Kampong Ayer

Today we went to drove to the capitol city of Bandar. We wanted to visit the water village called Kampong Ayer. Kampong Ayer is made up of 28 water villages and housing an estimated 20,000 people. This jumble of wooden planks and shacks is considered to be the biggest water village in the world. We boarded our boat with our tour guide in tow ready to explore the village and the proboscis monkeys.

As we cruised along the river in our long boat we came upon some monkeys. I didn't think we would really see them as they are said to come out more at dusk. But we did! I think there were about 10 monkeys swinging from tree to tree. It was amazing to see them up close. As we were heading back to the village our guide spotted a crocodile sunning itself on the beach.

Near the end of our tour, our guide brought into the actual village. It was neat to see how life on the water made no impact to their lifestyle. The top picture with the blue building is the village's elementary school. The picture below it is the high school. Finally the picture below the high school is the fire station. The families were living life just like you and I with no thought to the waves lapping at their doorsteps. I even saw a little boy riding a toy car on the boardwalk with no railings. The river was a hub of river taxi's running from here to there. It was pretty neat to see how each of us who lives on this planet lives in such different ways.