A Day in Brunei: Kampong Ayer

Kampong Ayer may be the most famous water village in Brunei. It was the principal settlement of Brunei for centuries. A significant number of residents still maintain their houses built on the Brunei River partly due to its proximity to the city center in Bandar Seri Begawan. Amazingly, essential establishments such as schools, fire station, restaurants, lodging houses, cultural gallery and others can be found in this community. Kampong Ayer may be reached from the city center by boats. We paid a total of BND20 for a round trip boat ride with four passengers. The driver served as our tour guide and he shared lots of stories and information. Upon returning to the dock, we decided to walk through the settlements to explore more. We rode again the boat and paid BND1 each for a one-way trip. The boatman dropped us to one of the many jetties and we started from there.