Tag Archives: Tawau

Shan-Shui Golf Course

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The golf reminds me of a joke. A man golfer teased at a woman golfer. He said, “Hahaha… You women all got BOOBS. I wonder how you could swing your club properly!” The woman golfer replied, “We also could not figure out how you men golfers play golf coz you all got FAT BELLY blocking the swing!”

That’s my first impression about golfers. Golf sounds like the toy of high-class and rich people, the group who are always associated with high blood pressure and diabetes. After they hit the ball, instead of walking to the ball, they ride a buggy to get there, so lazy… Why people call this a “sport” ah?

Not only me, this is what others think of golfers. Because of a few company projects, I’ve been to a few golf clubs of Sabah, Sarawak and Brunei last year. I didn’t see many golfers were seriously overweight, though many are a bit fat, like other normal middle-aged guys.

The photos here are taken in Shan-Shui (means mountain and water) Golf Club in Tawau. I like this golf course coz of its nature surrounding. You would see monkeys and eagle while playing golf there. But be careful when you come near to this lake (see photo below).

Some golf courses are known for keeping crocodile as “pet”. For what purpose I am not so sure, probably to give more excitement and challenge for the golfers. If your ball lands next to the crocodile like the photo, what would you do to continue the game?
a) Feed the crocodile with one of your legs to exchange for the ball,
b) Run over the crocodile with buggy to kill it,
c) Bribe the crocodile with some $ to let you continue,
d) Appoint the crocodile as your director and offer it some $hare of your prize.
Usually options C and D are popular choices of Malaysians. You know what I am saying..

During my visit, this crocodile was protecting its nest nearby. May be it thought that golf ball was its egg too.. headache..

FYI, Shan-Shui also has the best Par 5 in Asia. But no worry, this par is to test your skill and decision-making. There is no crocodile there to test the courage of the golfers (though I think it is a good idea to test the balls of the golfers), lol…

Photos taken in Tawau, Sabah, Malaysia Borneo

Unduk Ngadau Competition, Tawau

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OK, some of you may have been waiting for this. The photos of Unduk Ngadau Beauty Pageant in Tawau on May 6, 2006. There are 4 reasons I report for Tawau: (1) I want to blog a Unduk Ngadau competition in west coast, (2) to avoid taking same event pictures with other photographers, (3) looking for excuse to go to Tawau, (4) want to marry an Unduk Ngadau. FYI, there are more than 30 districts around Sabah organised their local Unduk Ngadau competition.


Click Here to see photos of Unduk Ngadau Competition (Tawau) >>

The Sabah Tourism Magazine (Page 14, Issue: May 2006, Volume 63) wrote about the meaning of Unduk Ngadau. I post it here for your knowledge:
“The Unduk Ngadau embodies the spirit, beauty and personality of Huminodun who, according to local legend, was the self-sacrificing daughter of the almighty creator Kinoingan. She was sacrified to the land so that her people would not starve. Her head gave rise to coconuts, her flesh nourished the paddy fields, her blood became red rice, her fingers ginger, her teeth maize, her knees yams and other parts provided a variety of edible plants.”


Click Here to see photos of Unduk Ngadau Competition (Tawau) >>

There were 16 KadazanDusun and Murut ladies competed in this event. Below is the final result of Unduk Ngadau Beauty Pageant for Tawau:
Unduk Ngadau 2006 (Tawau): Diana Yaqub (No. 15)
1st Runner-Up: Eneycia Doulus (No. 4)
2nd Runner-Up: Jessy Liew (No. 6)
Miss Favourite: Cindy Celestine (No. 12)


Click Here to see photos of Unduk Ngadau Competition (Tawau) >>

This is the last blog about my trip in Tawau. Hope you enjoy reading them all.

Teck Guan Cocoa Museum, Tawau

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I never knew that my visit was unexpected. The Teck Guan Cocoa Museum is managed by a private company named Majulah Koko Tawau Sdn. Bhd. at Tanjung Batu Laut. It is a mini museum inside the Teck Guan cocoa factory. When I got there in the morning, the museum was locked (during their opening hour). A bit puzzled, I went to their office nearby to see if I need to buy any ticket to get in.

Their staffs were a bit surprised of my visit. According to them, any visit to the museum is arranged in advance and done in group. Each person will be charged RM10 that includes entrance to the museum, refreshment, a 20-minute video presentation, and a short tour to the cocoa factory. They also got a cocoa village (in Quoin Hill) where you can stay and see the cocoa plantation and seed processing.

They are not quite ready for walk-in visitor like me. Probably knowing that I went all the way there from KK, they were very kind and arranged a tour for me (free). The ground floor is a small showroom that exhibits cocoa fruits, cocoa end products, and some info on cocoa history. I was brought to a room to watch a 20-minute video to learn the origin, history, plantation, manufacturing processes and use of cocoa.

Then a friendly guide took me for a tour in their factory. She briefly explained the processing steps and the function of each machinery. The two primary output of the cocoa are Cocoa Butter and Cocoa Cake (powder). Cocoa Butter is more high quality and cost 3 times more expensive than Cocoa Cake. That’s why white chocolate, with cocoa butter as key ingredient, is more expensive. Nestle (Ovaltine), Milo, M & M Mars are their customers too.

They were curious to know how I found out the information about their museum coz they haven’t released such information to the press or media. I told them that their cocoa museum has been listed in the Sabah Tourism magazine for more than a year already.

Below is the opening hours of the Teck Guan Cocoa Museum:
Mon – Fri: 8AM – 11:30AM, 1:30PM – 4:30 PM
Sat: 8AM – 12PM
Sunday: Closed

To arrange any visit, you can call them at +60-89-775566 ext 2601.

Tawau Hills Park, Tawau

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If you are not a Tawau’s local, it is a bit hard to find Tawau Hills Park (Taman Bukit Tawau), and there is no bus going there. Tawau Hills Park is a recreational and national park about 20 KM away from Tawau town. During weekend and Sunday, many families and youngsters would go there to swim and BBQ. The locals normally call this place “Abacca”, “Table”, “National Park”, “Taman Negara”, “No. 4 Gudang”, “四號麻房” (Chinese)… If you say “Tawau Hills Park”, they will look at you with a “Huh? What?” expression, like you ask for direction to another planet.

To get there from Tawau town, go to the road that leads to “Jalan Muhibbah” and “Jalan Air Panas” roads. You will come to a few roundabout until you reach the one like the picture below. Take the left turn, you will see a yellow sign “Old Folks Home” after 10 meters, go straight for a few KM, near the end you will reach a T junction that got a “Muhibbah Jaya” sign at your right, turn right, go straight for quite a long way, you will passby Taman Semarak, Sungai Tawau bridge, big Golden Hope signboard… then pay attention to your right side, you will see the “Taman Bukit Tawau” sign, follow the sign to drive for another 8 KM, you will arrive Tawau Hills Park.


Click Here to see 24 photos of Tawau Hills Park >>

There is not much information about this park on the Internet. I thought it was just a small park. It is a very very big national park, with the size of 28,000 hectares. You need to pay RM3.00 entrance fee to enter the park. Most people go there to swim and picnic. There is a restaurant inside the park too. If you look at the map below (from the leaflet printed by Sabah Parks), you can see that there are lot of places you can go.


Click Here to see 24 photos of Tawau Hills Park >>

The popular extra choices are jungle trekking 2.7 KM to Gelas Hill Waterfall, or 3.2 KM to Sulphur Hot Spring. If you are lucky, on the way you can spot wildlife such as clouded leopard, hornbills, pheasants, giant tree squirrel. You may want to wear leech socks. For those who are adventurous, they can take the 10++ KM jungle route to climb a mountain. I am not sure if you need to get a climb permit and hire a local guide in advance, you may call the park at +60-89-918827 for info. You can stay in their jungle lodge (RM40 per night) or chalet (RM200 per night), or even sleep in the tents in camping ground for RM5.00 per night.


Click Here to see 24 photos of Tawau Hills Park >>

I was not so lucky that day. The weather was bad. I wanted to go to the Gelas Hill Waterfall and Sulphur Hot Spring. Their staff said these trails were next to the river. If the river flooded, I would trap in the forest. I really wanted to go, so I checked with a life guard at the riverside. He said it was quite safe to go. When I planned to move, it started to rain heavily. Well, my mission failed so not many photos were taken. The only place I can go is the small Tawau Hills Waterfall in the park. Due to the heavy rain, the waterfall was very big and strong. Quite a view. I have taken a video clip and share it here. Too bad, hopefully I can come back again one day.


Click Here to see 24 photos of Tawau Hills Park >>

I got a leaflet which has useful information of Tawau Hills Park (accommodation, contact, etc.). You can Click Here to download it.

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Photos taken in Tawau, Sabah Malaysia

Hot Spring, Tawau

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At first I thought there was only one hot spring in Tawau. Actually there are two hot spring in Tawau. One is the big sulphur hot spring in Taman Hills Park. You need to walk 3.2 KM in the jungle to find it, so it is not famous among Tawau people. The second one is the small hot spring at Air Panas Road, and it is more popular.

Therefore, if you say you want to go to Hot Spring, the Tawau people will show you the direction to the small hot spring, not the big one in Tawau Hills Park. Damit… that’s why two Tawau people pointed to opposite direction when I asked for the way to hot spring. That made me very lost. Actually both of them gave the right direction, one to small hot spring, another one to Hills Park hot spring.

Clear? To get there from Tawau town, look for “Jalan Air Panas” and go straight, until you see the “JLN. HOT SPRING EXTN” sign at your right (see picture below), turn into that road, go straight again, when you see the “J. AYER PANAS LAMA BATU 3” sign, go straight for 50 meters and you will see a small wooden bridge next to the roadside.

Just cross the bridge and follow the path (see picture below). After you walk about 50 meters, you will see a bridge made of log. Congratulations! You have reached the hot spring.

“Huh? Where is it?” was my first response when I seemed to come to a dead end (see picture below). What I saw was just a small and stink river.

Suddenly I heard sound under the bridge. When I looked down, I saw some bubbling points in the river. The longkang (drain) smell is actually the smell of sulphur. Then I saw steam coming out from the bubbling points. I was told that the hot spring water was hot. Too bad I didn’t bring an egg to test if it can boil the egg. There are some white substances deposit near the bubbling points. I don’t know what it is. It is interesting but this hot spring is really small. Many locals don’t even bother to look at it.


Click Here to play the video clip >>

Anyway, I made a one-minute video clip for you to get an idea. You may decide whether you want to go there after watching the video.

Trip to Tawau

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The last time I went to Tawau was so many years ago. Whenever I wanted to visit my friends in Tawau, they would say, “why you come to Tawau Oh? Nothing to play here leh.” Tawau is too far away from Kota Kinabalu city and got no attractive tourism spot . I know they got a Cocoa Museum and a Hill Park. Unfortunately, even people from Tawau also don’t know much about them, so I really had doubt if these places worth a visit.

I have traveled in many places of Sabah. To “conquer” the whole Sabah, Tawau seems like a must-go destination, just for the sake of making the list complete. Luckily, there was a Tawau level Kaamatan (Harvest Festival) celebration on May 6. So I found more good reason to go to Tawau. Besides, I got an aunty stays in Tawau.

The next thing is to choose a transport. Taking a bus from Kota Kinabalu to Tawau will cost RM55 per trip, and the ride takes 9 hours. Getting there by plane will cost RM120+ per trip, but it takes only 40 minutes to fly to Tawau. So I took the plane. RM240+ is quite a rip off price, consider it is enough to buy a AirAsia ticket to fly to Kuala Lumpur. Once I arrived Tawau airport, I still had to pay RM10 to get a bus from airport to the town centre, which took another hour.

I took a walk in Tawau town. Tawau is really a big town. I think that the road system in town is a bit messy, like not systematic and well-planned. There are many faces of foreigners who look like Indonesians. I walked to the Dewan Masyarakat Tawau. They would have the Kaamatan celebration there that night, so I wanted to survey the place. Yeah, you can expect photos of Tawau Unduk Ngadau Beauty Pageant here later.

My Tawau aunty lent me her old car, so I could roam freely in town and made it felt young once again (but the wheels almost went off). She only showed me the way back home once, then I was totally on my own. I had no problem to drive home, even in the dark. Not because I have 6th sense or great memory, I got pen and paper mah, hahaha… The faintest ink can beat the strongest memory. Why burden my brain so much? What I need to do is just taking note of the important junctions and building. Now I only remember that Tawau road got a lot of roundabout and bridges. My aunty asked me not to lock the car at night. The car window was broken twice coz the thief tried to look for something in the car. Might as well just leave the car unlocked for them. When I was staying in Tawau, there was power blackout of one to two hours every day. I could hear that Tawau was sighing.

Tawau may not have a lot of places to travel but it is definitely one of the most place to eat seafood. My aunty and her husband treated me dinner at Sabindo. We had some prawns, fish and seashells, cost about RM80 for 3 persons. The taste? Not bad lah..