Sabah Trip - Tawau

I’m sad. I’m down. I have been aeroplaned. Quit clicking on thesaurus or pulling out massive dictionaries. You won’t find such Manglish word there. It means moi have been abandoned, neglected, forsaken, deserted etc etc etc. No no no not relationship but a vacation to Miri, East Malaysia. Thought this trip is secured since all 4 confirmed but I guess 9 months is a looonnnggg time. One bogged down with new position in Hong Kong, one is on probation due to new job and one have to juggle some maid issues. Left me. The return flight tickets were obtained for free in Jan’07, so names or flight dates changes are strictly not allowed. Tickets burnt. Calm down Tree-huggers, Air Asia’s booking confirmation ticket is only a thin sheet of print out, the open burning is negligible. *sigh*

Maybe a flashback on the highlights of a recent vacation will lift my holiday deprived spirit up a tiny bit. Bear with me, k.

End of June, 7 of us went to the Land Below The Wind, Sabah. Our initial plan was to trek Danum Valley, which none of us had been before, for a few days and then fly to Kota Kinabalu to conquer the highest mountain in our country again (Yes, most of us did this before. One did it 3 times!). Keyword here is ‘initial plan’. Found out Sabah’s world famous virgin forest reserve Danum Valley is accessible vide Lahad Datu, not Tawau. To further distort our ‘initial plan’, we failed to secure lodgings for a night at Laban Rata at the top of the mountain. So, the climb is out too. (Personally, I was glad. Phew.) Flight tickets already paid for and nobody bailed out, so we flew.

Tawau, a slow-paced quiet town. Quite dusty. Anyone knows why?

Being in Tawau without going to an island would be akin to visiting Penang not eating hawker fare – blasphemous.

Presenting Mataking Island Resort!

After much bargaining with it being the low season (according to our land transport driver, we just missed the influx of giggling Japanese beauties and yet a month too early for the invasion of the masculine Italians! What luck.) and our considerably high number, it was still pricey. RM350++ including land transfer from hotel to boat, boat ride to island, main meals, ONE night accommodation and transfer to airport to catch our flight to Kota Kinabalu the following day.

BUT wait. Look at what we enjoyed:- I broke my camera second day into the trip (mentioned briefly here whereby my sis got me this. Feel like dancing again .. ) so pictures were taken with my friend’s Canon (Actually quite a number of these were taken by her).

All aboard..

About an hour later …Marked territory ...Corals and crab visible above water

Fishes. Captured these without getting wet. Bet your haven't seen that flourescent yellow fish before!Clothed beach bunniesMain meals were served buffet style. Nothing to shout about but decent enough to keep us satisfied. Here's a 'lil peek ..Plain water, tea, coffee, cordial juices were available the whole day.

Now follow me to our chambers ..

2 to a garden chalet like this ..Envious? Good!

For my next post on Tawau, salivation will be induced by food not S.A.M - Single Available Malaysians. Let's not give more reasons for friends to up the price on my head ..

Matchmaker, matchmaker, make me a match.
Find me a find, catch me a catch.
Matchmaker, matchmaker, look through your book
And make me a perfect match.

Sliced and diced from here