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

Three senior ladies on a road trip adventure

 Pondering life mysteries😇 

It is said that a journey of a thousand steps begin with a single step . In this instance, it began with a single invitation to visit Kota Kinabalu. However, my friends' visit coincided with a really hot spell.

On 12th April, 2023, the weather temperature of Kota Kinabalu was 32 degrees Celsius but felt like 40-41 degrees. So I thought we would escape the sweltering heat by "running" away to mountainous area. Unfortunately the heat followed us up😞

12.4.23
We were on the way to our planned journey around 6am.

It was recommended to start the journey as early as possible. So we set off around 6am and aimed to reach the viewing platform by 8am.

 We managed to reach the the destination before 8am. 

Unfortunately it was a hazy day so we couldn't get a clear photo of the majestic, 4095 meters, Mt Kinabalu. We continued our journey to the National park. The roads were not so good. A lot of repaired pot holes so the road was bumpy. Thanks to my trusty "Betsy", my 15yrs old car , the potholes were surmounted and we arrived at National park safe and sound albeit a tiny bit shaken. 

 ENTRANCE FEE WAS RM3 FOR ADULT WHILE FOR SENIOR CITIZENS LIKE US, IT WAS FREE!😍

We stopped by at Liwagu Restaurant at National park, for our breakfast, but unfortunately the restaurant didn't serve Ala carte menu, only a buffet which cost Rm50+, per head. We decided to just have a drink before heading back home. But the moment we came out of national park, we changed our plan and drove down the valley of Bundu Tuhan instead. We didn't know that it's a hidden Gem of Sabah until I searched through Google about Bundu Tuhan and came across an article written by "Lost Borneo", an interesting read and how the valley got it's name.

A lovely hidden treasure nestled in the valley.

Hidden Gem of Sabah, down the valley of Mt Kinabalu

There is a beautiful little church with a chapel, down the valley of Mt Kinabalu.

St Pius X church,  Bundu Tuhan

Inside the church of St Pius, Bundu Tuhan

 

 My Singaporean friends were amazed by the sight of Grotto down the valley. 

The little church was surrounded by the hills in the valley and views was spectacularly beautiful. My friend, Antoinette, shared with me a beautiful poem written by Tracy Mayfield.

It's in the valley I grow 

Sometimes life seems hard to bear,

Full of sorrow, trouble, and woe,
It's then I have to remember,
That it's in the valley I grow......

To  read on, click here and it will link you to this poem.

On 13.4.2013 we decided to drive up to kokol hills and stayed overnight at Kasih Sayang hotel. It only took us less than 30mins to reached the top of the hills at 2400 feet above sea levels. Weather temperature was normally 18-23 degrees Celsius but when we were there the temperature was about 27 degrees Celsius. It was considered warm up the hills. Due to the heat, we hardly saw any fireflies around. Juliana, the hotel staff said there wasn't many fireflies left up in the hills because of the climate change.

There were 3 rooms on the top floor and we booked a room each for Rm150+ as an overnight stay. My room was 104 at the  top corner end. It has a panoramic view of kokol hills, the forest and the city. 

Room was reasonably clean and comfortable. Some items were missing in my room and other 2 friends' as well but the staff "Jan" solved it fast. All the staff at the resort were very friendly and polite, including the gardener, made us feel so welcomed,😊 They willingly answered all our inquisitive questions.

 I enjoyed my room and would definitely come back for a few nights on another trip. There wasn't any mosquitoes in the room. Maybe because of the netting door. At night, I left the door open but with the mosquito netting door closed. It was lovely. No need to switch on fan because the mist and cool air penetrated through the netting so the room feels like there is air con in the room. 

At night, it was so quiet. Only the sound of crickets and the forest insects can be heard. We had a good night sleep. 

I don't mind seeing some harmless insects in my room. It's normal to have those around because the area is surrounded by natural forest. 

Lunch at Cloud9 restaurant

13.4.23 @6.08pm 

Getting ready to watch sunset from the restaurant balcony overlooking the hills. The view is amazing.

According to weather forecast, sunset timing on the 13th was 6.23pm. We decided to just relax and watch the sunset before having our dinner.

13.4.23 @6.12pm 

13.4.23 @ 6.15pm

13.4.23 @ 6.18pm

13.4.23 @ 6.19pm
Sun looks so red. It was a very very hot day, but up the hills the air was cooler and comfortable as if you are sitting in an AC room

13.4.23 @6.23pm

sun going down fast

Video of the sun at 6.23pm. 

13.4.23 @ 6.48pm

13.4.23 @6.50pm

After sunset, we had dinner.

Lamb Chop was really good. We complimented the Chef, Morris. We hope his name is spelt correctly. The lamb was done according to my taste preference. The salad was fresh and tasty, The chips were crispy and the sauce , wow, so good.  9/10 for this dish. The dish cost Rm38, that's  cheaper than other places. Before we came to Cloud9 restaurant, we stopped by Kokol Haven for a drink and ordered fries- They were horribly looking ( more to orangey color)  cold and  tasteless.

 Tom yum with rice. 

While we were eating, we noticed a moth look alike insect on the table, quietly staying still, but it's antenna were moving.  hahah....

13.4,23@ 7.23pm

Night view from Kasih Sayang hotel, Kokol Hills. 

Spectacular night view. 

Sun rise: 14.4.23 @5.59am
Photo taken from our front door.
 For sun rise, we opened the front door, to witness sun rise behind Mt Kinabalu. 

14.4.23@ 6.14am

14.4.23 @6.27am

14.4.23@ 7.03am

14.4.23@ 7.03am

A very steep road beside the hotel.
Make sure your car brake is in A1 condition. We saw a few stones where guests used to anchor the back wheels of the car. Guessed it's for double safety.

There are so many beautiful flora which we have never seen before.

Beautiful big flowers on the rooftop 🌹

I know this ! It's Chinese Lantern flowers.😄

Looked fake to us but this is a real tree trunk

Looks like sunflower but it's not!

Viewing platform of kasih sayang hotel with lovely unique plants which we  have never seen before.

Amy admiring the plants😃

Flowers on the rooftop! 

Bees pollinating flowers 

Unique loud Sounds of birds. 

Down the hills surrounded within the forest filled with the natural sound of birds and insects.

Camouflage - I was wearing green! .hahaha.. can you spot me from this photo? 

Easier to spot Amy though😁

Can see me better from this distance😂

Lovely place to view the forest from the hills.

The hills are alive with the sound of birds and insects.

Our Breakfast at KasihSayang hotel

The Mee Goreng (fried noodles) and Nasi Goreng (fried rice) were good

American fusion breakfast

Western breakfast were so so .

Water melon was crunchy though not sweet .

Staying overnight at Kasih Sayang hotel up the hills at 2000 feet above sea level.
The Balcony has a good view of the forest and city . Also an ideal place to watch sunset during good weather season.

The view alone made the drive worthwhile. So, a last look of the peaceful view of the hills before we checked out .

Writer : Beckie
Co Writer : Antoinette

References:

Mount Kinabalu

It's in the valley I grow

Bundu Tuhan

Kasih Sayang Resort