My Labuan Story

Honestly? We booked Labuan because of the duty-free shopping. Danial wanted to stock up on chocolate, I wanted to check out the perfume deals, and we both figured a long weekend somewhere different would be good for us. We didn't expect much else from a tiny island off Sabah.

We were wrong about that.

The flight from KL was barely two hours, and by lunchtime we were wandering Victoria's duty-free shops with bags already accumulating. The prices were genuinely impressive — not just cheaper, but substantially cheaper than KL for certain brands. Danial found his chocolate paradise. I found a perfume that would have cost me twice as much at KLIA.

But the real discovery came at dinner. Our hotel receptionist told us to go to the seafood stalls near Tanjung Batu and order the mud crabs. "Don't order anything else first," she said. "Just the crabs." We took her advice, and I'm not exaggerating when I say it was one of the best meals of my life. The crabs were enormous, sweet, cooked in a chilli sauce that had just enough heat to make you reach for another piece, and absurdly affordable. We ordered a second round.

The next day, we rented a car — RM60, which felt like nothing — and drove around the island. It took maybe an hour to circuit the whole thing, but we kept stopping. The War Cemetery was unexpectedly moving. The sunset at Layang-Layangan beach was cinematic. A random uncle at a coffee shop told us about the Chimney and we spent half an hour reading theories about it.

By Sunday morning, we were sitting at a waterfront café eating roti canai and talking about coming back. Not for the shopping this time — though yes, we'll do that too — but for the island-hopping. We ran out of time for it, and that gives us a perfect excuse to return.

Labuan is the kind of place where you go for one thing and leave thinking about everything else.

I've dived in a lot of places — Sipadan, the Maldives, the Red Sea — but Labuan had been on my list for years specifically because of the wrecks. Four major wreck sites from the Second World War, sitting in relatively shallow water, with visibility that can be startlingly good. For a wreck enthusiast, it's a pilgrimage.

I flew in from Singapore via KK and took the ferry across. The dive operator picked me up at the jetty and we headed straight to the dive shop to sort gear and plan the week. I had five days and wanted to hit all four wrecks plus some reef dives. The operator grinned and said, "No problem. We'll have you wreck-drunk by Wednesday."

He was right. The first wreck — an old cargo vessel sitting upright on the seabed — was haunting in the best possible way. The structure was intact enough to swim through compartments, peer into holds, and imagine the ship in its working life. Coral and sponge covered every surface, and a school of batfish shadowed me through the entire dive as if they were assigned as my escort. The visibility was around 12 metres — good enough to see the full scale of the wreck from a distance before closing in on the details.

I stayed two nights on Pulau Rusukan Besar, which turned out to be the perfect base. After a day of diving, I'd sit on the beach with a book and watch the sun drop into the South China Sea. The island was quiet — just me, a few other guests, and the resort staff who cooked the freshest fish I've had anywhere. No Wi-Fi anxiety, no city noise. Just the sound of water.

By day four, I'd completed all four wrecks and added a few reef dives around the Marine Park islands. The coral is healthier than I expected — good structure, decent fish diversity, and some surprises including a large green turtle that cruised past me at Rusukan Kecil like I wasn't there.

On my last evening, I sat on the Rusukan Besar jetty watching the light change and thought about how Labuan doesn't try to be Sipadan or the Maldives. It's its own thing — accessible, affordable, and rich in the specific kind of diving that I love most. The wrecks alone are worth the trip, but the solitude and the setting are what I'll remember longest.

Labuan taught me that the best dive destinations aren't always the most famous ones.

Travelling with a seven-year-old and a four-year-old, you learn to lower your expectations. The goal is usually "nobody cries on the plane" and "find activities that work for all four of us." Labuan exceeded every one of our modest hopes — and the kids are still talking about it three months later.

Day one: we hit the Labuan Bird Park. I'll be honest, I expected it to be a quick box-tick — thirty minutes and done. We spent two and a half hours there. My daughter named every bird she could see (she made up names for the ones she didn't know — "Sir Featherbottom" was a hornbill) and my son refused to leave the pond area where he was attempting to befriend a duck. The park is well-maintained, shaded, and — crucially for parents — has proper toilets and a small café.

Day two was island hopping. We chartered a boat to Pulau Papan — just fifteen minutes, which is the perfect distance when you have small children with limited patience for boat rides. The shallow water was warm and calm, my wife and I could actually relax while the kids paddled, and we had the beach almost to ourselves. The boatman pointed out a small reef where we could see fish from the surface, and the kids stood in knee-deep water screaming about every little clownfish and sea cucumber. Worth every ringgit.

Day three: the Chimney. My seven-year-old was fascinated — a mysterious 100-foot tower and nobody knows who built it or why? That's basically her idea of the best story ever. We read the information panels together and she spent the car ride back inventing increasingly elaborate theories about its origin (current favourite: pirates built it to signal treasure ships). The nearby Pohon Batu beach gave us a quiet afternoon of rock-pooling and sand-castle construction.

On our final evening, over a seafood dinner where both children voluntarily ate grilled fish and rice without complaint (a minor miracle), my daughter looked up and said: "Dad, can we live here?"

We can't, of course. But we can come back. And we will.

Labuan is proof that you don't need a mega-resort or a theme park to give your kids the holiday of a lifetime.