Imagine waking up and looking out of your bedroom window to see a river flowing beneath your floor! That is everyday life in Kampong Ayer. The houses, schools, mosques, clinics, and even a fire station are all built on platforms raised above the water on long wooden or concrete poles.
People travel between clusters of houses by small motorboats called water taxis. Children go to school by boat each morning. If you want to visit a friend on the other side of the village, you hop in a boat and zip across the river. It feels a bit like living in a floating city.
Kampong Ayer has been there for more than 1,000 years. Long ago, European explorers were so amazed by it that they called Brunei the 'Venice of the East', comparing it to the famous canal city in Italy. Today the houses have electricity, running water, and the internet — but the river still flows underneath them all.