Some days back, I wrote about our very, very slow journey on a large wooden tongkang with a 75 hp engine from Tawau, mainland Sabah, to Sebatik Island.
Needless to say, on our return we decided to catch the regularly scheduled ferry along with the schoolkids and islanders – which took half the time. Now a ferry that runs every day at set times is going to arrive at some kind of passenger terminal, right?

Picture One: we approach the passenger terminal.

Picture Two: we are about to dock

Picture 3: we contemplate the dock, which is the roof of the boat tied up to another boat which is docked…

Picture 4: the scramble begins. The owner of the boat roof (take a look at those cracks), begins to have hysterics, unfortunately not caught on camera. All those people you see in the background are standing on his roof, about to be joined by those two in the foreground…

Picture 5: scramble over the fishnets and down a makeshift gangplank to…

Picture 6: the fishing boat next door which is being unloaded

Picture 7: Walk around this second boat to the steps, climb the steps up to the next deck…

Picture 8: and, still carrying all your expedition equipment and baggage, get out on to the dock…

Picture 9: which is actually the dock for the fish market…

Picture 10: go through the fish market…

Picture 11: …and get ambushed by all the kids who just love to have their picture taken, especially on digital cameras where they can get instant feedback and see what they look like!

And so ends the saga of getting off a passenger ferry in Tawu Port.

I love Sabah.