Blogs from Sandakan, Sabah, Malaysia, Asia

The end of the Intrepid trip was nigh – we would return back to Sandakan in a few days to fly out but for now we had a quick over-nighter in Sandakan. After a delicious roti lunch, we explored the small compact city and escaped the afternoon heat in the town’s mall! Later that evening we met the Intrepid crew at a rooftop bar for drinks, dinner and a glorious sunset. After dinner, a few of us hit the town and went to the seaside where there were markets, pumping music and families enjoying the Saturday night. A couple our gang got roped into dancing with a local singing group which was fun. The next day we caught a small ferry to Selingan Island – one of three islands that make up the Turtle islands chain ... read more

Blog now resides at www.polarsteps.com/DaveBerney/280610-southern-asia-and-india... read more

Sandakan 15 March 2016 After breakfast at 7.00am, we depart Turtle Island in the same speedboat we arrived in and return to the mainland. It was a day for seeing some of the special features of Sandakan. We were driven around by a big tourist bus even though there were only 12 of us. First we visit the Central Market which consisted of fresh fruit and vegetables as well as fresh and dried fish and red meat. We then walked over to the Sheridan on the recommendation from 2 fellow travellers, that the cappuccinos were excellent there. We have been a little ‘staved’ of good quality coffee over the past few days. The downstairs cafe didn’t disappoint us. The coffee was excellent. The Sheridan is on the water over-looking the sea which had both pleasure and ... read more

Geo: 5.84117, 118.113It didn't take long to get to the Sandakan Memorial Park. Our driver parked and walked us to the entrance. There is no entrance fee here. Here we read the information board, it was a lot of depressing information to take in. This park is a memorial to all the 2500 prisoners of war, mainly Australians and British who died here during the Second World War. The prisoners of war here were made to do hard labour, one of the tasks was to build the nearby Sandakan airport. The pavilion, which is a museum was built by the Australian government in the 90's. There were a few relics from the war, an excavator, boiler and generator. We walked up the steps to the pavilion. Inside there is a small, but very informative museum. Continuing ... read more

Its been a while since i v publish anything on travelblog, been a busy and adventurous year for the state of borneo and its tourism industry..a challenging one with that. once of the interesting places which is quite new or it has been there but not much promotion and also because it s forestry reserve is dramakot. Back ground: Deramakot Forest Reserve is managed in accordance with good forestry practices. It was certified as such by the FSCTM (Forest Stewardship CouncilTM) in September 1997 and currently in its 5... read more