Tatau is a small town near Bintulu in Sarawak, Malaysia.
I was passing by the town in November 2012 en route Mukah, the Melanau country in Sarawak. Some unique (read: weird) names of places sometimes pulled me back to study more. Tatau is one of them. The town of about 30000 people of mainly Iban, Melanau, Malay and Chinese is about 40 km from Bintulu on Bintulu-Sibu trunk road. Tatau itself is the name of the ethnic once discovering and early settlers of this place. Their ancestors came from Kalimantan, Indonesia, and their numbers now are insignificant due to migration and mixed marriages. Foreigners are aplenty here, mainly Indonesians working in timber and agriculture business.
Like any other Sarawak towns, Tatau is located by the river. River transport are crucial for timber industry and provide links to upriver interiors. Pan Borneo road system to Bintulu and Sibu and the rest of Sarawak is good.
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