Brunei Adventure: The Water Village

We stayed down by the local market in Bendar Seri Begawan, it seemed to be busy throughout the day. The river here had so many water taxis coming and going. We had been told to wave at a taxi and then to negotiate for him to take us for a tour of the water village (Kampung Ayer).
So we did and it was really interesting.
Apparently there are more people living in Kampung Ayer than in the city on land. It has its own shops, schools, Fire stations and Medical centres. The houses are all built on stilts over the water and have water, electricity and sewerage. Some of the homes are very large. Education is free in Brunei and at Ayer the school bus is a boat. These children were on holiday when we were there. They were enjoying it swimming just like kids all over the world like to do.
We passed a couple of kids who were messing about with their own boat. I wondered how safe they would be because some of the water taxis had powerful outboards that only had one speed. fast.
The local petrol station. Petrol is very cheap here, 54 cents a litre. One of the privileges of being a wealthy Oil Nation.
Where ever we went the Mosque was plainly visible in the background. This is the new ferry terminal on the waterfront.
ONe of the many schools that were scattered through the water village. I believe that there are 17 government schools. The children attend these during the morning and in the afternoon they go the Muslim school. Education is important to them.
Our water taxi man was very good, he spoke good English and was full of information. The pink house is his house. He was married with 12 children and only one wife. The house is quite big and next door is his brothers family. He was excited that we were Kiwis and proudly showed us his All Black Jersy sticker on the front of his boat.
Our one hour tour went by very quickly but it was really interesting. This village was more like a city. The living conditions were as good as many of the landed properties we have seen. In fact this part of Asia did not appear to be poor and the people seemed very happy living in their water village, Kampung Ayer.