Brunei Tour: Perpuspaan Main Gate 1968
This article's title should have been "The Perpuspaan Main Gate 1968 And The Lost Kampung Sultan Lama". But it is too long, so I settled with what you see above! The first I saw on my land-side joyride.
"Joyride" was the appropriate thing to call this 'remainder of my afternoon tour'. I told the driver/guide that there was no worry if we were unable to visit all sites listed in his itinerary (that I paid for), since I ruined it in the first place, by overstaying at Kampong Ayer, childishly watching boats "fly on the river"!
He knew, since I also told him, that I was already contented with what I have seen and experienced at Kampong Ayer. He further knew, as I also made it clear, that I've already seen (2 decades ago) almost everything in the itinerary. I just wanted a glimpse at them, even from a moving car (nostalgia tour ba)!
Actually, my aim was just to see, if I may spot 'significant changes' from what I've seen two 2 decades ago, that might warrant a revisit! Except of course, the Bolkiah Mosque, which I haven't seen up close!
So, first to encounter on my afternoon joyride was the Perpuspaan Main Gate 1968 - that is written on that black marble slab marker beside the left pillar of the gate. Not really a gate now, but a monument.
SHHB, by the way, is: Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah - crowned the 29th Sultan of Brunei, 01AUG1968.
So, where was that original gate 'originally' located? At the very entrance of/to Kampong Sultan Lama. Sige, hanapin mo sa google kung nasaan yan! 'Pag namuti na buhok mo, balik ka na lang dito hahaha!
I was surprised even my guide don't anymore know or remember much about Kampong Sultan Lama. And he told me, he's almost sure, not many of the young Bruneians today, would also still know where that Kampong Sultan Lama was. Ako, I just happen to remember, since I had a friend who lived there.
What I know, and I shared this with my guide, is that Kampung Sultan Lama was burned (almost all of it) in the early 1980s. That gate was then transferred in 1993, from the end of Jalan Pretty, to where it is now - when Yayasan Complex was built. Kampung Sultan Lama was very much a water village too!
Nag-nostalgia na, so I made two web screenshots (without permission, so I hope they won't mind)...
Look closely, you should see my yellow arrows on both pictures. That is exactly where the "gate" (first picture above) now stands. Then, also look to the right of each yellow arrow, you should see the white arrow, that is my approximation, of where might that gate originally stood (by the end of Jalan Pretty).
On that old picture, the conglomeration of many white (that's actually silver, for tin) roofs between the yellow and white arrow is/was Kampong Sultan Lama. You can see on the google earth screen-grab, they became just six but big sprawling brown roofs - which is now the Yayasan Commercial Complex.
My sources say, that for a time in the 1970s, Kampong Sultan Lama became so large that the houses spread from the Royal Wharf at right, all the way to the Sungay (River) Kedayan at left. Which, seems to be just exactly how that old picture looks, right? Ah, maybe that aerial shot was taken in the 1970s.
As you can see, there are no more residential houses. What did not become the Yayasan Complex is now a wide park and promenade, fronting the mosque, called Taman Mahkota Jubli Emas. In English, that means Golden Jubilee Crown Park - built in conjunction with the Sultan's 50th year on the throne.
As said in my previous story about Kampung Ayer, these "floating houses" were/are homes of normal people of Brunei, meaning employed (many with the government), or have their own businesses. They were/are not squatters or 'marginalized sector of society' kumbaga sa atin pa. They just live on water!
So I asked what happened to those houses in what's now the park. My driver/guide told me, they were relocated to other areas or even to land side (which many of them do not like)! And what's amazing to me is, all the demolition and transfers were purportedly done orderly and cooperatively, without delay!
Walang pag-aaklas at dahas ng mga uring maralita na katulad sa atin heheh! And to think theirs were all documented owners. Samantala sa atin, lahat iskwater na (illegal settlers) lalaban at marahas pa!
Teka, there were criticisms and opposition daw naman pala, when Kampong Sultan Lama was being demolished. The oppositors were worried that, all of Kampong Ayer might forever disappear, since as it was, population was already dwindling, as folks were opting to go onland. Ang gandang problema!
Eto historical fact... the 28th Sultan of Brunei, Omar Ali Saifuddien III, father of the present Sultan, was born and raised at the then Istana Kota (City Palace), Kampong Sultan Lama. Ha tingnan mo, even the royal family of Brunei that time lived on the water village. Their center of town was on water, not land!
Significant reason enough to keep that unassuming gate re- planted to where it now is, right?
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