4 / 5 - 2 reviews
How to get there
6 hours by car from Kota Kinabalu
When to go
From March to June
Minimum stay
1 to 2 days
Sandakan (Malaysia)
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avec1o
Practical information about Sandakan
Reviews of Sandakan
If you like nature, Sandakan is an interesting place to walk round during your trip to Malaysia. It has turtles, orang-utan, proboscis and other endemic monkeys...
My suggestion:
At first sight the town itself doesn't seem very interesting but once you get out you will be amazed how many things there are to see.
Summary:
I had already used my time in the region to visit the organg-utan rehabilitation centre and Labuk Bay reserve. I didn't have enough time to explore far as Sandakan was the last place I was staying in during my trip to Borneo.
So I decided to visit the town. A visist to the market and then Puu Jih Shih Buddhist temple. I was intending to walk there but a woman, probably because she saw me rushing through the tropical rain, offered me a lift in her car and put me down in front of the temple. I just had to wait for the shower to stop, wondering about the temple's garden sculptures, and then went back down and finished my day with a picnic on the sea front, where the young Malaysians meet up at the end of the evening.
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avec1o
Sandakan, as the second most important town of Sabah state, enjoys a strategic position for tourism.
My suggestion:
The restaurants to be found on the pedestrian street by the seaside, right next to the shopping centre, offer tasty dishes with a pleasant view and atmosphere at very reasonable prices.
Summary:
I arrived in Sandakan after spending several days in Kota Kinabalu, and I found the town rather depressing and of limited interest. The town centre with its grid patterned streets ends in a covered public market, a big shopping centre and a rather pleasant pedestrian street by the seaside (ideal to have something to eat).
Still, this historical town offers an interesting walk to see old-style middle-class houses, a Chinese and a Japanese cemetery, a World War Two memorial, as well as the old clock tower .
Lastly, it does have a reputation as an eco-tourist stop, for being an ideal gateway to the turtle islands, the orang-utan sanctuary and proboscis monkey reserve. All interesting stops to enrich a trip centred on the discovery of Borneo’s animal world.
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Arthur Joffrin
67 travellers' photos
