Un recorrido panorámico a lo largo de un río y entre cúpulas doradas en Brunéi.

Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei. 11th of April 2026.

When we were in Miri for the Miri marathon, we took a day tour to visit Brunei.

We had planned to visit Brunei two years before, when we were in Kuala Lumpur, and had to cancel at the very last minute, so this time I did not want to lose the opportunity. 

We enjoyed discovering this fascinating little country, which is unlike anywhere else on Earth😉. With a super rich Sultan, petrol money and gold and marble everywhere, but also crocodiles 🐊 and rainforests.

And we got to run a very scenic afternoon 6 kilometers course along the river Brunei, with views of the largest water village in the world and the golden dome of the Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddin Mosque.

TLDR; “demasiado largo, no lo leí”

• ¡Solo quiero correr! Llévame a CORRER.
• Tengo 1 minuto. Llévame a INFORMACIÓN ÚTIL.
• Correr es mi excusa para viajar. Llévame a VIAJE.
• Correr es mi excusa para comer. Llévame a CARBOLOADING.
• Quiero saber qué leer en el avión. Llévame a UN LIBRO.

🌍El viaje 📷: What to see in Brunei in a day

About Brunei

The history of this small sultanate on the northern coast of Borneo is a fascinating tale of ancient maritime power and modern royal endurance. It once ruled over vast stretches of the surrounding islands before becoming a British protectorate during the nineteenth century to protect its dwindling borders. 📖

The discovery of massive oil reserves in the 1920s transformed the nation from a quiet backwater into one of the wealthiest sovereign states. 🏛️ I found that walking through the capital felt like moving between a deep colonial past and a gleaming future built on black gold. 🛢️

Unique Soul of the Sultanate

Brunei operates as a strict Malay Islamic Monarchy where the Sultan is both the political leader and the respected religious head. This particularity creates a very calm and safe atmosphere that is quite different from the bustling energy of neighboring Southeast Asian cities. 🌏

You will notice that the local culture places a high value on quiet respect and a very modest way of living in public. 🕌

The absolute lack of alcohol and the early closing of shops on Fridays reflect a society that moves at its own peaceful pace. 👑

Llegar allí

A day tour from Miri is very convenient as the Bruneian border is only 20 kms to the East of the city, so we arrived in half an hour. We reached the border before 9am, when it was already quite hot, and we proceeded to the capital, Bandar Seri Begawan (or Bandar for short).

The only problem are the big queues at the border… as we experienced. More than an hour to go through!! 😰

But, after that, it only takes 1 hour and a half to reach the capital, and you are basically crossing the whole country! 😉

Brunei has 10 times the size of Singapore (they like to say that 😄), but less population. 

Billionth Barrel monument

First we stopped in this monument dedicated to… well, petrol extraction 😅. 

It is not very remarkable but somewhat curious. It has monoliths with pictures of oil rigs and petrol barrels, and info about the first well, dug by the British Petroleum company in 1929. 

Our Malaysian guide, Andy, explained that only Shell operates now in Brunei!

Marked in a map, there were the nearby oil rigs offshore (24 to 70 km away)

Outside, we saw houses which belonged to Shell staff, and, a few meters away (38 to be exact), a well operating 24/7. And then, a Shell refinery. Obviously 😄

Joan, our local guide

Then we stopped to pick a local guide, as Brunei is quite strict and the guides need to be licensed here. Her name was Joan and she was very nice. She explained many things, like that the local delicacy is Kek Batik, and it is a dessert/cake but not too sweet.

She also told us about Chinese tourists, which nowadays are coming in very large numbers!! The day before she had 50 buses, so 2k people, at the same time; they came by cruise. Crazy!!

And many facts about the country; like there is no income tax. Petrol is extremely cheap and they have very good social benefits.

That’s because it’s an oil crude paradise! 😉

Or that they go to Miri to party, buy liquor and spend money; in Brunei everything costs 2 times more than in Malaysia and it is a conservative Muslim country were neither alcohol nor cigarettes are sold. 

Jame’ Asr Hassanil Bolkiah Mosque

Named after the Sultan, of course 😄

We had to dress in what seemed to be “Harry Potter” robes, they were purple. I needed to cover my head amd indeed I looked ike a Wizard 🤣

The mosque is impressive! Completely over the top luxury! With a solid gold 24 carat dome! Seriously!

The benches to sit outside (and nobody was there sitting, too hot) were made of Marble of Carrara imported from Italy! 

Inside, more luxury everywhere; more marble, more gold, and chandeliers made with crystal from Europe. The staircase has exactly 29 steps to honor the current monarch, Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah, who is the 29th Sultan of Brunei. I counted them 🤣

And there was a chandelier in the male’s praying room which weighs 3 tons!

As a funny anecdote, because it was so sunny and I was afraid to get burnt, I rushed to our van which was parked in the outdoor parking. I opened the door to find… a full local family!! 🤣😱

The looked at me in amazement while Roger was rolling on the floor laughing 🤣 In my rush, I tried to enter the wrong van! 😰

RIPAS Hospital

On our way to the palace, we passed the biggest hospital, RIPAS, named after the Queen. But our guide said that the locals joke about the acronym, saying it means “Rest in peace after surgery” 🤣🤣

Royal Palace

El Istana Nurul Iman in Brunei holds the Guinness World Record as the world’s largest residential palace, containing 1,788 rooms and sprawling over 2.15 million square feet of floor space. And 300 workers come here every day! 

There’s a polo field, where Prince Charles, now King Charles, played in 1972 during the Queen’s visit. 

The palace’s dome is made of 24 carats gold!! 😱

The Sultan is a pilot and an avid collector of cars, and we passed by his immense garage. In fact, he owns the world’s largest private car collection, estimated at over 7,000 vehicles with a total value exceeding $5 billion, including a 24-carat gold-plated Rolls-Royce used for royal weddings.

When we were taking pictures of the entrance (it’s weird, it was also allowed, also to tape videos), a car with the government plate, “BG”, entered. Our guide said that, again, people joke with the acronym saying “Brunei Gangsters: 🤣

Ecocorridor

Then we passed by the eco corridor; and there was a sign warning about crocodriles 🐊. It’s a real danger here, and our guide advised not to get near the water and grass 😰

In fact, we did see a VERY BIG lizard… 

And talking about animals, Joan also said that people call Proboscis monkeys “the Dutch man” because of their noses 🤣🤣

Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddin Mosque

It’s also impressive and over the top luxury, although much smaller than the first one. 

In the walls there are gold plated mosaics that fall often due to being outside…. And we found two 😜

Again, inside everything was Carrara marble, golden patterns, and big Swiss crystal chandeliers.

And, as a curiosity, next to it there’s the Halal building, where they issue halal certificates for meat. 

Royal Regalia Museum

Basically, it’s dedicated to the Sultan, life and deeds. The Regalia themselves, including the 5 kilos solid gold crown, are only shown in pictures. 

Actually, it’s very interesting, with many old photos of when he was a kid (“the Sultan was exposed to politics and state affairs from a young age”, it said), photos in Sandhurst in 1966, and many others explaining how the Sultan’s life interwines with the young Sultanate of Brunei itself (which was founded in 1984). 

There are also sticks to fight away spirits. Apparently,  the sultan has this power! And he once came to our guide’s school to fight them! 😱

We saw presents (souvenirs) from countries around the World, from Timor Leste to Argentina, from Gambia to Ukraine, but we dd not manage to find any from Spain 🤣

And we changed clothes, into our running gear, in their toilets 🤣

Kampong Ayer, the Water village

The last stop before our run, it’s the largest water village in the world!

They are not poor; it might seem so looking at the older houses, but inside, the houses are very nice, apparently (said our guide), and the new ones have even sewage. They have electricity, police station, school…

We saw Brunei flags and the traffic of the water taxis and private boats; it was fascinating to witness! 

Often described as the “Venice of the East,” Kampong Ayer is a historic water village where thousands of residents live in traditional stilted houses connected by an intricate network of wooden boardwalks. Despite its ancient roots, the village is a fully functioning “city on water” equipped with its own schools, police stations, and fire departments.

Spanning the Brunei River right next to the village is the Raja Isteri Pengiran Anak Hajeh Saleha Bridge, a stunning cable-stayed landmark that features a 157-meter pylon topped with a distinct Islamic-style dome.

🏃‍♀️ La Carrera🏃‍♂️

Joan, our guide, picked what she thought was the best route: she reckoned it was gonna be around 5 kms; a running trail built in 2007 to promote health which ends in the old palace.

Turned out it’s 6 kms! And indeed is the best one! 🥰

We enjoyed beautiful views of the water village, the bridge and later the old mosque.

A very scenic route which I highly recommend. Apart from going up the bridge, it is wide and flat. 

We encountered a lot of runners, especially at the end of the run, because it was later and fresher. 

We were very worried about the heat, as we were starting at 4pm, but actually we started at 4:20pm and it turned out to be manageable.

Plus, since you run along the river, the breeze decreases the temperature by a couple of degrees. It helps 🙏!

¡Vamos!

It took us 45 minutes to run the 6 kms, as we stopped frequently to enjoy the views of the landmarks and take pics, so by the time we finished it was already past 5pm and perfect for running 👍

We started inside the water village (on top of a small bridge which connects the first houses to the land), and went up the RIPAS bridge, which is around 1km long. 

The views from the bridge are also very nice ☺️; totally worth it. 

Then we took the path along the river, and it was here that we started seeing runners; also many women, all with head scarfs.

After 3 kilometers we arrived where in the past, there also used to be a water village; in fact, our guide lived here when she was a toddler; but in 1975 a fire destroyed this part. Now it is a big park with green grass and a famous frame to take pictures of the old mosque and its golden dome.

We stopped to take a pic too ☺️ and ran around the mosque and the royal barge, which is super cool 🥰

It’s a pity that it was being renovated and the giant pond of water was empty. 

Then we continued along the river to complete 6 kms. We ran until one of the jetties, which was decorated (like so many places here) with a star on the marble floor. Our guides were waiting for us, and told us that sometimes you see crocodiles here!

We did not see any, but we were very happy with our run nonetheless ☺️

🍜 Carga de carbohidratos 🍝: What to eat in Brunei if you are a runner

We had Nasi Lemak. Which is actually…. Malaysian 🙂

It consists of arroz cocinado en coconut milk y pandan leaf. It is commonly found in Malaysia, where it is considered the national dish.

Ours had blue rice! 💙

The rice’s blue colour comes from the butterfly pea flower. 

For dessert, the local delicacy is Kek Batik! This  is a popular Malaysian no-bake, fridge-cake dessert.

It is made by mixing broken Marie biscuits into a chocolate sauce (typically butter, Milo/cocoa powder, and condensed milk). It has a soft, fudgy texture with a slight crunch and is chilled to set before serving.

🏃 6 kms run along the river Brunei in Bandar Seri B, in Brunei.

👟 Urbano: trae zapatos para asfalto.

✅ Stunning Landmark Views: You pass the water village, a golden-domed mosque, and a royal barge.

✅ Flat, Wide Terrain: Most of the 6 km path is easy to navigate and beginner-friendly.

⚠️Only possible to run early in the morning or in the late afternoon because of the tropical climate.

The Fisherman’s King by Katrina Mohd Daud

Reading Kathrina Mohd Daud’s The Fisherman King before my journey gave me an unexpected insight into the soul of Brunei.

This lyrical novel follows a young man from the famous floating village as he searches for his lost royal heritage. The narrative weaves together the grit of daily life on the water with the shimmering threads of old Malay folklore. I found that seeing the water village through his eyes helped me appreciate the deep myths found in every wooden boardwalk.

Every boat ride past the stilt houses felt more meaningful after learning about the ancient legends they still carry today. 📖