3 days 2 nights Sandakan trip part 2

Proboscis monkey at Labuk Bay sanctuary.

Day 2

 I had a good nights sleep at the hotel. The bed and pillows were comfortable enough to make me fall asleep easily and woke up at 6am, feeling energized, ready for another exciting day - visiting the Orangutans, sun bears and the proboscis monkeys. 

By 8am, my friend arrived with another big car, a hilux pick up.

We had breakfast at Kong Teck Coffee shop before the trip. 

This shop has been selling fish noodle soup for 3 generations already. The shop was always full and at times, need to queue for a seat. 

Freshly made fish noodle and springy fish balls were fresh and chewy but a bit salty to my taste. 

After our breakfast, we headed straight to Sepilok for the Orangutans Rehabilitation Centre. 

Entrance to Sepilok

This beautiful building is an "airconditioned" outside toilet, facing right in front of the car park.😂

I don't know about you but I was chuckling to myself when I entered the toilet.

One of the best in Sabah and handicapped friendly.

Communing with nature in comfort ie Air con😁

Tickets to rehabilitation center for the  Orangutans.

Entrance Ticket Booth 

Fee:

Local Rm10 and child Rm5

Foreigners fee is Rm 50 and child Rm25

There is a charge of Rm10 if you bring in a camera or video cam. However taking photos with your phone - no charge.

A Mother Orangutan climbing the rope with her baby, holding tightly to it's mom.

After the visit to the Orangutans we went across the road to see the Bornean Sun Bear , which was also located at the rehabilitation Centre but on the other side of the forest. 

Entrance to sun bear is just across the road from the orangutan's center.
Bornean Sun Bears are the smallest bears in the world and can only be seen in Borneo.

My ticket Rm 10 for Adult local
Foreigner Adult fee Rm50
For more info regarding entrance fee, you can check on their website BSBCC

 Bornean Sun Bear - I managed to see Joe in this trip

 Those who are interested to donate and adopt ,can go to their website at https://www.bsbcc.org.my/

Aaron, the young handsome Murut guide was very helpful and told us how to locate the bears. He said all the 7 bears recognise their own names. 

Short video of cute Joe wandering about. 

The guide, Aaron said, that's Joe. 

Joe can be seen easily wandering about. 

Mandatory exit from sovereign shop 🤣. 

After Sepilok we rushed to Labuk Bay for the Proboscis monkey feeding time @11.30am at platform B. 

The Proboscis monkey sanctuary is privately owned by the oil plantation owner.

I have read a few criticism's from google reviews questioning why the monkeys were fed with pancakes.

I only found the answers during my visit there.

The story began with the cook, who prepared the pancakes for tea time for the plantation workers and left them in the kitchen for his other staff to serve the workers there. When the staff came into the kitchen, they found there was none left. After a while they noticed that one by one the monkeys sneaked into the kitchen from the back yard to steal all the pancakes. That's how the staff at sanctuary found out that these monkeys like pancakes!

If you read on the link that I posted here by theBorneo Adventure website, you will understand more about these monkeys. Due to deforestation, more and more monkeys appeared at the oil palm plantation and that's how the owner decided to start the sanctuary to help support these proboscis monkey.

Begining of journey to Labuk bay

From the main road, we must keep an eye for this sign board before the junction. If you are new, you may tend to overlook this and miss the junction. 

       

1. From junction to the beginning of the road into the oil palm plantation 

2. Lots of sign boards leading the way to ticket booth. 

3. The sight of oil palm trees- a beautiful scenery.

4. Sign board indicating to turn right, leading to platforms A+B

5.Beginning of a bad/rough road. 

Luckily we came in a 4 wheel drive. The muddy road was slippery and had it rained again, our trip would need to be cancelled, because it's very dangerous to drive on such road even with a 4 wheel drive. I admired my friend's capability like "Lara Croft" to be able to drive through. Had the wheels got struck, I was afraid we may need to push the car to get the wheels out of the mud. 😅 Thank God 🙏, the weather was fine and we were able to pass through without any problem. 
My friend said, had she been alone, she would not dare to drive in this kind of road but with company, she was brave enough to drive.😂

6. 

 7. Signboard leading to the ticket booth. 
And also informing the distance of platformA is 1.6km while platform B is 2.7km 

  8. "Lara Croft" successfully arrived at ticket booth. 😂

 After paying for the ticket, the guard opened the gate allowing us to drive in. 

Platform A  ( 1.6 Km) - feeding time :9.30am & 2.30pm

Platform B ( 2.7 Km) - Feeding time :11.30am & 4.30pm

9. Entrance ticket:

Rm15 for locals & child Rm 5

Rm60 for Foreigners & child Rm5

 Rm10 per day camera or video fee but camera from handphone is allowed. 

There is a restaurant that serves drinks, rice and noodles.

Those who want to linger a bit longer at platform B can watch video show at 10.15am & 3.15pm.

10. The 1st sign board after the ticket booth.

11. Beginning of gravel road which is quite a distance.

12.On the way we came across Mr. Water Buffalo 😂

13. Journey to Platform A ends here.

The yellow building in this photo is another outside toilet for platform A. 

To go to platform B, you need to continue the road on the left which is another 1.1km away.

14. Road to platform B

15.Arrival at platform B

16. Entrance of platform B

17.  A 2 mins walk to Platform B from car park. 

Many were put off by the journey and lack of transport accessibility to this sanctuary which is very true, ie, the need for a 4 wheel drive vehicle, once the destination is achieved, all the trouble and stresses in getting there was worth it😅.

Before feeding time, some of these monkeys are already waiting, as if they know it's "Grub time".

After feeding, some will come onto the platform to rest in the shade for a while before they disappear again into the wild.

According to the guide, this bunch is a family. Father, mother and their children

And these are also the siblings of the same clan.

Story of Mr proboscis monkey. According to our guide, the proboscis does not welcome any other clan and will kill them except their own. 

Mr proboscis as the male leader has many wives and children.

Tourists fascinated by the proboscis monkey behavior. 
Mr Proboscis (Male leader) friendly to humans unlike the Orangutans

Hornbill can also be seen at this sanctuary 

By 12noon, we had to leave because we had an appointment lunch with someone important at 1pm. 

Our previous in-charge of 40 over years ago, Sister Ho, whom I dearly respect as "my boss" . Those who had worked under her management would agree what I have got to say, as a lady of character, stern, firm, fierce but fair with her management to all the staff within her department.

Our sumptuous lunch at the renowned Ocean King Restaurant.

We had a lot of catch up stories to talk about + general gossips, bearing in mind we had over 40 years of separation 😁

After saying goodbye to everyone, I returned to the hotel for a short rest.

By 6pm, I took a walk again. I loved that area and stopped at  Crowd99 Cafe,  to get some take away.

Shaved Durian Chendol, so yummy dessert which cost Rm13 and Rm1 for the container as takeaway.

Blueberry crepe cake.

The softness and creamy taste of the dessert

leaving such an awesome flavor in the mouth was just so amazing. 

Day 3

This was my last morning at Sandakan. Again, I had a good nights sleep, waking up at 6am, feeling so refreshed, getting ready for my departure.

 My flight was at 11.05am 

I had already checked in online so I only needed to be at the airport by 10.30am

Esther came to fetch me at 8am because she wanted to bring me for hearty breakfast at Buli Sim Sim.( water village sim sim)

Kampung Air Sim Sim, where there are many seafood restaurants run by the Chinese.
Ocean King Restaurant was once at the water village too but later moved to IJM batu 5,where my hotel was. 

Entrance to the "water village restaurant" (kampung air restaurant)

Sim Sim seafood restaurant H90 is just next door to H88 where I was going.
Due to the reflection, my photo didn't turn out well here, but it's easy to locate. right is H90 restaurant and left is H88 restaurant😂

 I guess both restaurants are equally good but I choose to go for H88 because I like the angle of the restaurant and the Arowana fish which were on display in their individual tanks at the restaurant.😂

Entrance to the restaurant

 Seafood porridge is the most popular here.

The porridge goes well with their Signature fried salted fish.

Deep fried Salted fish drizzle with sweet sour sauce was one of the popular dishes in Sandakan.

Home made salted fish by the owner.

Many of the owners with renowned seafood restaurants in Sandakan have their own fishing boat. That's why their seafood is always fresh. Unlike in KK, many used preservatives to keep the freshness of their seafood longer.

Deep fried fish eggs which got sold off easily and this is the last piece even though it's only 9am.
After trying this, I don't think I will want to eat others in KK any more. 

The freshness of seafood in Sandakan is second to nothing.

Seafood bee hoon in salted vegetable soup.
Another popular dish in this restaurant.

With all the popular fresh seafood dishes and eating to our heart content, what a gastronomic experience it was! 

The owner has 8 big Arowana's  in his restauarant.
It's so  pleasing to watch these Arowanas swimming peacefully in their individual tanks.

Looking at these  Arowanas reminds me of "Wilson", our pet fish who lived in our home for 25 years and died of old age, not too long ago. I missed him a lot, until I wrote a story about him as memory lane, afterwards I coped better with his passing.
Anyone interested to read about "Wilson" can click 👉here to link you to his story.

Owner's daughter of seafood restaurant H88

Front view of the restaurant.
Very creative. The front of the restaurant was created in such a manner that it looks as if you are in a boat drifting in the sea. The sea breeze blowing in our face was refreshing.

There is a wooden stair going up to the upper deck, which was closed. Maybe it's for private function such as weddings. I can imagine standing on the upper deck with both your arms spreading out and the breeze blowing to us, like in the movie , "Titanic" with the song, "My heart will go on" sung by Celine Dion. So Romantic ! No wonder the newlywed's like these places rather than those taken in a fake environment  of a studio.

After a hearty breakfast, Esther sent me to the airport at 10.30am.

On my flight back to KK, the plane passed by our Majestic Mountain, Mt Kinabalu but due to thick clouds, the view was not good.

Thank you Esther Wong for making my trip to Sandakan, a meaningful, fruitful and blessed one🙏

Reference:

Orangutan Rehabilitation center, Sepilok

Proboscis monkey, Labuk bay

Bornean Sun Bear

3 days 2 nights Sandakan trip part 1

 Have you ever experienced the feeling of frustration, after having your leave approved, air ticket, hotel and transport all booked, and looking forward for the day, when suddenly, your flight was cancelled or changed to a different date, not once but twice! This can drive us nuts, right?

That's what happened to me and my sister. Luckily I was a retiree so the plan can still be adjusted, but it doesn't mean I was not affected. My sister, who was still working couldn't change her leave to match the travelling dates and it was very upsetting. One cancelled flight might be acceptable, but twice is ridiculous. Not only my sister wasted her approved leave, but her air ticket as well because she didn't have the time to keep on tracking available dates for the travel. 

The reason why I wanted to bring my sister there was because she has never been to Sandakan before, and as a nature lover, she was so keen to visit the Orangutan Sepilok  rehabilitation centre and the monkeys at Labuk Bay.

These events put me off our visits, leaving me not keen to go. I felt I was just going to waste the air ticket, but my husband advised me not to waste the ticket, and encourage me to go, even if it meant to go alone, as a getaway break to another place of interest. 

So I got on the plane and headed for Sandakan! 


The plane was fully booked but I managed to avoid the crowd by using the senior citizen lane.😂

Firefly airlines gave free check in luggage of 10kg but I had nothing to check in.

Light refreshments were also provided during the flight, a personal packet of nuts, cookies and drinking water, much appreciated.

The 30 mins flight was smooth on a fine sunny day. No turbulence at all. The plane landed at at Sandakan airport @10.30am on time.

On arrival, I was picked up by my ex colleague, Esther Wong who came with her land cruiser. She is a small petite lady and driving such a big car makes her even smaller, but she reminds me of Angelina Jolie in the movie as "Lara croft" , Tomb Raider -  fearless, independent, a strong woman character😂. 

Esther was my ex housemate before when we worked at Duchess of Kent hospital in Sandakan. At that time, we were both still young, single, newly graduated staff nurses from the Nursing College 😊. 

After I got married and transferred back to my home town in Kota Kinabalu, we never met again for over 40 years. Partly because everyone's life is destined and has their own life to lead. 

For those who want to go by grab driver to My Dream hotel, it only cost Rm7 and from the hotel to town the Grab fee was about Rm3, while to the hill top it will be Rm8 at that time. 

But if you prefer to rent a car like I did initially with my sister, the smallest car, a new Proton saga would cost about Rm120 per day. Renting a car is ideal if you plan to visit the Orang Utan rehabilitation centre as well as the Sun bear at Sepilok or the  Labuk Bay for the proboscis monkeys.

Following my arrival, my friend, Esther headed straight to "Happy Noodles House" which is a coffee shop run by her son and brother in law. 

We started with some special drinks - The 3 layer Teh C and local kopi ice with special ingredients in it created by her son and his partner. Very yummy👍

Her son, the owner said its because the ingredients are original. No substitute. No wonder it tasted so good!😋

We enjoyed a sumptuous brunch -  the popular Sandakan Century Dumpling rice noodle soup. I was so hungry that I ate it well. 😋

The ingredients was so fresh and the soup, wow, so full of flavor. You can't find such authentic taste in KK any more. KK is so commericalised that I can feel the flavor and quality is no longer there any more.

Whoever comes to Sandakan, must try their delicious dishes. For more, you can click the link here 👉Happy House Noodles, Sandakan.

Mother & Son, part owners of Happy House Noodles

After our brunch, Esther sent me to My Dream hotel for check in.

Check in and out counter.
A cash deposit of refundable Rm50 is needed upon checking in.

In my room, A Tea making set and drinking water

Disposable toothbrush and paste

Short video of the King's superior room 

The room was very clean, bed was so comfortable. There were hangers to hang your clothes, a tv with local channel which I was not bothered to watch, a good working air condition, a hair dryer, a kettle, a pair of tea cups and saucer with 2 set of tea bags and sugar. Not only 2 bottles of drinking water were provided but 2 sets of toothbrush and tooth paste were also provided. 

Yet with all these for the price of RM95 per night, I felt it's well worth the money to stay here.

The only thing I need to remember was to wait for at least 1-2 mins for my shower, whenever I flushed the toilet, because it seems the water flow to the toilet and shower, shared the same pressure, so once I flushed the toilet, the pressure in the shower was reduced, but I had no issue with that.

It's an ideal place for the elderly, customers like us who just want a good comfortable safe place to stay for the night, with basic toiletries and some drinking water at hand.

 I prefer to opt for 1st floor, rather than ground floor because it's much quieter on the upper floors.

After I checked in, the rain started to pour heavily, so our plan to visit the Orangutans and proboscis monkey was postponed to the next day. Let's hope it will be a good day 🙏

Although the trip to Sepilok and the Labuk bay was postponed, Esther still came to meet me for the  Avocado dessert shop at jalan Dataran BU3,  mile 6 sandakan. 

Sandakan is well known for their avocados. 

We tried the Dragon float cheese cake - Rm12.90 per piece 

and the Avocado ABC for Rm19 

After the refreshing tea time, we went for a ride down "memory lane".

Visited my ex work place 

 In 1981, I was transferred to this hospital as a newly trained staff nurse working in the male surgical ward on the 1st floor which the arrow shows on the photo. My ward sister in charge was Sister Ho.

Esther Wong and I used to work here before  but in different wards and we stayed in the same house provided by the government. 

It's been 40 over yrs now since I left. It is only now that I managed to meet Esther Wong and my ex ward sister Ho again. All three of us are retiree's.  It was really good to see them again because the rest of our ex colleagues were all uncontactable. 

For me, these visits really bring back fond and dear memories.

   

After the memory lane of my previous work place, we drove to the hills where the English Tea House and Agnes Keith house were. 

English Tea House and Agnes Keith house

Beautiful view of Sandakan town which has been well known as "Little Hong Kong"

 Standing at the top of the hill, looking down at the islands over the sea and the town of  Sandakan, gave me a feeling of peace and satisfaction. No wonder one of my friends, Rita, likes to hike up the hills.

The rain had stopped when we were at the top of the hill, so we continued our joy ride down the hills to make a brief visit to the town.

 

The old historical wet market has been demolished and a massive huge Mall has now been built. 

 A new wet market was relocated nearby the previous old one. 

The roads in town were starting to get jammed around 5pm, so we decided to call it a day and looked forward for the next day. 

Before the sunset, I took a walk around the area next to My Dream hotel to explore what the area had to offer before I retires to my hotel for the night.

A walk around the area near "My Dream" hotel:

I was amazed by the numbers of popular eateries in this area.

The area was safe to walk around, even at night, it was lively, unlike Sandakan town itself, where most of the shops were closed by 4pm. The whole area here looked clean and was within walking distance, so when I need a rest, I can easily walk back to my hotel or stop by any cafe for a cup of tea with a good cheese cake, or to the restaurants for breakfast, lunch and dinner. All these save cost in hiring  a grab to go elsewhere for a meal or a walk unless needed.

From My Dream hotel, the One  Avenue hotel is just in front across the street. 

Close by are the Wangi convenient stores where we can get drinks and groceries and a 7eleven stores.

Behind my hotel, there was" DoZo" Cafe and fish noodle soup shop . Nearby the same area there is "Utea " Cafe,  Fruit world and Crowd99 Cafe which are popular for their delicious shaved ice and desserts.

There are many seafood restaurants too but I don't have a good experience with Thiam Hao Yin where I ordered Fried dry noodle as take away. Not only the order was wrong ( my mistake too for not checking before paying) I took back a wet fried noodle which I don't like, moreover it was tasteless, so I made a note not to ever visit there again.

Hotel Meliden is also nearby and opposite to it, there is a pharmacy.

For those who stayed long and wanted at self laundry,  "My Launderette" is just round the corner.

Again close by, there was a roundabout behind hotel "my dream" which lead to another area (about 10 mins walk), where a Bataras supermarket was available. This area also included a lot of popular eateries such as KFC, Mc Donald, Dominoes, Starbuck, vegetarian coffee shop.

After a meaningful 1st day in Sandakan, I had an early night .

These events brought me to an end of part one of my trip to Sandakan. The beginning of my 2nd day in Sandakan will be revealed in Part 2. 

If you are still interested, please read on my part 2 sandakan trip. 

The culinary adventure of the silver ladies

 The plane landed at Kota Kinabalu international airport on time at 7.10pm but by the time my Singaporean friends reached my garden home with their luggage, it was past 8pm. 

Although I had planned to take them to a seafood restaurant the first night my friends arrived, the fresh, lovely "Basung" fish, I had just bought that morning was calling out to me, So I suggested to them that we dined in on a menu of fresh Basong fish. fried to perfection with rice. I also picked the luscious purple bird's eye chillies from my garden as one of my friends is a chilli lover. 😍

Simple dinner - Fried "Basong" fish served with hot rice😋.

I told my friends that the fish were special because not anyone can get them easily. My neighbour went fishing as a hobby and caught a lot of fresh fish from the sea . One of them were the basung. They were fresh and delicious because  no preservatives were added like those in the market.

Fresh Basong fish before frying.

Luscious purple bird's eye chillies. 

Our list of food to try on this Culinary adventure during the visit:

1. Tian Yuan fish noodles for the bitter gourd fish noodles and fish eggs.

2.Salim Roti Tissue.
3. Tenom Yong Tau Foo.
4. Rojak / Soto at Sri Rezeki.

5. Dami ABC dessert.
6. Uncle Hon coffee shop -Cockles Laksa noodles
7.Sunset Bar Shangrila Hotel Tg Aru.
8. Steam boat with DIY stove.

The next day we started the food adventure road trip in earnest.
The first stop was,  Salim restaurant for the "Tissue Prata" or "Roti Tissue" is how the people here call it.

My Singaporean friend, Amy said it was the tallest Roti tissue she ever seen in her life🤭. 

Next stop on our agenda was the Famous Tenom Yong Tau Foo but sadly the shop was closed. No worries, we still had other foods on our list and replaced it with the popular Jia Siang soup noodle. 

We had the lovely noodles and also the stuffed Tau Pok which we all agreed unanimously were delicious and so were the Fried stuffed Brinjals. Both dishes were fried to perfection, crispy  on the outside yet soft inside. If only we were not limited by our stomach capacity!

Lamb chop at cloud 9 restaurant at kokol hills kasih sayang resort.

 The lamb chop was perfectly done according to my preference and the sauce was so delicious. The fries was so freshly cooked and cripsy. The sunset view was worth all the effort and courage needed to travel up the steep hills beside satisfying our hungry stomachs. 

Ann ordered TomYam with rice.  

Before the last day, we went for"Uncle" Hon Laksa. To my friends, it's not the Traditional Laksa but curry laksa. Thus, the absence of laksa leaves garnish. Anyway the cockles made for it as they were fresh and a good size. She said in Singapore, the cockles are smaller than what we had here.

"Uncle Hon"  Laksa Siham Bee Hoon.

During the short stay in Kota Kinabalu, Ann and Amy also had the chance to taste the very 1st mango produced by the tree in my garden. Ann also managed to harvest the very 1st Mango from another of my trees to take it back to Singapore.😁What a delicious opportunity! We believed that any fruit produced by the tree for the very 1st time , always taste the best. Do give a try and see the difference.

I kept the mango in the freezer before their arrival. 

I suggested Ann to eat the frozen mango directly like smoothie.

Frozen mango .

Ann was so pleased with the frozen mango. She said its so sweet and yummy!

That really makes my day! ❤️

On the last day, we went for Yu Kee bah kut teh at Beverly Hill Jalan Bundusan.. 

Ann was on a Non-meat diet as it was Friday but that did not stop her from enjoying the herbal soup. She loved the tasty braised Tau Pok and blanched lettuce topped with oyster sauce and fried garlic. Meanwhile we ordered meat varieties e.g. Belly, stomach and ribs and each dish came with a set of Tau Pok. 

What Ann had:

Tau pok and lettuce in oyster sauce and rice and of course she had to have here chilli in black soya sauce as a dip. It was a balanced meal as tau pok is considered a protein too albeit second class protein, Anyway she enjoyed her meal as much as we did ours and that was the most important point.

Although my friends stayed in Kota Kinabalu for a week but still could not fulfilled some of the planned food adventure . One of them was the Popular Indonesian Soto and Rojak mee at Sri Rezeki due to fasting month period, the shop was closed on 10th April when we went there.

Due to the time constraint, we also did not manage to try Damai ABC dessert but we found something else just as exciting. It's a dessert too😁.

We happened to pass by a corner shop selling coconut drinks.

Ann, a coconut lover, decided we had to try the Coconut Shake Special. I was game.
The price was Rm 9 but we were disappointed that the shake came with a vanilla ice cream topping. We enquired why it was not coconut ice cream topping? We were told that we need to ask for it and also it cost another Rm5 for the coconut ice -cream.

Question: How can we request for Coconut ice -cream instead of Vanilla ice-cream when we were not aware of the need to do so?

 

A spoon and straw were provided.

First, use the straw to suck all the melted ice coconut shake. It's so refreshing especially during the current hot spell: sure brought much relieve for a while.

When the shake is gone, use the spoon the scrape out the tender flesh from the coconut to complete the "journey".

Even if we couldn't make it for the ABC dessert in Damai, we loved the replacement - the  cooling iced coconut shake. We enjoyed the coconut shake in style especially on a hot day. 😍

Writer: Beckie

Co writer : Antoinette S. 

Reference :

Cloud9 restaurant

Kasih Sayang Resort

Jia Siang coffee shop

TheRoyal Coconut

You Kee Bakuteh 

Salim Restaurant