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Sandakan, Malaysia
5° 50' N 118° 7' E
Jul 02, 2009 23:10
Distance 2149km

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Other entries in Sandakan

Blog 21 Sandakan (Sabah)

 

Getting off the plane, we kept our heads down until we were sure our Jehova’s Witness had got through immigration, we handed over our forms and collected the bags.

 

Leaving the baggage reclamation area, we discovered ourselves already outside the terminal building. Spying a taxi booking kiosk, we were about to order a car when our ‘friendly’ Jehova’s Witness found us again and insisted that she organise a taxi for us. Being the polite people we are, we offered her a lift into town – during which she fortunately spent the journey talking to the poor driver.

 

Arriving at the hotel, our ‘friend’ then followed us into reception – at which point I was ready to start being less polite – until she saw the ‘walk-in’ cost of s room and decided to go somewhere else.

 

A quick walk around the local area confirmed that Sandakan has no nightlife and no shops open after about ten o’clock. The only place (allegedly) open for food was KFC which despite claiming to be open until 11pm, only managed to scrape together two random pieces of tough chicken and the last two small packets of rather chewy fries. Not being given any option of sitting in, we ate ‘dinner’ on the harbour front area outside the shop where I had seen a foot long rat scurry past only minutes earlier.

 

To be honest, we were very disappointed with the town which is like an inner city slum with dirty 1960’s style 5 storey housing and small shop units at ground level but nothing to attract tourists whatsoever. I later discovered however that the town had been extensively bombed by the Japanese during the war and what we see today is a 1950’s  attempt at a re-build.

 

That said, the following morning, we enquired at reception about a trip to the Orang Utan sanctuary which turned things around. Despite the fact that the sanctuary does not really seem very well geared up for tourists (there is one short film made by a British company then a single feeding platform at which you can view the apes), it is an amazing experience to see the animals in their natural habitat yet still interacting with humans.

 

Thinking we had just missed the busy area, we asked the taxi driver to drop us off in the town centre where we managed to find the local agricultural show (very similar to home except for the oxen…) but nothing else of any interest.

 

Realising there was absolutely nothing to do in the town, when we got back to the hotel, we booked up for another trip the following day with a local tour company to see Gomantung cave and the Kinabatangan River. When the reception staff had finally managed to book the trip for us (they were very friendly and willing but seemed completely flummoxed by anything other than a one-task request and if the phone rang while you were asking a question, forget it. You were ignored until they had answered the phone then had to start form the beginning again with you.)

 

After being collected at eight thirty the following morning, we headed off in a minibus to the cave after picking up another couple at the Orang-Utan sanctuary. In yet another strange coincidence, the guy was a Canadian engineer working in the water industry in Perth Australia. Since it was a two and a half hour journey, the minibus even stopped at a supermarket on the way to let us buy snacks for the bus!

 

On the way to the cave we had to stop to be registered as visitors to the National Park and have our passport numbers recorded (I suspect in case we didn’t make it out alive) and were given some useful background information by our guide. The cave itself is famous as the source of the birds nests used in Chinese birds-nest soup (as shown on David Attenborough documentary) and is a fantastic sight.

 

Entering from the park rangers’ office (apparently they need to keep armed guard on the site because of the value of the nests), we had to walk along a boardwalk through dense jungle with snakes and monkeys visible alongside. Arriving at the clearing where the nest gatherers live at the cave mouth was like being transported to a film set. With the timber shacks on stilts, massive cave entrance set into the cliff and vines draping off the cliff face, I half expected to see Tarzan walk past.

 

We had been warned about the smell, cockroaches and centipedes before we went in so fortunately we were expecting it (and to be honest it’s no worse than some of the sewage works we’ve been to) but as you walk along the boardwalk into the cave, you suddenly notice the massive piles (i.e. hundreds of tons) of bird droppings are moving as the cockroaches crawl over them.

 

The cave is an amazing ecosystem with cockroaches, strange poisonous centipedes and crabs (which are believed to have been stranded in the caves when sea levels fell millions of years ago) at the bottom eating bird droppings and the odd chick which falls from a nest. Above is an equally amazing sight with bats swooping around catching insects while the swiftlets (who build the nests from feathers and saliva) cling precariously to the cave roof 40 metres above.

 

Despite the smell, cockroaches, bird ‘guano’ and at least one snake that we saw, people actually live in this cave during nest harvesting season and climb 40metre high rattan rope ladders to pluck off used nests that would fit in the palm of your hand. Like caviar (which I haven’t tried either) I’m not entirely convinced that it isn’t any more than a status symbol.

 

Back on the bus we headed for the river, quickly leaving the main road and heading down what was basically a dirt track through the jungle – makes you feel like a really intrepid explorer! At the end of the track was a small hamlet where we boarded a boat to take us across the river to a ‘jungle experience’ lodge where the couple who had shared our bus were staying the night.

 

After lunch at the lodge and the arrival of another dozen or so travellers (by this stage we felt more like explorers) we got into a series of small boats and headed off down the river, dodging the tree trunks and branches that were being swept past, and went in search of wildlife.

 

Spying several monkeys and local birds on the main river we then headed up a tributary where (according to the guides) several people had been eaten by crocodiles. Unfortunately we didn’t see any but were rewarded by more monkeys lying around in trees and a distant sighting of a truly wild Orang Utan.

 

This experience, more than any other to date really felt like being off the beaten track and a chance to see the ‘real’ country. The views on and of the river were truly stunning and could have been from any film or nature programme in a rainforest or jungle and it really brought home to us just exactly how far we had travelled and the fact that we truly were in a different world to that which we know at home.

 

Arriving back at the hotel tired but happy, Vicki stuck to the money saving campaign and tucked into a thirty pence pot-noodle while I opted out and ordered some food from room service - which seemed to confuse the staff yet again. Twenty minutes later, two smiling staff appeared with my burger but had forgotten my coke.

 

Having not rated the free breakfast too highly (the selection wasn’t too bad but Asian breakfasts seem to consist of rice, noodles, meat, etc that we would generally save until dinner time) we decided a long lie was a better option for the last day. After the usual ritual of packing the bags, we headed down to check out and left our bags at reception.

 

Deciding that KFC wasn’t a great option, we ordered lunch in the in-house restaurant. Despite the fact that we were the only two customers in the place, the waiter still managed to completely screw up the order, bringing one sandwich and a cappuccino instead of two sandwiches with two teas that we asked for. Still, the lack of tip all helps with the economising!

 

Knowing that there was nothing to see in town, we hung about the hotel lobby until it was finally time to get a taxi to the airport. Having paid our apparently half-blind taxi driver off with some relief at not having hit anything, we headed into Sandakan airport which gives the town a run for its money in terms of architectural achievement and had a surprisingly nice dinner of sweet and sour chicken for the grand total of two pounds each before waiting for the delayed flight back to KL (our friends Air Asia again!).