Last week, me and bestie, supremely free and available, decided that we wanted to walkabout Kampong Ayer. 

Parked at Yayasan, and grabbed a water taxi to the other side – this costs 50 cents.

We requested to be dropped off at Kg Bakut Berumput cause that’s where Kunyit7 Lodge is. Alas the place was not open as Kem, the  lovely host, was out for a walking tour with guests.

So what are we to do? Go on a walking tour of our own of course! 

Armed with no bearing and directions, we walked towards the direction of the Kampong Ayer Cultural and Tourism Gallery – hoping that it’s open on a public holiday haha. (It’s not)

Along the way we saw houses ravaged by fire, houses thriving, and houses getting by.

Some houses have their boats parked up front. Some are undergoing renovations.

Life seems simple and very close knit. People sit on the porch of their houses (sometimes smoking) and watch people walking by. 

Shortly we arrived at the housing scheme of Kampung Lorong Sikuna. The houses are fabulous and super modern here and I’ve actually never realised of their existence. These houses, have permanent deeds (bergaran) unlike most houses in Kampong Ayer. 

We also discovered that the Ketua Kampong, Hj Ahmad, operates a homestay from his house…. which has a wedding dais. Also he has wedding costumes. 

Therefore:

So me besanding, with no hubby hahaha. 

He has plenty of trinkets from the past:

A quick glance on the FB page shows he gets plenty of tourists visiting.

The house is modern, but the things inside are uniquely traditional Malay. 

As we walked around we realised people have built their lives around the supposed “modern” houses. 

We can see inside the houses, are not much different than the normal wooden houses on the other parts of Kampong Ayer. Almost like the house is just a shell depicting modernity but hey inside they’re still clutching on to their traditions.

This one runs an interesting business out from the house – renting chairs for weddings and functions. They’re loading the chairs on that boat to be sent off somewhere.

Another operates a cafe.

Interesting glimpse into the lives of people living here. I cannot imagine the daily grind of buying groceries and lugging them from the boat to the kitchen (heavy!), buying gas, and how about going to work? 

Means early morning already need to go on the water taxi, where do they park? Gosh. It feels like so far away yet it’s literally just 1 minute boat ride from the city.

Finally our tour ended at this modern pier where another water taxi picked us up and sent us back to Yayasan.