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.
No pictures or content is to be copied and used on any other website.
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
Hi ! Ricky you been Sandakan, Malaysia ha yes i miss that place.
Im inviating you to come to my house fiesta in Catbalogan August 24
Melanie pacoli wedding on August 22 in Catbalogan church. See you soon my friend….
Friend
Joni B.
Hi Joni,
Thanks the invite. For sure I will come.
Also Pacoli invited me to the wedding so maybe I spend a week there, my friend.
I am back at my place in Leyte now.
cu-r
Hi all,
Whenever you guys visit Sabah again, you could now RENT A MOTORBIKE to move around free & easy.
As we also help our customers to enhance their trips here to the max with our suggested itineraries .
Visit http://gogosabah.com/home for more info .
Cheers :)
Joel(SABAH)
Hi Joel,
Thanks for the info – traveling by motorbike opens so many possibilities!
You can stop when you want and go when you want and it is easy to get off the beaten track.
dp
Hi Pickle
I like to ask your permission if i can use your sandakan photos for Sandakan.com
thanks
giuseppe
Sandakan.COM
Sandakan,
I do not give you permission to do this as it appears from your index that you will be running a cut and paste site and will be duplicating a lot of my content about Palawan and Balabac island.
Once again – I ask you not to do this.
All photos and content on dutchpickle are my original content.
dp
To sandakan.com
I request that you do not run duplicate content from my site on you site.
dp
hi! i just want to ask aside from zamboanga shipping how many hours it takes to travel in tawi-tawi to sabah malaysia by boat?? just wondering! :)
hope u can give me a solid answer :) thanks in advance
Hello Princess
I have only gone direct from Zamboanga, Mindanao to Sandakan, Sabah Malaysia using Aleson Shipping because it was fastest and cheapest for me.
I have never gone from Tawi-Tawi to any point in Malaysia so can not give an accurate answer – sorry.
dp
how can i buy a tiket round trip if im from sandakan?what day you will be going to sandakan every weekend?how many hours will take to arrived in zamboanga?is there any restoran halal in ferry?please reply me as soon as possible..thanks.
Hello muaina,
I usually buy my ticket at the Aleson ferry office at the pier in Zamboanga City.
You will also have to clear Philippine immigration before you board the vessel.
Call Aleson in advance to get the most recent schedule or if you are in Zamboanga City just go down to the docks and stop in at the office for info. All the tricycle drivers will know where it is.
There is no restaurant on the ferry but I think you can buy noodles and drinks. There are no “halal” only vendors. You can take along any food and drinks that you want for the trip across. I usually do.
Happy trip
dp
dear dp
thanx for this great cource of information.
Me and my gf have a flight 6-2-2013 to manila, and have a 21day visa.
at the end of our journey we had a flight from clarck to kota kinabalu. But Air asia deleted this route from their schedule. So we read your blog and find the boat trip to Sabah very appealing. We sent an email to aleson (aleson_cebucity@yahoo.com) but got no reply. So hope you can awnser these questions:
1 Do you know what the aleson ferry schedual is at this moment from Sandakan to Zamboanga?
2 Will the imigrations at Manila (where we enter the Phillipines) bother us since we do not have a outbound flight/boat ticket?
3 Would you advise us taking ferries from manila to zamboanga and stopping at varies islands in 3 weeks time?
4 Should we book a ferry ticket in advance? if yes, do you know the alesons office phone number?
thanx in advance
and keep up the good work
Kind regards,
Dylan
Hey Dylan
1 – … not sure about the current Aleson ferry schedule because I have not been in Zamboanga recently but they had regular weekly trips – This is an easy 15 hour trip but the ferry does not stop for a visit on any of the islands between Zamboanga and Sandakan- it is a direct run and returns to Zamboanga that night
2 – I think that you will likely have difficulties at immigration when you enter the Philippines or with the airline that you plan to enter the Philippines on – I STRONGLY SUGGEST HAVING AN ONWARD TICKET OUT OF THE PHILIPPINES UPON ARRIVAL (even if it is just a disposable one to KK or elsewhere) I once had to buy a ticket to Hong Kong from Manila from PAL (Philippines Air) in LA when I boarded there in California (even though I have a house and vehicle in the Philippines!
3 – the Aleson ferry to Sandakan does not stop at any of the islands between Zamboanga and Sabah – example (Jolo and Sulu – not recommended tourist spots a this time anyway)
4 – yes – it would be best to book the Aleson ferry in Zamboanga at the dock a few days in advance – most tourists book for a round trip – you would be spending too much of your 21 day trip in Zamboanga with your present plan – PLUS you must organize transport between Sandakan and Kota Kinabalu by road when you got there
– I suggest that you fly on a cheap ticket instead – can you find a ticket from Manila instead of Clark Airport ?
cheers
dp
i would like to ask, how am i going to find the schedule and latest fare reates.. pls help