Tawau-Kunak-Semporna (Part I)

My housemate decided to invite me to Sabah for some meeting on her work. Knowing i need to have some weekend getaway far from the peninsular Malaysia, why not?

Booked the cheapest return air ticket, not really, cost me almost like RM400++ on last minute basis, oh my, i had to splurge a bit for this one. Only regret it later cause I can skip this one and plan later.

Never mind, the cost over the unexpected returns and intangible pleasure would might do some justice. We gonna have a blast exploring the most outer town from KL City Centre, with the expectation of boring, no night life whatsoever, but surprising, it was another shocking discovery. Tawau is as vibrant as any town in Peninsular Malaysia, even more livelier to some of them.

Took a cab from the airport, since I had arrive earlier, 9.00 a.m. Checked into hotel, RM98 for a night, had a shower and unpacking, the usual stuff I did, and some nap. Driving all the way from Penang to LCCT the night before, oh my, it was a bliss finding myself in some secluded territory and the new journey would be another story.

The first meal when we had this chicken rice stuff for dinner. Surprisingly, the meal and the drinks were cheap, as what you can imagine available in other city. The time was a setback, all shop mostly close around 8.30 p.m, so better to venture out as early as 7.00 p.m, or else the fast food outlets might help a bit...

The first thing to do was to rent a car for sight seeing (a saga cost about RM100/day). After Azah finished her meeting, turned out that she and another colleague of mine was in the town. The first destination was Kunak, some 99 kilometres from Tawau. Since housemate needed to see what Kunak like after her sister left it for good, 10 years back, some pictures for her behalf might help to refresh some memories kan?

Along the road, the land mostly are filled with massive oil palm plantations, privately owned by the local and you can see the lorries transporting the harvest to the nearest factory. The road however does not really look in good condition, with pot holes and bump, which favourable to pick up trucks and 4wds. Of course, to make it interesting, some potong-memotong (we are so efficient!) would help us to reach Kunak just in time (approximately one hour).

Around 3 pm, the first stop was Kunak Fishing Jetty, situated just next to the town centre. Clear sea water down the jetty, school of fish swimming lazily and the sea smell is what you can expect from a typical small fishing village.

After some late lunch and sight seeing, we decided to leave the small town back to Tawau, another 99 kilometres of journey. Time to get some rest for tomorrow outing - Semporna.

(to be continued).