Sandakan Sabah Malaysia

Sandakan Malaysia

I spent a grand total of 4 hours as a tourist in Sandakan on the Island of Borneo.

The idea of the visit was to get a new visa upon re-entering the Philippines at the seaport of Zamboanga in southern Mindanao.

Borneo

The boat trip from Zamboanga takes about 20 hours. The schedule is flexible and the length of the journey varies, depending upon the weather.

Sandakan

There is a lot of construction going on along the waterfront. Pink seems to be the preferred color and it makes a sharp contrast to the gray concrete colored buildings along the alleys a street or two inland.

I found the people of Sandakan to be a friendly lot. There is no tension in the air like you get in parts of Mindanao, including Zamboanga. You can take pictures and talk with people and not get angry stares. Here, religion does not seem to be a big divider.  People are just cool.

This friendly sales girl is selling dragon fruit. These things taste like a giant raspberry to me. I kind of grooved on Sandakan and ate 3 times during my big 4 hour trip. Once at a halal restaurant, once in the market and once at KFC. (which was crap by the way)

Sandakan is a melting pot of races.  This lady runs an electronics store. Everyone seemed to enjoy having their picture taken. (I just ask if it’s ok – except in fundamentalist parts of Mindanao where I do not take any pictures period, because everyone is very touchy and I prefer to remain healthy)

Internet is 1.5 ringit per hour and the speed is ok.

Sandakan shopkeeper

I have come to love dried fish or “bulad” in the filipino language, but am well aware of the danger of packing this food in with your bags. You will never get rid of the smell.

I loaded up on oranges and other snack foods for the return trip back to the Philippines.

Here is a cargo ship docked next to us at the “pelabuhan” or harbor in Malay. My hopeless Indonesian came in handy. The trip to town on a bemo or mini bus was 1.5 ringit. A taxi cost 15 ringit one way.

For the return trip, just go to the bemo terminal in town and hop on the van that has “pelabuhan” painted on the side.

We left around 6pm and got to Zamboanga around 4pm or so the next day.

Sandakan