Kampung Ayer, Brunei

I have gone through the whole website digging on this country's attraction spots but I hardly can find any other than their mosque and palace except this...Kampung Ayer. The called it the East of Venice. The reason saying so is their houses are all built on the water. There are thousands of houses on the water. All theses houses are built along the Sungai Brunei.

Capturing the Citibank at Brunei

Our Maybank at Brunei!

This is just a part of the view of the thousand houses on the water. Plenty more around at the back. You also may notice the river is pretty dirty and it is in brown color. As expected when there is human using a river, pollution is inevitable. Apart of that, the wave here is pretty strong! Most of it is caused by the river taxis.

River Taxi is the main public transport here. The people either have their own boat or they will have to rely on the River Taxi. As for us who are tourists, we can opt for their river cruise. Their river cruise are negotiable depending how good your negotiation skill is and how desperate they are wanting your business. The usual price the boatman offered was B$55 for two. In the end we settled it for B$30 for two.

The one and only petrol station on the water. Specially built for boat. It is an amazing scene for me.

Very curious on how do they work and as you can see each pump is attended by one staff.

They will first pass you the pump for you to fill in yourself.

After that, they will toss a tin can like this. So get ready to pay up!

Can you see how dirt cheap is their petrol? B$0.403 only which is barely RM1.00 per litre! So even our government has cover part of our petrol cost but to compare with this is still far apart after all we have our own oil well. Quite sad.

A school on the water. I wonder how does it feel to study on the water?

More schools...according to the boatman, there are almost 20 schools on top of the water.

Still about school...I really wonder how their school bus looks like.

Another school...Brunei is a rich country but poverty is still exist no matter how rich a country is. So basically in Brunei, the higher class and the mid class citizens will own the land. While the lower class citizen are force to the river like this. Quite sad but it is unavoidable fact when they are not rich enough to own a land.

The one and only fire station to serve thousands of houses.

Mosque...the day we were travelling there was Friday. So usually the Muslim citizen will have their routine Friday prayer and you will see the boats are all over the mosque.

Also the one and only Police Station to cover all the houses' security but I never see a police patrol around during my tour.

Cemetery site...the place where they will get a land only when they are dead. Sound pretty sad and pathetic huh?

Have you heard of the story of Si Tanggang during you school time? No or cannot remember? Let me ring a bell for you. It is a story of a poor boy who disowned his parents after he became rich. In order to punish the unfilial son, the parents summon the God. A lightning strike broke the ship into half and at the same time has turned him, his wife, his crews and his ship into a rock and you are looking at it now. Looks like a plain road to you? That's what I thought at first. Read on and you can see the difference.

Can you see the shape of a ship topple to your left? The story is a myth created when the people see this stone. Even it is a myth, it teaches us must to be filial to our own parents no matter what we are turned out to be.

At first I thought the tour is inclusive visiting the wild monkeys which he earlier mentioned it but who knows he said not inclusive and B$5 per person if we want to see. I really hate this kind of people who cheat us when we are already on the boat. However, we just obey with the price because my new Japanese friend seems like want to see the monkeys.

We did a lot of search through the mangrove looking for the monkeys but we failed to see even one. I am getting tired and sick of this. 

In the end, we saw few monkeys in the bushes which I actually can't really see them but only see them shaking the trees. To the boatman, he find that he has accomplished his task and he think he deserved the payment. Well, it is a lesson for me and a notice for you to make sure of a tour itinerary before you confirm it. Otherwise, you will experience such thing to spoil your entire mood for the tour. Anyway, I really do not like monkeys.

If you have been to Venice, you probably think this place does not even fit to be the east of Venice. Anyway, there is just no where else to go at Brunei unless you are a person who are into architectural design so you can go to their mosques and palaces.

Total Damage: B$40.00

Operating Hours: 8.00am - 6.00pm (daily)