We left laid-back Labuan on Friday morning:



We were heading for Limbang (which is back in Sarawak) by way of the ferry. This conveyance had given us not a little grief. In researching our trip, we kept finding references to FerryPay, which advertises a service connecting Labuan, Lawas, and Limbang. But whenever we clicked on the "book ticket" button, the ferries listed went only from Limbang to Labuan, not vice versa.

Curious, we thought, envisaging ferries piling up endlessly in Labuan, never to return...

But we decided to trust to luck, hoping that on-the-ground explorations would reveal a way back off the island.

Before we got there, however, Nigel had tracked down the ferry's Facebook page. This showed a timetable with ferries going both ways, and right at the bottom -- crucially -- a link for a second website offering "Labuan online ticketing", and enabling you to book a boat FROM Labuan rather than TO Labuan.

Sometimes, travel in Borneo requires a lot of persistence... And for the sake of your sanity, it's always as well to have a back-up plan.

In the event, we bought our tickets to Limbang a few days in advance from a very helpful young woman at the desk at Labuan port. MYR 36 (GBP 6.00) per (foreign) person (twice the price for Malaysians, but hey...).



The journey takes just over two hours, and it's a really interesting ride:






Limbang is curiously situated. It's in the tongue of land that separates the Big Bit of Brunei from the Small Bit of Brunei. The border of the Small Bit is really not far away at all.

We had wondered whether spending three nights in Limbang would be a bit much. But you're limited for buses out (Monday is our next possibility), so three nights it had to be. And it has actually been great.

For a start, the hotel is loads better than we'd imagined. It's the Purnama, and it seemed to get quite ho-hum reviews. I really don't know why. Our room is the kind of thing you get in slightly old-fashioned hotels all across Southeast Asia. That means it's very spacious, there are loads of places to put things, and you get a kettle AND a fridge. The breakfast is perfectly adequate, and the hotel is attached to a handy mall. OK, so the aircon is what Nigel would call digital (it's either on or off), but I find thermostats on aircons a bit useless anyway, so that's really not a problem. All in all, it has been a very pleasant place to retreat to when we've done our wandering for the day.






Limbang is a small town, but what with the old residential quarter, the river, and the park at the far end, you can rack up a reasonable number of paces:























It's Malaysia, so there's always a food story:




We've kind of haunted the central market over these two days. Not only was that where the rojak sotong came from, but it was a good source of iced tea, and there's a Malay lady roti-maker there who does very good business for easily discernible reasons. I say "the" central market. That's misleading, as there appear to be markets everywhere...

Anyway, we're fond of our European-style lattes, because that style of cafe usually offers somewhere to sit and chill for a while. Such places are not plentiful in Limbang. But we did find "icoffee", a little corridor cafe in the mall next to our hotel. We visited two days running, and today, because we'd said we were off tomorrow, our coffee came accompanied by two Marie biscuits and a little chocolate. Another of the awww moments that have punctuated this little trip...





This is a very different kind of place, and it has a bit of an end-of-the-world feel. When you look out of the window after dark, you see a few streetlights nearby, and then lots and lots of blackness. It has made an interesting change.

So, tomorrow: Brunei. But not until we've had breakfast, done our laundry, packed, and had lunch. So we have a bit more of Limbang still to come.