Trip to Labuan, Sabah (Day 2)

After having a good night's rest on the comfy bed at the hotel, we started Day 2 of our Labuan trip with a renewed dose of enthusiasm. Our 1st stop was none other than the World War II Memorial, not too far from town. Actually, almost everything's "not too far from town"! Give it a 10 minutes drive or so & you'll arrive at your destination. Haha.

On the way to the War Memorial, we passed by the well-known An-Nur Jamek State Mosque, a rather interesting looking mosque, in my opinion. It sure reminded me of an 'octopus' & it's a large piece of architecture that you won't miss each time you want to get from 1 end to the other end of the island. According to Wikipedia, the architecture of this mosque contains a mixture of 'Brunei Malay architectural elements & Turkish architecture'. One day...one day, I'll visit Turkey & then, I'll know what Turkish architecture really looks like!

The World War II Memorial looks like any other cemetery that you've come across, except that it's VERY, VERY well kept. I've never had the need to visit many graveyards since all my grandparents who have gone before me were cremated & some, their ashes were scattered into the sea.

The memorial area were generally separated into 2 major portions: 1. for the Sikhs, & 2. for the Christians.

Those from the India were laid to rest here

Some of the warriors who died in the battle field were as young as 20 years old! :( They aren't even from our country & they helped our country to fight the battle.

Onward Christian soldiers...

This was something that I noticed while I was at the memorial. The gravestones were all facing a certain direction. Those who are Sikhs had their gravestones facing east, while those who are Christians had their gravestones facing the Cross of Jesus - all of them! *melts*

So many people perished for the sake of a country that weren't even theirs! *melts again*

As you would have noticed in the previous photo, the sky was somewhat melting like yours truly. Before I "woke up from the nostalgic feeling", I heard the sound of rain coming towards me & I ran across the memorial like a mad woman back to the car! The rain was HEAVY!! Suddenly! AP was still dry since he got into the car due to the heat of the sun, but I was kinda drenched wet by the suddenly crying of the skies. The weather at Labuan was just unpredictable!

Since it started pouring everywhere in the small island of Labuan, we decided to head back to town. We ended up getting some drinks at the shops near the jetty area & even packed some lunch back to the hotel.

Our 'favorite' hang-out spot since it's a short walk from the hotel
I think we stopped by this mall for the aircon at least once a day & just to NOT laze around in the hotel too much. Since it's the only mall in Labuan, it's quite a popular hang-out place especially during the weekends. We saw way more people on the Saturday & Sunday than on Friday.

Some of the drinks that we bought...ciders to accompany our lunch!

This wasn't part of the plan, but while heading back to our car after our "alcohol-shopping" at the jetty area, we were 'seduced by the fragrant whiff of roast chicken' coming from a nearby coffeeshop! We just HAD to try it.

"Salad Fried Chicken" (RM5.00/serving with rice) & Roast Chicken Rice (RM5.00/serving with rice)

When you're hungry, relaxed & on a holiday mood, everything seems to just taste good! This was actually more enjoyable than the dinner at Anjung Ketam! Hahaha...

As if we didn't have enough of chicken for the day, after a good afternoon rest at the hotel (with free-flow of air-conditioner), we decided to continue our "adventure" for the day with the hunt for the "best bbq chicken wings" in Labuan!

The "best bbq chicken wings" is said to be sold at a road-side stall in Kampung Sungai Keling, opposite Taman Sintee. For a foreigner to Labuan, this was certainly an adventure with Waze!

Waze took us uphill, downhill, through villages, small roads...etc...

But thank God, we found the stall! It's now RM10.00 for 5 pairs of wings instead of RM9.00 for 6 pairs of wings as per the website that I've taken the information from. Not cheap, really. But since we came all the way to hunt for this stall, we just splurged RM20.00 for our evening tea.

Business is apparently brisk. The stall starts up at 4:30pm daily & their wings are sold out in 2 hours time! Like seriously??!

Apart from the usual chicken wings, this stall sells chicken satay (satay ayam, RM0.60/stick), "bishop's nose" satay (satay tongkeng ayam/chicken's "backside"...hahaha, RM1.00/stick) + ABC (air batu campur/shaved ice with sweet condiments, RM2.00/bowl). I didn't know that the "butt" costs more than the flesh! *rofl* You can actually call to place your orders as well if you're ordering by the bulk: (+6019-8325389/ +6014-8737989).

The evening was just terribly hot, so we ended up packing the wings & driving over to Layang-Layangan beach, the next stop for sunset, to enjoy the wings, hopefully by the beach.

You would have guessed it right. The sun was still scorching hot, so we decided to take some shed at the nearby stalls opposite the beach, which ALSO sells LOADS of bbq chicken wings! Clevermunkey did tell me that his favorite bbq chicken wings are sold here, but there was more than 1 stall selling wings & we didn't wanna just end up having tonnes of wings for 'dinner'. We ordered a fresh coconut each (RM5.00/coconut - so expensive) & started enjoying the wings that we've bought from Kak Rose's stall.

The wings were somewhat "small" so I think she gave us more than the 5 pairs of wings. The wings were sweet & savory; taste-wise it's quite delicious, but because the wings were so "skinny", it felt slightly dry. The chili sauce that came with it was SPICY though...very power-packed!

After having our evening tea, we took a stroll at the beach & watched the sun slowly setting 'into the ocean'....ahhh....

We also stopped by the Peace Park, which was opposite the beach, while waiting for the glorious sun to set.

I didn't realize that Labuan was one of the major areas for the starting & ending of a war. What captured my attention most was the final statement on the plaque (just over-look the grammatical mistakes that they made): "May it stand as a lasting monument of human devotion to duty & symbolise the fervent hope of every man, women, and child on this land that never again will this island be a witness to so much sufferings & miserys."

Wow, I really wonder how bad the whole things was that such words had to be inscribed on stone to be a reminder for the future generations!

The Monument at Peace Park

People fishing at the pond in the park

This is a baby Flowerhorn fish :)

After a good dose of nostalgia, I ran back to the beach like a mad woman (again) just to catch the extremely quick setting of the sun, as if it was getting swallowed by the vast ocean!

Goodbye, sun. 'Til we meet again tomorrow...

Beautiful colors at dusk :)

Right before leaving the Layang-Layangan beach, we found out that the next place of interest that we wanted to visit was actually just a 3 minutes walk from where we were =.=" Labuan IS really small!

The Surrender Point was the last on the list. Everything else is probably a bonus. We just didn't end up island-hopping at Pulau Kuraman, Pulau Rusukan Besar, & Pulau Rusukan Kecil since AP was somewhat concerned with the recent kidnapping at Semporna, which is also nearby. The weather at the earlier part of the day wasn't fantastic as well, so it was a good decision to not go out to sea (and probably never return).

This is the point (north Borneo) where the 37th Japanese Army surrendered to the 9th Division of the Australian Imperial Forces. *oooo*

What a nostalgic & adventurous day. A day where we're reminded of the war this island went through, the peace that the people pursued & the continuous peace that the island is now enjoying as a result of the warriors who have gone before us.

We ended our day with a simple non-local dinner - Japanese food! Ahahaha...after witnessing the surrendering of the Japanese army on this island, we headed to the International Sea Sport Complex near our hotel, where we spotted a quiet little Japanese restaurant for dinner.

Senkawa Japanese Restaurant
It's located at the EXTREMELY deserted & quiet 'food court' area of the sports complex. SO eery that it reminded me of the animation Spirited Away.

Tip: Do not go there alone, where possible. It's SO quiet that it felt dangerous (although Labuan may be WAY safer than KL).

The entrance of the restaurant

 

Salmon Toro Tataki Maki (RM38.00/set)

I found it quiet expensive for a small island's price, but thank God the taste is still good. Of course there are better ones back in PJ/KL, but this one at Labuan still has a certain level of standard maintained :)

Gyudon (can't recall the price)

Nothing, absolutely nothing, beats the Gyudon at Koi Zen Japanese Restaurant at Star City, Kuantan! This version wasn't too bad, but I still miss the one at Koi Zen. To the very least, the pieces of beef here were thin enough & tender.

And such is the end of Day 2. Another day has passed. We've 1 more day of adventure before we headed back to the Peninsula.Indeed, as what Clevermunkey has said, 1 day is sufficient to cover the whole of Labuan!


Feeling Nostalgic,