the land of the duty free..

It was Hijrah i suppose, then li fei and i made a trip to Labuan. She has been pursuing this trip for a very long time kept on saying i never bring her anywhere in sabah.. ok la,this time mai surrender lor.. moreover i really need this getaway.. from my work especially my boss !! hahhaaha

Our boat to labuan is at 8 am, so early in the morning ade gotta wake up and got sent to Jesselton Point by my bro.. nothing much regarding this jetty.. just another jetty..

Manage to capture this moment before i board the ship..

tara... this is our transportation. EXPRESS KINABALU. I got us the first class ticket, i dont think there is much difference between economy and first class, just that first class u get to sit on the upper deck. But just for RM3 difference, just go for the better one lor..

THe trip to labuan is around 3hour, and it is AGONIZING. Dont get me wrong.. the seats was ok, the show (they played us 2 movies, one in french!@#^&@#%!&@, and another one is thai..&*$%*&, but still it does burn off the boredom of being latch to our seats for 3 freaking hours) Its just the duration that kills the excitement. But actually i never carried much expactation as i have always heard, Labuan is a dead city, or island. Nothing much to do except drink beer.. till now i still dont know how to appreciate the bitterness of beer, but liquor anytime..

Once we have reached, i quickly rent us a car, fearing all will be rented out as there are 3 straight days of holidays and the weight of the island will definitely increase by a fold due to the excess weight of the tourist pouring in from all over borneo and other places around the world.. WORLD? a bit exaggerating huh.. nvm la.. i still saw a few ang moh mah.. still there might come from the the western side leh...

So this is our ride for a mere RM70 bucks, and they gave us the car with the NO-PETROL-OLEDI sign lit up. So first thing first, i handed a map to my co-captain, my boss, li fei hahaha, and expect her to maneuver us to the petrol station. And i found out immediately we cant join THE EXPLORER RACE. She doesnt know how to read map !!! hahahah actually i also dont know how to read hahahahahhaha... so we race across the town, cutting left and turing right and so coincidently we found our pre-booked hotel; Mariner hotel.

So, we decided to check-in first and let the receptionist point us the nearest petrol station.

Before proceeding, this is the condition of our room, for RM 160, inclusive of breakfast for 2 for the next morning, this rank 7 out of my 10 point scale ade...

The view out of our room, we stays in the highest level, 5th, and we got ourselve a executive suite as the rest is ade fully booked..

After checking in, we asked the receptionist the most important question,

"pukul berapa breakfast esok" hahahha

then only we got to know the direction of the petrol station from her. So once there, i decided to just pump RM30 for this cute lil kancil for it to bring us around Labuan island la, manatau once i finish pumping and saw the meter, it raised all the way to the F point. Charity lor what to do, definitely we cant use all the petrol one... This is the only time in my life where i have been cursing the car for such a low petrol consumption. In the end, i believe the car just burnt RM10 worth of petrol only for the 2 day 1 night trip.

The clock tower which was just 10 minutes drive from our hotel. Nth to see one.. just snap a few pic then left.

The famous chimney. Till now nobody knew the purpose of this tower.. went inside the chimney and saw only a very very long staircase up to the top but then in order to climb, must first get another ladder to climb it coz the long staircase is damn freaking high.


Next the Bird Park was just across the Chimney. So went in, paid RM3, very cheap ler considering this is the only Ringgit worthy place to visit. Then we saw this couple taking pic with a white parrot, so i also ask the taker whether we can take photo or not la .. manatau need to pay RM2 per person to take pic with the parrot... sienz..



the Crown Crane

Then from there we just cruise along the island coastline, to use as much petrol as possible hahahah...This is one place that is recommended for visits. Its at the International Sea Sports Center or something like that la.. inside you can visit the marine museum; another place to waste time and gain nothing except aircond. Then there is this restaurant Manja Rasa which is built in the middle of the sea.. at least thats what the initial concept was la. Still it is in the middle of the sea but then just a few metres off the beach only.. An interesting landmark.. This manja rasa restaurant is operated only at night.. Buffet steamboat for RM20 per person.

We had our dinner there. Actually initially, i planned to go Anjung Ketam but then when we called them (once we reach labuan) to make reservation they said today no ketam.. so mai go for plan B lor.. Steamboat here in manja rasa. For non-chinese, this might be good la i guess, but then for chinese, there is really nothing to shout about.

Before the feeding frenzy

After....

Luckily i brought my fren along, if not sure cant get
take this photo..

another contribution by him/her... havent determine yet
very hard to differentiate on a tripod

The next Day

Pasar tani at Jalan OKK Abdullah.

My boss likes to taste a glimpse of the labuan folks culture wor.. so mai bring her there to jalan jalan lor

Happily blending.. can drink or not
thats a different story

Hands at work (work corner)

Hands at work (buy & Sell corner)

Labuan mah.. cannot forget these taikos one...
Duty-free liqu

Taman Botanikal Labuan..
a Nice place to do wedding photoshoot

The famous sikh temple which was just a stone throw away from Botanical Garden

When we were back to our hotel for a final mandi before heading back to the jetty, i saw there is this BIIBBF (Borneo Island International Big Bike F... , i forgot what the F stands for ade..)

So went there to snap a few pics.

The Big Bike Riders challenging each other on who can reach the final line the slowest... yes SLOWEST. Coz wanna show the balancing skill konon... But then its quite hard i believe, imagine u riding a 250cc bike and balance it without your feet touching the floor and at the same time have to reach the line at the slowest rate.

The pai kias of 2 wheels

Salah parking... Notice the blue ride??

The legendary....
HARLEY DAVIDSON

Not to forget the kapchai...
cute and still cute...

my final petrol indicator...
Sakai!

my wife, my best friend

Today i was having a very rough day. Most of it was due to my work. I was heavily scolded by my boss just because i didnt answer his phone on SUNDAY. He said as a serviceman (god damnit, now i am a SERVICEMAN!), i must standby 24hours for calls. I dont want to elaborate a lot on this matter as i know it wont change a bit.

i was so pissed that i really wanted to tell him that i quit. Enough of all this shit, especially from him. But i didnt, not because i dont dare but i know i cant give up so easily. So i got damn pissed the whole morning, really felt like just drive back and sleep. Dont want to give a shit on today's job. But somehow my conscience got a better grip on me, so i just do what ever i needed to do and do it willingly. THough deep down i was cursing mad.

Then i talk to li fei, i know i might sound like a whinner to her coz i kept on complaining how i was mistreated, how unfair my boss was and kept on complaining like i am a modern day cinderella.. But all i wanted was just to talk it out and get some console from her.

She knew i was very pissed, but then still, she is capable of in directly pointing out what i should have done to avoid the scolding, but skillfully she drive the topic back to "yeah, your boss is a total cave man, no feeling at all..."

Then she told me to hang on, to have faith, and to never give up, take the scolding as a challenge. Though she is not a practiced motivational speaker but her words gave me strength, strength to live on our dream. I am very weird. Even i personally dont know how to comfort myself, sometimes i needed someone to talk to me, sometime i wanted to be ignored. I also dont know what i want. But she knew.

Everytime i am on the brink of letting go, she will be by myside and give me strength to pick myself up. There are times when she is also very fed-up with her job, then i will do my part, but i believe i dont do it as good as she does to me. But i will just try. Because we are one, we are together. Anything that come to anyone of us, the other will not feel any better. So we kept on motivating and encouraging each other to continue with our dream and to never let go.

For her, i have promised to not give up. We have a dream, i cant let my own whinning fail us, especially her. Thank you my love. Without you, i would have let go so long ago. But for you, i will strive and will succeed.

3 colors
Black, Blue, Pink