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Coverage / Brunei

Brunei

Southeast Asia

A small, oil-rich Islamic sultanate on the north coast of Borneo, where more than two thirds of the land is still old-growth rainforest, the capital Bandar Seri Begawan fronts the stilt-house water village of Kampong Ayer, and the protected interior of Ulu Temburong shelters proboscis monkeys, hornbills and a famous jungle canopy walk.

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What you can do in Brunei

Museums & Galleries

Bandar Seri Begawanyear-roundTo understand Brunei you have to understand its monarchy, and the Royal Regalia Museum in the middle of the capital lays it out in gold. Housed in a domed building on Jalan Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddien, it displays the ceremonial regalia of Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, one of the world's longest-reigning monarchs, including the gilded royal chariot and the crowns, spears and jewelled objects paraded at his 1968 coronation, alongside a hall of state gifts from around the world. The museum opened in 1992 to mark the silver jubilee of the Sultan's accession, converted from the former Churchill Memorial Building of 1971. It is free, air-conditioned and central, an easy anchor for a city walk that takes in the Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque and the waterfront across from Kampong Ayer.

Trekking / Hiking

Ulu TemburongFeb Mar Apr Jun Jul AugUlu Temburong National Park protects a slice of primary Borneo rainforest that has never been logged, and Brunei keeps it that way by allowing access only through licensed operators and only by river. You reach it on a longboat ride up the shallow, rapid-strewn Temburong River, then climb a tall aluminium canopy walkway that lifts you around fifty metres up through the layers of the forest to look out over unbroken jungle and, at dawn, listen to gibbons and hornbills. Below, boardwalks and forest trails lead to a cool river plunge pool and, for the curious, a session standing still while tiger leeches and butterflies find you. Because entry is capped and guided, the forest stays quiet and intact, a rare thing in Borneo, and the trip doubles as a window into Iban and local Temburong life along the river.

Wildlife Safaris

Brunei Riveryear-roundOne of the easiest places in the world to see the proboscis monkey, Borneo's big-nosed, pot-bellied endemic, is a boat ride from the middle of Brunei's capital. The tidal Brunei River and its mangrove creeks, threading past the vast Istana Nurul Iman palace and the stilt houses of Kampong Ayer, hold troops of proboscis monkeys that gather in the riverside trees at dawn and dusk, alongside silvered langurs, long-tailed macaques, monitor lizards, kingfishers and the occasional saltwater crocodile. Guides run open wooden boats into the quiet channels where the monkeys leap between the mangroves, and the same water turns magical after dark when the riverbank trees light up with synchronised fireflies. It is a genuine wildlife safari with none of the long transfers, the forest starts where the city ends.

Witness / Attend

Kampong Ayeryear-roundKampong Ayer is a whole town built on stilts over the Brunei River, lived in for more than a thousand years and still home to thousands of people in a lattice of wooden houses, mosques, schools, shops and clinics linked by boardwalks and water taxis. The Italian chronicler Pigafetta, sailing with Magellan in 1521, called it the Venice of the East. You do not just look at it, you go in: cross by a fifty-cent water taxi to the Kampong Ayer Cultural and Tourism Gallery to climb its observation tower and read the village's history, then walk the plank walkways between homes, stop for tea and traditional cakes in a family house, and watch daily life carry on above the tide. Staying overnight in a village homestay, woken by the call to prayer echoing over the water, is the fullest way to feel a way of life that is disappearing across Borneo.

Best months at a glance

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Museums
Trekking
Wildlife Safaris
Witness / Attend