Bintulu to Kota Kinabalu - Passing Through Brunei Twice

We continued our journey passing through several towns and villages in Brunei on country roads most of the way and dual carriage highway some parts of it. Along the way I noticed rice being cultivated and several farms too. I also noticed one oil and gas installation and various other industries. There was a lot of construction work going on too including infrastructure work.

After about two hours driving we approached the next checkpoint which was for us to exit Brunei and reenter Sarawak. We got into the queue of cars and noticed a very long queue ahead of us and another long one building up behind us. We inched along . . . . . and slightly less than two hours later we reached the Brunei Immigration exit point. No hassle getting our passports and papers chopped. After another 20 minutes queue of cars we reached the Sarawak checkpoint, a distance of 50 metres? No hassle in getting our passports and papers chopped here too.

Off we went, on country road again, to the town of Limbang, Sarawak. We stopped for lunch at a local restaurant. They served good food and cheap too. Went to the town mosque after lunch for our day time prayers. A big mosque and very clean facilities, very comfortable and the people at the mosque were friendly too. Limbang is not a big town, as it only took us about 10 minutes to go around the whole town in the car, but the town appeared to be bustling with activities and people were moving around looking busy. Most of the major banks have their branches in the town indicating possible active economic activities.

We continued onwards to the next Brunei border. We checked in at the Limbang town Immigration office to have our passports and papers chopped accordingly for our exit of Sarawak and proceeded to the border which was about twenty kilometers away. A river was the border. We had to cross the river by ferry. The ferry could take only about ten cars each trip and only a couple of minutes crossing as the river was less than 100 metres across. There was already a long queue for the ferry too. I counted seven crossings before we got our turn. The Brunei checkpoint was just after the ferry crossing. No hassle getting our passports and papers chopped here too although there was quite a long queue but the speed with which the passports were chopped were much faster than the earlier checkpoints. I guess the officer here just went on putting chops on the passports and papers after seeing the chops done earlier without having to check in detail, trusting the checks done by his fellow officers at the earlier checkpoints.

Our next wait was at the other end of Brunei where we had to queue and wait for the ferry to cross another river. A few kilometers before the river was the border and exit point for Brunei where we passed through and had our passports and papers chopped. The Sarawak checkpoint was located after the river crossing and getting the formalities done here was easy too. It had then become routine to get our passports checked and chopped……. The final checkpoint was at the Sarawak and Sabah border some 40 kilometres after we had reentered Sarawak at Lawas. And from this checkpoint its 160 kilometres to Kota kinabalu passing through several towns like Sipitang, Beaufort, Papar and other smaller towns and villages. It was raining most part of this route slowing us down further. We had stopped for dinner and our evening prayers at Sipitang and finally arrived at our hotel in Kota Kinabalu at just before 9.00 pm.

We had to pass through ten checkpoints altogether on a route of about 400 kilometres. It would have taken us about 5 hours for that journey if it had been in the peninsular but here we were, having to pass through all the checkpoints and two river crossings, the journey took us more than twelve hours. The kids were restless, we were tired, and arriving at the hotel in Kota Kinabalu was a great relieve in deed. Something we had been looking forward to since the last river crossing. Dedek kept asking us whether the hotel has a swimming pool. When we replied yes, he asked “Are you sure?” He did this several times and was restless too asking, “How long more to the hotel”, and “do we have a room number yet?” and blah blah blah……… A really restless 4 year old kid, really while Babang was just cool and relaxed. Baby Haadiya meanwhile kept was restless in her own way. She was jumping seats from the front to the middle and the back every so often giving us adults a handful to keep her at peace. Truly a relief when we reached the hotel………

MKI Ramblings Unlimited
Petaling Jaya