Relax - Sin city all choked up over Christmas rush

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LIMBANG - Limbang town, the "sin-capital" of Sarawak until the late 1990s, is suffering from serious traffic congestion and crowd problems as it has become a magnet for thousands of holiday-makers and revellers from Brunei.

Huge crowd of Bruneians and expatriates working in the sultanate are flocking to Limbang with many also going on to Sabah for the Christmas holidays via this town.

The crowd is putting a strain at the Brunei-Malaysia border checkpoint at Tedungan as queues of vehicles build up.

Yesterday and the day before, hundreds of vehicles were caught in massive jams at the border.

Five hundred motorists were forced to stay overnight on the Brunei side of the border as immigration officials were unable to process their exit and entry permits and passports.

Irrate motorists have been venting their frustrations via complaint letters to newspapers in Brunei.

They have asked for more clearance lanes to be opened to handle the surge during the Christmas and year-end festivities.

The Star called the Limbang Immigration Office and found that staff there had to work overtime to try to clear the backlog of traffic.

"The jam is on both sides of the border. One of the clearance lanes was not operating, causing a backlog in the other lanes," said an officer.

"There are also many motorists from Limbang side going into Brunei to go on to Miri.

"Unless the border is opened round-the-clock, the jam may continue for a few days," the officer said.

Limbang is cut off from the rest of Sarawak by Brunei and people travelling from here to Miri or Sabah have to go through Brunei territory which means passing at least two sets of border checkpoints.

The Tedungan border checkpoint opens at 6am and closes at 10pm daily.

The surge of visitors however, is welcomed by businesses here.

A check with the Purnama Hotel, a three-star hotel here, showed that rooms were fully booked for the next five days at least.

Motels catering mostly to budget tourists and business folks are also fully-booked.

There has also been a surge in cargo vehicles heading to Limbang as traders and hoteliers stock up on their daily supply of meat, vegetables and other necessities.

Sin city all choked up over Christmas rush

By Stephen Then, The Star, ANN | Wed, Dec 23 2009

Limbang town is suffering from serious traffic congestion and crowd problems as it attracts thousands of holiday-makers and revellers from Brunei.

Sin city all choked up over Christmas rush

Keywords

sarawak