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Sandakan Travel Blogs

Background: During the late 18th and 19th centuries, Great Britain established colonies and protectorates in the area of current Malaysia; these were occupied by Japan from 1942 to 1945. In 1948, the British-ruled territories on the Malay Peninsula formed the Federation of Malaya, which became independent in 1957. Malaysia was formed in 1963 when the former British colonies of Singapore and the East Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak on the northern coast of Borneo joined the Federation. The first several years of the country's history were marred by Indonesian efforts to control Malaysia, Philippine claims to Sabah, and Singapore's secession from the Federation in 1965.

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By Markio
October 26th 2009

Borneo - orangutans, tiger beer and crazy bond villains...! Asia » Malaysia » Sabah » Sandakan

Orangutan in the wild

Using up great slabs of my precious holiday days is something I do with aplomb. My desire to keep visiting the swathes of SE Asia that I didn't manage to get to on my travels meant that Autumn 2009 saw the best part of 3 weeks being spent in Borneo. I'd roped in Steve and Chris to recreate the travelling trio from our first trip to SE Asia in 2005, and Sky was teaching English just a short hop away in Taiwan and was able to join us for a week too. I'd treated the trip very much as a backpacking [View Full Entry]

By Books
September 24th 2009

Quiet Down! This is Bat Country! Asia » Malaysia » Sabah » Sandakan

Garden

As the sun started to set on Malaysian horizon we found ourselves skipping along a muddy river in fishing boat headed towards our jungle camp. Now we were heading "in the shit" we told ourselves. Uncle Tan's is really in the middle of nowhere, or at least it felt like nowhere. We saw some people come down to the river to bathe but where they came from remained hidden from our view. We arrived at the camp and headed up the rickety boat ramp that would eventually collapse during our stay. I walked up to check our hut and saw that [View Full Entry]

By Books
September 10th 2009

Why not Borneo? Asia » Malaysia » Sabah » Sandakan

Photo 1

After about a year since my last adventure outside Korea I was ready to head off. It's not that I needed to get out of Korea but that I needed out of Seoul. This could have easily been remedied with a quick little trip down south or somewhere near a National Park. As it was, I had a week vacation and it seemed like the best thing to do was get out to some other part of Asia and see what it had to offer. It didn't take much time at all to decide that I wanted to be somewhere that [View Full Entry]

By andrestgt
July 15th 2009

Sandakan Asia » Malaysia » Sabah » Sandakan

Sandakan

Die sechsstündige Busfahrt von Semporna nach Sandakan (40 RM) ist landschaftlich uninteressant. Es geht größtenteils durch nimmer enden wollende Ölpalmplantagen, die in großen Teilen Borneos den Dschungel verdrängt haben. Der Busbahnhof Sandakans liegt etwas außerhalb der Stadt, das Zentrum ist allerdings einfach mit dem Stadtbus zu erreichen. Sandakan ist beinahe eine Kopie von Kota Kinabalu, lediglich eine Nummer kleiner. Grüne Hügel im Hintergrund, das südchinesische Meer mit vorgelagerten Inseln im Vordergrund und ein kompaktes Stadtzentrum aus blockartigen Betonbauten dazwischen. Die St [View Full Entry]

By Joeandnicky
July 8th 2009

Apes and Monkeys in Sabah, Borneo Asia » Malaysia » Sabah » Sandakan

Our big Orange cousins

Sapi was a wonderful island for our final beach day for a month. It was quiet, still wonderful snorkelling and a decent but not too expensive café. There were also water activities and the boys went for a banana boat ride. Jake loved it, although Elliot was not too sure and we had to call the boat in for him after a bit. He too loved the finale, which was jumping into the sea from the boat while the guy tied the banana boat back on the roof. Speeding back to the island we spied a totally private beach in a [View Full Entry]

By Travel Blog
June 28th 2009

KL and Our Date with an Ape! Asia » Malaysia » Sabah » Sandakan

Petronas towers at Night

We could see almost nothing of Kuala Lumpur until we touched down on the runway due to a thick heat haze sitting over the city! The airport is about 45 minutes from the centre and it was very strange to be traveling on such an orderly, British looking road network - driving on the left on tarmacked roads with cars actually giving way! After checking in to a little guesthouse we went in search of food to a nearby shopping centre which again seemed very Western, but as soon as we reached the food court on the top floor there was [View Full Entry]

By Ferdi and Talita
June 2nd 2009

Day 126-127: Sandakan, Borneo Asia » Malaysia » Sabah » Sandakan

Tomb statue

June 1st After an exhausting couple of days in the jungle we took the day off and just sat in our room watching DVDs, reading and enjoyed doing nothing. The only time we ventured outside was to eat at our favorite restaurant. Oh, how we love the spicy food here! Today's highlights: 1. Rest and relaxation. June 2nd We decided not to spend the whole of today indoors. We felt we should at least see a few sights while we're still in Sandakan, so after breakfast we hit the road. First, we walked to the WWII Chinese Memorial and the Japanese [View Full Entry]

By Ferdi and Talita
May 28th 2009

Day 120-121: Sandakan & Sepilok Orangutan Sanctuary, Borneo Asia » Malaysia » Sabah » Sandakan

Sandakan

May 26th We slept like logs all night and were eventually woken by the continuous religious chanting from a store across the road from our hotel. We dragged our stiff bodies out of bed and after Marije had packed her stuff we went for breakfast. Marije then went to look for a backpackers while we went home to pack the stuff we want to post to New Zealand. Marije found a nice place to stay and we made plans to go visit the Sepilok Orangutan Sanctuary together the following day. When we finished our packing we realized with a shock that [View Full Entry]

By helenlb
May 19th 2009

I saw a wild orangutan! Asia » Malaysia » Sabah » Sandakan

I've been in Borneo a week now and it's probably the place I've felt most out of my comfort zone but I think that's a good thing. I'm staying in homestays in this little village in the rainforest in Sabah. It's very very basic living: wooden houses on stilts with bucket showers and squat toilets and eating with fingers and the like. The food is pretty good, they often do cake for breakfast (or noodles which is difficult to get used to) and then rice with omelet, vegetables and some form of fish or chicken for lunch and dinner. So it's [View Full Entry]

By lmh
April 28th 2009

Sabah - The Land Below The Wind Asia » Malaysia » Sabah » Sandakan

The arrow on the ceiling!

We arrived in Sandakan in Sabah, called by the local people the 'Land Below the Wind' as it is geographically below the typhoon belt and after looking for a bus stop we took the easy option and caught a taxi to our hotel - the Seafront Hotel - which did surprisingly have a view of the sea. I think we were given one of the better rooms as it was large and comfortable and certainlAftery good value at 69RM a night which included the usual Western breakfast - an egg, coffee and slightly browned tasteless bread and jam. We set off [View Full Entry]

Stained glass windows at the Memorial Park

Jerry in the garden at Agnes Keith's house

Travel Blog » Asia » Malaysia » Sabah » Sandakan