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    Being my last stop in Sabah, I set foot in Tawau with a heavy heart knowing that my holiday was to end soon. My aunt leads me to her home, which was probably about 15 minutes walk from the main road but she gets a call from her grandson saying that he's just nearby, and could give us a lift back. A Hilux 2.5D pickup truck with a  P  stuck to the windscreen pulls up. I open the door, and I immediately heard someone greet me. 

"Piau Suu!" 

"Oh you're calling me?", I replied. "Hi! You must be Ah Hong!"

    My second cousin whom I've not seen in .. many years. 17 or 18 years, to be exact. Last I met him, he was prolly less than 2 feet tall. Now, he's all grown up and pimply. By saying "pimply", I meant .. full of pimples, not the .. pimping kind. I gotta get used to him calling me that. Piau suu means grandmother's side uncle. I'm a generation above him, so he's gotta address me as that. 

    We arrive at my aunt's place, and she immediately starts giving me orders .. where to put my bag, what shampoo I should use, what water I am to drink. Hmm… sounds like my mom. When I was a lot younger, that is. She was being accommodating, I guess. That's another thing that I had to get used to, after 10 days of living alone/independantly.

    Didn't take long for my uncle to return home from his routine mahjong game. We hung out in the living room, told them about how I have not showered for 2 full days and they laughed their heads off when I mentioned that I've been in the jungle. Shortly after, we had dinner at home. I hadn't had a good Chinese meal with soup and all, so I totally walloped all the food. I did notice however, that they all ate very fast. Ah Hong was with us for dinner too, and he also ate really quick. Is it a Sabah thing, or a Tawau thing? Or is it just me? I'm beginning to enjoy food, and somehow that contributes to the speed of which I consume my food.

     I was taken for a tour of the town at night after dinner, and it actually took less than 30 minutes! Tawau town centre is quite small, but Tawau is actually quite big. The residential areas are quite spread out, and some areas go by miles, like Batu 1, 2 and 3. The airport is about 30 minutes out of town. I noticed a lot of dark skinned people walking the streets of the town centre. I suppose there's a lot of Filipinos and Indonesians here. They could be the Kadazan/Dusun people too. 

We got home, and I retired back to a sweet solid bed in an airconditioned room. Sweet.

David[hmm]

PS: The word "Sweet" reminded me of a Tawau-ian. This one's for you, Vic.