From Brunei To Malaysia For Cheap? Kuching!

Tl;dr – walk, bus, fancy bus, border crossing, taxi with poor exchange rate, flight, taxi

In a similar manner to the previous day we awoke at 06:00. We had a 07:00 bus to Miri to fly to Kuching. We needed to get the bus from the side of the road so we wanted to be early. We saw a few big fancy buses and couldn’t work out which one was ours. Then we saw our minibus. We were ushered on and squeezed Bertha and Max into the gap at the back (and a spare seat). A man in a fluorescent orange vest with many flag badges checked we were going to Miri. It turns out he’s a quasi-celebrity in Brunei for dedicating his tine to helping foreigners get on the right bus. He chatted to us about his flags and informed us he had many vests, one with a Scottish flag but no Welsh flag.

A short bumpy van ride later we stopped at a car park for a toilet and snack break before heading off to Kuala Belait near the border. Once there we stopped and waited. A big luxury coach turned up and we were ushered off our minibus and onto one of the fanciest coach I’ve ever seen. 3 seats across, a footrest, cupholders and more legroom than I could use! As with our previous bus, the suspension was rather generous but overall, 9/10.

We arrived at the Brunei border and sped through. At the Malaysian side there was a short wait before being ushered around the corner so they could ask if we had Zika. We said no and they seemed happy.

From the border to Miri was the shortest leg. We knew our transport options to the airport were limited to taxi or 3 hour walk so we were relatively pleased to see loads of taxis. We had one collective foot on the tarmac before being hassled to get a taxi. I didn’t know the exact price but knew it was around 30 ringgit. We needed cash but had Brunei dollars and were offered an awful exchange rate but it was still cheap enough.

At the airport we had an almost 4 hour wait so we visited a couple of food & drink establishments for a couple of hours and checked in, once it had opened. Another 2 hours later we were ready to board the plane.

1 hour later we landed in Kuching. A quick stop off for a snack and we set off to get in taxi. In Kuching Airport they have a ticket system so you pay a set fare to the city centre which made everything nice and smooth. The traffic was poor so it took a while but we were dropped right at the door of our next home.

The stats

06:32 walk from Jubilee Hotel to Jalan McArthur bus stop: 9 minutes

07:00 bus to Miri: 40 BND (£23.67), 4 hours 32 minutes

11:35 taxi to Miri airport: 15 BND (£8.88), 16 minutes

15:47 (2 minute delay) flight to Kuching: 246.76 RM (£48.09), 58 minutes (on time)

17:28 taxi to Threehouse Bed & Breakfast: RM26 (£5.07), 42 minutes

Arrived 18:10 (GMT +8)

Total time in transit: 6 hours 37 minutes

Total travel time: 11 hours 38 minutes

Total cost: £85.71 (£42.86 each)