Brunei = Our First Anniversary, Part 3: The Venice of Brunei

Brunei ~ Water Village, the "Venice of Brunei"

These people live on the water 24/7. Their houses are connected by walkways and they even have their own shops, and their own mosque. They can only be reached by the "water taxi" and very seldom come to land, with many of the elderly people never leaving the dwellings to come to dry land at all. There are shops behind us, which are the oldest in Brunei, and the few people who do come to dry land get whatever goods that they cannot get from the shops in their own village, then go back. And if you turn the corner to the right, you'll be in front of one of the largest shopping centers in Brunei, a gift to the people from the Sultan. We were told that the water taxi charge was quite "expensive", and then was informed that the charge was 50 cents, and could go as high as a whole dollar. :)

I wish we could have gotten closer, but our guide was not permitting us the time to go out on one of the water taxis. And I was not dressed for a boat outing anyway. All three of these pics were taken from inside the car, which we talked the driver into stopping along side the road to get (in traffic, I may add--which is why there are only three pics of the Water Village).

This pic shows the type of plank walkways which connect the houses in the villages. I'd fall off of it before I got two steps made. So guess it was a good idea after all that we were not allowed the time to go.  But the up side to it would have been, in this heat, I'd have been dry in 10 minutes.