Sandakan Things to Do

There are several Fat Cat restaurants and cake shops around the city centre. The cake shops sell a variety of rich cakes - perfect for after dinner indulgence.
And if you want to try something a little different, stalls in the centrepoint precinct sell sweet corn icecream.

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A couple of kilometres east of central Sandakan is Sim Sim Water Village. Sim Sim is one of the largest water villages in Asia - home to more than 25,000 people. Access into the village is easy with several solid concrete pathways. The villagers are very proud of their homes - many are brightly painted and have beautiful gardens of potted plants - and are happy for tourists to have a look. Some of the houses were considerably larger than what I expected. They have fresh water and electricity but the plumbing....
Well worth a look!

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The Puu Jih Shih Temple is located on a steep hill affording excellent views across to Sandakan Bay. It is located about 4 km out of the town centre (10 - 15 RM by taxi).
The impressive temple has well kept gardens. Entry is free (there is a donation box). A long line of statues borders the entrance road. Inside are several large buddhas.
The temple grounds are a cool place for reflection and catching a breeze on a hot afternoon.

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If you are in Sandakan and have an hour to spare, you can do worse than visit the central market. It houses stalls of all kinds - downstairs is fresh produce: meat, fish, chicken, fruit and vegetables, upstairs is an eclectic range of goods from bags to sarongs, kitchenware to dried foods.
The market is very clean, although the fish section can get a little smelly towards the end of the day.
Prices for traditional motif sarongs are good and some bargaining is possible.

Of all the weird things I have done in the course of my travels, having a superfluous leg wax in Sandarkan surely ranks right up there among the strangest!

I should explain the context. I was returning from four happy years in Western Australia to move in with my then-fiance (now husband) in South Africa. I was flying the cheapest route with Malaysian Airlines, and ever ready to exploit the opportunities presented by a stopover, I stashed my baggage in the left luggage facility at KL airport and hopped onto a flight to Kota Kinabalu to embark on my swansong as a backpacker.

At the end of a wonderful couple of weeks in Sabah, I was somewhat unkempt, and began to worry about how this would affect my fiance's first impression of me after several months apart. I got it into my head that what I needed was a legwax and set off to find a beautician to Do The Deed.

Of course, Asians tend to be much less hairy, so finding a service provider to help me proved to be a bit of a mission. I trudged the backstreets of Sandarkan in the stifling heat and humidity and was beginning to despair when I spotted a logo that I recognised. Judging by the bewildered expression on the beautician's face, I was the first person to ask for a leg wax in living memory, and they set about trying to find the necessary materials. When they finally managed to locate the wax container, they opened the tin to find that the heat had rendered it entirely molten, and we had to rig up a fan to get the blasted stuff to set hard enough to extract the hair!

The supreme irony - which I only later discovered - is that the whole exercise was entirely superfluous as my German husband isn't in the slightest concerned by hairy legs, and would have been equally delighted to see me had I pitched up in my original hirsute form!

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The Turtle island Park at Selingan and other islands protects a lot of turtles. It is most definitely not the best place to see turtles because of all the tourists. The island trip is expensive and has crowds of visitors clamouring to see the nesting turtle. Photography is extra and video not allowed. The snorkelling is poor and the island has very little going for it.
We had been on Pom Pom Island, off Semporna a few days before and there were as many turtles but without the crowds of people. It was also excellent snorkelling with upwards of 10 turtles seen on each snorkel trip. My recommendation is leave Selingan to the package tourists. Go and volunteer with TRACC on Pom Pom and actually enjoy the turtle nesting experience.

After lunch we headed back to Sepilok. By now its raining harder and we wondered if the the feeding area would be open. No worries!! The feeeding continued , on time and with fweer visitors. We were delighted when we arrived to see a mother and her baby . The tiny baby was about 9 months old. I wondered if they are ever dropped as the mom's swing high above in the trees as they cling on. We also see a small oprpan . At 6 year old she's smaller than normla as she was near death when she was resued . She seemed now however and full of energy.. We also see a couple of large Orangutans , who eat their fill and quicly disappear into the jungle.. We stayed until closing time and then with our camera chips full we say goodby to this magical place..

I hope the next generation does better at saving these important creatures from extinction and take the steps needed to preserve this amazing planet.

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Only a 20 minute walk from the from the Sepilok Orangutan Rehab center, but we had our driver drop us here on our return from the Memorial Site.
This is a huge area with walkways through the rainforest. It would be paradise for botonists and bird watchers. The trees along the way are labeled and there are numerous tablets with full descriptions of many of the plants.
Overhead is a series of canopied walkways. Its fascinating to look down at the trees from above. It gives a whole different view of plant and animal life here.. There are many rare birds here and a couple of towers are availble to catch a better view.
At one end of the area is a botanical garden with a huge plant collection. Some favorites for me were the orchids and a huge fig trees. Oh and I loved the huge alocasia , the biggest I've ever seen. You could spend a couple of hours in this section alone!!