It was a semester break and I got nothing to do. No more classes, no more assignments to be submitted as well. Finally, I could freely do anything I wanted to do before the new semester starts. That is when my mom decided to bring us to Tawau for a holiday.
As Tawau is located in East Malaysia, specifically in the East of Sabah, the only way to go there was by air transportation. It's been a while since I last traveled by flight. Traveling by flight really excites me as I rarely go anywhere by airplane. Special thanks to Abah, as he sponsored the tickets for the whole family.
From Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2 (KLIA2), it took us about 2 hours and 50 minutes to land safely at Tawau Airport. We were given 90 days' permission to stay in Sabah, as told by the customs officer. It was more than enough as we planned to stay there just for three days.
As soon as we arrived, we went straight to the KK Hotel, located not far away from Al-Kauthar Mosque, which is commonly known as the Central Mosque of Tawau. After all the luggage was placed in our reserved room, we visited Al-Kauthar Mosque. It is a unique mosque that uses natural lights from the sun as the main lighting while making use of its green shade to light up the prayer hall with greenish surroundings.
Al-Kauthar Mosque prayer hall
On the second day, we traveled about 25 kilometers from KK Hotel to explore the beauty of nature in Tawau Hill National Park (known by locals as TABLE). There are several places that we can visit inside this 27,000 km square tropical forest which includes one of the tallest trees in the world, hot springs, Orchid Orchard, and Bukit Galas Waterfall. We walked almost 500 meters to see those giant trees, one of them is 88.32 meters tall! It was once declared the world's tallest tree, but now the record has been broken by another tree that is also located in Tawau, which heights around 105 meters tall.
One of the tallest trees in Tawau
As we walk 2.6 km deeper into the tropical forest, that's when we arrived at Bukit Galas Waterfall. The journey there was quite challenging, but as soon as we witnessed how beautiful it was with our bare eyes, we can put to the conclusion that it was totally worth it to spend around 70 minutes walking to reach there. As TABLE is a tropical forest, it is common to get bit by leeches that can be found along the trail. Therefore, it is safer and recommended to put on long socks.
Bukit Galas Waterfall A leech sucking blood from my brother's leg
There's another part of the TABLE that also becomes a part of the attraction there, which is the hot spring. Located around 400 meters from Orchid Orchard, walking there didn't cause us any problems. We were amazed by the unique color of the water which made it looks very calm and peaceful. However, we were advised not to make any contact with the water without a proper explanation.
Hot Spring inside of the TABLE
On the third day, we finally can go for a soak in a hot spring. Located around 10 km from Tawau Town, Tawau Hot Springs provides visitors with complete facilities. Bathrooms, toilets, a prayer hall, and even a playground were provided in order to ensure the visitors enjoy their trip to this hot spring. The landscape was also fully taken care of in order to maintain the beauty of nature in that place. Since the water was just perfect for us to soak in, we really enjoyed ourselves and spent a few hours there. It was totally refreshing to spend some time there after a long walk at TABLE the day before.
Tawau Hot Spring
At night, we went to one of the most famous restaurants in Tawau, Seri Titingan which serves seafood and steamboat. It was a luxury-looking restaurant, with premium finishing everywhere, and uses warm light as the main lighting. While eating, we could also enjoy a group of people playing country-genre songs. We ordered several dishes which include sea bass, flour-dipped fried shrimp, and fried squid. We had our last dinner in Tawau before going back to KL the next morning.
