Remembrance

In January 1942 Labuan, a Malaysian island off the coast of Brunei, was invaded by the Japanese.  This lead to a campaign to capture Borneo, and the sole Allied Force surrendered in May of the same year.  Devastating bombing of the Japanese position in Borneo was carried out over the next 4 years, and the island was finally recaptured by the Allies in June of 1945.  In the months prior to this however, the Japanese decided to move thousands of prisoners of war from Sandakan (in Sabah) to Ranau, more than 160 miles inland, in anticipation of the Allied attacks.  These became known as the 'Death Marches', and of the 2000 British and Australian servicemen who left Sandakan, only 6 survived.  These 6 men owe their survival to local families who took them when they escaped from the marches.

When the Australian Army Graves Service entered Borneo, they followed the route from Sandakan to Ranau and found many unidentifiable victims of these infamous marches. These and other casualties from battlefield burial grounds and from scattered graves throughout Borneo were taken in the first instance to Sandakan, where a large number of prisoners of war were already buried. This flat coastal area, however, was subject to severe flooding and it proved impracticable to construct and maintain a permanent cemetery. The Sandakan graves, numbering 2,700, of which more than half were unnamed, were therefore transferred to Labuan War Cemetery, specially constructed to receive graves from all over Borneo.  (Taken from the Australian Dept of Veterans' Affairs website).

Every year a multi-faith ceremony is held at Labuan, and we were privileged to attend this year, along with several other members of the British Loan Service Team from Brunei.  It was an incredibly moving service, particularly so when we walked around the cemetery and saw just how many of the 3908 graves are unnamed. 

Wreaths were laid by representatives from many organisations, including the Loan Service in Brunei. 

The Malaysian Armed Forces did an amazing job on parade in such gruelling temperatures, maintaining the dignity and solemnity of the occasion.  It was a humbling and emotional occasion.  

Off to Malaysia for Lunch

Brunei is a tiny country and the nearest border with Malaysia is less than an hour's drive away from where we live.  Of course as Brunei is a dry country, most expats make fairly regular trips to the border in order to bring back their duty-free allowance of alcohol!  We are lucky not to have to do this as we are able to use the Naafi to buy liquor -  but last weekend we decided that we'd like to go 'abroad' for lunch, and headed for Kuala Lurah border post.

We left our car in Brunei and walked across the border - Here's Rob next to the 'Welcome to Limbang' sign.

There's really not much in Kuala Lurah, just a small and rather scruffy selection of market stalls and roadside restaurants that have sprung up on the border... but of course there's a duty free shop.

The restaurants are mainly tin huts often with a motorbike or two parked inside, or a barbecue set up outside a house.  We were highly amused to see a car pull up at one, and the driver pull a dead baby crocodile (about 50cm long) out of the boot!  She walked into one of the restaurant kitchens...  we decided not to eat there!  (Wish I'd been a bit quicker with the camera to get a photo too).

I loved this artistic menu!

The duty free shop had some interesting drinks not found in the Naafi.  We bought a bottle of the Chinese rice wine on the right of this picture to use for cooking.

We ate in a little cafe.  As soon as we sat down the Chinese owner came up to us and said 'Beer?'  It seemed a real treat to have a lager with lunch when eating out so of course we said yes... and yes again when he asked us a second time!

A nasi goreng (fried rice) for me, mee goreng (fried noodles) for Rob and 2 beers each came to the grand total of 9 Bruneian dollars - about 4.50 GBP.  Cheap and delicious!

We were also very excited to get FOUR stamps in our passports as we went through the Bruneian and Malaysian border-posts, going into then back out of Malaysia.  I think our passports are going to fill up pretty fast while we're living here.