Sandakan, Malaysia

  Sandakan, Sabah, Malaysia
Tuesday, September 30, 2008

We got back to Sandakan last Thursday afternoon and checked back into the Mayfair Hotel where we had stayed previously. It's really as good a deal there as you can get in Malaysia for accommodation. There's a DVD player and 42" LCD TV in every room and the owner has a collection of thousands of DVD's for the guests to borrow whenever they want. The rooms also have satellite TV, air-conditioning and attached bathrooms for only RM 45 (9 Euro) a night.
Our main reason for coming back to Sandakan was to try to get ourselves over to Turtle Island (a nearby island where turtles come to lay eggs every night) for a night. Unfortunately, the only company that officially book trips to the island, Crystal Quest, were booked out til the end of October and the unofficial tour operators were looking for 100 Euro per person per night. We didn't really mind not going as we had heard it was good but nothing special and definitely not worth 100 Euro a night. So in the evening we trekked up "the 100 steps" to Agnes Keith's House (an American Author who lived in Sandakan when it was under British rule in the 1930's). The house has been fully restored but we didn't go in for a look around as it had just closed for the day so we just took a picture from the outside. 

Agnes Keith House

Karl Drinking Tea - Very posh!

We had heard good things about an English Tea House near Agnes Keith's House so we found it and had afternoon tea and scones (very posh) in their gardens overlooking the bay and Sandakan City. It was really nice up there and there was a local couple getting their wedding photos taken in the grounds while we were there. There's also a croquet pitch there and Lydia couldn't resist having a go at that!
When we got back to the Hotel the power went. We thought it was just gone in the hotel but the owner told us it was gone in the whole city and that there was nothing to do "just go to sleep". We went out for a walk anyway and found a huge grocery store with lights on so we flocked to that (along with every other resident of Sandakan). Bought a few nik-naks that we didn't really need then walked the dark streets again until we stumbled upon a restaurant with a generator. The food didn't look too appealing but we gave it a go anyway as we thought it would be our only chance of food for the night. It was pretty bad food and we were raging when, halfway through our meal, the power in the rest of the town came back on.

1-Lydia Playing Croquet

Teahouse

The next morning, after talking to the very helpful lady in the tourist information office, we decided to go on a bit of a splurge. First we booked a 3 day jungle safari camp to leave the following day, that set us back 66 Euro each, then, on the advice of the lady in the tourist information office we went out to a 5-star hotel on the outskirts of the city where non-guests can use their pool, gym, sauna, jacuzzi and steam room for 4 Euro per day. We couldn't resist! The hotel was beautiful and we spend the whole afternoon in the pool. Later on we hired tennis rackets and balls (2 Euro) and played tennis for 2 hours which was really good. We were both sweating after it so we went straight back to the pool for another while before hitting the sauna and steam room.

1-Lydia Playing Tennis

Pool

The previous evening in the Tea House we noticed their dinner menu and our mouths were watering (the food is pretty bad here in Malaysia - I'm even starting to get sick of KFC we've been forced to eat there so many times!) so we decided to splash out before our 3 days in the jungle. The food was unbelievable, we were both delighted with what we got. I had mushroom soup, fillet of red snapper with mashed potatoes and veg, and ice-cream for dessert. Lydia had a dish which I think was called Beef Rendang, it was amazing but she wasn't too happy with her soft centred chocolate cake for dessert. Still what we had was excellent for 18 Euro.
That was it for Sandakan - next stop Bilit Safari Camp on the Kinabatangan River!