Ramsey Point
Today we walked to the Maritime Museum of Labuan stopping at the clock tower on the way. The clock tower is an exact replica of the original tower that was built in 1906. It was one of the four structures still standing on Labuan to survive World War II. The Brits demolished it in 1948 and it was eventually rebuilt by Malaysian Tourism in 2002. Our time in the Maritime Museum was spent looking through the exhibits there. It’s a small aquarium with some really interesting looking fish. When we left the museum we walked down to the shore right behind the building. It was a beautiful view except for the plastic and junk that had washed up on shore. There are lots of ships in the harbour and there is a terminal at the port that looks like a grain terminal with silos. It’s may be a cement plant or coal terminal, not sure.
Just a few steps down the beach is Ramsey Point (see picture at top of this page). Ramsey Point is know for two main historical events. On 24th December 1846, the Sultan of Brunei handed over control of Labuan to the British Crown in a gesture of friendship. In a brief ceremony, Admiral George Mundy raised the British Empire flag on this beach, formally marking the start of British rule in Labuan. A hundred years later, this same beach entered the history books once again as it was used as a landing point during World War II. Led by General Douglas MacArthur, the Allied forces landed here on 10 June 1945 to liberate Labuan and Borneo from the Japanese army occupation. A plaque on the beach commemorates this occasion.
We walked to a large duty free store and decided to shop around some more to see if prices varied. The next duty free store was a small mom and pop style place and we bought a dozen beer for around $10 CAD. We don’t mind a cold beer after a hot and humid walkabout. It’s definitely hot and humid in Labuan.
After a cool down at the hotel we took a Grab to the Financial Park Mall. We were in search of a U-Mobile store, or someplace that sells U-Mobile top-ups for our phone. Seems we are burning through hot spotting the laptop to our phone because the hotel wifi is useless. 3 GB for 3 days costs less than a dollar, 86 cents to be exact. We actually had to ask no less than 4 people in the mall for directions to find the correct shop. The place is like a maze. Everyone here is so friendly and almost everyone speaks pretty decent English.
After we left the mall we walked to Sabai Sabai restaurant which is actually a restobar. We ate Thai food and had cold Tiger beer. Just over $17 CAD for 2 meals and 4 beer. We visited with a couple guys from Scotland that work on the offshore oil rigs nearby. Even with google maps we had a difficult time finding the Sabai Sabai! The sign is small and we must had been getting delirious from walking in the heat. Once inside we wondered how we could have missed the place with the loud music playing. The fact is, the entrance is a door that goes up steps to the restaurant. We enjoyed Thai chicken with cashew nuts although we saw more peanuts than cashews.