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Brunei's capital city Bandar Seri Begawan is not a place to go looking for wine, women and song. Alcohol is banned in this muslim sultanate hence there are no pubs or bars. The city goes to sleep early at night. Women and song are also off the menu. By 10 pm most places are closed. Your choices for an evening on the town are dining out, shopping or sightseeing.
Dining out is a popular option and major hotels such as the Sheraton Utama Hotel and the Empire Country Club Hotel put on excellent meals in plush 5 star surroundings.
Chinese food is popular in Brunei with top picks including Kirin Court at the Riverview hotel and the Phong Mun in the city. Portside near the river offers some good fruit cocktails, Italian food and top views of the busy river at night.
You will find plenty of restaurants wandering around Bandar - there are numerous eateries in the Yayasan Shopping Complex (which is open in the evenings) including the pleasant Nonya restaurant and a few fast food places. The suburb of Gadong also has plenty of cafe's and restaurants.
By the riverside there is a sprawling restaurant with all outdoor seating that gets the best breezes in town. Or you can choose from a number of smaller restaurants serving chinese rice and noodle dishes for around B$4 - $5 a dish. Several indian curry shops offer hot, cheap and spicy food for as little as B$3.
There are hawker style food centres in Bandar, as well as Jerudong Park and Gadong. All offer cheap outdoor food with a range of Malay, Chinese and Indian dishes.
If shopping at night is your thing, the Yayasan Complex in central Bandar or the Centrepoint Mall in Gadong are the places to be. These modern centres offer Department stores, eateries and plenty of smaller shops. You will have to look hard for a bargain but the crowds are there and that's half the fun for keen shoppers.
It is quite easy to walk about town at night if sight seeing is on your agenda. A good way to start is anywhere along the river, where you can watch the lit up water taxis buzzing around. You can also catch glimpses of the Sultan's palace on the outskirts of town, its lit up dome overlooking the city.
Then take a walk to the Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque, which can be viewed from the outdoor mall in the Yayasan complex. You can walk across the road to get up closer. This white and gold mosque sits alongside an artificial lake and is fantastically lit at night. Photographers will love this place at night.
Further out of town the huge Jame Mosque is also spectacularly lit at night, its green and white domes and minarets reaching up to the sky.
The streets of Bandar are otherwise rather quiet, with everyone either at home or tucked away in a restaurant somewhere. There are few people on the streets at night and not much traffic.
Walking around Bandar at night is probably about as safe as in Singapore, which is to say it is most unlikely anyone will give you trouble. Street crime is rare but not unheard of - there was a recent report of a tourist whose passport was stolen in a restaurant.
More likely however you will encounter friendly people who are genuinely pleased to welcome visitors and say hello.
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HOTEL RESERVATIONS 
