"BRUNEI.. middle east meets Asia" a Brunei Travel Page by Xtian

My Brunei experience began when I boarded Royal Brunei Airlines from Sydney to Bandar Seri Begawan.

Royal Brunei is a budget airline in Australia, and I was using it as a cheap taxi fare to Manila. Other travellers were transiting to other destinations as well including Vietnam and Singapore.

Thinking I would get extra mileage out of my airfare, I booked myself and partner for 2 days in Brunei to get to know the people and culture.

All seemed well as our Royal Brunei flight was taxiing out on to the tarmac, the little TV screens all started to retract down and on came a scary voice reading out some verses from the Koran. The airline stewards and stewardesses seemed nonplussed by the whole affair and seemed not to notice it, but it all seems a little too ominous when I saw the words flash up "may our trip to our destination be a successful one, otherwise may we go to Allah".

Then up came the little map of the world to show which direction we were heading, and then came a little diagram of the plane indicating distance and direction to Mecca.

Important note if you like a tipple on your international flights : alcohol is not served on board the plane.

Another important note if you like a tipple on your international journeys : alcohol is not sold in Brunei.

The first thing that strikes you when you enter Brunei is the heat, and how provincial it feels. You'll also notice everything written in Arabic and Malay (and sometimes English as well).

Brunei is not as rich as you might expect. It's a sultanate, and while the Sultan of Brunei is a very rich man you quickly get the impression that the oil wealth is not distributed evenly.

Chances are that when you visit Brunei, the Sultan's palace will be off limits. It is only open a few days a year during a Muslim festival.

There are two Mosques you should definitely see - the Bolkiah Mosque and the Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddin Mosque (shown). The grandeur is amazing.

Kampung Ayer seems to be at the top of the official tourist guide places of interest. It's kind of like a shantytown built over the water and not really a place I'd wander around. But you can access the area by speedboat from Bandar Seri Begawan.. worth going for half an hour to an hour if you're looking to kill some time.