Brunei Arts and Handicraft Centre — Local services in Kianggeh

Nice collection of traditional crafts to see and purchase. We encountered only two lovely staff members, one who walked with us and gave us a bit of explanation about the different objects and the security ladies are lovely. The other staff members, especially the till lady were not as nice. I tried to pay by card but the payment got rejected because I didn't have enough money left on this particular card. When I asked to get wifi in order to transfer the funds into my card to be able to then pay, the lady made a big fuss and was really rude. We are only in Brunei for 4 days and so don't have our own Sim. Then, another staff member suggested Hotspot but she still insisted to make me pay cash instead. After 5 minutes of conversation with another staff, she finally gave me Hotspot. This took approximately 30 seconds to do, I was able to sort my card and pay immediately. An easy process which everyone else in Brunei was happy to assist us with, it seemed the lady was just extremely reluctant to be of any help to us. A shame as we were making an expensive purchase from them! Finally, we felt that the place was lacking information about the crafts, and you are supposed to be able to see how the crafts are made, but almost nobody is there showing you. The only lady that was making something stopped working and looked exceptionally uncomfortable/hid her face as soon as we looked into the viewing cabinet. We tried to interact with another craft woman and she genuinely looked terrified of us and refused to interact, perhaps because we are foreign but we were told by other staff it was the purpose of these viewing cabinets for us to be able to watch them at work. Disappointing experience and we felt really weird about it. You are also not able to take any pictures whatsoever or touch anything. Lastly, we had to come twice because the first time we arrived at 3pm and it was already closed. We had made a 45min walk for nothing. It would be really beneficial to update the opening hours on Google as Brunei is not easy to get around if you are a tourist with no car! During Ramadan, the centre shuts at...

went there last year as part of an excursion trip hosted by the girl guides association of brunei darussalam! this may be one of the chillest places we went to out of everywhere else, as it was mainly a guided tour followed by a lot of shopping for souvenirs. the place is quite clean and neat, with many displays presenting traditional art pieces by bruneian artists. the most insightful section of the centre is the gallery on one of the higher levels, and more exotic pieces are displayed there. the communal batik cloth station was really interesting as well, and you get a chance to leave your mark there. also really enjoyed looking at the different cloths used in traditional brunei apparel and the vibrant kebayas and baju kurungs on sale there. in the end, i bought many hairpins made with traditional batik cloth as souvenirs, and some other tokens that include the tie-dying technique used...

A wide selection of Brunei's produce - wood carving, silverware, weaving, batik, etc. Prices range fr few BND dollars to few thousands BND dollars. Many beautiful items for sales n there's live demonstration. Will prefer more description n notes to be put up for us to read instead so we needn't rely on d guides or staff to explain.

Purchasing process is quite slow - record items on paper receipt/invoice before payment is to be made at cashier. Cash...