Labuan – The Island of Gardens

We arrived on the island of Labuan after a comparatively short and pleasant 3 day and 3 night sail/motor 390nm north from Kuching, we had made it to the northern most state of Malaysia – Sabah. Labuan is famous as the location for the Japanese surrender of the island of Borneo at the end of WWII and is now popular due to its duty free port status. We seem to stumble across these in Malaysia, a tax-free haven where tourists travel here to go crazy buying beer, spirits and chocolate at prices 20% of the remainder of the country. 

Previously owned by the Brunei Sultanate until being ceded to the British in 1846, Labuan is just a stones throw west of its historical owner, though we were not going to visit there this time. The Bruneians do come here to enjoy the free and cheap flowing alcohol and weekender boat trips escalate until quieting down ahead of Monday, as Bruneians make their way back to their oil rich state.

So while Hugh was neck deep in engine maintenance my focus shifted to the small tasks on the boat, planning our provisioning needs upon leaving Malaysia and visiting the beautiful parks and gardens of the island. The number of parks and their immaculate management was such a stark contrast to other parts of the country where nothing but a dust bowl or overgrown patch of land could be found when one was seeking some pubic space refuge. Well tended flower beds, manicured gardens, trees planted to create shady boulevards and colourful paving marked the open space strip which ran for a length of 3 kms through the east side of the town. The inclusion of a meticulously maintained botanical garden is also impressive. 

The strangest part of it all is that the locals just shrug it off, because this is business as usual. To see the locals playing soccer or badminton at the end of the day loving their parks was a great thing to see, or during the day just sitting in their paved plazas’ having a chat, giving the town a vibrant feel. 

A fabulous surprise to experience and an obvious distinction to towns and cities in Peninsula Malaysia. A large income source for Malaysia are drawn from its rich oil deposits mined from the South China Sea. Labuan houses oil refining for easy dispatch via boat, south to Singapore or north to China. The open spaces and parks on Labuan balance out the noxious refining processes that go on here, a dichotomy of land uses.

Other fun features which we came across while wandering through town was the weightlifting ‘strong man’ competition on the weekend and the central market which closes the streets to cars and scooters and bursts to life with fresh cooked food, fresh produce and plants. The music booming from the loudspeakers made me giggle as the song ‘Gangnam Style’ was rewritten to be ‘Sabah Style’. Classy.

We wandered the 3kms east to the Commonwealth WWII War Memorial, which is one of the places where Australian, Indian and British soldiers or POWs who died during the war were buried. We left a flower at Hughs’ family relatives’ plaque, a POW captured with the fall of Malaya. Labuan seemed like an apt place to bury them, as this was the location for the Japanese surrender of this theatre of war. I was leant a book from a fellow cruiser here at the marina on the POW camp at Sandakan in northern Borneo, where 2,424 Australian and British soldiers were worked, starved and marched to death as part of a ‘leave no traces’ Japanese plan. Only 6 men (Australians) survived due to extraordinary escapes and help from local Malay people who were unsure who to trust – the new oppressive ruling Japanese, or the British who were bombing and strafing the land in an attempt to drive out the invaders. Such a tale of a grim 3 year existence of the POWs and their torturous deaths is still today a reminder of the tragic hopelessness of war. 

Commonwealth WWII Memorial, Labuan

The provisioning was another experience, but as usual I had fun at the market. Because Labuan has a mix of Islamic Malaysians, Hindu Indians and Buddhist Chinese, the full range of meats are available you just have to scout them out. Muslims hate pork, Chinese love pork and any meat really, while the Hindus wont touch beef and don’t seem to be that interested in pork. Hugh is feeling a great need for some pork, so as the quartermaster it was my job to solve that crisis. At the fresh market (the pasar) I had to hunt out the pork (babi) seller…I knew they would be hidden in a back ‘sin’ alley somewhere, out of sight and passage of the local Islamic population. So there I stumbled across the babi shack, a small building where the chinese proprietors sold chunks of pork as you order. I ordered with a point and showed how big a piece I wanted and that was that, dinner sorted! Then I wandered through the fresh vegetable market and as usual, the locals were friendly and saying welcome and asking me how I was. I responded with the usual morning greeting and answered their question posed in English with a Malay answer. They always get a kick out of that. It’s easy to get a grin out of the locals, usually by mispronouncing something in Malay or saying good morning instead of good afternoon. 

So Labuan turned out to be another interesting point on our marathon journey through the Malaysian lands, a surprisingly green and recreationally focused town. Next stop, the busy tourist haven of Kota Kinabalu. 

28/5/14

Categories: boat life, malaysia