Ok. Labuan is a nice island, lots of nice shopping, duty free of course (many Malasian Islands are duty free to entice tourists to visit). Barry, his friend and I all went to a nearby watering hole (stress hole) to quench our thirst, while their kids went off in a teksi to find an internet cafe. The watering hole we stumbled upon was a favourite of Barry's and he frequented it, as was immediately evident when we walked through the door. Girls everywhere, and they were all pretty excited to see us. Have to watch out for these girls, too. Sadly most were freshly imported from the Philippines, most probably illegally; they were young. Realizing the men I was with were dirty-old-men I enjoyed my Tiger while they enjoyed flirting with the 18y/o bar workers. After awhile we dodged out to find their kids and proceed back to the speedboat, which was moored near the water village in the harbour.

Water villages are common over here, Brunei having a very large and developed one. They are simply homes built on stilts over the water. In Brunei they are built on the river, in Labuan in the ocean harbour. They are by no means slums; the village in Brunei has a brand new school, mosque, all the homes are well furnished and house deceptively wealthy families. In a recent attempt to evacuate the water village, an eyesore compared to most areas in Brunei, the sultan built homes and gave them away to those willing to leave the stilted homes over the water. Some took him up on his offer, and now live in his homes, refusing to pay for electricity or other utilities citing the homes as a gift. The sultan loses a lot of money on these homes every year.

On the walk to the water teksi (no taxis here!) we three men passed two strolling malay police officials, who looked like they hadn't busted anyone that day and would enjoy detaining us. Happily we smiled at them and they smiled back. No prison for me, on this fine day! Back at the boat we navigated through the large shipping vessels anchored in the harbour, past the petroleum refineries, out to the open sea. The air was very clear that day, and you could see Brunei off in the distance; in fact earlier that morning we could see Mt. Kinabalu looming above Labuan, hovering in midair above the mirage caused by heat waves. One day soon, I will be on top of that mountain...

The ride back was flat and smooth, and as we cruised along at a steady pace you could see flying fish shooting from the minty-green wake behind us. They are amazing creatures, able to glide for incredible distances, sometimes hundreds of feet, before disappearing beneath the dark surface of the sea.

Arriving at Muara, Brunei's primary port, it was almost dark. Exhausted, we made our way to Vijens where I watched some football with Vijen before drifting into the darkness of sleep.