An Unexpected Balcony Guest
July 31st. It's already day 4 or 5 of my stay here in Tawau.
The day kicked off with a totally unexpected morning rescue mission. I woke up to the sound of a cat meowing, looked out at the balcony, and there it was—a stray cat.
I mean, I'm on the third floor?!
I have absolutely no idea how it got up here, but the poor thing was crying and couldn't figure out how to leave. I helped it escape back to safety. Good deed of the day: accomplished.
Chicken Feet & Local Eats
For lunch, I went out and tried a local dish called Sup Kaki Bihun for 8 RM (about $1.80 USD).
It's basically a rice vermicelli soup packed with chicken feet. It had that classic Southeast Asian punch—salty, spicy, and incredibly flavorful. Honestly, it was absolutely delicious. A massive win for my tastebuds.
Booth Hopping & Connecting with Locals
In the afternoon, I headed back to the cultural festival. Today's mission was to dive deep into the cultural exhibition booths.
Toraja: This was actually my second time visiting their booth. The people here are so ridiculously sweet. We listened to traditional Toraja music, and I learned so much from them. One girl there even practiced her Japanese with me and told me she wants to visit Japan next year!
Pakistan: It was empty on day one, but today there were people, and they even treated me to some food.
Mandar: Their booth was set up like a traditional wedding, and the decorations were absolutely stunning.
Kaili: Visited this one twice too! I got to sample three local foods: Onde-Onde, Topu, and Duo. They were a bit salty and spicy—definitely the kind of food that goes perfectly with rice.
Arab: I found a shisha (hookah) shaped literally like a gun! The attention to detail on the items was incredible. They even gave me some lovely scented oil for my skin as I was leaving.
After exploring the booths, I ended up dancing with the Siluk people! It was such a cute, fun dance. You don't even need to speak the same language; just moving to the beat together connects you instantly.
The True Essence of a Festival
I popped back to the hotel to charge my phone, then headed straight back out into the night.
The energy at night? Completely next level. It wasn't just Malaysian culture on display—there were vibrant colors and unique sounds from Indonesia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and more. I ended up just standing there for an hour, completely mesmerized by the dancing.
Standing in that crowd, it hit me. This is what a festival is supposed to be.
There's no fighting. There's no shady energy of people just trying to pick each other up. It's just pure, unadulterated joy. Every single person there is genuinely having the time of their lives. Strangers walk past and hit you with the biggest smiles, yelling "Hello!"
It's an overwhelmingly peaceful space designed entirely to lift people's spirits. Experiencing this makes me so grateful I decided to come to Tawau. Tomorrow is day 3 of the festival, and I am absolutely ready to soak in every last second of it!
