From BSB Brunei to Kota Kinabalu By Bus

Why fly from Brunei into Malaysian Borneo when you can take a 9 hour bus ride instead? 😜

It’s significantly cheaper than a flight, the bus is (fairly) comfortable, you get to collect at least two pages of stamps in your passport, there’s pretty good views out the window, and it’s an adventure! Overland travel always makes for way better travel stories than air travel, IMO, and it’s a great way to see a country from close-up.

Here’s my experience taking the bus from Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei to Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia. This is a popular route in Borneo, but there’s not a lot of info about it online. I’ll talk about how to buy tickets, where to go to get the bus in BSB, the trip itself, and what happens when you get to the other end.

Interested in how to get to BSB from Miri, Malaysia? I recommend a package delivery taxi!

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Before the Trip

Buying a Ticket

Super easy to do online. I booked a ticket a few days ahead of time through Easybook, and it cost me about 138 RM / $32 USD. You should be able to book it on any bus company website, of course!

The bus company that runs this route is called Sipitang Express and at the moment they do one trip per day on this route, leaving at 8:00 am.

Read more: How to Book Bus Tickets in Southeast Asia

SIM Cards

I was only in Brunei for two days so I didn’t bother buying a SIM card (though you can get a cheap eSIM here from Airalo), but I did have a SIM card for Malaysia. It only worked when we were in the Malaysian part of the route, so keep that in mind if you need 100% connectivity.

What to Bring on the Bus

You’ll obviously need your passport! Whatever entertainment you usually bring on long travel days (books, music, video games), and you may want to bring some snacks. (For some reason, I immediately want to start snacking whenever I get on a bus.)

And of course, if you get motion sickness you’ll want to bring something to help with that. The roads aren’t super rough, but it’s always better to be prepared than not!

BSB Bus Station

Important! There’s a bus station located on Google Maps in the downtown area near the harbor called Bandar Seri Begawan Bus Station. This is NOT where the international buses depart from!

Instead, you’ll need to get to Sipitang Express Bus Station, which is near the Mall Gadong and Gadong Night Market. (Your bus ticket may say “Pasar Gadung, Brunei Darussalam,” that’s the Sipitang Express Bus Station on Google Maps.)

It’s not a very high-tech station, but it’ll be obvious where to go, as you’ll see a group of tourists standing around a bus. ;D

The bus will have the destination labeled on it and there should be a few staff members (driver and assistant, anyway) waiting nearby, too. You don’t have to get there super early, but if you want a decent seat then maybe 15-20 minutes before is fine.

On the Bus

It’s a standard intercity bus, 38 passenger capacity with large individual seating inside. My bus was 1-2 seating. I found the seats comfortable enough, though it’s not a newer bus and depending on which one you get may bounce around quite a bit.

There’s a luggage bay underneath the bus, and a small ledge to put your carry-on bags above your head.

And my bus had a TV at the front where they played movies!

The Bus Route

One of the special things about this particular route is that you cross in and out of Brunei and Malaysia several times! This is because Brunei has an unusual shape, kind of like a big upside-down U. You can quickly fill up two or more of your passport pages doing this, so be sure to have plenty of empty ones.

There IS a new highway that bypasses the in/out passport stamping situation, but it’s only for cars. The buses still use the old highway. The borders work like this:

• Exit Brunei and enter Malaysia (Sarawak state)
• Exit Malaysia and enter Brunei
• Exit Brunei and enter Malaysia (Sabah state)

You get a stamp in and out of each country, PLUS an stamp for exiting/entering each Malaysian Borneo State. That’s a total of 9 stamps just on this one trip!

Crossing the border was fast, as they’re used to getting busloads of tourists/locals coming through. The drivers shout “passport passport!” lead you off the bus, take you through immigration in one big group, and then you meet the bus again on the other side. You don’t need to take your bags with you.

The longest part was them looking for stamps, so if you have a little post-it note to mark the pages with your entry/exit stamp then that’ll help. You can also (politely!) ask them to stamp on the same page as the other stamps, to try and cut down on passport page-usage.

It’s a beautiful route. Part of the road goes through (or at least very near) two Forest Reserve areas, which are wild and beautiful, and there’s lots to see outside the windows.

Lunch Break

The bus stops in Lawas, Malaysia for lunch for about an hour. That’s enough time to grab something to eat and explore the town a bit!

Admittedly there’s not much to do if you’re only there for an hour, but you can walk along the waterfront and find a Geocache or two (which is what I did).

Arrival in Kota Kinabalu

Buses drop passengers off at KK Sentral, which is in the downtown area and easily walkable to hostels or hotels, or to connect to other bus routes.

Final Thoughts

I enjoyed this trip mostly for the novelty; I wouldn’t necessarily want to take it multiple times! Distances in Borneo are huge, and depending on traffic you might get delayed. For instance, my trip was supposed to be under 8 hours, but it ended up being just over 9 hours.

If you’re short on time and just want to get somewhere fast, then flying is easier and usually not too expensive if you book far enough ahead. However, if you enjoy overland travel and want to see more of Borneo’s beautiful countryside, then taking the bus is highly recommended!

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