Day 2 :: Labuan to Brunei

W.P. Labuan & Brunei Trip 2013 
Date: 10 (Sunday) - 13 (Wednesday) February 2013

Location: Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei

Weather: Sunny

Transportation: Ferry

Woke up early to make sure I would be able to get the earliest ferry to Brunei. Reached the ferry counter around 7.30am and there were 2 ticket counters opened where 1 is for domestic and 1 for international. Well, domestic is for Menumbok, Kota Kinabalu(KK) etc and International is Brunei. Queue for domestic was very long and I heard the ticket to KK that day already sold out (don’t know why a lot of people going to KK during Chinese New Year). One way ticket to Brunei costs RM35. There are 2 class and this is for 2^nd class. I saw in the ferry that 1^st class has bigger individual chair (like in a 3-seater bus) and more private space. Anyway, you cannot buy return ticket at the counter. Return ticket from Brunei to Labuan has to be bought at Brunei’s Ferry terminal itself.

Since it’s still early, I went for breakfast at the mamak shop across the street. There were quite a lot of people. The food price here was not as expensive as I thought, almost similar to KL.

Journey to Brunei took 1.5hrs and as I suspected, the ferry was empty hahaha! I got the whole row to myself. The aircond wasn’t that cold either and there’s a movie played but I can’t remember what it was.

Custom clearance was smooth as there’re not many people around. Upon arrival outside, I straight went to the ticket counter which is located to the left of the arrival hall. To be exact, it is located directly in front of departure hall. Don’t fret, the ferry terminal is very small. U won’t get lost. Unfortunately for me, all of the counters were closed. I (and a lot of others there) waited for an hour when I finally gave Uncle Saiful a call. Uncle Saiful is my friend’s uncle who is living in Brunei. Coincidentally  we met earlier when I went to my friends’ brothers’ house in Shah Alam. He’s returning from Malaysia the same day as my arrival. Since it’s already 11.30am, I thought he must have arrived.

11.50am, Uncle Saiful and his wife, Aunt Alina picked me up and brought me to their house. We had a chat and after lunch, we started our tour. Well, they’re asking me to just spend the night there since the time will be very tight if I were to return with the 4.30pm ferry on the very day. Basically, I will only hv 2hours in Brunei. They insisted that I stay since I hvn’t bought the return ticket but I had to decline as if I stay, I won’t have time to go around Labuan.

Around 2pm, we departed from the house- me, Uncle Saiful, Aunt Alina and their 2 youngest kids, Insyiraah and Amsyar; and the journey began!