Our Western Day

Tawau Foreshore

We left the hotel this morning after leaving our laundry at reception, and headed off towards one of Tawau's fine baking establishments for breakfast. Much like Breadtop Bakery, we scoffed down a sugar-laden kaya bun and a mango "juice" (cordial). Both of us having run out of clothes, we thought we might buy some new ones. Unfortunately in this country I am a giant, however I may have more luck in Kota Kinabalu. Even Yvonne struggled with finding something to fit, as the shops are all one-size-fits-none. Out of luck, we walked down to the foreshore and along to an enormous Mosque.

Pasar Tanjung

We wanted to go to Tawau Hill Park but it's about an hour away (Tawau is also the name of the region, not just the city), so we went to the Pasar Tanjung (Central Market) instead. This is a massive building that houses "over 6000 stalls" according to the literature, and the further you go up the stairs, the more grim it becomes. Right at the top is the most unbelievable food area I've ever seen, it gave me shivers even looking at it. There were loads of what looked like picnic BBQ stalls, except tiled and terrifically dirty. Nobody was eating there, which was a big clue as to the general hygiene of the place. Even though we were starving, we took one look and left. The shark fins were another nice touch one level below, along with more dried fish than I have ever seen, or smelled. I did buy a bag, Billabong would you believe. I came all the way from Australia to buy a Billabong bag! At RM14 ($4.50) I'm beginning to have doubts about it's authenticity. We walked down a bit further and I found the hotel I stayed at last time I was here. There is now a KFC on the corner, and we were too hungry to go further so we decided it was Western Day and went inside to enjoy the English menus and toilets with paper. PS KFC is no better here than at home.

Pasar Tanjung

We went to the chemist next door to buy antiseptic for an interesting-looking blister I've developed on my foot, and thought we might have a girly evening, so we bought face masks and hair treatment. We've just put them on and may I say, we are glowing. To continue our Western/fat day, we had Pizza Hut for dinner. Man did that pizza taste awesome!

A horrifying food court

We walked back along the streets and stopped at a cafe for a nice cup of tea. As we drank we saw some great big rats run out from the roadside bins and along the eating area, and the man from the restaurant kicked one so hard that he must have broken its back. He then came over to chat with us and asked where we were from, where we were going etc. He asked where we were staying so I said Marco Polo hotel. His friend piped up "oh I work there!" Fabulous... well you'll never see us cos we're actually at the Kingston Executive... he then asked for my phone number in Australia. Yeaaaah...