Century Travel Centre Sdn. Bhd. Brunei Darussalam

Kampung Ayer (Water Village)

For at least 600 years, Bruneians harvested the bounty of the seas, forging a way of life that is still strongly evident in the lives of the 30,000 inhabitants of Kampung Ayer, the capital's sprawling water village.

Here, the village's centuries-old web of homes, markets, mosques, schools, medical clinics and police and fire stations hovers on stilts over the shallows of the Brunei River. Even today, water taxis are the most efficient and popular means of negotiating the Kampung's labyrinthine waterways. From their prows, one could see the mosque's glistening minarets rising above multi-hued, garden-draped homes.

Brunei has not been spared the encroachment of high technology and high-flying aspirations, but beyond the cold blinking faces of computer screens and beneath the hum of modems, Kampung Ayer's heart still dances to an ancient rhythm.

Visitors may wander along the Kampung's pathways at appropriate hours.