Brunei Kampung Air, Market and a Strange Local Durian

Brunei is not famous for their tourism, but that does not mean there is nothing to see. Kampung Air or Water Village is one of the few must-see experiences of Brunei. Do not be intimidated by the market, cos most locals speak English, familiar with tourist quirks and they are open to a little gentle bargaining. But always, always show respect. As mentioned in my previous post, the locals are actually very private and reserved people.

I recommend going early in the morning when it is still cool. These are open-air speedboats and a hat does not help when the boat is at top speed. Also, there is no safety harness or belt, but you can tell the boatman to not go so fast when you have young children on board. Tip: For the best experience, do not negotiate a “fee” when you board the boat and the boatman will be very happy to give you a complete experience of the water village, even to the more private areas. Expect to pay $20-50 for a really good trip around the village, depending on how long they bring you around and also their mood 🙂

The Kampung Air Museum: Learn about Brunei’s history here!

I love markets! You can tell a lot about the country from the markets they have. At Kampung Air, we were treated to a feast of local snacks, fruits and vegetables.

Fresh Olives! My favourite, you can’t get these in Singapore. They need to be “cooked” in a special way to be edible though.

And then there were these!!!

Were they durians?! I have not seen any like these before! But yes, they were definitely the prickly fruit that I loved. At $20 for 5 small durians, these weren’t the cheapest, but we had to try this otherwise we wouldn’t be called durian lovers.

After we got back with our loot, we eagerly opened them up and, lo and behold, we see a beautiful orange flesh that looked so enticing. My favourite type of durian happened to be the Red Prawn (???species and these looked almost like them. I see why they are called Durian Kuning, which meant Yellow Durian.

Now you might want to know how does it taste. Honestly, it tasted like no other durian I have ever had before and I didn’t even know durians could taste like this. It is very hard to describe, and I don’t want to spoil it for you. So when you are in Brunei, be sure to try it out if you love durians and let me know what you think!