Labuan 2013 - 3H2M

Labuan 2013
Labuan adalah sebuah pulau yang sebesar separuh daripada Pulau Pinang (Penang). Walaupun Pulau Labuan ini tidak besar namun terdapat juga tempat yang menarik jika hendak dikunjungi.
Dari segi hiburan malam, ternyata Labuan terdapat banyak pub dan club karaoke. Disebabkan mungkin oleh minuman arak yang murah dan juga persinggahan kapal-kapal dagang jadi banyakla kelasi kapal yang turun dari kapal untuk berhibur.
Trip solo 3h2m saya ke Labuan merupakan trip pertama kali. Saya dapat tiket Promo Air Asia Cuma RM98 pergi balik total termasuk tax…murah kan. Dah lama nak singgah di Labuan sebenarnya walaupun sudah 8 kali sampai di Sabah tapi tak kesempatan.

Hari Pertama
Hari pertama sampai di Labuan menaiki pewasay Air Asia jam 7.35am, sampai di Labuan jam 10.00am. Dari airport ada dua cara hendak ke Bandar, yang pertama yang murah adalah menaiki Bus Mini (Van), kekadang van ini masuk ke airport hantar orang, jadi kita kena tanya samaada dia ke Bandar atau ketempat lain. Bayaran dalam seringgit. Atau anda boleh tunggu di luar airport untuk tahan Bus Mini (bus) atau Bus Mini (Van). Cara kedua adalah dengan menaiki teksi, teksi lebih mahal..tak tanya pulak saya berapa sebab saya tidak naik teksi. Ketibaan saya dijemput oleh kenalan saya yang bernama Malik, beliau menguruskan kereta sewa persendirian di Labuan. Perjalanan saya dari airport ke backpacker di Bandar Cuma lebih kurang 10minit sahaja.

Saya menginap di Hostel Backpacker Jack yang terletak tidak jauh dari terminal Jetty Antarabangsa. Saya cari backpacker ini melalui internet, tapi backpacker ini sudah tidak aktif webnya, jangan email atau call. Nasib baik hostel ini masih wujud. Pandangan pertama saya sampai di hostel backpacker ini ternyata indah kabar dari websitenya. Rasanya gambar2 dalam website tu adalah gambar ketika mula2 ia beroperasi. Saya ada tanya berkenaan booking saya melalui email, petugas hostel tersebut cakap tiada internet dan walk in sahaja. Terdapat beberapa bilik dan dorm, tapi hanya 1 bilik(double) dan 1 dorm (11 bed) sahaja yang available. Bilik dan dorm lain sudah di sewa bulanan kepada pekerja syarikat. Harga semalam hanya RM25 sahaja. Boleh la sekadar hendak tidor, dorm Cuma dilengkapi dengan aircond dan kipas. Bilik air satu sahaja di luar dan tidak dijaga dengan baik, pintu rosak..pendek kata kurang selesa. Tapi bagi backpacker mcm saya asalkan tempat tu selamat dan ada toilet dan air kira ok la..nak jimat la kata kan. Memang boring di hostel ini kerana tiada TV, nasib baik ada pc kat ruang tamu boleh layan movie.

Hari pertama saya tidak kemana2, selepas solat jumaat di masjid berdekatan saya rehat sahaja di bilik. Sekitar jam 2.30pm barulah saya keluar jalan2 di pekan Labuan yang kecil itu. Saya dapati banyak kedai2 yang menjual pakaian, coklat dan arak. Saya singgah di Bazar Labuan melihat ole-ole, terdapat tshirt yang bertulis Labuan dalam pelbagai corak. Harga sekitar RM10-RM30. Ok la kualiti kena pandai pilih. Saya singgah juga di terminal jetty Antarabangsa untuk survey harga tiket boat dan juga harga kereta sewa dan motosikal sewa. Kereta sewa paling murah Kancil sekitar RM60 24jam, manakala motosikal sekitar RM40 24jam.

Berbuka puasa di Labuan jan 6.30pm. Saya sempat jalan2 sekitar Pasar Ramadan Labuan. Juadah makanan yang dijual sama saja seperti di Semenanjung lebih kurang saja. Saya tidak pernah membeli juada berbuka puasa di Pasar Ramadan sejak 3 tahun kebelakangan ini, sebabnya malas dengan karenah peniaga yang tidak jujur, jual makanan asal boleh saya, tidak jaga kualiti dan juga kebersihan. Saya beli sedikit kuih buat berbuka, kemudian saya dijemput oleh rakan saya berbuka puasa di Restoran Terapung Steam Boat “Manja Rasa”. Ok juga makan disini, tapi steam boat di Kl lagi menarik kerana disini kurang menunya.. tapi ok la kan murah saja sekitar RM20 sahaja makan sampai kenyang.
Aktiviti malamnya bagi saya yang bukan kaki clubbing memang membosankan. Sekitar hostel saya menginap terdapat pub club, karaoke club, pusat snooker dan juga kedai makan. Memang meriah dan ramai orang yang datang sampai 2-3pagi. Kebetulan ada game Malaysia Vs Chelsea, so saya Cuma layan bola saja di kedai makan. Makan disini senang banyak restoran halal dan di bulan puasa ada yang buka sampai sahur. Bawah hostel saya menginap ni pun ada 4 restoran.

Hari Kedua
Hari ini maka bermula lah ekplorasi saya. Sekitar jam 9.30am saya sudah mengambil moto sewa di terminal jetty. Scuter cepat habis yang tinggal Cuma manual, so dapat Modenas Kris. Ok la kan. Mula2 saya buat keputusan hendak cari hotel buget yang lebih selesa sebab boring kat hostel tersebut..cari punya cari tiada yang murah dan banyak penuh. Akhirnya saya redo jer duk kat situ :D.

Saya meneruskan perjalanan mengelingi Pulau Labuan. Sekiranya menaiki kereta dan melalui jalan utama kita Cuma ambil masa tidak sampai 2 jam untuk pusing Labuan dengan jarak Cuma 40km sahaja. Lokasi pertama saya tuju adalah Memorial Perang Dunia Kedua ( World War II Memorial) Terletak tidak jauh dari pekan Labuan. Disini tiada apa yang menarik Cuma perkuburan memorial sahaja, tetapi masih di jaga dengan baik.


Selepas bergambar saya meneruskan perjalanan ke Layang Layangan. Tempat penyerahan kalah tentera Jepun (Surrender Point) dan juga taman peringatan damai ( Peace Park). Tiada apa juga disini hanya taman peringatan sahaja yang terletak sebelah pantai. Pantainya juga tidak cantik…huhuhuhu pikir 2 kali kalau nak mandi… Jgn marah yer orang Labuan .

Seterusnya saya melawat Chimney kawasan bekas tempat perlombongan arang batu di Labuan. Yang tinggal menara dan dijadikan museum. Disini sempat la saya membaca sejarah perlombongan Arang Batu di Labuan.

 

Sepanjang perjalanan saya sempat singgah di Perkampungan Air Kampung Patau-Patau dua dan satu, serta kawasan2 pantai dan juga taman seperti Labuan Square dan sebagainya. Sekitar jam 3pm saya sudah selesai, jadi saya singgah di shooping mall yang terbesar di Labuan iaitu di Ujana Kewangan, Banggunan besar dimana dua tingkat dibawah adalah shooping mall, selebihnya tingkat 2 keatas adalah pejabat kerajaan. Memang ramai pengunjung mungkin kerana ini saja tempat yang menarik dan happening kot. Saya pusing2 window shoping, ternyata tiada pakaian berjenama yang murah disini, semuanya biasa sahaja. Seterusnya jam 6.00pm saya meninjau di Labuan Walk tempat Pasar Ramadan yang terbesar di pekan Labuan. Tiada yang berkenan dihati, jadi saya pulang ke hostel hendak lawan western food kat restoran dibawah backpacker, tak sempat nak oder rakan saya datang jemput, dia bawa makan di meden selera Labuan. Ok juga tempat ni, tapi makanan biasa saja… layan aja.

Aktiviti malam selepas solat saya pun tak tau nak buat apa so saya layan movie di backpacker bersama2 budak2 yang menyewa bulanan disitu. Kalau anda hendak tahu di Labuan ini tiada Pangung Wayang. Jadi orang Labuan kalau hendak tgk movie akan tgk cd atau pun akan ke KK tengok wayang..sedih kan.

Hari Ketiga
Hari ketiga saya tidak buat apa rehat saja, jam 9.30am saya hantar moto dan mula shoping ole2, tak banyak pun beli, Cuma tshirt Labuan untuk diri sendiri aja di Bazar Labuan. Jam 3pm kawan saya datang jemput hantar ke Airport.

Berikut saya kongsikan hasil pembacaan saya berkaitan Labuan

HomeStay
Terdapat beberapa HomeStay yang dicadangkan oleh kementerian perlancongan dalam brosurnya antaranya Kampung Air Kampung Patau Patau II, I Kampung Bebuloh Laut , Kampung Ranca-Rancha Laut dan kampong Bukit Kuda.

Pulau-Pulau Sekitar Labuan
Labuan terkenal juga dengan aktiviti menyelam “Diving” antara seperti bangkai kapal karam. Terdapat beberapa bangkai kapal seperti Kapal Perang Tung Huang 1980, Mabini Padre 1981, USS Salute 1945, SS De Klerk (Australia) 1944. Pulau-pulau lain seperti pulau Kuraman, Pulau rusukan Kecil dan besar, pulau burong dan pulau papan.

Shooping di Labuan
Shaoping kat Labuan ni tak la menarik, kerana rata-rata orang Labuan pergi ke KK untuk membeli belah. Bagi yang suka minuman keras dan coklat memang la happening kerana banyak kedai yang menjual arak2 terkenal dengan harga murah. Makan2 di Labuan juga senang kerana banyak restoran seafood kat sini.

Sekian

Tentative saya

Day 1 - 27.07.2013 - Jumaat
07.35am - Berlepas
10.00am - Tiba di Labuan sampai Backpacker rehat
02.30pm - Mula Jalan2
06.30pm - Buka puasa

Day 2 - 28.07.2013 - Sabtu
09.30am - Mula ronda dengan moto
- World War II, Kampung Air, The Chimney, Peace Park,Surrender point, Botanical Garden,
- Tanjung Purun, Labuan Square, Marine Museum
03.00pm - Ujana Kewangan
06.00pm - Pasar Ramadan, Medan Selera

Day 3 - 29.07.2013 - Ahad
09.30am - Shoping Ole-ole Bazar Labuan
03.00pm - Transfer to Airport
04.40pm - Berlepas ke KL
07.00pm - Tiba di LCCT

Cadangan saya kepada anda yang teringin hendak ke Labuan adalah, jika boleh satu malam sahaja sudah cukup, selebihnya anda boleh pergi ke KK, pulau tiga atau juga Brunei, jadi jika kelabuan jangan lupa bawa passport.

Kos Perbelanjaan 3h2m
Flight Return = RM98
Backpacker Hostel 2 malam = RM50
Sewa Motosikal = RM40

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WHY YOU SHOULD TRAVEL YOUNG

Salam semua, ingin saya berkongsi satu entry yang menarik jugak kenapa kita patut travel semasa masih muda.

WHY YOU SHOULD TRAVEL YOUNG

Posted by Jeff Goins (Google+) on Tuesday, June 26, 2012 · 93 Comments

Use this shortlink to link to this story:  http://convergemagazine.com/travel-young-5278/

Photo by Geoff Heith

As I write this, I’m flying. It’s an incredible concept: to be suspended in the air, moving at two hundred miles an hour — while I read a magazine. Amazing, isn’t it?

I woke up at three a.m. this morning. Long before the sun rose, thirty people loaded up three conversion vans and drove two hours to the San Juan airport. Our trip was finished. It was time to go home. But we were changed.

As I sit, waiting for the flight attendant to bring my ginger ale, I’m left wondering why I travel at all. The other night, I was reminded why I do it — why I believe this discipline of travel is worth all the hassle.

I was leading a missions trip in Puerto Rico. After a day of work, as we were driving back to the church where we were staying, one of the young women brought up a question.

“Do you think I should go to graduate school or move to Africa?”

I don’t think she was talking to me. In fact, I’m pretty sure she wasn’t. But that didn’t stop me from offering my opinion.

I told her to travel. Hands down. No excuses. Just go.

She sighed, nodding. “Yeah, but…”

I had heard this excuse before, and I didn’t buy it. I knew the “yeah-but” intimately. I had uttered it many times before. The words seem innocuous enough, but are actually quite fatal.

Yeah, but …

… what about debt?

… what about my job?

… what about my boyfriend?

This phrase is lethal. It makes it sound like we have the best of intentions, when really we are just too scared to do what we should. It allows us to be cowards while sounding noble.

Most people I know who waited to travel the world never did it. Conversely, plenty of people who waited for grad school or a steady job still did those things after they traveled.

It reminded me of Dr. Eisenhautz and the men’s locker room.

Dr. Eisenhautz was a German professor at my college. I didn’t study German, but I was a foreign language student so we knew each other. This explains why he felt the need to strike up a conversation with me at six o’clock one morning.

I was about to start working out, and he had just finished. We were both getting dressed in the locker room. It was, to say the least, a little awkward — two grown men shooting the breeze while taking off their clothes.

“You come here often?” he asked. I could have laughed.

“Um, yeah, I guess,” I said, still wiping the crusted pieces of whatever out of my eyes.

“That’s great,” he said. “Just great.”

I nodded, not really paying attention. He had already had his adrenaline shot; I was still waiting for mine. I somehow uttered that a friend and I had been coming to the gym for a few weeks now, about three times a week.

“Great,” Dr. Eisenhautz repeated. He paused as if to reflect on what he would say next. Then, he just blurted it out. The most profound thing I had heard in my life.

“The habits you form here will be with you for the rest of your life.”



Photos by Geoff Heith

My head jerked up, my eyes got big, and I stared at him, letting the words soak into my half-conscious mind. He nodded, said a gruff goodbye, and left. I was dumbfounded.

The words reverberated in my mind for the rest of the day. Years later, they still haunt me. It’s true — the habits you form early in life will, most likely, be with you for the rest of your existence.

I have seen this fact proven repeatedly. My friends who drank a lot in college drink in larger quantities today. Back then, we called it “partying.” Now, it has a less glamorous name: alcoholism. There are other examples. The guys and girls who slept around back then now have babies and unfaithful marriages. Those with no ambition then are still working the same dead end jobs.

“We are what we repeatedly do,” Aristotle once said. While I don’t want to sound all gloom-and-doom, and I believe your life can turn around at any moment, there is an important lesson here: life is a result of intentional habits. So I decided to do the things that were most important to me first, not last.

After graduating college, I joined a band and traveled across North America for nine months. With six of my peers, I performed at schools, churches, and prisons. We even spent a month in Taiwan on our overseas tour. (We were huge in Taiwan.)

As part of our low-cost travel budget, we usually stayed in people’s homes. Over dinner or in conversation later in the evening, it would almost always come up — the statement I dreaded. As we were conversing about life on the road — the challenges of long days, being cooped up in a van, and always being on the move — some well-intentioned adult would say, “It’s great that you’re doing this … while you’re still young.”

Ouch. Those last words — while you’re still young — stung like a squirt of lemon juice in the eye (a sensation with which I am well acquainted). They reeked of vicarious longing and mid-life regret. I hated hearing that phrase.

I wanted to shout back,

“No, this is NOT great while I’m still young! It’s great for the rest of my life! You don’t understand. This is not just a thing I’m doing to kill time. This is my calling! My life! I don’t want what you have. I will always be an adventurer.”

In a year, I will turn thirty. Now I realize how wrong I was. Regardless of the intent of those words, there was wisdom in them.

As we get older, life can just sort of happen to us. Whatever we end up doing, we often end up with more responsibilities, more burdens, more obligations. This is not always bad. In fact, in many cases it is really good. It means you’re influencing people, leaving a legacy.

Youth is a time of total empowerment. You get to do what you want. As you mature and gain new responsibilities, you have to be very intentional about making sure you don’t lose sight of what’s important. The best way to do that is to make investments in your life so that you can have an effect on who you are in your later years.

I did this by traveling. Not for the sake of being a tourist, but to discover the beauty of life — to remember that I am not complete.

There is nothing like riding a bicycle across the Golden Gate Bridge or seeing the Coliseum at sunset. I wish I could paint a picture for you of how incredible the Guatemalan mountains are or what a rush it is to appear on Italian TV. Even the amazing photographs I have of Niagara Falls and the American Midwest countryside do not do these experiences justice. I can’t tell you how beautiful southern Spain is from the vantage point of a train; you have to experience it yourself. The only way you can relate is by seeing them.

While you’re young, you should travel. You should take the time to see the world and taste the fullness of life. Spend an afternoon sitting in front of the Michelangelo. Walk the streets of Paris. Climb Kilimanjaro. Hike the Appalachian trail. See the Great Wall of China. Get your heart broken by the “killing fields” of Cambodia. Swim through the Great Barrier Reef. These are the moments that define the rest of your life; they’re the experiences that stick with you forever.

Traveling will change you like little else can. It will put you in places that will force you to care for issues that are bigger than you. You will begin to understand that the world is both very large and very small. You will have a newfound respect for pain and suffering, having seen that two-thirds of humanity struggle to simply get a meal each day.

While you’re still young, get cultured. Get to know the world and the magnificent people that fill it. The world is a stunning place, full of outstanding works of art. See it.

You won’t always be young. And life won’t always be just about you. So travel, young person. Experience the world for all it’s worth. Become a person of culture, adventure, and compassion. While you still can.

Do not squander this time. You will never have it again. You have a crucial opportunity to invest in the next season of your life now. Whatever you sow, you will eventually reap. The habits you form in this season will stick with you for the rest of your life. So choose those habits wisely.

And if you’re not as young as you’d like (few of us are), travel anyway. It may not be easy or practical, but it’s worth it. Traveling allows you to feel more connected to your fellow human beings in a deep and lasting way, like little else can. In other words, it makes you more human.

That’s what it did for me, anyway.

Photos by Geoff Heith

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