Suggested Brunei Loan Service spouse packing list 2026

From the viewpoint of a stay-at-home mother of three Junior school-aged children, from my three years’ experience living in Brunei

Clothing

Despite being a humid hot country, there are many times when warmer clothing will be required during your time in Brunei, both in-country and whilst travelling around the region. Some clothing and footwear items are quite tricky to find within Brunei, especially in larger sizes.

Hoodies/jumpers/fleeces/cardigans/light jackets are useful when venturing inside certain well-air-conditioned venues, such as cinemas and restaurants. The evenings tend to stay hot and humid so warmer clothing isn’t necessary when outdoors. If anything, it can often feel warmer than daytime temperature. Many of our community have travelled to countries such as Malaysia, Japan, Australia and South Korea where they have ventured to ski resorts or climbed mountains that require much warmer or wet weather clothing to match chillier climates. You may want to use lightweight rain coats in Brunei but we find it often too warm, so tend to just use umbrellas in the rain.

Swimwear

You will find you spend much of your time in outdoor pools in Brunei, and whilst it is very refreshing, as the humidity sometimes masks the power of the sun, rash vests, or sleeved swimsuits are really useful to protect your upper body somewhat from the sun’s powerful rays here. Women are generally OK to wear bikinis especially in the Empire where few Bruneians seem to be members and therefore the swimwear of guests that you see is generally more western in style. You can buy swimsuits, goggles, armbands and floats especially for children in Brunei at locations such as Peak Club, Hua Ho department stores and Littlewoods, but it’s hard to find female swimwear that isn’t full coverage. We often order items from Amazon, Temu, Marks and Spencer to the BFPO address or purchase whilst travelling outside the country.

Modest clothing

If you are lucky enough to be invited into royal residences, military banquets, open houses, weddings, formal dinners, or even just Government departments during Immigration and Driving License appointments, women in particular will be expected to dress modestly. This entails long sleeves and dress or skirt hemlines below the knee, as well as closed-toe shoes. Whilst non-Muslim women or teenagers are not expected to wear a head scarf, an element of respectful dress and attire is necessary in these circumstances.

Footwear

You will likely spend most of your time in flipflops/sandals or crocs in Brunei. There are occasions when you will venture into the rainforest, especially if you get involved with the adult or family hash ( a kind of rainforest trekking club), or during Loan Service events. You may also find you spend quite a bit of time walking on the beach on or near Berakas and Muara Kem, in which case you will benefit from fairly light-weight trekking shoes for yourself and the children as well as waterproof footwear to protect your feet from the sandflies. Formal and closed toe shoes are also useful for official Government visits, Brunei military events and the summer and winter Loan Service functions (if they aren’t themed!). Children’s black school shoes can be found in Brunei in shoe shops such as Bata, Skechers and Hua Ho department stores. Branded trainers can be found in Under Armour, Puma and Dynamic Sports amongst other shops, and there are many independent sports shops selling good quality fake sports-wear and footwear across Brunei. We found it useful to bring with us a few pairs of shoes a size or two larger for our children, to account for any difficulties finding suitable replacement shoes when the children inevitably grew out of them quickly.

Kitchenware

There may be a basic get-you-in pack in your accommodation, and if you are lucky you may have been left a few items by your predecessor. It’s worth chatting to them in advance to see if you can negotiate buying items from them or asking them to kindly leave items they don’t want to transport back to the UK on their departure. It is often useful to have these when you first move in, even if you know you may be getting more in your shipping. It takes some of the stress out of trying to find enough plates on your first day for example. If the kitchen items are not to your taste or not the best quality, you can always donate them to the thrift shop once you have replaced items. There are a few department stores and ‘Dunelm Mill’ type home shops in Brunei such as Hua Ho, Mr DIY and The Grand where you can pick up the essentials and Kit Aces which sells slightly more specialist kitchen paraphernalia. I would recommend bringing the following (ideally in Air Freight or hold luggage) to get you started if you know they aren’t going to be in your future house:

• Kettle

• Toaster

• Crockery for each family member

• Cutlery for each family member

• Glassware for each family members

• Mugs for each family member

• Small selection of pots and pans (although you can purchase some good quality ones here)

Brunei seems to stock a wide selection of drinking bottles, stanley cups, insulated cups and Tupperware for children and adults so you will have no problem finding these in country. Ice packs are essential to transporting lunches, snacks and drinks to school, work and play. They can be tricky to find in Brunei so maybe bring some with you. I recently saw plastic ice packs in Supa Save supermarket. We cook quite a lot at home and have found the ovens provided don’t always fully accommodate meals for a family of five, so we supplement by using a double-compartment air fryer, which reduces heat in the kitchen and can be a quicker, more straightforward way of cooking. We also find our bread maker useful to enable us to bake a simple white or wholemeal loaf with little effort, as we are not huge fans of some of the sliced loaves available here. We find they can be a little sweet for our tastes.

Bedding

Despite being a very hot and humid country, we find the inside of homes at times quite cold when the aircon is cranked up. It is undoubtedly more comfortable to have the aircon on when sleeping, so a duvet is essential. All homes now come with comfortable, good quality beds and mattresses, so some thick pillows and duvets are a lovely addition and everything feels a little better if you have a comfy bed to jump into at the end of a busy day. Bringing duvet covers and pillow cases is also recommended, as western-style bedding is quite hard to find in Brunei, and can be expensive. The Grand is a good place to find these, however. We have also had success purchasing bedding online from Marks and Spencer and other UK homeware shops, and getting it delivered to the Loan Service BFPO address.

Children’s toys and equipment

Good quality children’s bikes can be quite hard to find in Brunei so it is recommended to transport them over in shipping, although there are many bike shops that do spare parts, bike pumps and repairs. We managed to buy decent childrens’ scooters and there are many small childrens’ ride-on vehicles, roller skates, skateboards and other wheeled vehicles to find in shops such as Toys R Us and Littlewoods. Toys R us, Littlewoods and many other independent shops in Brunei stock quite good quality toys, cuddlies, stationary, and many kitsch collectibles. Our children love browsing local shops to find unexpected treasures. English language children’s story and activity books can be found in Littlewoods and Best Eastern branches. Some bigger Best Eastern shops also stock the occasional English language children and adult magazines. For crafting materials for the more serious crafter, try Hokko, which has a huge range of craft kits, sewing, knitting, fabric and home décor supplies.

Electronic equipment

Laptops, TVs, games consoles, coffee makers and white goods are quite easy to come by in Brunei. The country is filled with electronics shops. You can buy recognizable international brands, but often pay a little more for these. You often find fairly good quality Chinese or other Asian brands which do the job. Warranties are available on some items, and we have found it quite easy to get items such as our tumble dryer repaired by larger suppliers at a small cost. Surprisingly it is recommended purchasing a tumble dryer as the humidity, often heavy rain and frequency with which washing is required means you often need to get bedding, towels and clothing cleaned quickly. We have used Intracorp for most of our items, there are several branches across Brunei.

School items

Many items of uniform and standard children’s clothing, toys, books and footwear can be found in our amazing Loan Service thrift shop on Berakas Kem, near the Loan Service Community Centre. Or at the school shop in the visitors centre (we find cash is often the best way to pay). The friendly team of volunteers open up most Wednesdays between 0900 and 1100, and will often open up on request for you to browse. JIS uniform is as follows:

Juniors-Kindy to Year 2: red school polo shirts, navy blue cotton shorts for boys and tartan school skorts for girls, white socks, black school shoes. PE kit is navy shorts, white socks and house-coloured t-shirts (you will be assigned a house on arrival. This is either blue, red, yellow or green)

Juniors- Year 3 to year 6: white shirts, white socks, black school shoes and tartan school skorts for girls, white shirts, navy blue cotton shorts, white socks and black shoes for boys, Maroon and white PE shirts, navy and white PE shorts, white socks and trainers for PE. You will also be assigned a house and need an associated house t-shirt.

You can also purchase house-coloured hats in the school shop or thrift shop.

Children of all ages tend to take a rucksack to school, and will be given a school book bag on arrival. Lunches can be brought into school, ordered in advance on the Firefly app, or purchased on the day by children from year one upwards, using their optional school wrist bands. A snack bag which can hold a cool/ice pack is pretty essential for children of all ages as is a water bottle and a hat or two (as is the case everywhere, hats and bottles tend to go missing all the time!). All school equipment such as rucksacks, bags, snack boxes and bottles are available in most larger shops. We like using Littlewoods which has a wide range of good quality items upstairs.

Secondary- children will be assigned a house and need to purchase an associated tie and PE t-shirt for that. Parents of secondary students will be able to offer more advice.  

It is advisable to bring white socks, footwear, and white school shirts as these can be a little hard to find in the correct size and quality in Brunei.