Brunei
The tiny, but thriving, Islamic Sultanate of Brunei perches on the northwestern coast of Borneo, completely encircled by the East Malaysian state of Sarawak which divides it in two. It has a population of 350,000, nearly seventy percent of which is made up of Malays and indigenes from the larger ethnic groups like the Murut and Dusun; the rest are Chinese, Indians, smaller indigenous tribes and expats. They enjoy a quality of life that is quite unparalleled in Southeast Asia, with the literacy rate a staggering 93.7 percent of the population. Education and healthcare are free; houses, cars, and even pilgrimages to Mecca are subsidized; taxation on personal income is unheard of; and the average per capita salary is around US$19,000. The explanation is simple: oil, first discovered in 1903 at the site of what is now the town of Seria. That said, the problem remains that Brunei is more expensive than neighbouring Malaysia or even Singapore – hotel prices in the capital are at least double those in nearby Kota Kinabalu or Miri. Most travellers still end up in Brunei either because of an enforced stopover on a Royal Brunei Airlines flight, or as a stepping stone to either Sabah or Sarawak. In the latter case, however, it can work out cheaper to take an internal MAS flight between Miri and Labuan or Kota Kinabalu rather than bussing it through Brunei. Brunei's climate, like that of neighbouring Sabah and Sarawak, is hot and humid, with average temperatures in the high twenties throughout the year. Lying 440km north of the equator, Brunei has a tropical weather system, so even if you visit outside the wet season (usually November to February) there's every chance that you'll see some rain.
The tiny, but thriving, Islamic Sultanate of Brunei perches on the northwestern coast of Borneo, completely encircled by the East Malaysian state of Sarawak which divides it in two. It has a population of 350,000, nearly seventy percent of which is made up of Malays and indigenes from the larger ethnic groups like the Murut and Dusun; the rest are Chinese, Indians, smaller indigenous tribes and expats. They enjoy a quality of life that is quite unparalleled in Southeast Asia, with the literacy rate a staggering 93.7 percent of the population. Education and healthcare are free; houses, cars, and even pilgrimages to Mecca are subsidized; taxation on personal income is unheard of; and the average per capita salary is around US$19,000. The explanation is simple: oil, first discovered in 1903 at the site of what is now the town of Seria. That said, the problem remains that Brunei is more expensive than neighbouring Malaysia or even Singapore – hotel prices in the capital are at least double those in nearby Kota Kinabalu or Miri. Most travellers still end up in Brunei either because of an enforced stopover on a Royal Brunei Airlines flight, or as a stepping stone to either Sabah or Sarawak. In the latter case, however, it can work out cheaper to take an internal MAS flight between Miri and Labuan or Kota Kinabalu rather than bussing it through Brunei. Brunei's climate, like that of neighbouring Sabah and Sarawak, is hot and humid, with average temperatures in the high twenties throughout the year. Lying 440km north of the equator, Brunei has a tropical weather system, so even if you visit outside the wet season (usually November to February) there's every chance that you'll see some rain.
Communications
Postcards to anywhere in the world cost 50c; aerogrammes 45c; and overseas letters 90c for every 10g. Local calls cost 10c flat fee from phone boxes and are free from private phones. International (IDD) calls can be made through hotels, in booths at Bandar's Telekom office or from card phones. Phonecards (B$5, B$10, B$20 or B$50) can be bought from the Telekom office and post offices. To phone abroad from Brunei, dial 00 + IDD country code + area code minus first 0 + subscriber number. There are a number of cybercafés around Bandar, charging around B$4 per hour.
Crime and safety
Brunei has very little crime and travellers rarely experience any trouble. Note that the possession of drugs – whether hard or soft – carries a hefty prison sentence and trafficking is punishable by the death penalty. If you are caught smuggling drugs into or out of the country, at the very best, you will face a long stretch in a foreign prison; at worst, you could be hanged.
Brunei has very little crime and travellers rarely experience any trouble. Note that the possession of drugs – whether hard or soft – carries a hefty prison sentence and trafficking is punishable by the death penalty. If you are caught smuggling drugs into or out of the country, at the very best, you will face a long stretch in a foreign prison; at worst, you could be hanged.
Emergency phone numbers
Ambulance 991
Fire brigade 995
Police 993
Medical care and emergencies
Medical services in Brunei are excellent; staff speak good English and use up-to-date techniques. Oral contraceptives and condoms are available at pharmacies.
Medical services in Brunei are excellent; staff speak good English and use up-to-date techniques. Oral contraceptives and condoms are available at pharmacies.
History
Contemporary Brunei's modest size belies its pivotal role in the formative centuries of Bornean history. China was probably trading with Brunei as long ago as the seventh century, and Brunei later benefited from its strategic position on the trade route between India, Melaka and China, exercising a lucrative control over merchant traffic in the South China Sea. It became a staging post, where traders could stock up on local supplies such as beeswax, camphor, rattan and brasswork, which were traded for ceramics, spices, woods and fabrics. For a brief period in the fourteenth century the region was taken over by the Majapahit Empire, but by the end of the century it had become independent and was governed by the first of a long line of sultans.
Contemporary Brunei's modest size belies its pivotal role in the formative centuries of Bornean history. China was probably trading with Brunei as long ago as the seventh century, and Brunei later benefited from its strategic position on the trade route between India, Melaka and China, exercising a lucrative control over merchant traffic in the South China Sea. It became a staging post, where traders could stock up on local supplies such as beeswax, camphor, rattan and brasswork, which were traded for ceramics, spices, woods and fabrics. For a brief period in the fourteenth century the region was taken over by the Majapahit Empire, but by the end of the century it had become independent and was governed by the first of a long line of sultans.
By the mid-fifteenth century, as the sultanate courted foreign Muslim merchants' business, Islam began to make inroads into Bruneian society. This process was accelerated by the decamping to Brunei of wealthy Muslim merchant families after the fall of Melaka to the Portuguese in 1511. In the first half of the sixteenth century, Brunei was Borneo's foremost kingdom, its influence stretching along the island's northern and western coasts, and even as far as territory belonging to the modern-day Philippines. Such was the extent of Bruneian authority that Western visitors found the sultanate and the island interchangeable: the word "Borneo" is thought to be no more than a European corruption of Brunei. But by the close of the sixteenth century, things were beginning to turn sour. Trouble with Catholic Spain, now sniffing around the South China and Sulu seas with a view to colonization, led to a sea battle off the coast at Muara in 1578; the battle was won by Spain, whose forces took Brunei Town, only to be chased out days later by a cholera epidemic. The threat of piracy caused more problems, scaring off passing trade. Worse still, at home the sultans began to lose control of the noblemen, as factional struggles ruptured the court.
Western entrepreneurs arrived in this self-destructive climate, keen to take advantage of gaps in the trade market left by Brunei's decline. One such fortune-seeker was James Brooke, whose arrival off the coast of Kuching in August 1839 was to change the face of Borneo for ever. For helping the sultan to quell a Dyak uprising, Brooke demanded and was given the governorship of Sarawak; Brunei's contraction had begun. Over subsequent decades, the state was to shrink steadily, as Brooke and his successors used the suppression of piracy as the excuse they needed to siphon off more and more territory into the familial fiefdom. This trend culminated in the cession of the Limbang region in 1890 – a move which literally split Brunei in two.
Elsewhere, more Bruneian land was being lost to other powers. In January 1846, a court faction unsympathetic to foreign land-grabbing seized power in Brunei and the chief minister was murdered. British gunboats quelled the coup and Pulau Labuan was ceded to the British crown. A treaty signed the following year, forbidding the sultanate from ceding any of its territories without the British Crown's consent, underlined the decline of Brunei's power. Shortly afterwards, in 1865, American consul Charles Lee Moses negotiated a treaty granting a ten-year lease to the American Trading Company of the portion of northeast Borneo that was later to become Sabah. By 1888, the British had declared Brunei a protected state, which meant the responsibility for its foreign affairs lay with London. The turn of the twentieth century was marked by the discovery of oil: given what little remained of Bruneian territory, it could hardly have been altruism that spurred the British to set up a Residency here in 1906. By 1938, oil exports, engineered by the British Malayan Petroleum Company, had topped M$5 million.
The Japanese invasion of December 1941 temporarily halted Brunei's path to recovery. While Sabah, Sarawak and Pulau Labuan became Crown Colonies in the early postwar years, Brunei remained a British protectorate and retained its British Resident. Only in 1959 was the Residency finally withdrawn and a new constitution established, with provisions for a democratically elected legislative council. At the same time, Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddien (the present sultan's father) was careful to retain British involvement in matters of defence and foreign affairs – a move whose sagacity was made apparent when, in 1962, an armed coup was crushed by British Army Gurkhas. The coup was led by Sheik Azahari's pro-democratic Brunei People's Party (PRB) in response to Sultan Omar's refusal to convene the first sitting of the legislative council. Despite showing interest in joining the planned Malaysian Federation in 1963, Brunei suffered a last-minute attack of cold feet, choosing to opt out rather than risk losing its new-found oil wealth and compromising the pre-eminence of its monarchy.
Brunei remained a British Protectorate until January 1, 1984, when it attained full independence. Ever since the 1962 coup, Brunei has been ruled by the decree of the sultan, who fulfils the roles of (non-elected) prime minister, finance minister and defence minister, while the post of minister of foreign affairs is held by his brother Prince Mohamed. The Sultan's other brother, Jefri, was the previous finance minister but was famously sued in 1998 for embezzling B$3bn of state finds: the court cut his living expenses down to a meagre US$300,000 a month. Seven other ministerial advisors have a hand in government but the Sultan's say is final. Political parties were countenanced for three years in the mid-1980s, but outlawed again in 1988. The Sultan is quoted in Lord Chalfont's biography, By God's Will, as saying, "When I see some genuine interest among the citizenry, we may move towards elections." The government's emergency powers have also remained in place since 1962, which include provisions for the detention, without trial, of citizens.
Meanwhile, oil reserves have fulfilled all expectations, particularly in the 1970s, the decade that saw oil prices shoot through the roof, when money really began to roll in. Oil has made Bruneians rich, none more so than Brunei's twenty-ninth sultan, Hassanal Bolkiah (his full title is 31 words long). The Guinness Book of Records and Fortune Magazine have both credited the present sultan as the richest man in the world, with assets estimated to be as high as US$37 billion. The Sultan himself disputes such claims, asserting that he doesn't have unlimited access to state funds. Nevertheless, he has managed to acquire hotels in Singapore, London and Beverly Hills; a magnificent residence, the US$350-million Istana Nurul Iman; a collection of three hundred cars and a private fleet of aircraft; and over two hundred fine polo horses, kept at his personal country club.
Although Brunei can only grow richer with its oil reserves and massive global investments, in recent years the Sultan has decided that the economy should diversify into hi-tech industries, the service sector and ecotourism – evidence of a less isolationist and self-contained outlook. Bruneians themselves want to feel part of a larger world – many pop over to Miri in Sarawak on the weekends, where they see the benefits of a tourist infrastructure, such as cheaper goods, and where they encounter less restrictive traditions.
Ecotourism is viewed as appropriate for a religiously conformist state like Brunei. It certainly plays to the State's strengths – with logging almost nonexistent, the southern parts of the country consist mostly of pristine rainforest and are a delight to travel in, now that a basic infrastructure has been put in place.
Language
The national language of Brunei is Bahasa Malaysia, as spoken in Malaysia. English is also widely spoken.
The national language of Brunei is Bahasa Malaysia, as spoken in Malaysia. English is also widely spoken.
Money and costs
Brunei's currency is the Bruneian dollar, which is divided into 100 cents; you'll see it written as B$, or simply as $. The Bruneian dollar has parity with the Singapore dollar and both are legal tender in either country. Notes come in $1, $5, $10, $50, $100, $500, $1000 and $10,000 denominations; coins are in denominations of 1, 5, 10, 20 and 50 cents. The current exchange rate is B$2.5 to the pound or B$1.75 to the US dollar. There are 2.2 Malaysian ringgit to one Bruneian dollar.
Brunei's currency is the Bruneian dollar, which is divided into 100 cents; you'll see it written as B$, or simply as $. The Bruneian dollar has parity with the Singapore dollar and both are legal tender in either country. Notes come in $1, $5, $10, $50, $100, $500, $1000 and $10,000 denominations; coins are in denominations of 1, 5, 10, 20 and 50 cents. The current exchange rate is B$2.5 to the pound or B$1.75 to the US dollar. There are 2.2 Malaysian ringgit to one Bruneian dollar.
Sterling and US dollar traveller's cheques can be cashed at banks, licensed moneychangers and some hotels. Major credit cards are accepted in most hotels and large shops. Banks will advance cash against major credit cards, and with MasterCard, Visa, American Express or any bank card bearing a Maestro, Plus or Cirrus logo, you can withdraw money from most automatic teller machines (ATMs). You can get money wired to you via any of the major banks in Kuala Belait or the capital.
There's only one budget place to stay in the capital and if you can't get in there, you're looking at around £20/US$30 minimum per night in a hotel, which means an average daily budget in Brunei is likely to start at around £25–30/US$37–45.
Food and drink
The food in Brunei is very similar to that of Malaysia, though unlike Sabah and Sarawak you'll find a good deal of Indian and Bangladeshi dishes here; see the Malaysia "Food and drink" section for further details. Alcoholic drink is illegal
The food in Brunei is very similar to that of Malaysia, though unlike Sabah and Sarawak you'll find a good deal of Indian and Bangladeshi dishes here; see the Malaysia "Food and drink" section for further details. Alcoholic drink is illegal
Overland and sea routes into Brunei
Boats to Brunei depart daily from Lawas and Limbang in northern Sarawak, and from Pulau Labuan, itself connected by boat to Kota Kinabalu in Sabah. From Miri in Sarawak, several buses travel daily to Kuala Belait, in the far western corner of Brunei. The overland route from Sabah to Brunei necessitates taking a bus to Lawas and on to Bangar in the Temburong District, from where it's only a short boat trip to Bandar.
Boats to Brunei depart daily from Lawas and Limbang in northern Sarawak, and from Pulau Labuan, itself connected by boat to Kota Kinabalu in Sabah. From Miri in Sarawak, several buses travel daily to Kuala Belait, in the far western corner of Brunei. The overland route from Sabah to Brunei necessitates taking a bus to Lawas and on to Bangar in the Temburong District, from where it's only a short boat trip to Bandar.
Information and maps
Brunei still doesn't have a Ministry for Tourism, but there is now a tourism department (tel 02/382831) under the Ministry of Industry and Primary Resources. Bandar has two tourist offices, a small information booth at the airport, and a large walk-in centre on Jalan Elizabeth Dua in the city itself. In addition, you'll find the excellent "Explore Brunei" and "Places of Interest" leaflets and a city map at most hotels. Local tour operators are another source of information. Sunshine Borneo Tours and Travel, 2nd Floor, Unit 1, Block C, Abdul Razak Complex, Gadong, Bandar (tel 02/441791), has dozens of leaflets on attractions in the city and around the state. They also run numerous tours, including a three-day excursion to Brunei's Temburong district (B$200). Owner Anthony Chieng can offer good insights into travelling in the state. Borneo Outdoors, 3b Kiarong Apts, Simpang (tel 02/454764), also organizes trips, while David Coleman of the ZQ Tours Agency, 14&16 Spg 23, Jalan Selayun-Jerudong (tel 02/661941, wildlifeadventure@hotmail.com), runs ecotours of Belait and Temburong districts with a focus on wildlife-spotting and jungle camping (B$100 each for a minimum of two).
Brunei still doesn't have a Ministry for Tourism, but there is now a tourism department (tel 02/382831) under the Ministry of Industry and Primary Resources. Bandar has two tourist offices, a small information booth at the airport, and a large walk-in centre on Jalan Elizabeth Dua in the city itself. In addition, you'll find the excellent "Explore Brunei" and "Places of Interest" leaflets and a city map at most hotels. Local tour operators are another source of information. Sunshine Borneo Tours and Travel, 2nd Floor, Unit 1, Block C, Abdul Razak Complex, Gadong, Bandar (tel 02/441791), has dozens of leaflets on attractions in the city and around the state. They also run numerous tours, including a three-day excursion to Brunei's Temburong district (B$200). Owner Anthony Chieng can offer good insights into travelling in the state. Borneo Outdoors, 3b Kiarong Apts, Simpang (tel 02/454764), also organizes trips, while David Coleman of the ZQ Tours Agency, 14&16 Spg 23, Jalan Selayun-Jerudong (tel 02/661941, wildlifeadventure@hotmail.com), runs ecotours of Belait and Temburong districts with a focus on wildlife-spotting and jungle camping (B$100 each for a minimum of two).
Nelles East Malaysia map includes the best country map of Brunei, while the Bruneian government publication, Explore Brunei, includes a reasonable map of Bandar city centre.
Entry requirements and visa extension
The passports of British nationals, Singaporeans and Malaysians are stamped upon arrival with a thirty-day visa: US citizens can stay up to three months; Canadian, French, Dutch, German, Swedish, Norwegian, Swiss and Belgian citizens can stay for fourteen days; and all other visitors must apply for visas at local Brunei diplomatic missions or, failing that, at a British consulate. Visas are normally valid for two weeks, but renewable in Brunei. Officials may ask to see either an onward ticket, or proof of sufficient funds to cover your stay, though it's unlikely if you look reasonably smart.
The passports of British nationals, Singaporeans and Malaysians are stamped upon arrival with a thirty-day visa: US citizens can stay up to three months; Canadian, French, Dutch, German, Swedish, Norwegian, Swiss and Belgian citizens can stay for fourteen days; and all other visitors must apply for visas at local Brunei diplomatic missions or, failing that, at a British consulate. Visas are normally valid for two weeks, but renewable in Brunei. Officials may ask to see either an onward ticket, or proof of sufficient funds to cover your stay, though it's unlikely if you look reasonably smart.
Although Brunei is a dry state, all non-Muslim travellers are permitted to bring in twelve cans of beer or two bottles of liquor (wine or spirits), but make sure to declare them in customs.
Airport departure tax
Bruneian airport departure tax is B$5 for flights to East Malaysia and B$12 to West Malaysia and Singapore and all other destinations.
Bruneian airport departure tax is B$5 for flights to East Malaysia and B$12 to West Malaysia and Singapore and all other destinations.
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