So recently, my friends and I went back to Tawau and Semporna… we wanted to do a bit of everything and to see what Tawau and Semporna could offer, and it was a mind-blowing amazing trip!!!

Our tour guide (if you could really call him that or our handler) was a seasoned ex tour guide and very important person across Sabah – Mr Pat Lingam… and our driver was a friend of his, Mat….

Our first stop upon arrival in Tawau was to Kampung Balung Cocos – one of the latest Eco Tourism destination in Sabah…

Kampung Balung Cocos is just a 16 minutes drive (13.8km) drive from Tawau Airport.
Getting to the columnar basalt site is slightly challenging as you have to go through palm oil plantation and villages. After arriving at the private property of Kampung Balung Cocos, you would have to get on foot to the columnar basalt, which would take about a simple 5 minutes walk.

Kampung Balung Cocos is pretty well known for being the only location in Malaysia where you can see some Columnar basalt (Lava Pillow) formed millions of years ago when straight lava flows upward from sea floor to the water surface.

This structure is naturally formed when basalt lava begins to cool at the bottom of the ocean.

The cooling process causes the rocks to form hexagonally extended columns.

Some other famour places of columnar jointing can be found at Devils Tower in Wyoming, USA; the Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland and Fingal’s Cave on the island of Staffa, Scotland.

This destination was opened to the public since 2016 for both domestic and foreign tourists.

Address – Kampung Balung Cocos, 91000 Tawau, Sabah

We then headed to Semporna town where Pat took us to Buwan Restaurant, a floating restaurant belonging to The Buwan Dive Resort.

Buwan Restaurant is about a 20-minutes drive from Semporna town in Tampi Tampi Village and serves superb seafood dishes….

We indulged in some Corn and Crab Soup, Taiwan Choy stirfried in Garlic, Prawns Steamed With Egg, Salted Egg Crab, Sweet and Sour Crab and deep fried cuttlefish … Our prawns and crabs were super fresh and we saw them being caught right in front of our eyes from the aquarium…

It was great seafood in a relaxing ambiance with the sea and boats passing by…. And it was also said that Buwan Dive Resort used to be the movie site for a local Malay movie – Duyung (starring Maya Karin and Awie)

Address – Buwan Restaurant, Kampung Tampi-Tampi, 91308 Semporna, Sabah

Our next stop was to the Bukit Tengkorak Archaeological Heritage Site which was like 5 minutes or so from Buwan Restaurant

It is a hill about 600 feet above sea level. Bukit Tengkorak is a volcanic rock-shelter site and a part of volcano mouth of 2km in diameter. Bukit Tengkorak Archaeological Site is considered the largest pottery making factory in Southeast Asia during the Neolithic period.

If you have sharp eyes, the hill slopes are littered with numerous pottery shards with various patterns dating 3,000 BC and offers a good 500 metre walk and a beautiful 360 degree view of Semporna, the volcano caldera as well as views of Semporna’s surrounding islands.

To be honest, we managed to skip this in our previous trip in Semporna, because it was closed…. We kinda did not look forward to this as we fancied ourselves incapable or too weak to climb…

So when we arrived, most of us were egging out other team mates on as they were in charge of creating some video content of the place while we breezily announced we were just gonna go to the first level…

But one thing led to another and egging others on means egging ourselves on too and in the end all of us were huffing, puffing and panting at the top of the hill while enjoying the most breathtaking view of Semporna!!!!

So visiting Bukit Tengkorak or Skull Hill is a must-do in Semporna….

And after researching, I now know why the hill is named thus… which is in remembrance of the beheading of several prisoners of war by Japanese soldiers stationed there during the Second World War…. And OMG, the hill is believed to be haunted. Fortunately that information slipped past me before I climb those steep but reasonable well-tended wooden stairs…..

There are viewing platforms along the way, and each view point which os further up the top shows an even more breathtaking view….

There is a museum at the base of the hill foot with a number of archaeological remains found in the vicinity, but we were late coming down so we missed the museum…..

Bukit Tengkorak aka Skull Hill is an archaeological site located at Jalan Tampi-Tampi, about 10km south of Semporna town.

Entrance is free but don’t forget to bring a bottle of water with you for the hike up to keep hydrated….

For more information about Bukit Tengkorak Archaeological Heritage Site, visit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skull_Hill,_Malaysia

When we got to Semporna Town, Pat and Mat drop us off at our accommodation for the night….

And it was none other then Jono’s Place Guesthouse

If you have been to any homey B&B in other parts of the world, this is one such B&B… Jono’s Place is a home for travelers in the most ideal location in Semporna, considering how close it was to the waterfront, seafood restaurants, dive shops, Watsons, Guardian and piers ….

It offers a REAL home away from home- with homey atmosphere and warm comfort. The rooms are cosy with stylish furnishings, and everything you need to be comfortable and feel at home from the living room, beautiful wooden balcony with plants, the cleanliness, the comfortable rooms, the fully equipped kitchen, the WiFi…. and hmmm , not having to fight for electrical outlets with your friends/ family/ roomie considering there are soooo many electrical outlets in a room (definitely more than enough to go all around for dive cams, cameras, phones and everything and anything that could need charging)

One of the many things that we love about Jono’s place is that it is also very clean, and there is always some bread, eggs or instant noodles provided in the kitchen… I really love this place and highly recommend to give it a stay, superb location, less commercial and more like home.

Address – Lot A2 & A3 2nd floor Block ATaman Bandar, 91308 Semporna
Tel – +60 168396582

Anyway , we had dinner at a simple restaurant trying out some local venison dishes which wasn’t quite my cup of tea as I don’t eat that much red meat but the dishes were pretty good and meat tender…

And that was the end of our first day in Tawau/ Semporna

Our trip was made possible with the kind support of Tourism Sabah …