On Monday, 15th March all four of us caught the 9am Sutera bus into town to do fruit and vegetable shopping at the market and were back at the marina by 10.30am, went and paid our berth age fees and at noon left the marina and headed the four miles over to Gaya Island where we enjoyed a swim and a snorkel during the afternoon. The next morning we went across to Sapi Island in the dinghy and snorkeled for over an hour and we saw numerous types of fish ....schools in the 1000s swimming along with the angel fish, clown fish and many others. The coral too was amazing likewise types we have never seen before along with huge brain coral, blue starfish...oh yes just to keep us on our toes some jelly fish. We up anchored at 10.30am and had a lovely sail down to Pulau (island) Tiga - a distance of 31 miles and we dropped anchor at 3.40pm.

We spent two nights at Tiga and on Wednesday we had a bit of a walk around the island and to see the volcanic mud pool that everyone talks about and is supposedly a must to get in to. We found an English couple in the pool and I was supposedly the only one that thought about getting in but once I found that there was a severe water shortage on the island and that you had to walk the 1.3km back to the beach to get rid of all the mud on your body, decided that I was not going to get in.

Thursday, 18th we up anchored at 6.40am and headed off to Labuan (the duty free island 20 miles off Brunei) and had another lovely sail - a distance of 36 miles and we caught a lovely Spanish mackerel en route which we enjoyed for dinner that night. It was the smallest Spanish mackerel we have ever caught but we stuffed it inside and did it on the barbecue and was beautiful and we still had enough for lunch next day. We tied up in the Labuan Marina for the night and then headed off on Friday morning across to Brunei. Anchored off the Serasa Yacht Club and then went by dinghy to check in with Customs, Harbour master, Immigration etc. at the ferry terminal. Went ashore for dinner at the yacht club that night.

At mid day on Saturday we were picked up by one of Allan Riches (Brunei Bay Radio, Intrepid tours) employees and taken into the city, picking up a Welsh lady (Maritsa Kelly) at the airport before Allan took over and he did the city tour that we had done when we were in Brunei previously so saw the Sultan's Palace, the Sultan's mosque, the Sultan's Memorabilia Museum, the water village where we had afternoon tea and we ran out of time to go to the museum. Allan lent us four 20 litre diesel containers and with our five we got 206 litres of diesel for $64 - 31cents a litre!!
Maritsa was filling in time in Brunei as she was en route to visit family in Perth. When she heard what we were doing she said that her best friend's sister and husband were sailing around Malaysia and had been in Australia etc. I asked if she knew the name of the yacht and she said "Three Ships". It is a small world, Fiona and Chris on Three Ships sailed around NZ with us down south in 2007 and we are hoping to meet up with them in Borneo later this year. They did the Indonesian rally last year so are a year behind us but we have kept in touch.

Finally got back to the yacht club at around 7pm and Linda and I decided we weren't about to cook dinner so had another nice meal at the Yacht club.

Sunday morning we dinghied over to the ferry terminal and went through all the same procedure again to check out to come back to Labuan. A cruise ship had arrived in and the harbour had several boats of Maritime Police (with guns & in camouflage gear) checking all the boats around the harbour and they came up to us, asking what our destination was. All the local boats were checked as well.

We are now tied up in the Labuan marina for a few weeks which is free, including power and water. Have the air conditioning going but can't use the kettle or microwave while the air conditioner is going as it blows the fuse.

Monday morning we all went to the market to stock up and had a look around the town and Don and Linda bought a few last minute things to take home. On Tuesday we hired a car (couldn't believe it, didn't sign any papers, no license check, no insurance charges) and did a tour around the island doing all the tourist sights. Went to the Bird Park which had a variety of birds, along with hornbills which Linda was dying to see and we did not see down in the Kinabatangan. Visited Peace Park which is a beautifully landscaped memorial built as a renunciation of war - a symbol of peace and harmony. A bronze plaque commemorating the surrender of the Japanese army is mounted on a stone slab near the entrance. Surrender Point is the historic spot which witnessed the surrender of the Japanese Army to the Allied Forces on 10th September 1945, which marked the end of World War 11 in Borneo. It was also here that SE Asia's the first war crime trials were conducted. It overlooks the South China Sea. Also visited the WW11 Memorial which is the largest in the country and the final resting place of 3900 war heroes from NZ, Australia, Britain, India and Malaya.

Went and had a look at "The Chimney" which was built in 1800 and constructed from red bricks imported from England and is 106ft high. It is believed to be a ventilation shaft and linked to coal mining but there appears to be no evidence of smoke or burning and there are at least 12 layers of brick beneath the surface so it has been thought that it might have been a light house.

We stopped at a little roadside place for lunch and had some delightful Muslim ladies cook our lunch and talk to us. Linda was in her element once again talking to them about birthing practices and confirming all what she had been told down in the Kinabatangan. It was the first time that they had had any Americans or NZers stop for lunch.

Visited a Water Village here - was a bit scary walking over the decrepit paths, with holes and broken boards over the water. Some of the inhabitants tried to sell us some fish but we gracefully declined. They look so poor but all seem happy enough and content with their lot. Most of the houses have their own boats.

As Tuesday night was Don and Linda's last night with us they took us to the Grand Dorsett hotel just up the road from the marina for dinner and we had a beautiful meal. Linda bought a NZ Oyster Bay Sauvignon Blanc wine from a duty free shop which we had a drink of before dinner as drinks at the hotel are an exorbitant price. For over 55's you get a 50% discount for lunches and 20% for dinners at night so all in all is very good value and fabulous food to boot.

We are now back on our lonesome as Linda and Don left at mid day on Wednesday and went by ferry from here to Kota Kinabalu and flew out at 1am on Thursday for Japan where they are spending a week with Don's sister who lives there. We had a great time with them and we all got on really well - I think we think the same way about things and the time seemed to just fly by. They loved it here and it was not what they expected and most of their friends thought they were mad joining up with a couple of kiwis whom they had only met for one day in NZ in 2006 through Rotary. We are really looking forward to having some more good times together in the years to come.

We had a Swiss couple who were in here for two nights on board for drinks on Wednesday night and they had come down from Japan after spending 18mths there, originally intending to be there for only 6 months. They reckon it was the best country they had visited so was very interesting. There was a method in Dave's madness in inviting them over I think as he really wants to go there so we shall see - just when I thought I had changed his mind about things!!!