Image Source: Brunei Times

By Azaraimy HH

THE multi-million-dollar Kampong Ayer Cultural & Tourism Gallery will be unveiled in an official opening in August this year, an officer from the Brunei Tourism Development Department told the Bulletin in an interview yesterday.

The one-stop centre will include a tourist information centre and souvenir shop, a video presentation area, a cultural performance area and an exhibition station. The centre will also have an observation tower offering a panoramic view of the water village and the capital. It will also include a tourist boat jetty, among other facilities.

Built at a cost of over B$3 million, the gallery is scheduled to be officially opened on August 19, and will certainly compliment the many tourism-related attraction sites in Bandar Seri Begawan and the whole country in general, said Tourism Officer Kartini Hj Kabri. It will in particular compliment the waterfront project in Bandar Seri Begawan situated across from the centre.

Kartini said the centre is currently undergoing its second phase of development, adding that such phase would include restaurants.

With the gallery, she said, tourist visits could be made more meaningful, as the centre will not only educate tourists, but will also bring locals to appreciate the country’s heritage in Kampong Ayer. Among the several objectives of the centre is to bring back to life the fast disappearing “cottage” industry in Brunei, to help diversify value added economic activities, to open up the water village as a place for job opportunities and a source of income as well as to make the water village a unique tourism site and improve the country’s tourism industry.

“The idea is actually to educate people,” Kartini said. “The centre will be a unique place to get comprehensive information about Kampong Ayer.”

“Before the establishment of the centre, tourists and visitors usually asked for information about Kampong Ayer from the village heads and their tour guides, so there was no actual place where we can learn more about Kampong Ayer,” she stated.

The architectural concept of the centre lends itself partly to 10th Century Kampong Ayer, and will be a blend of old and contemporary design cues, according to Kartini.

“The site where [the centre] is built will be in the area where over 100 Kampong Ayer houses were destroyed in a fire, so there is a nostalgic aura on the site,” she said.

The gallery will house up to five galleria, with each depicting specific eras in Kampong Ayer. Gallery One will describe the life, sights and sounds of Kampong Ayer in the 10th to 13th century. Galleries Two and Three will depict the water village in the 14th to. 16th and 19th to 20th centurys, respectively, while gallery Four and Five will describe the social and economic aspects of the population of Kampong Aye; past and present.
Kartini said the Tourism Development Department is currently working with BEDB in carrying out the centre’s second phase of development.

Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin

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