This is surely Brunei’s biggest annual event – the Istana Nurul Iman Hari Raya Open House. And many will agree this is the best time to visit Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei’s capital city.
Istana Nurul Iman is the official residence of the Sultan of Brunei. With a floor area of 200,000 sq.m, it is the largest residence of a current head of state in the world. The sprawling palace has 1,788 rooms, 257 bathrooms, 5 swimming pools, a mosque, a banquet hall that holds 5,000 people and a 110-car garage. It is so big that the Sultan of Brunei appeared in a buggy for the afternoon meet-and-greet session, delighting all (including us) who were in queue.
Every Hari Raya, the Sultan opens his palace doors to the general public for celebrations on 2nd to 4th day. Anyone from Brunei citizens and residents to expatriates and tourists can visit without an invitation. On other days, the palace, which is also Brunei’s seat of government, can be only be viewed through the main entrance gates.
Besides the food and gift, the highlight of Istana Nurul Iman Open House for most of us is a chance to meet the Sultan and his Queen.
Entering the Palace
We took our hotel staff’s advice to go early and reached the palace at 7.10am. At this early hour, a snaking queue had already started near the main palace gate. Guess everyone had the same idea of starting the visit early. Once we passed the main gate, we boarded a mini bus for a short ride to the palace entrance where we queued to clear the palace security screening.
A gentle reminder of the dress code displayed at the entrance. Since visitors have a chance to greet the royal family, it is only right to be mindful of our attire.
After entering the palace, we were given a ticket each which was used to exchange for a gift at the end of the visit. My ticket to the event:
Then we were off to enjoy the feast.
The Feast
We queued along a single file to be served the various hot dishes available. Request for a larger serving and heap your plate as much as you like. Remember you can take the hot dishes only once, due to the queuing system. This is also a good chance for foreigners like us to try the local Hari Raya festive dishes.
We used proper ceramic dinnerware and steel cutlery for our meal, not the disposable types we are so used to back home. As you can tell, we were impressed right from the start.
The carb dish of the day was butter rice (Nasi Minyak) or rice cooked with spices and ghee.
‘Pajeri’ Grilled Chicken (Ayam Panggang Pajeri) (left) and Beef Rendang (right), a spicy, rich and creamy beef stew.
Pesamah Kambing, a spicy lamb stew.
There was no vegetable dish (sorry vegetarians) but they served pickled fruit acar. Acar is a type of vegetable pickle served in Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei and Singapore. This particular one they served is a concoction of pickled mixed fruits such as kumquats, olives and raisins in a sweet and spicy binder. Pickled fruit acar is said to be popular at Malay festive celebrations and goes well with Nasi Minyak. My first time trying this dish but it was tad bit too sweet for my taste.
Kids were treated to chicken sausages with mushroom sauce and prawn crackers. And of course adults too, if you like.
Help your self to the desserts. There are rich fruit cakes, variety of cookies and pastel-coloured puddings to nurse your sweet tooth.
Free flow of hot and cold drink. Teh tarik (‘pulled’ milk tea) and Milo (chocolate malt drink) appeared to be the crowd’s favourite hot drink and cold drink respectively. Some guests even filled their water bottles with Milo for their consumption later.
The expansive, high-ceilinged dining hall, with a capacity for 4,000 people, was lined with rows and rows of table. It was free seating so we just picked one which had vacant seats. Sitting with local families dressed specially for the occasion in traditional baju melayu and baju kurung, brought about a celebratory and community atmosphere.
Decorative orchid centerpiece of different designs were thoughtfully placed on every table.
The Meet-and-Greet
Male and female visitors are segregated at start of queue after finishing our meals. The men gets to meet the Sultan and other male members of the royal family, while the women gets to meet Queen Saleha and other female members of the royal family.
The open house starts as early as 7am. It is advisable to be here as early as possible to have a chance to meet the Sultan and his Queen in the morning. She greets her visitors from 10am to 12 noon before taking a 2-hour break. The afternoon session is from 2pm to 4pm. The royals are said to greet about almost 40,000 people a day during the open house. So be prepared for a long wait.
We queued seated on chairs arranged neatly in rows, held together with cable tie. Entertainment was 2 huge screens showing muted MTVs and for most of us, our own electronic gadgets. The wait is expected to be of length and the hall has a powerful air-conditioning system. So it is advisable to wear long sleeves or bring along a shawl. Here we waited from 8.40am to 11.30am before being ushered into another waiting room.
The second waiting hall with a high vaulted wooden ceiling and a row of bubble-like lighting fixtures cutting through the centre line.
Here the men and women sat in rows facing the opposite sex with small TVs lined along the middle of the room for entertainment. Here we waited for another 2 plus hours.
After the second waiting hall, we were walked down a external walkway. We then took an escalator to the ground floor where we resumed queuing in an open air marble corridor to await our turn into the audience hall.
Bulky bags cannot be brought into the hall. Instead, the staff collected them from us and we were given number tags to identify us as the owners. We can only collect them upon exit from the hall.
We queued to enter the window-less audience hall orderly in a single file. The meeting was fleeting for each visitor as we walked around the room in line, meeting the Queen and royal family with handshakes and occasionally a few words. Perfectly understandable considering the number of people who queue to meet the royal family everyday. Particularly memorable to have the Queen shook my hand with a quick ‘Selamat Hari Raya’. To Bruneian, it is considered good luck to greet the royal family during Hari Raya.
I was also privileged to witness a brief chat between the Queen and an elderly lady in front of me, after which the Queen reached for her handbag and gifted the elder a small envelope which I presumed was a ‘duit raya’. A duit raya is an envelope with token sum of money usually given out during festive occasion in Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and Brunei, much like the Chinese tradition of giving red packet or ang pow.
The Gift
After meeting the royals, each visitor gets to collect a gift. Adults get a cake in a specially designed gift box and a Hari Raya card with a portrait photo of the Sultan. The card and gift box itself are great souvenirs of our trip. Children will get a duit raya.
Here’s the pine nut and cranberry cake we got as gift.
Transport
Our hotel has advised us that there are free buses from the palace back to Waterfront area. But with the crowd and ensuing confusion, we were unable to find out more about the buses from the security personnel. Eventually we took public buses back to our hotel. Note that the locals refer to the old town as Bandar or Bandar Seri Begawan. This confuses me as I thought Bandar Seri Begawan refers to the entire area within the capital. From the main palace gate, cross the road and board buses that goes to Bandar. Each trip is at a flat B$1.
The taxi fare from our hotel in the old town to Istana Nurul Iman was B$20.
Be Prepared
Tamper your expectation of an orderly event. With the sheer number of people in the hall, the queues were disorderly at times. Groups of people arriving later than you may also be ushered in first, leaving you wondering why. There were sneaky queue-cutters too, looking for every opportunity to join a moving line.
We were among the first to queue at the gates at slightly past 7am but we ended up missing the first session to meet the Queen. Our entire visit lasted almost 8 hours with less than an hour at the banquet and the rest in queue. I almost wanted to leave during the lunch break but thankfully my Sister persisted. Yet if you ask me, I’d do it again in a heartbeat. The entire experience is well worth the time spent! It is no wonder that many who have attended the open house recommends visiting during this period.
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Read about our trip to Mulu and our itinerary in Borneo – Mulu / Brunei Itinerary 2018 .
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