Brunei: Nine Attractions and Natural Wonders

A small, quiet, very wealthy sultanate

Brunei is a small oil-rich sultanate on the north coast of Borneo, split into two wedges by a slice of Malaysia. It is calm, orderly, and conservative — an Islamic monarchy where alcohol is banned and the pace is slow. It has kept much of its rainforest, because it never needed to log it, and its capital is a low-rise city of mosques, ministries, and a huge village built over the river.

The nine below are nearly all in or near the capital, Bandar Seri Begawan, with one — Ulu Temburong — across the bay in the eastern exclave. It is hot and humid year-round; the drier months are roughly February to April.

1. The Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque

Named for the 28th sultan (the father of the current ruler) and finished in 1958, this is the capital's landmark: white marble, a 52-metre gold dome, Italian stained glass and carpet, and a lagoon in front holding a replica 16th-century royal barge, floodlit at night. It sits at the edge of the old commercial centre, looking across the water to Kampong Ayer.

Non-Muslim visitors can enter outside prayer times, suitably dressed (robes are lent at the door).

2. The Jame' Asr Hassanil Bolkiah Mosque

The largest mosque in Brunei, in the Kiarong area a few kilometres from the centre, was completed in 1994 to mark 25 years of the current sultan's reign. It has 29 gold domes (one for each sultan to date), four 58-metre minarets, and a lavish interior, set in landscaped grounds with fountains.

Locals call it the Kiarong mosque. Like the older one, it is open to respectful non-Muslim visitors outside prayer times.

3. Kampong Ayer

Kampong Ayer is a cluster of villages built entirely on stilts over the river, lived in continuously for centuries — Antonio Pigafetta, sailing with Magellan, described it in 1521. Today it still houses tens of thousands of people, with its own schools, clinics, mosques, fire station, and shops, all connected by a web of wooden and concrete walkways, and reached by darting water taxis.

Visit by boat, walk the boardwalks, and stop at the cultural gallery or accept an invitation to tea in a home; boatmen usually detour to look for proboscis monkeys in the mangroves.

4. The Royal Regalia Museum

This purpose-built museum in the centre of town displays the paraphernalia of the monarchy: the gilded chariot used in the 1968 coronation and 1992 silver jubilee, jewelled crowns and ceremonial weapons, and rooms of state gifts. A full-scale recreation of the coronation procession fills the main hall.

Entry is free, shoes come off at the door, and it is the best single place to understand how central the sultan is to Bruneian identity.

5. Istana Nurul Iman

The sultan's palace, on a rise above the river a few kilometres upstream of the capital, has around 1,800 rooms and covers some 200,000 square metres — officially the largest residential palace on Earth. Designed by the architect of Manila's cultural centre and completed in 1984, it holds the throne room, the seat of government, and a mosque, garages for the royal car collection, and a banquet hall for 5,000.

It is closed to the public except for three days at the end of Ramadan, when tens of thousands are received and the sultan greets visitors in person. The rest of the year you photograph it from the road or a boat.

6. The Empire Brunei

Originally built in the 1990s as lodging for guests of the royal family — reportedly at a cost of over a billion dollars — the Empire was later opened as a hotel and country club on the coast at Jerudong. Its scale is the attraction: an atrium of gold leaf and Baccarat crystal, a beachfront, a Jack Nicklaus golf course, and a cinema.

Non-guests can visit for afternoon tea or a meal and walk the grounds; it is the clearest example of Brunei's oil-boom-era spending.

7. Tasek Lama

Right on the edge of the capital, Tasek Lama is a green lung of jogging paths, forest trails, a reservoir, and a small waterfall with a plunge pool — an easy introduction to Borneo rainforest without leaving town, and a popular spot for a morning walk. Longer trails climb to viewpoints over the city.

For a bigger dose of forest closer to the capital than Temburong, the Bukit Shahbandar reserve and the Berakas forest along the coast have marked trails and a beach.

8. Ulu Temburong National Park

In the mountainous Temburong district — the eastern half of Brunei, cut off by Malaysian territory — this park protects a large tract of primary rainforest that has never been logged. A tall aluminium canopy walkway, reached by a steep climb, rises above the treetops for a view over unbroken jungle; there are also waterfalls, a "fish spa" river pool, and night walks.

Access is part of the experience: a bridge or speedboat to Bangar, then a narrow temuai longboat up shallow rapids to the park. Most people go on an organised day or overnight trip from the capital.

9. Bandar Seri Begawan

Brunei's capital is small and walkable: a tidied waterfront promenade, the domed mosque, the sprawling Yayasan shopping complex, the night market at Gadong for grilled food, and the Brunei Museum and Malay Technology Museum a little way out of town covering the sultanate's history, Islamic art, and traditional life.

It has almost no nightlife by design, but it is safe, clean, and easy, and it works as a one- or two-day stop — often on the way between Malaysian Borneo's Sabah and Sarawak.

Brunei is a short, easy stop: two or three days covers the mosques, the water village, and a day trip to the Temburong rainforest, and it slots naturally into a wider tour of Borneo.