The Malay Technology Museum, Part 2

Continuing a tour of the Malay Technology Museum, more villagers busy in the kampong (village).

Traditional wooden skiff.

A man's portrait. The jungle beyond the huts.

Bundling wood.

Foot. Weaver, looking a bit transgender.

Kampong view.

The Malay Technology Museum, Part 1

Kind of a misnomer. If you're expecting rockets, computers, heavy science, forget it. The Malay Technology Museum in Bandar Seri Begawan in Brunei is all about displaying the traditional technologies, the way of life of the local people.

Most of the museum is a parade of life size scenes of traditional village life. The technology is mostly related to fishing, food preparation, textile making, metal smithing, whatever keeps the village humming.

The display is also good for portrait photography, with a little selective composing.

Peeking out of a traditional hut.

Fixing a fishing net and a woman's portrait.

Building a raft.

Local flora and pounding sago.

Time to fly a kite.

Time to go fishing. Mysterious metalsmith.

Hanging out on the porch of his hut.

Details Of Kampong Ayer

What's happening in all those stilt houses along the Brunei River? Let's take a look.

Portrait of a restaurant cook.

Kampong ayam (village chicken), her specialty. Fancy vinyl wallpaper at a house entrance.

Meeting hall.

Drape behind a window and a store food menu.

Living room kids portrait.

Kampong Ayer In Brunei

Brunei's capital, Bandar Seri Begawan, started out as a village built above the area's waterway and that village (Kampong) still exists today.

It's called Kampong Ayer and it started centuries ago along the Brunei River. Today, about 11,000 people live there, down from 28,000 inhabitants in 1981. We'll blame video games.

Random overview of the kampong. It's a maze of houses, stores, government buildings on stilts.

Upkeep and downtrodden. The housing ranges from fancy to ruin.

And suburbia. In the hopes of keeping people in the village, there are now blocks of modern housing.

Living room of a traditional house. Water taxi stop. Obviously, getting around is by boat and there are specific stops all over the kampong.

Wood walkways are the other way around. Blue pipe is utilities.