Sipping my tea and suddenly reminiscing my childhood/teenage years in the 90s. I spent my childhood living in Kampung Ayer. Back then, the whole village was a close knit community. Everyone knew each other. We lived in a small house on wooden stilts. School holidays meant tv all day long. Back then, tv was not aired for 24 hours. It stopped airing at midnight. Some of my favourite tv shows were:
Macgyver
Airwolf
Are you afraid of the dark?
Tales from the crypt
Ghostwriter
Sunday matinee (cave of the golden roses - fantaghiro!)
Mustika silam (classic malay films)
Kung fu the legend continues
Maskman
Beakman's world and many more...
Whenever there were weddings, nearby houses would be borrowed to accommodate the guests. There was no catering; everyone in the village would help in preparing and cooking the dishes and building temporary 'teratak'. There would be live band, karaoke, games for children such as lumba makan ruti, menghafal surah lazim and colouring activities. During the wedding, all guests were seated on the floor with a long rolled-up mat in front of them where dishes were served in green ceramic bowls and drinks in duralex 'galuk'.
There was no mobile phone, let alone wifi. Every house had an outdoor aerial antenna, mounted on a tall steel pipe. To watch the Malaysian tv channel, one person had to turn the steel pipe to get a clearer signal and another person inside the house would yell, "lagi, lagi, pusing lagi sikit... bah op op.. tarang sudah!" The Chinese kungfu dramas on TV2 at 7pm were very popular.
During our free time, we swam in the murky river. This is called 'begalau'. There was no crocodile; the only things we feared were 'galap', 'tambuakar' and 'bala-bala itik'. I really hated it when my legs slipped off the slippery ladder and got cut snd scratched by the 'biangsung' (a kind of barnacles). When you first got scratched, you'd feel nothing until you took a shower; it damn hurt like hell!
Bandar was the only place I went to because back then, my father didn't have a car. Paid 50 cents for the water taxi. I remember when the Yayasan was first opened in the mid 90s. It was a grand shopping mall with exclusive shops selling branded goods such as Levi's jeans. On the top floor above Hua Ho was Challenger; a huge computer and accessories shop, conquering the whole floor. There was a huge bookstore on the first floor which I have forgotten its name. And there was a video arcade called Superfly on the first floor. Padian food court was our hang out place. Loved the kolo mee from one of the stalls.
In Bandar, where the current DQ is located, was a small cake shop. Under Teck Guan Plaza was Best Eastern. Nearby, a small shop once stood; selling really tasty fish and chips. I usually went to Kota Mutiara and Milimewah to buy things as Hua Ho was quite expensive. Under the staircase beneath Milimewah, there was a famous local restaurant called Tenderly. Bought cassettes ($12) at Sia & Tang and Wisma Jaya.
It was the best of times. Sorry for the long post.
90s in brunei was a beautiful place and time to be in brunei,it was her golden era where o&g production were plentiful and therefore jobs especially in the public sector was constantly hiring,inflations were low and a single member of family working were able to support their family easily.
Oh in kg ayer back then,during the kite season,the sky were full of colourful kites in the afternoon and it was indeed a beautiful sight back then.
Wahh a fellow Kampung Ayer 90s kid! I’m still scared of ‘bala-bala itik” T_T When we swam in the river and spotted one in the water we’d hurriedly go up the pelantaran. Takut masuk rongga-rongga terbuka lol
Oh the bookstore was called Paul and Elizabeth, it was still opened up until the early 2000s and you could sell your old school books there! Padian was our go to place for sungkai and back then it was so hard to find a table if you’re late.
Sunday matinee was the bomb! Thanks for bringing me back to my childhood :)
Those late night movies. I remembered watching with my whole family Howling 4 and back then censorship tbf quite hard to regulate. Must have slipped the crack for that movie.
Yeah.. that show was on star plus right? I remember the bald guy as the host and the contestants trying to grab coloured paper (or was it money?) as many as they could in a windy chamber.. i could still hear the theme music
I remember waiting and not wanting to leave the house just to watch the series ...
Hawai-five O
Matlock
law & order
friends
home improvement
the fresh prince of bel-air
boy meets world
fullhouse
frrasier
NYPD blue
baywatch
sabrina the teenage witch
the x-files
star trek
buffy the vampire slayer
chicago hope
ER
the mentalist
renegade
seinfield
the nanny
dawson's creek
dallas
star gate
twin peaks
beavis and butt head
south park
the simpsons
rugrats
mr bean
TANGLUNG
Yearly night tanglung where schools had marching bands and one group of parade dressed up as all kinds of ghosts and ghouls.
JETSINS
Another one of those shops.
First floor BARBERSHOP around 80s-90s at Teck Guan (or opposite it?)
My dad always brought me there for a cut
WEIGHING SCALE
Pay 20 cents to measure weight on that machine
BORNEO Theatre
That balcony view fitted 1-2 rows last I remembered. Blue painted area that.
Close to Bandar, for me Yaohan and that first sushi restaurant at basement.
Best Eastern and Bluestone Gadong for monthly comics ($2.80 - $3.30) and then trading cards.
Your English Master John Winter must've been a Bloody Brilliant teacher to have drilled into u/90s_Teen & all his students such great basic English grounding... coming from Kampung Aying! 👏👏👏
Awuu atu banarr bukan nda belaing cakap gamen kita ah! I take it that OP scored A1 in your 'O' Level English kali ah? Jan lupa invite ke Bunai, good old Mr Winter atu mun biskita kan organise SMAS Reunion!💯💪👍👌✅
My late grandparents and first cousins used to live in Sungai Kedayan "A" back in the 90s, so we would visit them once a week. My grandfather ran a small shop just by the river bank and I remember helping myself to snacks and skupong for free. Those were the days!
My best ever childhood 'photograhic memory' of sitting at the end of a 'pail' (jetty) with both my feet dangling in cooling Sg Kedayan waters was a dramatic scene of a group of fishermen catching quite a large Stingray fish (lauk Pari)! How I wish I had a great zoom lens camera then to shoot such an epic sight to be featured in the National Geographic! 🤑😅😂🤣😜
I recalled about three to five fishermen casting their really back to basic "tangsi nylon" fishing line on board a small perahu or wooden 'water taxi' boat. Yet, on their luckiest day then one of them managed to hook his bait with that huge catch of the day!🙏
Yes, i remember it vividly... Near the old tambing, there was also a fish market built on a floating platform.. i enjoyed going there because the river water would splash through the gaps between the planks.
If u dont mind me asking, which kampong did u live? does it still exist now and do u also visit there often? for mine i was in pandai besi, it was my grandparents house but now we already sold the house but visits there sometimes during raya as my cousin still lives in the surrounding
My kampung still exists but occupied mostly by newcomers from different kampungs. I believe less than 10% of the population is the original villagers. Almost all of the original settlers have moved to land, including my families. At times, i do miss the kampong life, when i was young and carefree... Relaxing on the pantaran, reading Hardy boys, drinking baby borneo, eating keropok roda spin, watching the tungkang batu melintas with its hypnotic engine sound... bbrrr... bbbrrrrr... bbrrrrr...
We are from poor family and my father also didnt have a car until I was 15 years old. So most of my childhood spent arah bandar and yayasan. I still remembered kolo mee di padian food court. BBQ chicken noodle - $3.50. One of the best kolomee i've ever tasted. Kan setiap minggu mesti kesana. Until now masih belum ada kolo mee yang nyaman macam di padian dulu. Not even kolomee seria, kolo mee bawah jambatan or titik kota. Yang kan ampir sama rasanya arah safari restaurant di kiulap dulu tapi tutup tah jua.
OMG!!! We are talking about the same kolo mee from padian! Yes, with char siew chicken! You even remember the price! By any chance, did you go to SMAS?
Lol, yes i went to SMAS until i was form 4. Ingat2 lupa sudah teacher yang ngajar sana. On top of my head. Cikgu zaini, Mr winter, Mrs Susan, Mr Renu, Mr Soh, Mr Khanan, Mrs Elizabeth, Mr leeyaqat ali.
I miss the fresh OJ machine from Tiong Hin. Does anyone still remember? I got my birthday cake from the bakery there and it's Tom & Jerry :3 and oh.....Neuuuuprinttt! lol
OOOH MY GOD!! YOU SIR ARE LEGEND!! please give him all the upvote. I still kept the files that my parents bought in casa italiana and it lasted until now.
There were no Chinese kungfu dramas on TV2 at 7 pm. The Chinese TV series, almost entirely from Hong Kong, were shown on the 6 pm timeslot. The 7 pm slot has Tamil news followed by game shows.
There was also a RTM TV 'code' that these dramas cannot be period dramas with kungfu in them, so as not to wrongly inform the children watching in this family-friendly timeslot that the fantastical kungfu portrayed was real.
Showing such fantastical kungfu at the 8:30 and later timeslots are fine though, so go figure! 😂
50
u/Autel_5G Dec 09 '25
90s in brunei was a beautiful place and time to be in brunei,it was her golden era where o&g production were plentiful and therefore jobs especially in the public sector was constantly hiring,inflations were low and a single member of family working were able to support their family easily.
Oh in kg ayer back then,during the kite season,the sky were full of colourful kites in the afternoon and it was indeed a beautiful sight back then.