.

Teh tarik

Black tea and condensed milk poured between two vessels until it aerates, which is where the name comes from. The default order at any coffee shop, and the drink a dry country builds its evenings around.

Air sirap bandung

Rose syrup with evaporated milk, served over ice and startlingly pink. Sold at every night market stall and at every celebration.

Brunei travel FAQ

Do you need a visa for Brunei?+

Often not. Brunei admits nationals of a long list of countries without a visa for stays of 14, 30 or 90 days depending on the passport, and everyone else applies in advance. Separately, an electronic arrival card is required of arriving foreign nationals regardless of visa status, and it is filled in online before you travel with your passport, flight and accommodation details. Rules change, so confirm the current position with Brunei Immigration or your own government’s travel advice rather than with any summary written before your trip.

Can you drink alcohol in Brunei?+

Not in public, and not in a bar or restaurant, because there are none. Brunei sells no alcohol at all. Non-Muslim visitors aged 17 and over may import a declared personal allowance, currently two bottles of spirits or wine and twelve cans of beer, which must be declared to customs on arrival and consumed privately where you are staying. There is a waiting period between imports, and the allowance may not be passed to anyone else. Muslims may not import or consume alcohol at all.

How do you get to Ulu Temburong National Park?+

Through Bangar, then by boat. Cross the Sultan Haji Omar Ali Saifuddien Bridge from the Brunei-Muara side, which takes roughly half an hour by road, then continue to Batang Duri where longboats run up the Temburong River to the park. There is no road to the park itself, entry is with a licensed guide rather than independently, and most visitors book the whole day as a package from the capital. It is doable as a long day trip and better with a night in Temburong.

How do you get around Brunei without a car?+

With difficulty, and mostly by app. The public bus network is thin and does not run late, taxis are few, and the distances between the capital, Tutong and the Belait towns are highway distances. Dart, the local ride-hailing app, is what most visitors end up using, and a rental car is what most visitors should have booked. Inside central Bandar Seri Begawan you can walk, and water taxis cross to Kampong Ayer constantly for a small fare.

What should you know about local laws before you go?+

More than in most of Southeast Asia, and it is all published. Dress covered in public and expect to be turned away from government buildings in shorts. Eating, drinking and smoking in public during daylight hours in Ramadan is an offence, for non-Muslims too. Criticising the Sultan, the royal family or Islam is illegal. Drug offences carry the heaviest penalties on the statute book. The Syariah Penal Code also provides severe punishments for same-sex acts and for close proximity between unmarried couples where one party is Muslim, so LGBT travellers in particular should read their own government’s advisory in full before booking.

Brunei, the quiet third country on Borneo