Braniff

I will shortly be visiting Brunei for 4 days on business. I have never been there and know very little about it unfortunately.

I would appreciate any information:

Arrival formalities at the airport
Airport-hotel transfers - taxis or hotel limo
Hotels - the empire ?
Language - is English widely spoken
What to see - the mosque, others...
Shopping - any special area, special local products
Restaurants - local, international
Departure formalities - lounge (I'll be flying Singapore AiIrlines in business)

Thanks very much for your advice.

Braniff

I just returned from my visit so for the benefit of others I'll answer some of my own questions:

Brunei is a really small place. The airport in Canberra seems huge compared to Brunei airport. I think there are 5 gates there. I arrived on Singapore Airlines (operated by Silk Air A320) and immigration took less than 5 minutes - no hassles.

Brunei is a dry country so at customs you have to fill in a special alcohol declaration form - you're allowed 2 bottles of wine/liquor and 12 cans of beer as long as you're not Muslim. Apparently, it's very important to fill in these forms because if you're caiught with alcohol - even in your hotel rooom - there are stiff penalties if you don't have a copy of the declaration form.

I stayed at the Empire Hotel & Country Club. I'll do a write up of that in the Luxury Hotels forum. It is by far the best hotel in Brunei, which is the only benchmark if you have to go there.

I arranged for the hotel to pick me up and it cost 35 Brunei/Singapore dollars, about 20 Euros. A taxi is a little cheaper but I considered it money well spent and took the hotel car to the airport upon my departure as well.

Note that Brunei and Singapore have a currency union and both their currencies are interchangeable. I would highly recommend to travellers to take out Singapore currency at at ATM at Changi - I did not find many in Brunei and the currency exchangers there seemed to offer very bad rates...

I found everyone to speak very good English there. It is the language of government and upper/higher education.

The people of Brunei that I met are all very outdoors-oriented. Hiking in the Borneo mountains seemed to be a favorite. There is precious little man-made to see in the country. I planned on seeing the Mosque but it is closed to non-Muslims at prayer time...

I did not find any special local handicrafts there althogh I'm sure they exist...

The quality of the food there reflects their British colonial heritage, i.e. NOT GOOD. I ate mostly at the Empire Hotel but it was uninspiring to say the least. The quality reminded me of a poolside snack bar at a good US country club.

The departure formalities were as easy as arriving. They scan all your bags before you enter the check-in area itself. Be sure to have a printout of your e-ticket as that's the only way you'll get in.

I was fllying in Business so was offeed to go to the Sky Lounge (I think that's what's it called - operated by Royal Brunei on behalf of all airlines there...) The lounge is quite nice. Access is not easy if you have lots of bags as it is by spiral staircase. However, you can take an employee-only elevator. As with the rest of Brunei, no alcohol is served there.

Boarding was easy and my pre-takeoff glass of wine was very nice indeed !!!!!!!

jpatokal

Please tell me you also tried something other than just room service club sandwiches...?

bowdenj

Thanks for the quick overview of your trip and the airport.

Braniff

How did you know I ordered that ? My comment was about quality of food in general there ... and I was being kind. The "local" food there is apparently inspired by the Philippines: oily, fatty and unhealthy.

KenJohn

And remember not to point with your index finger even when trying to indicate the item you wish to purchase. Now there's a challenge.

The main sight to see is the village suspended on stills over the sea (although they now happily house 42 plasma tv sets)