Sandakan Travel Guide

Whilst in Kota Kinabala we took a wander down to the travel agency offices (in a hexagonal esque building past the shopping mall down towards the sea) and booked the most amazing trip for next to nothing. It was four days, three nights, down in Sepilok with a visit to the orang-u-tan centre and then off into the rainforest for a boat cruise (when I say boat I mean hollowed out tree) experience with two nights sleeps in the jungle. The guys who live in the huts and were acting as our tour guides, cooks and entertainers were fantastic!! They only leave the jungle 3 months out of a year so can tell you what every noise, creature and plant is. We had such a laugh with them and they are more than willing to be relaxed about the whole experience and do what you want when you want....the timetable isn't rigid and with animals this means you usually get to see everything you want! Whilst Sepilok Centre is great and really does good work with the orangs, there is nothing like seeing a baby in the wild that has never had any direct contact with humans....its out of this world! Oh and the Probiscus Monkeys and the males ummm "Bright Pink" appendage are by far and away the funniest creatures I have ever seen! If you get a chance, I would strongly recommend booking yourself on one of these trips as most are sold by multiple agencies but you all end up in the same place...but shop around and find the cheapest as people on the same experience spent way more than us!!!

Not much to do in town at all. There is a food market that has a lot of little stalls with people selling food. The food is delicious and there is a very good ABC restaurant close to the food stalls. There are also a lot of stray dogs and cats walking around.

If you want the best seafood in Sabah, Borneo then head to Sandakan. While seafood is great anywhere along the coasts, the variety and price of everything from stingray to prawn and lobster is best here.