In Reply to: Royal Brunei posted by Kiwigran on Tuesday, 27. February 2007 at 10:27 Bali Time:
Hi Carole
We arrived in Brunei at 8.30am and left at 8.50 pm that evening, so we only had 12 hours there. We did the two hour city tour which you can organise on arrival at the airport - this took us to the Sultan's repository (where he keeps his crown jewels, chariots, gifts from other countries etc - interesting), the mosque (impressive), the water village and into the city centre - which is not all that big. They left us in the city and picked us back up at 5. We did a bit of shopping, wandered about and got a few supplies from the local supermarket. As we were there during Ramadan it was was pretty quiet on the streets, especially in the restaurants.
If you are staying overnight, there are some tours that take you out of the city centre, which are supposed to be good, and the water village tour is quite interesting, as it a visit to the mosque and sultan's palace. Not sure about hotels - I know there is a big 5 star one outside the city (Empire?) which is supposed to be impressive but not sure of costs. If you log onto the Royal Brunei webpage they have lots of facts, travel tips, accommodation and tour guides.
Hope this helps,
Carol.