Labuan: Going back soon

My colleague’s senior just joined our project today arriving from the airport in the afternoon. Unfortunately due to a clash in room arrangements, he’s currently sharing the smaller room with his team mates.

He’s from finance and I’m from IT. So the 2 of them shares a closer bond with common chit-chat topics. I can foresee sleepless nights for the both of them.

Anyway I feel kinda bad for taking the larger room myself. But seeing that I’ll soon be leaving and he’ll be re-claiming ‘his’ room in 2 days time. I guess I should think too much into it.

I’ll be heading home soon, will miss this place. But I miss my internet more.

THIS PLACE SUCKS MY INTERNET! LITERALY!

Soon it will be back to the land of traffic jams and more work related stresses.. Haih.

How to make me the coffee I want ;)

Labuan: Weekend

Let’s hear my thoughts on Labuan after spending one week here.

My impression of Labuan starts with the people here. They are warm, friendly and works very efficiently as compared to KL folks. I might argue that the pace of life here is slower and thus they had less to do thus making for effecient work.

We had a couple of times surprised by the people here with well spoken English even at mamaks and other eateries. The same applies to our clients where they place a higher priority over us than their work. This in turn gave us a good impression of them and we’re thus more willing to give them some leeway when they needed some time to finish their work. We managed to get what usually needing 3 weeks here in KL done in 4 days. That’s saying a lot.

Labuan is the same as any other island with lots of greenery. But since it’s primarily a port town, there is a heavy influence of industry with oil and gas being the biggest spender in this little island.

I still haven’t got the time to really go strolling around town as I’m writing this but will do so later and possibly take some pictures of the areas.

Being an island, the weather here is odd. It seldom rain here and even when it does it usually is a passing rain. The air here is clean with the odd silence punctured with air horns from the nearby harbour.

NO TRAFFIC JAMS! That’s the biggest advantage of working here. You can get all sorts of cars at cheaply discounted rates.

I can see there’s still lots of areas for improvement, especially in the area of quality goods and entertainments. Labuan should take advantage of its strategic location and natural forest reserve to develop eco trails and tourism. But before all that can begin, they will need to improve on their ‘packaging’. Just a day ago I ordered a Zinger burger from KFC and upon opening it I saw this:

 

The burger is all messed up and the vege leaves lots to be desired.

Packaging is a big issue here. Taking shopping as an example, it is cheap, but the quality of the packaging just can’t give me the impression that it’s an original product. Given their KLCC is like Sinar Kota here in KL, it really doen’t give lots of confidence. But nonetheless I’ll try to see what I can get later in the day. Update again later this evening.

MJ: You are not alone… I am here with you…

The news has barely sink in, knowing that a legend has passed on. I don’t care how he looks like only knowing that he still makes good music and that’s all that mattered.

I’m still holding to hope that he may be pulling a stunt but seeing that concert organizers are refunding the tickets and the coroners are doing their job as we speak, it may really be true.

Possibly the next piece of news would be an honorary tribute to the King of Pop at music shows for the next couple of years followed by a few hundred rounds of legal battle over his possessions (in particular his holdings over The Beatles collection).

After all is said and done, he shall be remembered by his music which he loved so much.

“You Are Not Alone”

Another day has gone
I’m still all alone
How could this be
You’re not here with me
You never said goodbye
Someone tell me why
Did you have to go
And leave my world so cold

Everyday I sit and ask myself
How did love slip away
Something whispers in my ear and says
That you are not alone
For I am here with you
Though you’re far away
I am here to stay

But you are not alone
For I am here with you
Though we’re far apart
You’re always in my heart
But you are not alone

‘Lone, ‘lone
Why, ‘lone

Just the other night
I thought I heard you cry
Asking me to come
And hold you in my arms
I can hear your prayers
Your burdens I will bear
But first I need your hand
Then forever can begin

Everyday I sit and ask myself
How did love slip away
Something whispers in my ear and says
That you are not alone
For I am here with you
Though you’re far away
I am here to stay

For you are not alone
For I am here with you
Though we’re far apart
You’re always in my heart
For you are not alone

Whisper three words and I’ll come runnin’
And girl you know that I’ll be there
I’ll be there

You are not alone
For I am here with you
Though you’re far away
I am here to stay
For you are not alone
For I am here with you
Though we’re far apart
You’re always in my heart

For you are not alone
For I am here with you
Though you’re far away
I am here to stay

For you are not alone
For I am here with you
Though we’re far apart
You’re always in my heart

For you are not alone…

Labuan: Food

I’m hungry so excuse the obvious title today.

I’d like to start off by saying in comparison to Mongolia / KL, the food here is expensive!!! Labuan being the sad island it is had no choice but to import all it’s dietary needs from either Sabah or Brunei. Chicken and eggs here is exceptionally expensive, which is why there’s only 1 KFC store in the whole island and NO McDonalds.

By my count today is Day 4 of my working trip and I kinda miss eating in once in a while. But ironically while we had nothing but a hot stove in Mongolia; here we had everything but a hot stove. I even brought noodles and seems like it’s going to waste.

We went for the only chicken rice shop in town for lunch and I’m forced to take back my word earlier, cause for RM 10.90 x 4 pax you’ll get all this!

There’s the rice, the chicken, the drinks, the desert, the fish ball soup and the TAUGEY! Lots and lots of taugey! Our little table was soon swamped by all the plates that eating is a tricky skill of balancing the plates and not pushing over our drinks. Granted 10.90 is not cheap, but then it’s the best bang for the buck.

Food is always a nice thing to have when you’re at a foreign place. Trying out all the local delicacies (no matter how eeky) is part of the experience. But due to the non working stove my meals are quite reduced having to eat out most of the time.

Water is also a slight problem here, somehow I just can’t shake off that weird taste in my mouth so I’ve decided not to drink any water from the tap, boiled or otherwise. It’s so bad that I cringe when I had to brush my teeth.

I’ll add that since Mongolia I sorta developed this habit or buying lots of orange juice whenever I work outstation to replace my daily water intake. Expensive but a good habit nonetheless as working OT really drains all the Vitamin C outta you. So I had stock up my fridge with 5x 1.8L packs or orange juice, one for each day. I hope I don’t get some weird disease for getting too much Vit C.

Nega-Scurvy? I’m down to 2 pack or juice and 1 pack of milk for tomorrow’s breakfast. Gotta restock soon!