Paganakan Dii Tropical Retreat Sandakan

Well at last ...

Well so the past 2 days i have spent with Leigh from West Byfleet and Craig from Addlestone!! Its funny who you meet on buses over here hahahaha

we got in to Sandakan quite late on Tuesday it was dark .. very dark as all the power in the town seemed to be out ..... we managed to find a hotel that had room for us and i have my own room and it is FAB!!! A hot shower oh heaven!!! The power going out ...

... but far from being shacks they were beautiful inside, with a balcony looking out over the jungle. The bathroom was the best of all, you stepped outside the room and took a shower looking across the tree tops, I’m sure one or two creatures got an eyeful. We got dropped to the Rainforest Discovery Centre at nine the next morning and spent six or seven hours trekking around looking for the wildlife. We thought we’d been quite lucky, spotting lots of lizards, some ...

Sepilok is a village nearby Sandakan, four hours drive from Kinabalu national park. Having watched all episodes of Blade on the bus with probably no single moment without blood on the screen I got off at the main junction. It's about half an hour walk to the Sepilok Jungle Resort, which is conveniently located a few steps from Orangutan rehabilitation centre, the reason why this area gets so many tourists. I ...

... surroundings and see what you have available to you first!
Glad to leave Sandakan we headed to the local bus stop to find the bus heading to Sepilok. H**e we was helped (accosted!) by an eld**ly Malaysian man who was only too eag** to help us on our way and practice his English. He introduced himself as “Uncle Jim” I instantly liked him for it! Uncle Jim was from the Phillipines with wiry white strands that protruded 6 inches out from his chin in a random ...

Poring Hot springs and Sandakan …
I can quite literally sum up the two places in one very short sentence….. Both are **** holes don’t bother with them! If you need me to elaborate then I will try to.
Poring Hot springs ….
You pay a 15 MYR conservation fee to get in and when you walk around the corner all you see is concrete bath tubs and a pool that locals ...

... so we arrived, late, but just handed over money and collected our tickets and hopped onto the bus (they knew my name!) 10:25am. our bus heads off. i'll let leora describe the scenery we witnessed: (after much thought she came up with "magestic") we passed magestic views high along the cliffside roads that wound and turned enough to be eligible for the newest ride at wonderland. highlights included seeing the mount kinabalu ...

... were re-nested and finally we got the chance to see 43 hatchlings being released into the sea. It was amazing to share such intimate moments with one of natures most ancient creatures but also very funny to see the hatchlings racing down the beach quicker than Carl Davis going after a free Ginster's cornish pasty! Was up early again the next day for the boat trip back and then on to Sepilok Orang ...

... folks, as we realized she was getting closer. We didn't know exactly what to do as she made her way out of the forest to check us out. After all, during the introductory video we had just seen, they had specifically said we shouldn't touch the orangs, for fear of spreading disease - both to them and us. Thus, I struggled internally between really wanting to hug one and with the fear of being responsible for wiping out the entire center's orang population ("Yes, we used to have a ...