Sandakan Trip

My first trip to Sandakan, the former capital of the Sabah State.

The previous capital of the state was Kudat, while the present capital is Kota Kinabalu.

Took a "Sandakan Weekend Package" in Swiss-Inn Waterfront Sandakan.

Very good and worthy package. I paid only RM468.00 for 3 nights stay, inclusive of 2 steamboat dinner for 2 pac on Friday and Saturday evening respectively; 3 breakfast for 2 pac. This hotel also provides free Wifi.

Swiss-Inn Waterfront Sandakan

Spacious room with King-size bed

Complimentary coffee/tea in the room

Delicious steamboat dinner

By the seaside, but the sea is not clean

Contributed by the local residents' attitude of rubbish disposal

The restaurant at the ground floor serving buffet breakfast

View of the Sandakan Harbour Square from the hotel.

At the far end was actually naval base.

View from the hotel room. Lots of youngsters gather in the evening.

Sandakan had been described as Little Hong Kong. I really wonder why. There is nothing resembling the Hong Kong image. No high-raised building; No rushing crowd; No busy traffic; No cantonese language, and not even many yellow skin.

The only identical was: For some buildings, commercial activities at the ground and first floor, while the other floors are dwelling. Actually, with so much of land available in Sandakan, I feel that there is no necessity for people there to live in tall buildings like Hong Kong.

Does it look like Hong Kong?

Ground floor - commercial activities; 1st floor upwards - dwelling.

Took a stroll at the central market. Business there started as early as 6:00 am, and closed almost at 7:00 pm. This building is quite new. Inside the building, it was clean and well organised, nice to walk around.

The central market

This lady offered good bargain for the dried seafood.

A shop situated directly opposite the central market majoring sea cucumbers, shark fins and other exclusive dried sea-products. Can get good bargain too as compared to the two other similar shops in the town.

Good bargain at this shop

Walk along the seaside by the central market you can see the Town Mosque at Kampung Buli Sim Sim not far away. This is the birth place of Sandakan.

View of the Town Mosque from the central market

On arrival at the Sandakan town, took a walk to the Tourist Information Centre. Unfortunately it was closed for Deepavali Public Holiday. Then we decided to visit the Sandakan Heritage Museum. We were unable to locate the place, so we asked a few passer-by. They too were not aware of it and thus unable to guide us. The actual fact was, we were just standing right in front of the museum. What a joke. Anyway, we didn't get a chance to visit the museum as it was also closed for Deepavali Public Holiday.

The Tourist Information Centre and The Heritage Muzeum were actually sharing one building

So we walked to the entrance of the "Stairs With Hundred Steps". It was very quiet there. No other visitors. We did not climbed the stairs because we had been pre-warned by a taxi driver that a lot of robberies had happened there. So we turned back. What a pity.

Stairs with Hundred Steps

Not far away from the Stairs of Hundred Steps, a monument erected in memory of William B Pryer (1845-1899, the founding father of modern Sandakan.

William Pryer monument

So, instead of risking our safety by walking up the 'stairs of hundred steps' to Agnes Keith's Museum which was situated on a ridge at Jalan Istana, we decided to hire a taxi.

Agnes husband, Harry Keith, was a Conservator of Forests.

Agnes had written 2 books entitled “Land Below The Wind”, while the second book “Three Came Home” described their war experience during the Japanese occupation, and was later made into a movie.

There was an English Tea House and Restaurant situated next to Agnes Keith’s Museum. From there, one could have a good view of Sandakan Town. But if you are not willing to pay for a cup of tea at such serene environment, you can walk to the Observation Pavilion not far away from the restaurant.

Entrance to Agnes Keith's House

Beautiful pre-war heritage building

English Tea House & Restaurant

Observation Pavilion overlooking Sandakan town

Then the taxi took us to the St Michael's Church at Elton hill. This church was built in 1893.

This heritage building was overcrowded by the other modern buildings that surround it .

The St Mary's Cathedral situated not far from it provides a better religious atmosphere. I was fascinated with the big bell hanging there. I wonder how old was it and how it sound like.

St Michael's & All Angels Church

Beautiful glass Pane

Another one

St Mary's Cathedral with the bell hanging there.

Sepilok Orang Utan Sanctuary is the place where no visitor to Sandakan should miss.

We hired a taxi, and left the hotel for it as early as 8:00am because we wanted to catch the feeding time at 10:00am. The journey took less than an hour.

Entrance fee is very minimal for Malaysians. Just RM5.00 for adult, and RM2.00 for students and senior citizen/pensioners.

Entrance to the Sepilok Orang Utan Sanctuary

The feeding time began

Even the late comers also got a share

Everyone watched

Everyone observed the rule

Well, feeding time was over, but still felt like biting something

As for this one, resting after a big feed was more important

Spotted a viper

On our way back to Sandakan town, we diverted to the Rainforest Discovery Centre.

Entrance fee: RM5.00 for adult, and RM2.00 for students

The signboard

The canopy walkway

View at the canopy walkway. Ideal place for bird watching

After leaving Rainforest Discovery Centre, we stopped by at the Thiam coffee shop to have a cup of hot coffee along with delicious bread with margerine and kaya.

Thiam Coffee shop

All types of delicious confectioneries

We also went to Kampung Buli Sim SIm, popular with its fresh sea food restaurant.

Kampung Buli Sim Sim

Scallops with their shells on

Scallops with their shells off

From Scenic Lake to Litter Pond

The Lake - before


The Lake - now
A closer look at the lake now - filthy

I received an email from a Journalist of StarMetro, stating that a resident from Villa Laman Tasik wrote an email to StarMetro complaining about the foul smell that emanates from the lake behind, claiming that there was a pile of waste there and therefore, the smell was unbearable at most times...

However, when the said Journalist went down the site on one morning, he noticed that there wasn’t anything really wrong with the lake. He claimed that the lake was actually beautiful, clean and clear, except for a small portion maybe at the water mouth that had plastic bags floating and some dead fish there...

Later, I replied his email, giving my views as follow:

When Kerayong river swells up during a heavy downpour, overflow water will be led into this lake through a canal, so that areas along Kerayong river will not be flooded. But due to that they had not built any trap to filter litters at the mouth of the canal, whatever rubbish will also flow into the lake too.

The likely consequences of this will be:-

- As time passes, the depth of the lake will be shallower due to the large amount of litters, soil and mud that pours into the lake.

- Litters create unsightly view of the lake and produces unpleasant smell.

- Toxic matters that flow into the lake causes contamination of the lake. This may be the cause of large amount of fishes that were found dead. Aquatic birds that feed on the poisoned fishes may also be in danger, thus it is very eco-unfriendly.

It is true that this lake always give out intolerable foul smell. The smell may be due to the decomposed rubbish or dead fishes.

A common resident waterbird of the lake - Little Heron

A common visitor to the lake - Blue-tailed Bee eater

Hopefully authorities concerned do something to return the beautiful lake to the residents of Bandar Sri Permaisuri, cause this had been a place where the residents gathered, jogged, exercised, practising Tai Chi, fishing, bird watching, photographing, watching fireworks displayed etc...