HAVE you ever tried visiting a place for a very short period of time? Believe it or not but that was the summary of our day three experience.
We initially planned staying overnight at Labuan which is also a popular destination for cheap Duty Free items in Malaysia. But later on, we decided to just go there to buy some pasalubongs to bring back home and go for a short sightseeing.
Only the duty free shopping happened and it turned out to be a day of sitting down inside the ferry (lol!). Still, no regrets!
A short stay at Duty Free Heaven
Labuan is about 3 hours away from Kota Kinabalu and ferry schedules from KK to Labuan are only 2 hours apart! Since we were really eager to visit the place, we just tried our luck on what we can accomplish for that short period of time.
Our jump off time from KK was at 8 a.m. and we arrived in Labuan at around 11:15 a.m. We then immediately got our return tickets for the 1 p.m. schedule wherein the boarding time is set at 12:30 p.m.
That left us with only an hour to explore Labuan so Claud and I decided to say goodbye to the museums that we want to visit and headed straight to Ujana Kewangan (Financial Park) for some rush pasalubong shopping. We rode a taxi from the ferry terminal going to the mall and back for a total of about RM 20. From our experience, people here also understand English well so you can just ask someone for directions in case you get lost.
Ujana Kewangan, according to my research, is known to be the only shopping mall in the area since it is only a small island. A lot of duty free shops are in the mall and also stalls selling local treats. I was too busy shopping though when we went here so I forgot to take a photo.
After our rush shopping we then headed back to the ferry terminal and also checked out some duty free stalls there. They also have pretty good chocolate bundle deals there.
Ferry ticket is at RM 40 for KK to Labuan and RM 34 for Labuan to KK for the Economy Class seats. First Class seats cost about RM 5 more. There’s not much of the difference in seats for me though, it’s just that the Economy Seats are situated downstairs.
Labuan is just like Kota Kinabalu but it is a more laid back type of place and something just like my hometown. It has beautifully constructed buildings which I only had the chance to take a glimpse of through the taxi window but still, I had fun.
I will definitely be back to get to know you more soon, Labuan.
Stay tuned for the last part next week which includes the overall budget breakdown for this trip!
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Hi, I’m Kriztja and thanks for reading My Notebook! Check out my blog: rainbow-wishes.blogspot.com for more. Comments? Suggestions? Email me at: kriztja.labrador@gmail.com.