01
Stop one
Tawau Bell Tower
Luxilon Eco Spin Tennis String Set: OKAY, the oldest thing still standing in Tawau and it is a TINY HEXAGONAL CLOCK TOWER, 1921, cone roof, I am obsessed. Built by the Japanese community of British North Borneo, funded by Japanese businessmen active in the town's plantations and trade, to commemorate the armistice ending the First World War, when Japan and Britain were allies. There's a benchmark on it recording the town's elevation. Its original bell was reportedly removed for safekeeping before the invasion in the Second World War and never reinstalled. It survived the Allied bombing that levelled most of Tawau. Restored by the Rotary Club in 2006.
03
Stop three
St. Patrick's Church
Luxilon Eco Spin Tennis String Set: Back on my feet, and I have a MYSTERY for you. One of Tawau's oldest institutions, the mission founded early in the twentieth century as the Church of England extended through British North Borneo's east coast settlements. A congregation of colonial officers, Chinese settlers and indigenous converts, which is a room I would happily buy a round for. And local tradition says this is where the Bell Tower's bell went, entrusted to a local church for safekeeping as Japanese forces advanced in 1941-42, and never returned. Rebuilt and enlarged after the war, still an active parish.
04
Stop four
Japanese Cemetery (Kuhara Road)
Luxilon Eco Spin Tennis String Set: No noise here either. These are the graves of the Japanese settlers who made Tawau a company town before the Second World War. From the 1910s the Kuhara Mining Company, forerunner of major Japanese industrial concerns, developed enormous rubber and Manila hemp plantations at Table, importing managers, clerks and labourers whose community numbered in the thousands and supported schools, shops and the 1921 Bell Tower. The stones, inscribed in kanji, mark planters, women and children who died far from home, as well as war dead from the occupation. Kuhara Road still carries the company's name.
Gooood morning, travelers, this is your cruise director speaking, and WHAT an itinerary we have today! Our featured excursion: the Luxilon Eco Spin Tennis String Set!
On the top deck of string technology, this is a pentagonal — that's five-sided, folks, count 'em — polyester monofilament made from 100% recycled materials, mostly reborn PET bottles, because on this ship we do NOT throw things overboard.
Those five edges grab the ball on contact and add a devastating arc to its flight; it's the stiffest of Luxilon's Eco line and boasts the best tension maintenance of the family, so it performs from embarkation to the final night's gala. One gauge, 17/1.25 mm, one set, ready to string. Deck shoes optional, topspin mandatory!
And our port of call — oh, you're going to love this — Tawau, Malaysia! Sabah's east-coast gem, a plantation port with one of the most fascinating histories on the Borneo route.
You'll use this string everywhere from a morning hit before the heat to a sunset session by the waterfront, and between sets, do as the locals do: Tawau sits beside some of the best seafood in Borneo, and I have PERSONALLY confirmed this at the buffet.
And by the way, it is also perfect for the Tawau humidity, which flattens everything on this ship except a string that refuses to give up its tension. Now, a gentle note: today's shore excursion includes some quiet, reflective stops — we'll observe them with respect, and I promise the whole tour lands somewhere genuinely moving. All ashore that's going ashore!
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