Working in Brunei

[Apollo]

brunei basically 2 main employers. the Sultan whom u must show very due respect to him and his family and cronies. and Shell.

 

there is a couple of shopping mall such as the Yayasan project, the mini disneyland otherwise, if u hv friends, get out to miri nearest town for booze and charbo. tat's abt it.

 

cars, food, petrol r chirp. no liqour allowed. and imprt, it's an islamic country.

[Apollo]

singapore hainanese chicky rice?

[Raining]

wah... buy booze also must have license? I tot non-muslims can buy from Msia and back .. limit to 12 cans beer and 1 wine or something?

[Jman888]

the last time i was there, someone told me this is how their working hour like:

 

10am - report to work after sending kids to school, wife to market, etc.

10am-11am reach office but off to drink kopi till 11am.

11am-12noon - start working (slowly)

12pm-2pm - lunch

2pm-3pm - work again

3pm-4pm - kopi break

4pm-5pm - work a while and start packing

5pm - leave office to pick wife, kids, etc......

 

Yah, after work there is no life there. Not suppose to sell alcohol but if you walk into some 'coffee' outlet, u can tell they do . Pple ther quite lazy/relax, oil cheap so they can drive to opposit street to have kopi though u can get there by crossing the road

[Raining]

wow...interesting Then why dont hear much ppl wanting to work in brunei....hmmm.....

[Shull]

the lack of booze and chickin(those FT type) will deter alot of people leh..

[Albeniz]

If u are not the jalan-jalan type, I think you can stash away alot of moolah during yr posting there.

 

I like this one.

I have a distant relative who was posted there during NS.

Saved quite a tidy sum due to a lack of entertainment.

[Friedpiggy]

Any MCFers working/have worked in Brunei? Had a job offer to work there so gathering info and tips. Have not been there before though

 

I've been there to work before. You got to get a car there cos no public taxi. All if you can afford there are many private ones. At nite nothing much to do(if u dun't have lobang , if u have lobang orgy also have lah. But i dunt have lobang so cannot help you haha [lipsrsealed]). If cannot find then go the nite market beside the mall there to eat chicken backside haha.

 

After work there is likely nothing much to do. And the life is pretty relaxed there. I did also notice that government jobs which you can see from previous posts that it is really quite relaxed. But i can't say the same for non government jobs though...

[Kianbeng]

singapore hainanese chicky rice?

 

Tian Tian Chicken Rice?

[Kianbeng]

1st thing come to my mind is tax-free! Is this still in Brunei?

 

Air-fare is inexpensive, work there and fly back over the weekend...shiok shiok.

 

Yes. Still tax free. But how to fly back every weekend? via Airasia or RBA/SQ? RBA or SQ cost about SGD550 after taxes for 1 pax return. Can't do it weekly unless his company very the welfare.....

[Kianbeng]

wow...interesting Then why dont hear much ppl wanting to work in brunei....hmmm.....

 

I wouldn't mind working there provided I can get the same pay as over here + they cover my accomodation + some standard expenses. The kind of lifestyle for working adults isn't that bad now as compared to last time. Nowadays, you can see modern coffeeshops like starbucks, coffeebeans, brunei-brand-whatever, opening till or past midnight and they offer free wifi.

 

Supermarkets aplenty. Jaya, The Mall, Supersave (fav!), and recently, Giant came in too. Very very cheap. You'll be surprised that food in brunei is very cheap.

 

$1 Nasi Katok?? $2-$3 BBQ fish? $1 - 5pcs chicken backside?? Have you ever spent $10 to buy 3KG of small prawns? Over here in SG, this small size prawns is our $10/KG type. $16/kg buy Garoupa? All ocean catch of the day....

 

Nobody bothers about petrol price as it's negligible at $0.51/L or about $20 full tank. For this price, even 1L bottled water is more expensive.

 

Perfect sunset almost everyday. The only thing similar is the hot weather.

 

Go lah! Experience another type of life.

[Forte]

10am - report to work after sending kids to school, wife to market, etc.

 

I used to work there, very boring and Jerudong Park (Theme park) provides some activities to ppl there. You get tanned easily, pretty hot climate compare to here. If you know the place well, no problem to find nice food.

 

No need to send wife to market, coz wife can drive her own car, each family owns number of cars.

 

Note: In BSB, If you drive and here Siren behind you, better stop at road side, coz Sultan loves to drive his car fast and you have to give way. Usually his escorts are chasing him tiredly behind. Thats why you hear the siren 1st. Anyway, Sultan is nice gentleman.

[Qpik]

ask a qtn....so eng eng cheng cheng how come no one consider retiring there

[Ultramega]

When you are bored you can always pop over to East Malaysia. But that depends on which part of Brunei you will be staying.

[Ngck]

Whoa like that for those thrifty person can "siu" a lot of money to bring back...

 

want to spend also no place for you to spend..

 

no ktv no pubs no GL.... limited shopping.... sleep at home is better entertainment

[Limitedspeed]

I used to travel up there for business hence know the place quite well.

 

Its the gateway to Borneo. Have a large land mass forested area which is why our soliders are trained there think its called Temburong. Royal Brunei flys to many parts of the world and frequently around the region. If budget permits, you should use such opportunity to move around. Car prices are about 30% of ours and petrol about half our prices. You can afford to drive big capacity cars there. Life is boring? Well, really depends on who you know there and same as in all places you go to caused its all about networking.

 

Across the border, there is this tiny Sarawak town called Miri. What you can't find in Brunei, you are likely to find them there. Take a short boat trip & you are in Labuan, Sabah. At one point in time, the former Deputy PM of Malaysia Anwar wanted to use it as a financial hub but plan to do so was abandoned.

 

Life over there is definitely less stressful than in Singapore and a place good for saving money. The people there are friendly in particular if you can speak Malay. English is quite a common language there. When you are in govt departments over there and says you are a Singaporean, they likely be very respectful to you caused they think well of Singaporeans. Both countries enjoyed very cordial foreign ties which is why our soliders are allowed to be trained there.

 

I made it a point to be there over the weekend and arrange my host to bring me out of the country. Like crossing the border to Miri, further up north to Kuching or over to Kinabalu in Sabah.

 

You made the life there yourself be it boring or not so do enjoy Brunei Darussalam, asked me its not boring

[Kingcopa]

Retire there? Siao wanna die faster go there lor. Die of boredom

[Raining]

Very informative ! Thanks for making the effort to type out your experience!

 

I will not be working for Shell...Transport and Accomodation will be provided... Just worry might not get used to the lifestyle there as my friend say its pretty uneventful there... and everyone is very "rest and relax". Hence pushing your team for dateline and target wont work there

 

Hmmm....my friend kept emphasizing on the "uneventfulness" ...haha... He claimed he visited Miri everyday for 2 weeks initially for booze and smokes.....haha....