Dining by the river....

In the last week or so, a few friends had been “pestering” me to try a new “fine dining” place in town, Tarindak d’ Seni. Dining out is not really my thing but I intended to give this new place a try. As if fate has it, my old boss, who I considered to be the best boss I could wish for, rang to invite me and a few colleagues to a dinner. Just my luck, a free makan with pleasant company...

So there I was, a “not dining out person”, sitting in a new dining place expecting the normal makan . To my surprise, delightful surprise, at least to this “not dining out ” and “not a food connoisseur” person, the food was great, cooked by Chefs trained for the Istana. The view was out of this world. A romantic place to bring your object of desire, dinner for two facing the view of one of the oldest “on water” settlement in the world. Top that with being served with waitresses trained for the Istana... a royal experience indeed, even more so being surrounded with exquisite local handicrafts. Fine dining indeed....

Over makan, we got talking, reminiscing, about how life was at this place right in front of our eyes, the place we called Kampong Ayer. A few of us, mixture of older and younger generations had our childhood and a big part of our adult lives in Kampong Ayer. Life were easier, more mellow, friendlier, less distractions.... it was simple yet fulfilling living. As one of my friends said, those were the days when you have “cukup makan”, you will be happy, besyukur. Life was good..... some people may say life was better then....

As the night passes, one thing that struck me is the name we called this place, the place of the beginnings of our country, this placed we called Kampong Ayer. Would not it be better to call it “KAMPONG AING”? Well, it is true most of us called it by the name Kampong Aing but officially it is Kampong Ayer. I am not a history buff so I do not know why it ended up being titled Kampong Ayer. (Those in the know, please shed some light on this to me). Many reasons we can give why we should call it Kampong Aing. To me, the most important one is to be true to our identity. We are orang Brunei. Orang Brunei called this place “Kampong Aing” (at least in my living memory despite I am not a “beliau” @ veteran yet).

To me, to a lot of us, it is and always will be Kampong Aing ...