Kota Kinabalu to Lawas

The trip from KK to Lawas took me around 3-4 hours, the road condition throughout the journey was very good. The same can't be said about our car, the old Iswara was without air-condition.....so we sweat and sweat and sweat in hot and humid Sabah's weather! This must be my most torturous trip.....lost a bag then being ferried in a 'sauna'....haiiii!

Most of the houses along the road were on stilt, i was told in the older days the area was flooded so building a house on a stilt was the best way to avoid any problem. Now there was no flood....but people still build their house on stilt.......maybe they got used to climb the steps to enter their house!!!

Beaufort is town located right in the middle between KK and Lawas so i was really looking forward to see any landmarks or signs that we have reached the town. What a relief when i saw this roundabout.

There was nothing much can be said about Beaufort, it is a small town, its a stop over town, people travel from Lawas or Brunei to KK and return normally will stop at this town for a drink and a loo break! After Beaufort, the next small town would be Sipitang which is located mid way to Lawas.

Sipitang is even smaller than Beaufort. It is a coastal town, you can actually take speedboat from Sipitang to Labuan, Limbang and Brunei. When we reached here, i was like a roasted pig........given up complaining and missed my old waja at home!!

Dont bother to go to Sipitang police station if you are in town as they were away........

It was a roughly 1-2 hours drive from Sipitang to Lawas. If you are from peninsular or non Sabahan/Sarawakian, you need to stop at the border between Sabah and Sarawak for immigration clearance. I know you are a Malaysian but you are not Sabahan nor Sarawakian....so you need to get immigration clearance. Dont try to be smart aleck and skip the check point, you will have difficulty if you meet any problem in Sarawak or if you want to go to Brunei or Labuan from Lawas. The chekcpoint was at Sindumin, its on Sabah's side, so it means that you are exiting Sabah!

If you dont know, Lawas is in Sarawak. So to get to Lawas, we first exited Sabah then enter Sarawak, after a 5 minutes drive through another immigration checkpoint at Merapok. Get your passport stamped and Welcome to Sarawak!

It took less than an hour from Merapok to Lawas. When you see this then you are in Lawas!

Lawas Airport

p/s: The above was a brief info the route i took from KK to Lawas, if by any chance you are going there and need some info, dont hesitate to email me. I will write about Christmas in Lawas next....i hope!