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Published: February 8th 2009
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well folks i wrote before but the electricity went down in Tawua and i lost the whole story so lets get back on track. I am sure i wrote about the great shop house accross the road from us in the market in China town where we ate the best noodle soup and we only found it by looking out of our window as the street is so crowed with hawkers in the market you cant see the shops unless you are lucky to walk right by it. As it is still part of the Chinese New Year celebrations there were whole pigs big ones and baby ones roasted for sale. the baby ones went home whole but the big ones got sliced up. We also went to the bird park but once you have been to Singapore Bird Park there is no comparision!!! There were a lot of peacocks walking about strutting their stuff and we went to the show - the most impressive birds were the rhinocerous hornbills that hang out around the tea shop. we got really close to those.
Our flight to Tawau (pronounced tawoo) was uneventful and the town was a small place which felt a
lot like Khota Baru to us. we had some awesome fish on the beachfront (well they call it the beachfront but its sort of just behind) that must be the best i have ever had. Steamed with ginger and a light soy sauce - wish i could bring some home to you. There was not much to do around there so we headed out of town the next day for Semporna. This is the gateway to Sipidan which is supposed to be the best diving in the world. We walked around the town which consisted of a few dirty streets - i must stress though the people are so friendly. Everyone everywhere says hello and smiles and tries so hard. A little urchin girl became our shadow as we had given her some snacks when we got off the bus - she would come and go and laugh as she reappeared somewhere else showing us THE FINGER which i am sure some tourist taught her. I tried to get her to throw the paper she dropped on the floor into a dustbin but they were very hard to find and i have never seen so much rubbish as we saw
our new friend
outside Lee's Resthouse with our newest friend with attidute please note THE FINGER! there in the harbour.
We booked a snorkelling tour for the next day to Mabul Island which is not as far as Sipidan and you could walk around the island not like Sipidan which is just a pinnacle out too sea. That night it started to rain and it just did not stop the whole night in fact it was still raining when we got up so we did not go snorkellinb and as there was nothing else to do in the town we headed out for Sandakan on the early morning bus.
Its a 5 hours bus ride and after about 3 and half hours they stopped for break. Terry had a plate of rice and i was not going to have anything as it was not too long till we got to our destination. Luckily i heard a chinese lady say we were going to be delayed about 3 hours as the bridge got washed away and they were fixing it so i thought i better have something to eat!
we were merrily going on our way, dropped some people off who were going trekking in a forest and shortly afterwards in the middle of nowhere there was
a traffic jam. I got off the bus and walked up the road a bit and found a guy who spoke english and he said what the lady had said and there would be quite a wait. Terry went on a bigger reckie - the cars were all jamming up parking on all sides of the road everyone trying to squeeze their way closer to the bridge. Some people managed to turn around and come back it was backed up for about 4 miles. The news was we were not going anywhere for a long time. 4 other tourists decided to go back to where we had dropped the others off. they managed to catch a taxi going that way. we were so close to our destination and Terry did definately not want to go back. The bus was staying put (for the night if they had to) we saw loads of people heading on foot towards Sandakan and so Terry came back for me and we decided there must be a way over the river if these people were going so we set off. we felt like refugees. Miles of cars and trucks all parked, people walking with their
sepilok rehabilitation centre
two mums with their babies coming for afternoon tea luggage or sitting in their cars. some had pic-nics but the cafe we passed was all out of everything (Terry had gone in their earlier) WE got to the bridge and sure enough it was down and looked like the type of job that would take a week not a few hours! We met up with some older tourists from Sweden and thier guide who told us they had been stuck there for 5 hours already. the river banks were covered in mud. They had managed to slow the river down on the one side and we saw people making their way across so we decided to go too. it was roll up the trousers, enjoy the mud it could all be washed off later and so we set off. i wish someone had a movie of us. some younger guys helped me with my suitcase and held my hand accross the river but hey we made it!!!! and we
WERE covered in mud but i did not disgrace myself and fall on my arse so i was very pleased. then we entered the chaos on the other side. there were about 3 policemen trying to sort out the traffic.It
was gridlocked and no one was going anywhere so we started walking again and eventually we managed to find a minibus taxi and got out of the melee. all the while people are friendly but if this was Thailand it would have been a different story. there would have been help across the river someone would be making a killing carrying suitcases accross for old women or something and by now supplies would have been brought in as people hanging around eat and drink!
We arrived looking like we had been in the pooh and tried to shake as much mud off us as we could before we got into the hotel lobby but it was everywhere. WE had to wash our shoes completely, and our suitcases especially the wheels - the mud was in every nook and cranny but we eventually got our selves clean and ended up on the wharf and was rewarded with the best tom yam soup i have ever had. so if anyone is in Sandekan make your way to the Bistro Cafe its soooo yummy. By the way we got in at 6.30 and should have been there at one!!! what a day.
This morning we started walking around the town. its a lovely place. it was flattened by the allied forces in 1945 as they tried to get the Japanese out. This is the place where the Death Marches started from. In fact only six guys ever survived and they were Australians who had managed to escape. Everyone else (of the foreign forces) perished. We were making our way to the Chinese cemetary when on a lovely jungle like road at the top of the hill when a land cruiser stopped and the man inside started talking to Terry and then before i knew it we were in his car and he was showing us around. His name is Willy and he is a retired chinese gentleman who took us on a sightseeing tour of his town, to his apartment where we saw the video of his daughters wedding. His wife was out so he took us to the old church where is parents, himself and his daughter were all married. it made me think of my family. He gave Terry the book on his parents life story that his brothers put together. There were about 8 children and a few ended up in Australia and another couple in America so they are all spread out just like my family too.
He insisted on dropping us off at Sepilok Orang Utan Sanctuary in the afternoon where we saw 4 orangutangs - two mums with their babies which was wonderful and then watched the movie on how they save them and rehabilitate them back into the forest. We caught the local bus back home and now we are all cleaned up and ready to go out for dinner and i am up to speed. will try and add some pictures!! until later xxlee
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Toni
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Lucky Terry!
HI I can't stop thinking how lucky Terry is to be with you rather than fighting those awful fires in Oz. Perhaps he is smart and doesn't give out his contact details when travelling with such a special lady. Love ya - all ok this side Miss you (not)!!! T