The Zhafri cousins enjoy an afternoon of play in front of their grandmother’s stilt house. Although they live only a few doors apart and see each other every day, their families still believe in meeting up every Sunday to feast and make merry.
Stilt houses and walkways made of wooden planks make up Kampong Ayer, an area in Brunei’s capital that houses more than 30,000 people. It is often referred to as the “Venice of the East.”
Even though Brunei's economy is largely driven by commercial oil production, small-scale subsistence fishing is still practised by many of the villagers living in Kampong Ayer. Spotting a low tide, a villager walks in knee-deep muddy water and checks on his catch of the day.
In a bid to preserve Kampong Ayer as Brunei’s most valuable heritage, the government has provided it with many facilities like concrete jetties, electricity supplies and a marine fire station.
Consisting of more than 3,000 houses built on the water, Kampong Ayer is home to around 10 per cent of Brunei’s population of 395,000.
A living history that preserves the nation’s river dwelling origins, Kampong Ayer is often regarded as a culturally important part of Brunei, and known as the most famous water settlement of Southeast Asia.
Water taxis are the de-facto mode of public transport for Kampong Ayer’s residents.
Hassan and Mohammad paddle their homemade boats in their backyard swimming pool – the Brunei River. Although they love the lifestyle, they would rather move to land because the kampong is “old and boring”.
Water taxis are the de-facto mode of public transport for Kampong Ayer’s residents.
It is a common practice for residents to run small businesses like eateries.
Small-scale subsistence fishing is commonly practised by many of the 30,000 villagers living in Kampong Ayer.
To preserve traditional culture like thread weaving or Meliring, the Brunei government organises several vocational training schemes that integrate culture with livelihood. Apprentice Azlina Binti Haji Ali Rahman, 23, who has been learning Merliring for the past six months, weaves a bunch of threads into a cotton sheet. The threads are used to produce traditional costumes worn by Malay men during formal occasions.
Children play on the porch outside their home as the sun sets in Kampong Ayer.
During the low tide, it is a common sight to see the Brunei River bed covered with rubbish. The kampong faces a severe garbage problem caused by both the villagers and people from the mainland. A 2009 study conducted by a research team from the Universiti Brunei Darussalam estimated the total volume of rubbish in the area could fill around 50 million standard-sized garbage bags.
Pipes bringing clean water from the mainland to houses in Kampong Ayer run along the footbridges and walkways connecting clusters of 42 villages on the river.
Students of a primary school in the kampong take a break in between classes.
Every morning before sunrise, speeding water taxis start ferrying Kampong Ayer residents to shore, signalling the start of a new day. These children sit in a water taxi, which costs 50 cents a ride. The journey takes less than five minutes, after which they hop into a school bus to take a 15-minute drive to school.
Mohammad is his schoolmate, best friend and 13-year old neighbour who stays literally five steps apart from him, across a rickety wooden walkway. Their two favourite past-times: Racing sports cars on Hassan’s PlayStation video game console and paddling their home-made boat around what they call their “backyard swimming pool”.
Their “swimming pool” is actually a part of the Brunei River, and on it sits their home – a sprawling water village named Kampong Ayer.
The settlement is complete with schools and police stations, which are all built on stilts over water. So large is Kampong Ayer that about some 30,000 people — almost half of the capital’s population – live on its gaudily painted wooden houses.
Here, tradition and values of the kampong lifestyle are seamlessly weaved into the conveniences of a modern life. Even the humblest of homes have at least a television set, while others enjoy air-conditioning, internet access and satellite television. No mean feat, considering they live on the water.
But this unique river life is increasingly being threatened. While most of the elders have lived their entire lives in the kampong, their offspring are being lured away by housing relocation programmes, where they get a proper house complete with a front porch and garden on land.
Like all Bruneian youths, Hassan is cushioned and accustomed to a relatively high living standard with free education and healthcare. However, his creaking wooden house, in contrast to the luxurious concrete bungalows that sit on land, inevitably pales in comparison.
“Kampong? Nah…” says Muhammad, shaking his head. “I want to stay on land if I have the choice. Kampong is old and boring.”
Others like Hayatul Naziera, 15, also prefer to spend their free time on land studying in the library or hanging out in the malls. “I’ll probably miss this place because all my childhood memories are here,” she adds.
However, there are bigger worries about the fate that lies ahead for Kampong Ayer once these youngsters eventually leave for land.
Elders like Haji Ahmad, village chief of Kampung Lorong Sekuna, one of 28 villages in Kampong Ayer, are determined not to let generations of heritage die off like that.
“Moving to land doesn’t mean having a better quality of life,” says the 61-year old. “I am counting on those who have the heart to stay.”
