Anyone been there?  Any tips on hotels, restaurants, things to do, any "scene" (he asks, hopefully)?

A long time ago I heard a story that the Sultan was out shopping on Rodeo Drive in one of those upmarket Italian Designer joints. The story goes that after they'd selected one of virtually everything in the shop it came time to pay and one of the entourage was detailed to sort it out with the large stash of good old greenbacks it was his duty to carry.

The ever so polite staff of the boutique explained that they couldn't accept cash and that only a credit card would suffice.

"Alamak!" says the aide "Don't you know who we are?"

"I"m sorry - we can only do business with people of established reputations" opined the shop assistant with attitude.

"We need some form of identity, preferably with a picture"

"Oh, identity! Picture identity no problem"

On this the aide pulls out a piece of Brunei currency.

"You see this guy on this banknote - that him, over there".

What I hear is that BSB is a town where everybody knows everybody else, if you get my drift.

Was there years ago before the Sultan's brother pissed most of the treasury away. Small. boring and expensive. A couple of friends worked there for awhile and said it was duller than dull. They would cross over to Malaysia or fly to Bangkok if they wanted to have any fun. No idea how it is now but I would be surprised if it was much different.

555 wrote:

....
"Oh, identity! Picture identity no problem"

On this the aide pulls out a piece of Brunei currency.

"You see this guy on this banknote - that him, over there".....

I remember hearing that exact same story many years ago.

Well, that means it MUST be true!    

Chao Na wrote:

Anyone been there?  Any tips on hotels, restaurants, things to do, any "scene"?

Yes, lived and worked there.

5 Star hotels only. Few restaurants.

Plenty to do for those living there, virtually nothing for tourists although it is convenient as a jumping off point for Sabah and Sarawak (Kota Kinabalu, Niah caves, etc).  The Churchill museum and the aquarium were closed in 1992 and the site converted to a Royal Regalia Museum. The only two recognised tourist type attractions are now the Omar Ali Saifuddin mosque, if you like ostentatious mosques surrounded by a relatively poor water market, and the Jerudong Amusement Park - similar to Disneyland, but without the queues and generally deserted as most of the locals have been and there are virtually no tourists.

No nightclubs or bars and no alcohol for sale, although non-muslims are permitted to bring in alcohol for their own consumption only.

"Scene"? For a tourist in Brunei? Dream on.

Gone Fishing wrote:

5 Star hotels only.

I need read no further than this to know how much you know about Brunei.

Gone Fishing wrote:

No nightclubs or bars and no alcohol for sale, although non-muslims are permitted to bring in alcohol for their own consumption only.

.

Ok thanks for the warning, I have just blacklisted Brunei from my future travel plans.

Chao Na wrote:

Gone Fishing wrote:

5 Star hotels only

I need read no further than this to know how much you know about Brunei.

If you are so well informed and all you want to know is specific hotel gradings do a search rather than waste people's time. Moron.

For the benefit of anyone else thinking of going to Brunei who is actually interested in first hand information on the country (hotels, etc), I lived and worked there for a considerable time and knew all areas of the country reasonably well - with only one city (BSB, with two thirds of the population), 4 small towns/villages (Muara, the port/naval base and Jerudong park, Tutong, the petrol station on the way to Seria, the oil centre, and Kuala Belait, at the border), one main road along the coast, and a population of only some 300,000 including overseas workers) it would be difficult not to. The two "towns" of Sukang and Bangar are very much local administrative centres only and not readily accessible to tourists unless you have a 4 wheel drive, a boat or a helicopter (around 95% of the country is still covered in jungle) and jungle expertise.

There are still less than 20 hotels in Brunei, the majority in BSB. Technically not all are 5 star, as they start at 7 star and while there (u)are(/u) some graded as low as 3 star these are very much aimed at the overnight business visitor, not tourists.

I had to book Royal Brunei airline for my Christmas Thailand flight as Thai was totally booked for the 5 days before Christmas (in the seats I can afford admittedly) so it's off to Brunei for an hour. I tried to look up to get a web site of the airport. All there is is an aerial shot of the general area around the airport.

krobbie

Gone Fishing wrote:

There are still less than 20 hotels in Brunei, the majority in BSB. Technically not all are 5 star, as they start at 7 star and while there (u)are(/u) some graded as low as 3 star these are very much aimed at the overnight business visitor, not tourists.

So why did you say there were only five-star hotels there?