Photo opportunities at a water village

Sabah is an incredible place for photo opportunities and last year I visited a 'kampung air' (pronounced come-pong eye-yah) or water village near Kota Kinabalu that had plenty of superb photo ops. A 'kampung air' is where the houses are built on stilts over the water. Some of these villages are found along the coast, but the one we visited was up a river.

A small group of us went and Pam Sidhu (the one in the pink t-shirt) took most of these pictures. Our trip involved finding a small village that was accessible by road from which we could take a small boat to the kampung that was our goal. It was a pleasant trip along a sparsely settled river and relatively hassle-free. The boatman was really helpful, showing us around the kampung air when we got there and, in fact, at the end of our walk, he took us to his house, where we had a rest and a drink of water. A lot of the kampung air around Kota Kinabalu are settled by immigrants (both legal and illegal), as well as indigenous people. This village was home to the Bajau, a group famous for their fishing.

In this world of houses on water, there are completely different shadows, reflections and light. The houses seem fragile and rickety on their tiny legs, although the boardwalks between them are solid enough.

But, water village or not, life goes on as usual. Washing needs to be hung out to dry, older kids go to school while the younger ones hang around home and flash 'v' signs at visitors and everyone waits for the tide to come back in.

If you have any comments or questions about Sabah, please just send an email to one of us: ron@astsabah.com or jude@astsabah.com. We'd love to hear from you.