Venice of the East

No....I dont have much to write in my blog today. Empty thoughts and nothing noteworthy has happened except that I bought my six year old a keyboard and by the amount of time that she has been spending on it since we got it home,it looks like she will turn into a Mozart overnight. 

I did make a visit with my mother and daughter yesterday to the largest water village in the world which is here in Brunei Darussalam in south east Asia. I didnt actually realise that this was worthy of noting down until I started thinking of what to write in the blog today and suddenly it struck me that its not often that one gets to visit a 1300 year old water village  and that too which happens to be the largest in the world.

Kampong means Village and Ayer means water in Malay. Its also known as Venice of the East for reasons which are self explanatory. 

Kampong Ayer lies over the Brunei river which happens to be the sole river running by the side of this small,rich but relatively unknown country. My first advise to anyone planning a visit to Kampong Ayer would be -Don't go by the look of the village. The first impression wont be the best with the murky water and rusted stilts on which quite a few dilapidated houses can be seen. It almost resembles a slum or ghetto. But a closer look reveals the basic amenities plus the luxuries which are desired by any person are available here over the stilts and footbridges.With a population of around 30,000 and having around 5 schools, a fire station, a petrol refilling station, 2 clinics,mosques, restaurants, cable tv, aircons and  .....almost any facility that you can think of, its probably one of the wonders of sustenance of man over water with over 29,140 meters of footboards connecting them all .  

We were told by our water taxi driver who double roled as our half hour tour guide, that the present Sultan of Brunei, Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, who is well known for his richness and owns one of the largest fleet of cars ( 500 Rolls Royce and other cars worth 4 billion $ as per The Guinness Book of world records), had his humble upbringing in one of the houses here before he went on to become the richest King in the world. Another trivia which the water-taxi driver,Eddie, gave was - the Sultan's earning is around 90€ per minute and he has around 1178 rooms and 250+ bathrooms in his Istana i.e.Palace in Malay ...sulk sulk... Ah richness!...who wouldn't love to bask in it... Alas, God was too preoccupied with others while I stood waiting for my share of wealth... Lol ;) He also told us that the popular Saifuddin Mosque, which we cross so often while walking on the main roads of Brunei has its dome made of pure 24 karat gold!

The tour ended with payment,smiles, goodbyes and taking visiting card of Eddie, who promised to show the fireflies on a night tour besides taking us to watch the otters and crocodiles if we book his boat next time. So, look out for a post of another nat geo expedition of mine sooner or later :)