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BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN , or Bandar as it's known locally, is the capital of Brunei and the sultanate's only settlement of any real size. Straddling the northern bank of a twist in the Sungei Brunei, the city is characterized by its unlikely juxtaposition of striking modern buildings (the latest and most impressive being the twin malls of the Yayasan Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah shopping complex) and traditional stilt houses. These stilt houses make up the water village, or Kampung Ayer , Brunei's original seat of power and still home to half the city's population. Indeed, as recently as the middle of the last century, Brunei's capital was little more than a sleepy water village, but with the discovery of oil came its evolution into the attractive, clean and modern waterfront city of today. Large-scale urbanization took place north of the Sungei Brunei, resulting in housing schemes, shopping centres and, more obviously, the magnificent Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque , which dominates the skyline of Bandar. First-time visitors are pleasantly surprised by a sense of space that's rare in Southeast Asian cities. However, Bandar isn't somewhere you're likely to stay for long: most of its sights can be seen in a day or two. You might end up staying a bit longer if you use it as a base to explore outlying attractions such as Temburong and Tutong. Tourism in Brunei is still in its infancy and is not yet seen as a moneyspinner, so you'll find that many sites in the capital have no entrance charge.
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