...labuan escapade...

i went for a 3.5 days well test & production logging tools (plt) course organized by my department in labuan...it was my 1st time to labuan...yeay...i was sooo excited...
labuan got its name derived from "labuhan" - as in port or harbour...the above photo depicting labuan port was taken from my room's balcony...

the course participants and me took the 9am morning flight on sunday (12/10)...once arrived, we straightaway headed to our designated hotel - the Grand Dorsett Labuan...very nice and strategically located just opposite the Financial Park a.k.a. UK (Ujana Kewangan)...

we were free from any activities on the day of arrival...as it was still early and most of our rooms were still not ready for check-in, some of us went for lunch at UK...i went to the food court together with Etty and Indra...i had Sarawak Laksa and Cendol Cinta...

after lunch,we went surveying the prices of chocolates at two of the duty free shops available within UK - Monegain and Sky Park...

later that evening, i called Wong (my induction friend who works with PETRONAS Methanol Labuan) informing about my whereabout and we set to have a three-some dinner date together with Yati...Wong promised to pick us up at 8pm and Yati was to treat us...yeay...

i just relax the entire evening watching SMV channel...

that night, Wong brought Yati and me to the Island Tomyam Restaurant...we had a great dinner of white rice served with Spicy Fried Fresh Prawns, Ginger Fried Chicken and Sambal Grilled Fish...we had watermelon juices for our drinks...during dinner, we exchanged life stories...

the next day, our class started at 8am...the instructor was excellent...he just knew how to draw the attention...we had quizzes at every opportunity...ohh my...

when the class was over, my girlfriends and me went out to UK to shop for chocolates (1st shopping trip)...we had KFC for dinner...

second day of the course was a tiring half-day visit to Asean Supply Base...the first stop was to see the surface equipments at the Expro Warehouse...then, our group proceed to the Schlumberger's Warehouse to see the PLT as well as the interpretation software...we had a Pizza Hut lunch provided by them...after that, our final stop was the Halliburton's Warehouse to see the DST toolstrings, sampling and also perforating equipments...

back from the ASB visit, my girlfriends and me went out for our 2nd shopping trip...this time around, we went to the Tamu...there, we went textile hunting - bought Ratna Dewi's batik sarongs and Pua Kumbu's motives palaykat sarongs...we even bought the latest kurung cloth...we had our dinner at one of the mamak restaurant in town...

on the third day of class, we resume on the applications of PLT and well test where we did some exercises...the class ended quite late...however, my girlfriends and me still had the urge to go for our 3rd shopping trip...again we went to the Tamu...this time around, we shopped for pearls, crystal jewelleries, shells danglings, souvenirs for friends (keychains, fridge magnets) and Labuan T shirts...i even had my customized set of bracelet and ring where i personally chose the colour of the crystals...

that night, we had our seafood dinner at Anjung Ketam...the cooking was nice...we had two kinds of crab dishes - Black Pepper Crab and Chilli Crab...i like the former one better...and we also had 3 Taste Fish, Butter Prawns, Flour-Coated Fried Squids and Fried Vegetables...all served with white rice...we had lemon with plum juice called 'Kichai Peng' for drinks...simply marvellous...the full moon photo below was taken at Anjung Ketam...

finally, it was the last day of the course whereby each group presented a topic...i was a Group 1 member...other members include En Nadzir, Indra, Keith and Syida...my group presented about the surface equipments...

our class ended at around 12pm and we were supposed to check out at 1230pm respectively...after checking out, my girlfriends and me had our buffet lunch and later we decided to leave our belongings at the hotel while we were having our last shopping trip...for the last trip, we went to the wet market to hunt for the fresh seafood...i bought the largest possible prawns available...1kg only gave me 5 pieces...we also stopped at the dry market to shop for local produce...i bought 500gm of dried red shrimps, rm1 small kampong chillies, several packets of kuih cincin and amplang crackers...

we went to the airport at around 4pm and were pissed off to know the fact that our flight was delayed due to bad weather condition at Kota Kinabalu...my girlfriends and me went to have some sandwiches at Jesselton Cafe...while waiting, we watch a movie with Yulie's laptop...

our flight took off 1.2 hours later than the scheduled time and we arrived at KLIA nearly around 10pm...Jemi and Abah came to pick me up...

all in all, it was an enjoyable learning trip...the next time i happen to be in labuan, i'll definitely bought a lot more chocolates and fresh seafood to be brought home...