Ravaged Tawau

Day 2 – 5 August 2011

Feeling excited, we got up early and prepared ourselves to explore Tawau town, see how far our legs will carry us. Tawau can be divided into 3 main areas :-

(1) Tawau old town where the Tawau Port is
(2) Fajar area where the heart of town is (akin to Bukit Bintang of KL), you can find banks, hotels here and;
(3) Sabindo area (govt office, bus terminal etc).

Tawau Old Town - the port



Another view of Tawau old town

We walked to a Chinese coffee shop nearby and had egg tart, char koay with butter and kaya, fried mee and toast. The bill came to about RM13.80. So we now knew that the price of food in Tawau is about the same as in KL if not more.

Tea with egg tart

Tea and char koay spread with butter/kaya

Harish only wanted the fried mee with ketchup and Milo though I tried to get him to try something new..

Rishi with his favourite egg tart

A short walk away is the local bus stand. We thought of visiting the Cocoa Museum located in the compound of the ‘Majulah Koko’ factory in Tanjung Batu Laut and so, we took a bus heading that way.

 

Tawau local bus-stand

It was hot in the bus and the conductor made sure all seats were filled before the bus took off.

Again almost everyone in the bus were either Malay or Indonesian. The conductor stopped us right in front of the factory, but alas, we didn’t get pass the security. Although we were guests of the hotel whose owner is also the owner of the Cocoa Factory and Museum, we were told that we needed advance booking with the company. They only run guided tour in groups and it is about RM100 for 5 pax, inclusive of lunch made from cocoa products.

Who would pay RM100 to visit a museum and factory??? So we gave it a miss. I think the Cocoa King instead of allowing visitors to at least see the museum for free, has commercialized the whole thing.

So, we jumped into another bus heading back into town. The ticket was RM0.80 per person/seat. We didn’t buy tickets for the kids as they sat on us; you can easily shift seat when someone gets off. The bus ride was well worth it as we got to see the locals and their villages along the 3km road.

The boys with N in the bus ..

Before walking back to our hotel, N suggested we take a look at the port activities nearby. After all, Tawau is a port city. We saw huge boats loading and unloading fish and other marine life.

The port -  jetty and boats

The classic fishermen boat

The dock borders a Fish Market (Pasar Ikan Tawau).

Pasar Ikan Tawau (Tawau Fish Market)

I was so reluctant to enter as I could smell raw but fresh fish everywhere, and the floor was filthy and wet.

But we went in anyway and it proved so educational for the boys and us. We saw so many types of fish, crabs, clams, oysters, seaweeds, shrimps, lobsters, squids etc etc and were very much taken in by the sheer colours , shapes and sizes.

Crabs

Pretty fish

Red fish

Mussels

The fishermen and fisherwomen were friendly and allowed us to photograph and even posed with their biggest catch.

Harish with a friendly fishmonger - that's a big catch!

I couldn’t help but notice some Towkays and Madams loading fresh catch for their seafood restaurants. They buy the fresh catch at a low price and sell it at exorbitant prices as seafood in restaurants. If in Tawau, please buy fresh and cook your own fish, so much cheaper. Having said that, as tourists, this may not be practical.

Once done, we walked back to the hotel and checked out by 12noon. N stayed on for lunch provided by the hotel and I walked with the boys to the nearest Chinese Chicken Rice Restaurant. One set of chicken at RM4.50.

We then took a cab to the Sabindo Bus Terminal for our onward journey to Semporna, the exit point to the islands. Semporna is about 90km from Tawau. The ticket for the A/C bus is RM10 per seat and it takes about 1 ½ hours to reach Semporna.



The Express Bus to Semporna - the boys waiting inside the bus



All along the route, you can’t help but notice the forest cleared for oil palm cultivation. This is the reason I say Tawau has been ravaged.

Miles and miles of oil palm trees

When one thinks of Borneo, one imagines rainforests and wild animals. But what we saw along that Tawau-Semporna route was just oil palm trees on both sides of the road. It stretched till the foothills and onto the hills.. So much of primary forest cleared. Only god knows what happened to the wild animals and insects that roamed the forests? According to Malaysian Palm Oil Company, Sabah is the largest palm oil producer in Malaysia. I could see why…

Think I just digressed again, back to our travel story now…

I liked the roads, well maintained and connected. I also liked the locals, all of them - from the coffee shop Chinese uncles, the Indonesian workers, the bugis cab driver, the Suluk  fishermen, they all seemed friendly and approachable.



Some tips :-

1. Be prepared for reality as all that you had read and prepared to discover may not be true; the cleared forests was one hard reality for me to swallow

2. Be respectful of the locals' cultural and religious practices - for example if you know it is the Ramadhan month (means fasting for Muslims), try not to eat in front of them like while you are in a cab or in conversation with them

3. Be prepared for Muslim restaurants closing shops during daytime in the month of Ramadhan - for example the Indian Muslim (mamak) restaurants in Tawau. BTW, Mamak restaurants are Malaysians' typical hangout.

4. Be brave to do what the locals do - like getting into their buses and just flowing with it ; and you can trust the drivers and conductors to help you

5. Know the names of towns and locations of places of interest and don't hesitate to ask the locals the way - the worst that can happen is they won't be able to speak English but still help refer their friend who can

6. If you are not a Malay or Chinese, be prepared for lots of staring

7. Tourism in Tawau has not quite picked up, so if you are a tourist, you may be charged slightly more

8. Food in Tawau is NOT that cheap, so come prepared.