LABUAN!!!

Last week was holiday week in Malaysia. Everything was closed most of the week, as Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday were national holidays. Most businesses closed on Monday and Friday also. So everyone had a week's vacation. Kate asked if we would like to take a day and go with her to her hometown of Labuan. We thought that it would be a nice change of pace for us and a chance to visit a new and different place. Kate was born and reared in Labuan which is an island off of the coast of our island of Borneo. It is part of Malaysia, but is a province and not a state. The only way to reach it is by ferry or speedboat, which we used because of the time factor. This picture is one of the home of the richest resident on Labuan. He is Chinese, of course and his business is trading.

This is a picture of E. Larson, Kate, and her little niece who spent the day with us. We drove for three hours to a small town on the coast to catch the ferry to Labuan. We decided to leave our car and take the speedboat to the island. It cost us 6 rm to park our car for the day. That's $2!!!! The speedboat ride was choppy going over but very nice coming back later in the day. One of Kate's brother pick us up at the boat terminal and we went to have lunch with her family at a small kedai(restaurant). BUT they had sold out of food when we arrived--because of the holiday everyone was eating out!! Kate is one of 8 children. She has 7 older brothers. This is a picture of Kate, her niece, and E. Larson a lovely waterfront park. Everything is waterfront in Labuan.

This is another one of the many gorgeous trees in Malaysia. This one was located in the park also.

We visited a wonderful WWII cemetery there. Kate says that the natives are very proud of this site because Queen Elizabeth visited here and dedicated the monument to the local,English and Australian dead who fought the Japanese. It was a beautifully done and inspirational site. E. Larson really enjoyed it. Every marker had a totally different epitaph. It really was quite moving. The UN keeps up the grounds and landscaping.

Since we had no food with Kate's family, she took us to a beautiful hotel dining room for lunch. This hotel used to be a vacation home for some rich Saudi prince. It was turned into a resort hotel. The grounds and place are fabulous!!

While we were waiting for our speedboat number, I took this picture of the ferry loading with cars and people going to Labuan. This was a huge ferry. Kate's second brother is getting ready to purchase one of these as one of his business ventures. All of her brothers except one, who live in Canada, still lives on the island.

We left at about 4 o'clock to go back to KK. This was on Wednesday, August 31 which is Malaysia's Independence Day. It also happened to be Hari Raya this year. It was like Christmas. The traffic was terrible going home and we got to see so many Christmas lights and fireworks on the way back. Just like Christmas at home, people spend the day visiting family and eating lots of food!!!

We were tired and happy by the time we got home. Thanks, Kate, for a wonderful day!!!

LOVE YOU MORE THAN WE CAN EXPRESS!!!!

DAD & MOM