On the recommendation of several friends, we decided to not spend much time in the port town of Semporna after arriving back to the mainland by boat from Uncle Chang's. Based on what I saw about Semporna, it was a bustling, grungy town with a large outdoor market and not much else to offer. Lots of travellers stay in Semporna as a jumping off point for day trips to Sipadan, but I think it's much better to stay on Mabul at a place like Uncle Chang's for a more relaxing experience.
In Semporna, we were told by someone that there was a bus that left around 2 pm to go to Sandakan. We found some small bus ticket offices but were told by some sellers that there was no 2 pm bus, and that we would need to wait until the morning... ugh! Fortunately, some nice man led us to another bus ticket office which seemed more legit. The company was called Dyana and it was a big coach bus with air con, tv, and a toilet that left at 2pm and arrived in Sandakan 5 hours later. They showed movies on the bus and gave us bottles of water to drink. The tickets cost us 30 Ringgit each (around $10).
After arrival in Sandakan, we checked in to a guest house and walked down the road towards the harbour area, where a few nice restaurants and a small mall were. There was even a big Four Points by Sheraton hotel down at the harbour with a McDonalds next door... sweet! After 4 days of eating rice, veggies, and meat every meal for breakfast, lunch, and dinner at Uncle Chang's, it was exciting to get something different.
Like Semporna, Sandakan wasn't too interesting. The main reason people go there is because it's near Sepilok (around 40 Ringgit cab ride or a 5 Ringgit bus ticket away). The ride takes around 45 minutes to an hour.
Our first stop in Sepilok was the Rainforest Discovery Centre (RDC) where you can do some hiking trails and canopy walkways around the park. We had our eyes open for flying squirrels in the trees, but unfortunately we didn't see any. In the middle of the day, we didn't see much wildlife there, but it was nice to walk around in nature on peaceful, empty trails.
Our second stop was the Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre. Sick or abandoned orangutans are brought here and cared for so they can be rehabilitated and then re-released into the wild. When we arrived, the place was closed (it appears to shut down in the middle of the day in between the feeding times of 10 am and 3 pm). We had lunch next door and went back at 2 pm when the office re-opened. After seeing an interesting video about the place, we went to the feeding platform. A man came out to a platform with bananas, watermelon, and other foods. Some orangutans came in on the ropes near the platform to get food. It was funny to watch them... they have so much personality! We learned that orangutans are nearly 97% genetically like humans... crazy! There weren't as many orangutans at the feeding as I expected, but that is a good thing because that means that most of the orangutans around the jungle there have learned to find their own food source and are on their way to full rehabilitation.
On our second full day around Sandakan we visited the English Tea House, up a winding tree-lined road on a hill overlooking the city and harbour. The garden was very nice and tropical-looking, and you could even play croquet on the lawn. A peacock was out in a cage in the garden, near the outdoor tables. We had lunch on the shady porch area. John and I had some broccoli-cheese soup and shared the Royal Tea Set, which included a pot of tea (we chose "Borneo Rainforest Tea"), 3 kinds of sandwiches (cucumber, egg, and chicken salad), scones with clotted cream and jam, and a variety of small desserts. Alex got Shepherd's Pie and cheese cake. The Tea House was right next to Agnes Keith's House. I never heard of her, but apparently she was an American author who wrote books about life in Borneo around the time of WW2.
After our tea, we were pressed with finding something to do in Sandakan. Alex had previously visited Sandakan and did a jungle safari, but we were all safari-ed out so we decided to go to a movie theatre and watch Iron Man 3! Tickets were only 10 Ringgit (around $3).
Our last evening in Borneo was spent at the hospital where we got John checked out. He had some scrapes on his arm and leg that had some pus so we wanted to make sure there was no serious infection. The hospital was kind of busy, but they fixed John up and sent him with extra bandages and a prescription for antibiotics. He had to pay 50 Ringgit (around $17) as a foreigner visiting the hospital, but all the rest was free, including the medication! I guess health care in Malaysian is free so they treated him the same!
The next morning we flew back to KL, and then back to HCMC after hanging out in the airport for the afternoon. Borneo has a lot of outdoor nature-type experiences to offer travellers. We didn't even explore that much of it... there are large caves, jungle safaris, huge mountain hikes, and more! I'd recommend any adventurous outdoorsy traveller to visit this island! Another cool trip down in the books... :)
In Semporna, we were told by someone that there was a bus that left around 2 pm to go to Sandakan. We found some small bus ticket offices but were told by some sellers that there was no 2 pm bus, and that we would need to wait until the morning... ugh! Fortunately, some nice man led us to another bus ticket office which seemed more legit. The company was called Dyana and it was a big coach bus with air con, tv, and a toilet that left at 2pm and arrived in Sandakan 5 hours later. They showed movies on the bus and gave us bottles of water to drink. The tickets cost us 30 Ringgit each (around $10).
After arrival in Sandakan, we checked in to a guest house and walked down the road towards the harbour area, where a few nice restaurants and a small mall were. There was even a big Four Points by Sheraton hotel down at the harbour with a McDonalds next door... sweet! After 4 days of eating rice, veggies, and meat every meal for breakfast, lunch, and dinner at Uncle Chang's, it was exciting to get something different.
Like Semporna, Sandakan wasn't too interesting. The main reason people go there is because it's near Sepilok (around 40 Ringgit cab ride or a 5 Ringgit bus ticket away). The ride takes around 45 minutes to an hour.
Our first stop in Sepilok was the Rainforest Discovery Centre (RDC) where you can do some hiking trails and canopy walkways around the park. We had our eyes open for flying squirrels in the trees, but unfortunately we didn't see any. In the middle of the day, we didn't see much wildlife there, but it was nice to walk around in nature on peaceful, empty trails.
Our second stop was the Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre. Sick or abandoned orangutans are brought here and cared for so they can be rehabilitated and then re-released into the wild. When we arrived, the place was closed (it appears to shut down in the middle of the day in between the feeding times of 10 am and 3 pm). We had lunch next door and went back at 2 pm when the office re-opened. After seeing an interesting video about the place, we went to the feeding platform. A man came out to a platform with bananas, watermelon, and other foods. Some orangutans came in on the ropes near the platform to get food. It was funny to watch them... they have so much personality! We learned that orangutans are nearly 97% genetically like humans... crazy! There weren't as many orangutans at the feeding as I expected, but that is a good thing because that means that most of the orangutans around the jungle there have learned to find their own food source and are on their way to full rehabilitation.
On our second full day around Sandakan we visited the English Tea House, up a winding tree-lined road on a hill overlooking the city and harbour. The garden was very nice and tropical-looking, and you could even play croquet on the lawn. A peacock was out in a cage in the garden, near the outdoor tables. We had lunch on the shady porch area. John and I had some broccoli-cheese soup and shared the Royal Tea Set, which included a pot of tea (we chose "Borneo Rainforest Tea"), 3 kinds of sandwiches (cucumber, egg, and chicken salad), scones with clotted cream and jam, and a variety of small desserts. Alex got Shepherd's Pie and cheese cake. The Tea House was right next to Agnes Keith's House. I never heard of her, but apparently she was an American author who wrote books about life in Borneo around the time of WW2.
After our tea, we were pressed with finding something to do in Sandakan. Alex had previously visited Sandakan and did a jungle safari, but we were all safari-ed out so we decided to go to a movie theatre and watch Iron Man 3! Tickets were only 10 Ringgit (around $3).
Our last evening in Borneo was spent at the hospital where we got John checked out. He had some scrapes on his arm and leg that had some pus so we wanted to make sure there was no serious infection. The hospital was kind of busy, but they fixed John up and sent him with extra bandages and a prescription for antibiotics. He had to pay 50 Ringgit (around $17) as a foreigner visiting the hospital, but all the rest was free, including the medication! I guess health care in Malaysian is free so they treated him the same!
The next morning we flew back to KL, and then back to HCMC after hanging out in the airport for the afternoon. Borneo has a lot of outdoor nature-type experiences to offer travellers. We didn't even explore that much of it... there are large caves, jungle safaris, huge mountain hikes, and more! I'd recommend any adventurous outdoorsy traveller to visit this island! Another cool trip down in the books... :)
Wonderful commentary, as usual AND great pics!!! Makes you want to go!
ReplyDeleteYou CAN go... just get on a plane and do it! :)
ReplyDelete