Halal Travel Guide: Brunei Part 1 — Visa-Free Culture, Mosques and Local History
Reposted from the web
Summary: Brunei offers visa-free travel for Chinese visitors and a compact route through mosques, museums, royal history, and Malay culture. This first part keeps the original itinerary, photos, place names, and travel details in a clear English article.
The Brunei Darussalam Immigration Department announced that starting March 8, 2025, Chinese citizens holding ordinary passports valid for at least 6 months can enter Brunei visa-free for up to 14 days. Brunei has officially become a visa-free country!
I happened to take my family to Brunei in December 2024 and visited quite a few places. In my opinion, Brunei can be described as a "rural version of Singapore and a high-cost Malaysia." If you have already visited Singapore and Malaysia, this place is still worth a look.
First, Brunei has its own ride-hailing app called Dart. You can link a VISA card or pay with cash, and the cars arrive quite quickly. Note that after leaving the airport, the ride-hailing pickup point is in the parking lot on the right. Walk from the main airport entrance toward the mosque on the right, then follow the canopy to the end to find it.
My first impression of downtown Brunei is that everyone drives everywhere, and there are basically no pedestrians on the streets. It feels like the whole city was designed for cars, and there are very few crosswalks. The city density is very low with lots of greenery, making it feel like a garden city for cars.
Below, I will share some places in Brunei that we think are worth visiting and eating at.
Eat halal Nanyang-style Chinese food.
Yingzhun Hao.
Just like in Singapore and Malaysia, many Chinese people from Hainan and Fujian in Brunei apply for halal certification, hire Muslim staff, and serve halal Chinese food with Nanyang characteristics. We ate at several of these places this time, and they are all worth recommending.
The most famous Hainanese teahouse in Brunei is Yingzhun Hao. They have Brunei halal certification and are favored by people of all ethnic groups. The founder of Yingzhun Hao, Han Qiongyuan, was from Wenchang, Hainan. In 1939, during the Japanese invasion of China, 17-year-old Han Qiongyuan traveled to Southeast Asia and arrived in Brunei to work as a handyman at his uncle's coffee shop. In 1946, Han Qiongyuan officially opened Yingzhun Teahouse, mainly selling coffee, bread, and other food, and became widely known for his "longevity bread (roti kuning)." Later, as the teahouse business grew, Han Qiongyuan also expanded into real estate and presided over the construction of the Brunei Hainan Building. After 1993, Han Qiongyuan returned to his hometown every year to visit relatives and invested heavily there, being awarded the title of "Patriotic Hainanese" by Hainan Province three times.
Their shop has a very rich variety of bread. The most classic sandwich breads come in four flavors: peanut, red bean paste, butter, and coconut. There are also peanut yuanyang bread, cheese bread, yuanyang yellow bread, and French toast. You can add a fried egg and cheese, or order a soft-boiled egg on the side. Cakes include custard cake, egg tarts, coconut tarts, red bean cakes, butter cakes, pandan cakes, and more. Western-style breads and pastries were learned by Hainanese people working as kitchen helpers for British families when they traveled south to Southeast Asia in the 19th century. Today, they are a classic part of Nanyang Hainanese restaurants.
Besides breads and pastries, they also serve various noodles, including sesame flat rice noodles (zhima guotiao), dry-tossed noodles, fried noodles, Hainanese noodles, fried rice vermicelli, and egg gravy flat rice noodles (huadan hefen). These are all very well-suited to Chinese tastes. We ordered egg gravy flat rice noodles, sesame flat rice noodles, egg tarts, egg custard cakes, yellow bread with fried eggs, chicken curry puffs, peanut and kaya butter bread (yuanyang mianbao), ginger milk tea, and lemon tea for a full East-meets-West experience. The peanut and kaya butter bread is filled with coconut jam (kaya), butter, and crushed peanuts, giving it a very rich texture. The sesame flat rice noodles have a sweet, salty, and spicy flavor. Served with fried tofu and fried fish chunks, they are a major specialty of the restaurant.
Babu's Kitchen
There are many Chinese shops in the old town of Bandar Seri Begawan, which is also a great place to eat at halal Hainanese restaurants. We chose Babu's Kitchen. It was very busy at lunch with Chinese, Malay, and Indian customers, which is a classic scene at a Hainanese restaurant. Since they didn't have a Chinese menu, we asked the owner to recommend the Assam fish fillets, salted egg fried mushrooms, beef noodles (yee mee), and bean curd skin with tofu and chicken. Like in Malaysia, the Chinese in Brunei speak very standard Mandarin. Overall, the food was very good. The Chinese dishes were infused with Malay flavors, but they were still very easy for Chinese people to enjoy.
Meiguang Tea House
We had a Hainanese breakfast at Meiguang Tea House in the old town of Bandar Seri Begawan. The owner is Hainanese, his wife is from Xiamen, and the staff are all Indonesian. Because they mainly cater to the nearby office buildings, it is usually quite busy. It is relatively quiet on weekends, and there are fewer steamed dim sum options than usual. We ordered chicken and radish buns, red bean buns, beef porridge with small fried dough sticks (youtiao), longan herbal tea, fried noodles, and steamed dumplings (shaomai). Next time, if any friends (dost) are around on a weekday, we can try their other specialties like Fuzhou 'wealth-attracting' rice noodle soup, dry-tossed silver needle noodles (laoshufen), and chicken intestine noodles.
Shixianle
Near the Fujian Association is a restaurant called Shiraz Seafood Restaurant. The name sounds like an Iranian place, but it is actually a Chinese restaurant called Shixianle. It specializes in dim sum and various Nanyang Chinese snacks. The menu is very extensive, and it is halal-certified in Brunei. After we went in, a table of Malays and a table of South Asians arrived, which shows how much different ethnic groups love halal Chinese food.
We ordered Cantonese steamed dumplings (siu mai), chicken feet, fish maw with chicken, five-spice meat rolls (ngo hiang), fried stuffed tofu (yong tofu), fried radish cake, longan herbal tea, chicken porridge, seafood soup (a mix of fish fillets, fish balls, etc.), and dry-fried green beans. We really enjoyed our fill of Nanyang Chinese snacks in Brunei.
Ngo hiang is short for 'five-spice marinated meat,' a snack that originated in the Minnan region of Fujian. In the past, life was hard, so people would season leftover meat and vegetables with five-spice powder, wrap them in bean curd skin, and deep-fry them. Later, as Chinese people traveled south, it spread to Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Brunei, Singapore, and Thailand.
Stuffed tofu (yong tofu) is a traditional Hakka dish. In the Hakka dialect, the word niang means to stuff with filling. Legend says that after the Hakka people moved south from the Central Plains, they wanted to eat dumplings but had no wheat. They used tofu instead of flour and invented stuffed tofu (niang doufu). Later, stuffed tofu followed the Hakka people as they traveled south to Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Vietnam, and Thailand.
In Brunei, the Fujian Association and the Taiwan Overseas Compatriot Association share the same building. Nearby, there are non-halal restaurants, which are rare in Brunei, and they all have red non-halal signs at their entrances.
Hua Ho Department Store
Hua Ho Department Store is a famous halal supermarket owned by Chinese merchants in Brunei, and it has many branches across the country. We went to the Kiulap branch. Inside, one side features various traditional Brunei Malay snacks. We bought a traditional snack from Sabah and Brunei called Kuih Cincin Tempatan, which is fried using red coconut, rice flour, and palm sugar. The other side is the supermarket area, where you can buy various halal foods with Cantonese, Fujian, Chaoshan, and Taiwanese characteristics.
The founder of Hua Ho Department Store, Lau Gek Poh (Liu Jinguo), was born in 1920 to a farming family in Lieyu, Kinmen, Fujian. In 1938, he traveled south to seek his fortune, first going to Singapore and then to Brunei to join his eldest sister. In 1947, Lau Gek Poh bought a piece of land in Manggis, on the northern outskirts of Brunei. He built a vegetable garden and hired workers to raise chickens and ducks, officially establishing Hua Ho Department Store. After the 1950s, as agricultural prices fell, Lau Gek Poh eventually went bankrupt and closed his shop in 1958. Afterward, he began selling vegetables at the market and selling fabric door-to-door. He did not reopen his shop until 1961. In 1966, he built a small two-story building, and the shop was opened on the first floor. Later, he gradually expanded the scale of his business, eventually making Hua Ho the largest department store in Brunei.
In 2004, the Sultan of Brunei awarded Lau Gek Poh the title of Pehin Kapitan Cina Kornia Diraja, making him one of the few Chinese nobles in Brunei. Lieyu, also known as Little Kinmen, is located between Kinmen and Xiamen. People from Lieyu began traveling south to Brunei in the 19th century. Initially, they worked mainly as shipping laborers, dock workers, fishermen, and street vendors. Later, they gradually accumulated capital and turned to business, occupying an important position in Brunei's business world. Many have received the titles of Pehin Kapitan and Pehin.
Some products at Hua Ho Department Store: coconut jelly powder, cold bean curd powder, Hong Kong narcissus flour, Shantou sweet potato starch, fragrant braised peanuts, fragrant vegetable hearts, belacan chili, Chaoshan specialty sweet and sour ginger slices, South China vegetables, spicy fermented bean curd with sesame oil, rice noodles, shredded codfish, and selected squid.
Traditional Malay Market: Gadong Night Market
Gadong Night Market is very famous, but it is actually not very big. There are very few tourists in Brunei, so the night market is mostly filled with locals.
We first bought shredded squid and fish paste with chili sauce. This little snack is quite delicious. Then we bought mangosteen and snake fruit. It was my first time eating snake fruit, and the taste was quite good.
We ate noodle soup at a small snack shop at the entrance. We ordered Bakso beranak (large beef balls stuffed with smaller beef balls) and Soto Daging (beef noodle soup). The eating habits here are almost the same as in Indonesia. I really enjoy the beef noodle soup here, especially on a rainy day when a bowl feels very comforting. I also ordered a coconut. The local coconuts are large. Even though the husk is thick, there is still plenty of juice inside, and it comes served with a lime wedge to squeeze in.
I had satay skewers at the Gadong Night Market, specifically the liver and chicken hearts, which were sweet and grilled a bit firm.
A wide variety of Brunei-style buffet.
If you want to try authentic local food in Brunei, I recommend the buffet at the Brunei Arts and Handicraft Training Centre. You can find it on the map by searching for Tarindak D'Seni.
We went for lunch from 11:30 to 14:30, which cost 91 RMB per person, and there is a discount for seniors over 60. The environment is lovely, with the Brunei River right outside the window. The food selection is rich. You can eat various sticky rice pandan Malay cakes (kuih), Sarawak laksa noodles with coconut milk, and even make your own shaved ice dessert (cendol).
They serve Brunei's national dish, sago starch paste (ambuyat), which is made by mixing sago palm starch with hot water to create a thick paste, eaten by dipping it into a sauce.
Nasi kebuli is rice cooked with goat broth, goat milk, and ghee. It was brought to the Malay Archipelago by Hadhrami people from Yemen and is especially popular in the Arab communities of Java.
Black beef (daging hitam) is a beef rendang made with a sweet soy sauce containing plenty of palm sugar and rock sugar, a specialty of the Sarawak region.
Chicken cooked in coconut milk (opor ayam) is chicken simmered in coconut milk with various spices.
Two national mosques.
Brunei has two national mosques, each built by a different Sultan, and both are worth visiting. The Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque, also known as the 'water mosque,' was built between 1954 and 1958 by the former Sultan of Brunei, Omar Ali Saifuddien III (who reigned from 1950 to 1967), and is named after him. The main hall features a Mughal-revival style golden dome. The interior uses Italian marble, Shanghai granite, British chandeliers, and Venetian mosaic glass, making it Brunei's most important landmark after its completion.
We happened to visit during Friday prayers (Jumu'ah). Brunei requires all malls and restaurants to close between 12:00 and 14:00, so the mosque was very crowded during the prayer, with the entire hall full, which was quite spectacular.
The pulpit (minbar) in the water mosque has two levels. The first level is where the muezzin calls the adhan, and the second level is where the imam delivers the khutbah. Next to the minbar, there is an escalator leading to the second-floor prayer area reserved for the royal family.
After Friday prayers, boxed meals were being handed out, mostly to South Asian laborers.
The water mosque during the sunset and dusk hours. Both of Brunei's national mosques look better at night than during the day.
The full name of the Brunei Friday Mosque is Jame' Asr Hassanil Bolkiah Mosque. It is one of Brunei's two national mosques and also the largest mosque in the country. The Jame' Asr Hassanil Bolkiah Mosque was built by Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah of Brunei to celebrate his 25th anniversary on the throne and officially opened in 1994. The mosque's 29 golden domes commemorate the 29th Sultan of Brunei. Five fountains symbolize the five daily namaz and the five pillars of Islam. The mihrab is decorated with gold-plated tiles, and the interior is very luxurious, featuring Persian carpets, Italian marble, and Philippine hardwood.
The night view of the Brunei mosque is more beautiful than the day. For friends (dosti) who want to take photos, I recommend coming during the times for maghrib and isha.
The Jame' Asr Hassanil Bolkiah Mosque during the day. The main prayer hall connects to a women's prayer hall via a corridor. This is a very rare independent women's hall in Southeast Asia, and it is quite large. Below the women's hall is the wudu area. It is the only one I have ever visited that uses sensor-activated faucets.
The ancient city in the mountains of Brunei.
Take a taxi from the city to the Kota Batu Archaeological Park, the ruins of the Brunei Sultanate palace hidden in the tropical rainforest. This is Brunei's most important archaeological site.
Kota Batu is believed to have been the capital of the Brunei Sultanate from the 14th to the 17th century. It was once an important trading port in Southeast Asia and a central city in northern Borneo. A civil war in the Brunei Sultanate between 1660 and 1673 led to the abandonment of Kota Batu, and the Sultan moved the palace to the water village of Kampong Ayer on the upper Brunei River.
Kota Batu means stone castle, and it is one of the few stone architectural ruins in Brunei. British naturalist and Sarawak Museum curator Tom Harrisson began archaeological excavations at Kota Batu in 1952-53. He discovered many Chinese coins from the Tang, Song, and Ming dynasties, as well as Arabic coins, glassware, ironware, bronze, wooden tools, stone carvings, and ceramics from Siam, the Indochina Peninsula, and the Song and Ming dynasties of China.
During excavations in 1986-87, a square stone building measuring 25.8 by 25.4 meters was found, along with 36 stone column bases, tombstone remains, and Ming dynasty porcelain shards. It is believed the building dates back to the 15th century. Because the column bases are divided into three levels, it is thought the building had a three-tiered pyramid roof structure similar to traditional Malacca mosques. Although early Brunei Sultanate palace buildings were made of wood and left few traces, the coins and pottery found at Kota Batu suggest the Sultan's palace was likely near this site.
The paths in Kota Batu Archaeological Park feel like a primitive forest. There were no other tourists, and the mountain trails were often covered by fallen leaves and hard to see. It is hard to imagine that this was once the capital of Brunei.
The tomb of the third Sultan of Brunei.
The Kota Batu Archaeological Park contains the tomb of the third Sultan of Brunei, Sharif Ali.
Sultan Sharif Ali (reigned 1425-1432) was originally a preacher from the ancient Saudi city of Taif and a descendant of Hasan ibn Ali, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad. He arrived in Brunei to preach in 1395 and was respected by the Sultan and the people. He married the daughter of Sultan Ahmad around 1400 and inherited the throne after the old Sultan died in 1425, which is how the Brunei Sultanate gained its lineage from the Prophet's family.
Sultan Sharif Ali worked to spread Islamic law while keeping local customs that did not go against it. During his reign, Brunei officially changed from a Hindu-Buddhist cultural area into a part of Islamic civilization. He built the first mosque in Brunei, designed the national flag, and established the title of Brunei as the Nation of Peace (Darussalam). It is believed that he may have also built the stone wall fortress in Kota Batu.
Summary: Brunei offers visa-free travel for Chinese visitors and a compact route through mosques, museums, royal history, and Malay culture. This first part keeps the original itinerary, photos, place names, and travel details in a clear English article.
The Brunei Darussalam Immigration Department announced that starting March 8, 2025, Chinese citizens holding ordinary passports valid for at least 6 months can enter Brunei visa-free for up to 14 days. Brunei has officially become a visa-free country!
I happened to take my family to Brunei in December 2024 and visited quite a few places. In my opinion, Brunei can be described as a "rural version of Singapore and a high-cost Malaysia." If you have already visited Singapore and Malaysia, this place is still worth a look.
First, Brunei has its own ride-hailing app called Dart. You can link a VISA card or pay with cash, and the cars arrive quite quickly. Note that after leaving the airport, the ride-hailing pickup point is in the parking lot on the right. Walk from the main airport entrance toward the mosque on the right, then follow the canopy to the end to find it.
My first impression of downtown Brunei is that everyone drives everywhere, and there are basically no pedestrians on the streets. It feels like the whole city was designed for cars, and there are very few crosswalks. The city density is very low with lots of greenery, making it feel like a garden city for cars.
Below, I will share some places in Brunei that we think are worth visiting and eating at.
Eat halal Nanyang-style Chinese food.
Yingzhun Hao.
Just like in Singapore and Malaysia, many Chinese people from Hainan and Fujian in Brunei apply for halal certification, hire Muslim staff, and serve halal Chinese food with Nanyang characteristics. We ate at several of these places this time, and they are all worth recommending.
The most famous Hainanese teahouse in Brunei is Yingzhun Hao. They have Brunei halal certification and are favored by people of all ethnic groups. The founder of Yingzhun Hao, Han Qiongyuan, was from Wenchang, Hainan. In 1939, during the Japanese invasion of China, 17-year-old Han Qiongyuan traveled to Southeast Asia and arrived in Brunei to work as a handyman at his uncle's coffee shop. In 1946, Han Qiongyuan officially opened Yingzhun Teahouse, mainly selling coffee, bread, and other food, and became widely known for his "longevity bread (roti kuning)." Later, as the teahouse business grew, Han Qiongyuan also expanded into real estate and presided over the construction of the Brunei Hainan Building. After 1993, Han Qiongyuan returned to his hometown every year to visit relatives and invested heavily there, being awarded the title of "Patriotic Hainanese" by Hainan Province three times.
Their shop has a very rich variety of bread. The most classic sandwich breads come in four flavors: peanut, red bean paste, butter, and coconut. There are also peanut yuanyang bread, cheese bread, yuanyang yellow bread, and French toast. You can add a fried egg and cheese, or order a soft-boiled egg on the side. Cakes include custard cake, egg tarts, coconut tarts, red bean cakes, butter cakes, pandan cakes, and more. Western-style breads and pastries were learned by Hainanese people working as kitchen helpers for British families when they traveled south to Southeast Asia in the 19th century. Today, they are a classic part of Nanyang Hainanese restaurants.
Besides breads and pastries, they also serve various noodles, including sesame flat rice noodles (zhima guotiao), dry-tossed noodles, fried noodles, Hainanese noodles, fried rice vermicelli, and egg gravy flat rice noodles (huadan hefen). These are all very well-suited to Chinese tastes. We ordered egg gravy flat rice noodles, sesame flat rice noodles, egg tarts, egg custard cakes, yellow bread with fried eggs, chicken curry puffs, peanut and kaya butter bread (yuanyang mianbao), ginger milk tea, and lemon tea for a full East-meets-West experience. The peanut and kaya butter bread is filled with coconut jam (kaya), butter, and crushed peanuts, giving it a very rich texture. The sesame flat rice noodles have a sweet, salty, and spicy flavor. Served with fried tofu and fried fish chunks, they are a major specialty of the restaurant.
Babu's Kitchen
There are many Chinese shops in the old town of Bandar Seri Begawan, which is also a great place to eat at halal Hainanese restaurants. We chose Babu's Kitchen. It was very busy at lunch with Chinese, Malay, and Indian customers, which is a classic scene at a Hainanese restaurant. Since they didn't have a Chinese menu, we asked the owner to recommend the Assam fish fillets, salted egg fried mushrooms, beef noodles (yee mee), and bean curd skin with tofu and chicken. Like in Malaysia, the Chinese in Brunei speak very standard Mandarin. Overall, the food was very good. The Chinese dishes were infused with Malay flavors, but they were still very easy for Chinese people to enjoy.
Meiguang Tea House
We had a Hainanese breakfast at Meiguang Tea House in the old town of Bandar Seri Begawan. The owner is Hainanese, his wife is from Xiamen, and the staff are all Indonesian. Because they mainly cater to the nearby office buildings, it is usually quite busy. It is relatively quiet on weekends, and there are fewer steamed dim sum options than usual. We ordered chicken and radish buns, red bean buns, beef porridge with small fried dough sticks (youtiao), longan herbal tea, fried noodles, and steamed dumplings (shaomai). Next time, if any friends (dost) are around on a weekday, we can try their other specialties like Fuzhou 'wealth-attracting' rice noodle soup, dry-tossed silver needle noodles (laoshufen), and chicken intestine noodles.
Shixianle
Near the Fujian Association is a restaurant called Shiraz Seafood Restaurant. The name sounds like an Iranian place, but it is actually a Chinese restaurant called Shixianle. It specializes in dim sum and various Nanyang Chinese snacks. The menu is very extensive, and it is halal-certified in Brunei. After we went in, a table of Malays and a table of South Asians arrived, which shows how much different ethnic groups love halal Chinese food.
We ordered Cantonese steamed dumplings (siu mai), chicken feet, fish maw with chicken, five-spice meat rolls (ngo hiang), fried stuffed tofu (yong tofu), fried radish cake, longan herbal tea, chicken porridge, seafood soup (a mix of fish fillets, fish balls, etc.), and dry-fried green beans. We really enjoyed our fill of Nanyang Chinese snacks in Brunei.
Ngo hiang is short for 'five-spice marinated meat,' a snack that originated in the Minnan region of Fujian. In the past, life was hard, so people would season leftover meat and vegetables with five-spice powder, wrap them in bean curd skin, and deep-fry them. Later, as Chinese people traveled south, it spread to Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Brunei, Singapore, and Thailand.
Stuffed tofu (yong tofu) is a traditional Hakka dish. In the Hakka dialect, the word niang means to stuff with filling. Legend says that after the Hakka people moved south from the Central Plains, they wanted to eat dumplings but had no wheat. They used tofu instead of flour and invented stuffed tofu (niang doufu). Later, stuffed tofu followed the Hakka people as they traveled south to Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Vietnam, and Thailand.
In Brunei, the Fujian Association and the Taiwan Overseas Compatriot Association share the same building. Nearby, there are non-halal restaurants, which are rare in Brunei, and they all have red non-halal signs at their entrances.
Hua Ho Department Store
Hua Ho Department Store is a famous halal supermarket owned by Chinese merchants in Brunei, and it has many branches across the country. We went to the Kiulap branch. Inside, one side features various traditional Brunei Malay snacks. We bought a traditional snack from Sabah and Brunei called Kuih Cincin Tempatan, which is fried using red coconut, rice flour, and palm sugar. The other side is the supermarket area, where you can buy various halal foods with Cantonese, Fujian, Chaoshan, and Taiwanese characteristics.
The founder of Hua Ho Department Store, Lau Gek Poh (Liu Jinguo), was born in 1920 to a farming family in Lieyu, Kinmen, Fujian. In 1938, he traveled south to seek his fortune, first going to Singapore and then to Brunei to join his eldest sister. In 1947, Lau Gek Poh bought a piece of land in Manggis, on the northern outskirts of Brunei. He built a vegetable garden and hired workers to raise chickens and ducks, officially establishing Hua Ho Department Store. After the 1950s, as agricultural prices fell, Lau Gek Poh eventually went bankrupt and closed his shop in 1958. Afterward, he began selling vegetables at the market and selling fabric door-to-door. He did not reopen his shop until 1961. In 1966, he built a small two-story building, and the shop was opened on the first floor. Later, he gradually expanded the scale of his business, eventually making Hua Ho the largest department store in Brunei.
In 2004, the Sultan of Brunei awarded Lau Gek Poh the title of Pehin Kapitan Cina Kornia Diraja, making him one of the few Chinese nobles in Brunei. Lieyu, also known as Little Kinmen, is located between Kinmen and Xiamen. People from Lieyu began traveling south to Brunei in the 19th century. Initially, they worked mainly as shipping laborers, dock workers, fishermen, and street vendors. Later, they gradually accumulated capital and turned to business, occupying an important position in Brunei's business world. Many have received the titles of Pehin Kapitan and Pehin.
Some products at Hua Ho Department Store: coconut jelly powder, cold bean curd powder, Hong Kong narcissus flour, Shantou sweet potato starch, fragrant braised peanuts, fragrant vegetable hearts, belacan chili, Chaoshan specialty sweet and sour ginger slices, South China vegetables, spicy fermented bean curd with sesame oil, rice noodles, shredded codfish, and selected squid.
Traditional Malay Market: Gadong Night Market
Gadong Night Market is very famous, but it is actually not very big. There are very few tourists in Brunei, so the night market is mostly filled with locals.
We first bought shredded squid and fish paste with chili sauce. This little snack is quite delicious. Then we bought mangosteen and snake fruit. It was my first time eating snake fruit, and the taste was quite good.
We ate noodle soup at a small snack shop at the entrance. We ordered Bakso beranak (large beef balls stuffed with smaller beef balls) and Soto Daging (beef noodle soup). The eating habits here are almost the same as in Indonesia. I really enjoy the beef noodle soup here, especially on a rainy day when a bowl feels very comforting. I also ordered a coconut. The local coconuts are large. Even though the husk is thick, there is still plenty of juice inside, and it comes served with a lime wedge to squeeze in.
I had satay skewers at the Gadong Night Market, specifically the liver and chicken hearts, which were sweet and grilled a bit firm.
A wide variety of Brunei-style buffet.
If you want to try authentic local food in Brunei, I recommend the buffet at the Brunei Arts and Handicraft Training Centre. You can find it on the map by searching for Tarindak D'Seni.
We went for lunch from 11:30 to 14:30, which cost 91 RMB per person, and there is a discount for seniors over 60. The environment is lovely, with the Brunei River right outside the window. The food selection is rich. You can eat various sticky rice pandan Malay cakes (kuih), Sarawak laksa noodles with coconut milk, and even make your own shaved ice dessert (cendol).
They serve Brunei's national dish, sago starch paste (ambuyat), which is made by mixing sago palm starch with hot water to create a thick paste, eaten by dipping it into a sauce.
Nasi kebuli is rice cooked with goat broth, goat milk, and ghee. It was brought to the Malay Archipelago by Hadhrami people from Yemen and is especially popular in the Arab communities of Java.
Black beef (daging hitam) is a beef rendang made with a sweet soy sauce containing plenty of palm sugar and rock sugar, a specialty of the Sarawak region.
Chicken cooked in coconut milk (opor ayam) is chicken simmered in coconut milk with various spices.
Two national mosques.
Brunei has two national mosques, each built by a different Sultan, and both are worth visiting. The Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque, also known as the 'water mosque,' was built between 1954 and 1958 by the former Sultan of Brunei, Omar Ali Saifuddien III (who reigned from 1950 to 1967), and is named after him. The main hall features a Mughal-revival style golden dome. The interior uses Italian marble, Shanghai granite, British chandeliers, and Venetian mosaic glass, making it Brunei's most important landmark after its completion.
We happened to visit during Friday prayers (Jumu'ah). Brunei requires all malls and restaurants to close between 12:00 and 14:00, so the mosque was very crowded during the prayer, with the entire hall full, which was quite spectacular.
The pulpit (minbar) in the water mosque has two levels. The first level is where the muezzin calls the adhan, and the second level is where the imam delivers the khutbah. Next to the minbar, there is an escalator leading to the second-floor prayer area reserved for the royal family.
After Friday prayers, boxed meals were being handed out, mostly to South Asian laborers.
The water mosque during the sunset and dusk hours. Both of Brunei's national mosques look better at night than during the day.
The full name of the Brunei Friday Mosque is Jame' Asr Hassanil Bolkiah Mosque. It is one of Brunei's two national mosques and also the largest mosque in the country. The Jame' Asr Hassanil Bolkiah Mosque was built by Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah of Brunei to celebrate his 25th anniversary on the throne and officially opened in 1994. The mosque's 29 golden domes commemorate the 29th Sultan of Brunei. Five fountains symbolize the five daily namaz and the five pillars of Islam. The mihrab is decorated with gold-plated tiles, and the interior is very luxurious, featuring Persian carpets, Italian marble, and Philippine hardwood.
The night view of the Brunei mosque is more beautiful than the day. For friends (dosti) who want to take photos, I recommend coming during the times for maghrib and isha.
The Jame' Asr Hassanil Bolkiah Mosque during the day. The main prayer hall connects to a women's prayer hall via a corridor. This is a very rare independent women's hall in Southeast Asia, and it is quite large. Below the women's hall is the wudu area. It is the only one I have ever visited that uses sensor-activated faucets.
The ancient city in the mountains of Brunei.
Take a taxi from the city to the Kota Batu Archaeological Park, the ruins of the Brunei Sultanate palace hidden in the tropical rainforest. This is Brunei's most important archaeological site.
Kota Batu is believed to have been the capital of the Brunei Sultanate from the 14th to the 17th century. It was once an important trading port in Southeast Asia and a central city in northern Borneo. A civil war in the Brunei Sultanate between 1660 and 1673 led to the abandonment of Kota Batu, and the Sultan moved the palace to the water village of Kampong Ayer on the upper Brunei River.
Kota Batu means stone castle, and it is one of the few stone architectural ruins in Brunei. British naturalist and Sarawak Museum curator Tom Harrisson began archaeological excavations at Kota Batu in 1952-53. He discovered many Chinese coins from the Tang, Song, and Ming dynasties, as well as Arabic coins, glassware, ironware, bronze, wooden tools, stone carvings, and ceramics from Siam, the Indochina Peninsula, and the Song and Ming dynasties of China.
During excavations in 1986-87, a square stone building measuring 25.8 by 25.4 meters was found, along with 36 stone column bases, tombstone remains, and Ming dynasty porcelain shards. It is believed the building dates back to the 15th century. Because the column bases are divided into three levels, it is thought the building had a three-tiered pyramid roof structure similar to traditional Malacca mosques. Although early Brunei Sultanate palace buildings were made of wood and left few traces, the coins and pottery found at Kota Batu suggest the Sultan's palace was likely near this site.
The paths in Kota Batu Archaeological Park feel like a primitive forest. There were no other tourists, and the mountain trails were often covered by fallen leaves and hard to see. It is hard to imagine that this was once the capital of Brunei.
The tomb of the third Sultan of Brunei.
The Kota Batu Archaeological Park contains the tomb of the third Sultan of Brunei, Sharif Ali.
Sultan Sharif Ali (reigned 1425-1432) was originally a preacher from the ancient Saudi city of Taif and a descendant of Hasan ibn Ali, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad. He arrived in Brunei to preach in 1395 and was respected by the Sultan and the people. He married the daughter of Sultan Ahmad around 1400 and inherited the throne after the old Sultan died in 1425, which is how the Brunei Sultanate gained its lineage from the Prophet's family.
Sultan Sharif Ali worked to spread Islamic law while keeping local customs that did not go against it. During his reign, Brunei officially changed from a Hindu-Buddhist cultural area into a part of Islamic civilization. He built the first mosque in Brunei, designed the national flag, and established the title of Brunei as the Nation of Peace (Darussalam). It is believed that he may have also built the stone wall fortress in Kota Batu.
