Travel: Labuan by Car

… Continued from Brunei vs Labuan...

The next day, we walked to the jetty to pick up our rented car. Along the way, we passed by a farmer's market just behind the museum we went the previous day. Attracted by the unique food that they sold, we bought some of it as a light breakfast. One of them looked like a cone, with banana leaves wrapping around it. When we unwrap it, a whitish food appeared. It tasted like the 'tepung bungkus'. Maybe they have a different style of 'tepung bungkus' from the one in West Malaysia.

After we got into our car, we proceeded with our plan, to 'conquer' Labuan in one day. There are not so many interesting places to be visited in Labuan as it is a small island. However, we managed to choose the places that we think worth it to go.

The Chimney... Not as we thought before. What do you think when you read about it? You will think that it IS a chimney, right? However, according to the researches mentioned in the museum, no one never knew what was the actual function of the tall building. From what we observed, it is generally just a cylindrical-walled building, with some stairs on the inner wall to allow people to get up there. Nothing more. That's why people have doubts on it.

Not far from the Chimney is Labuan Bird Park. As it was a weekday, not many people went there. However, we accidentally met two Australian guys who were actually having a holiday there. Their first intention was to ask about the tunnels present around the area, which we did not really know about it. As soon as we talk to each other, the discussion changed its topic to the Malaysian culture. We talked about 'songkok', the places and many more. Another interesting part there is a noisy bird. It looked like an ostrich, but much smaller and have a crown-like hairs on the top of its head. We first saw that type of birds when we were in the bird cage. However, as we went out of it, we were surprised to see another bird was outside! We thought that it had accidentally got out of it and did not know how to get back. It continued to make some noises, as if it is talking to its friends in the cage. What made the matters worse is it was trying to run after us! We tried to keep away from it, feeling afraid of being hit by its beak. After we told about it to the officer, then we knew what had actually happened. The single bird was known to always fight with each other. And they intentionally left it outside to avoid the fight. So, during meal times, they also gave it the fishes outside the cage. After we heard his explanation, we felt a bit relieved, but still afraid of its beak. Soon after that, we went to the next destination.

The surrender point. There's nothing there except the declaration stone. About a few meters away, there's a garden with another museum in it. Unfortunately, it was closed, again... We had no chance to gain more knowledge about the Surrender Point. Pity us... :(

These are some places that we visited in Wilayah Persekutuan Labuan. Actually, there are more attractions. However, personally, I think Brunei is much more interesting compared to Labuan. But there's no harm to go there. Maybe you can choose to travel just like we did: go to Brunei and Labuan one after another.