Grandma and I waited in my uncle’s 4WD while he carried all the noodles and bean sprouts to be sold at the market. It has been a long time I went to a wet market and Labuan market. The journey took merely 10 minutes with 45kmj speed. The streets along the market were narrow and cars line up alone both side. My uncle skillfully park at a street junction and we got down and walk to the market. Our stall was reasonable size but I think it is now smaller than 10 years ago. The market now relocated to the ground floor only. The top floor has been converted to offices. I guess business wasn’t as good as it used to be. I still remember the market was fill top and ground floor with stalls of vegetable sellers, on the top floor and ground floor was occupied by fish and meat stalls. Now there are far less sellers and stalls. Not to mention the space for each seller has been reduced to half the size. The walkway was only half meter width and lighting was really dim. The crowd was lesser than it used to be and I hardly see the commotion of exciting sellers trying to make a sale. Things are different now.
Labuan is a fail Federal Territory! They can build new library and new JKR housing apartments but the reality is economic is not moving and is gone backwards. The street children are as many as ever. I saw around 8 of them trying to crap through the burnt stalls, a portion of the market. Grandma said it is the third time a fire broke out at the market stalls. I wonder if is genuine or due to economic pressure. Where is the helping hand from the government? Have anyone highlight the condition of Labuan, our free zone financial park?
Back to my trip, my aunt and cousin brought us to breakfast. They had noodle soup and I ordered fried rice noodles and a glass of Milo. The rice noodle was big portion and tasty, Milo was perfect taste, unlike the one you find in KL where they put a lot of sugar to replace the milk and very little Milo. The rice noodles have at least 6 fresh prawns, 4 big pieces of chicken meat and cabbages. There’s still value for money here. I strongly recommend anyone to eat at the stalls at Labuan. You can walk into any stall and food will be great. One thing one has to be aware is the waiting time. It may take longer than the normal serving time in KL.
After breakfast, my aunt and cousin went shopping for groceries. I heard that people here also shop for one week groceries. Maybe there are more people working now compare to last time. After shopping, my aunt sent grandma and I back home. My niece was with us.
Did I mention that I now have 7 nieces and nephews? My grandma is already a great-grandma. Two of them live with my grandma. They are my youngest aunt’s granddaughter and my youngest uncle’s daughter. One is 2+ and another 1+. Both are very cute. One of them is a bit pampered but it is ok by me. Both can’t speak yet and are still using their baby languages. They are getting use to me on the second day. The elder one started coming to my room to play with me. I try to train her to speak a few words. I was surprise that at both ages, they can’t speak anything yet. Could it due to the duel languages they listen? Can’t be because child below 6 years old are super fast learner and it’s their brain development’s peak. Both my cousin-in-law and nephew-in-law are Native Sabahan. One of them already speaks Hakka fluently. Both live a simple lifestyle. How I wish I could do the same too? Living in metropolitan is super costly and complicated. Not to mention the competitions among metropolitizen in work, lifestyle, dollars and cents, the many C’s and achievements. All this are very tiring, that’s why heart attack patients are getting younger and some as young as 30’s. Is all this worth a living life?
My niece, Gigi
Back to my trip again, lunch was crabs, prawns, cuttlefish and overnight brinjal. I love them all and there are delicious. I think I can forget my diet again, postponing it again. After lunch, I went to my room to watch my DVDs. I was sleepy but the afternoon heat was unbearable. After a short nap I woke up at 4.30pm. Now I know the hottest time in my room is 4.30pm – 5.30pm. After that, it cool down and at night it’s going to be cold again.
Dinner was great and I ate a lot more crabs. I better watch it or my skin inflammation will worsen. Tomorrow I will eat a kind of noodle only available in Labuan called Susuk noodle. After that, it’s shopping time; I’ll probably buy some electronic stuff because clothes are not that in trend here. Anyway, first thing tomorrow when I go to the market is to walk around the area and take some photos.
This is what's left...
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