TAWAU FERRY

"Tawau is the third largest city in the state of Sabah and is located to the east of the island of Borneo. It is a relatively new city in Malaysia, which boomed in the early 1980s due to timber and cocoa cultivation. Today Tawau is a bustling city, where ships depart for all neighboring islands such as Sebatik, Nunukan, Tarakan islands. These islands are located in Indonesian waters."

Tawau Ferry Terminal.

From Tawau you can take a boat to Indonesian islands, which lie south below Tawau off the coast of Kalimantan. Kalimantan is the Indonesian part of Borneo. Close to Tawau are the islands of Nunukan and Sebatik. By the way, Sebatik has a Malay and Indonesian part. A little further away is Tarakan Island.
The boat trip to Sungai Nyamuk and Sebatik Island leaves several times a day and the ride takes about half an hour and can take 100 people. One has to pay about 25 Ringgit for the crossing.

The minimum distance between Sebatik and mainland Borneo (Tawau) is approximately 1km. The northern part belongs to Sabah (Malaysia) while the southern part belongs to North Kalimantan (Indonesia) Sebatik. The demarcated international border between Malaysia and Indonesia stops at the eastern edge of Sebatik. Although there are border guards on the island, there is no immigration office, no customs house, no barbed wire fence and no walls demarcating the border. Instead, the only evidence of the border is the concrete piles buried every kilometer from east to west. Not many Malaysians live on Sebatik. They prefer to live in Tawau, a modern city that is completely on a different island. In the meantime, the Indonesian Sebatik has two busy towns, Sei Nyamuk (Sungei Nyamuk) is the trading center and Mantikas is the fishing village. About 80,000 Indonesians live on this island. There are post offices, banks, hospitals and schools in the city. There is a 4G connection on the island.

The island of Sebatik

On Sebatik, however, there is only a long bypass around the island. It has smooth asphalt, especially on the sides, but also holes, cracks, sharp gravel to landslides on the other side. At night it is completely dark on the coast of Sebatik. Not all areas have 24-hour electricity.
There is only one highway on this island. There are not many markets. One thing that dominates the most are the thousands of acres of oil palm plantations and oil palm plantations ...............In Sebatik, however, there is only a long bypass around the island. It has smooth asphalt, especially on the sides, but also holes, cracks, sharp gravel to landslides on the other side. At night it is completely dark on the coast of Sebatik. Not all areas have 24-hour electricity.
There is only one highway on this island. There are not many markets. One thing that dominates the most are the thousands of acres of oil palm plantations and oil palm plantations ...............

A boat leaves for the Indonesian islands

The trek from Tawau from Nunukan takes an hour. Two ferries operate on this route and there are eight services per day. The crossing costs 65 Ringgit. Nununkan belongs to the Maratua atoll. One of these islands is the small, green Nunukan. The island is completely overgrown with tropical forest, and on one side is a white sandy beach and blue sea, where the bungalows are located. On the other side of the island is the dive center with the breathtakingly beautiful house reef and the restaurant and bar. Both sides of the island are connected by a wooden walkway. Sea turtles can often be seen on the island.

Beautiful beaches at Nunukan Island

The boat to Tarakan goes once a day and is the furthest from Tawau. The boat trip costs about 150 Ringgit and takes about 3 hours. Tarakan has a triangular shape and is located 3 kilometers from the coast of Kalimantan. Once an important oil-producing region during the Dutch colonial period, it had great strategic importance during the Pacific War and was one of the first Japanese targets in the early part of the war.
Remains of the skirmishes and major battles remain today can be found all over the city. Among these remnants are the Peningki Lama site in East Tarakan, the Museum Roemah Boendar (Roundhouse Museum), Pillbox / Stelling Post, the Australian Monument at the Kodim (Military Command Center) in Pulau Kalimantan Street, and the Japanese Ash Monument. br> The indigenous inhabitants are the Tidung, which are a subgroup of the Dayak people.
Kota Tarakan is the capital and is a densely populated city with about 220,000 inhabitants. Tarakan has an airport called Juwata International Airport and it is located 3.5 km from the city. The airport has domestic flight routes to Balikpapan, Jakarta, Surabaya, Denpasar and Makassar, as well as an international route to Tawau, Malaysia . The island is one of the habitats of the proboscis monkey.

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