Borneo Bound: Sandakan (14th March 2010)

I’m staying in a place called Sandakan Backpackers right n the middle of town, it’s a very friendly and very cheap hostel with a lovely roof terrace with loungers etc, I had heard that the beds were rock hard but how hard can they really be? Waking up with bruises on my hips from sleeping on my side is probably a good indication, didn’t stop me sleeping though and I even had a 5 person dorm all to myself.

Last night just as I was thinking about getting a bite to eat there was a knock at my door and there was Jen and Warren who I had just spent three days in the jungle with, after leaving Uncle Tans they had gone off to the Proboscis monkey sanctuary and then headed down to Sandakan and seeing my name in the register book knocked on my door. We headed out to a waterfront bistro for a couple of beers and a bite to eat and made a plan for today.

Its Sunday here and Sandakan comes alive with the Sunday market, I’m on a bit of a mission to find some warm clothes for my hike up the mountain so after breakfast we wandered off to see what Sandakan had to offer. I’m not sure sometimes what people are looking for when they travel, I mean admittedly this town doesn’t look like its ever going to be the Ibiza of Borneo but the people are super friendly (probably due to an overall lack of tourists) and the town has a really nice feel to it, it’s right on the seafront and there seems to be plenty of places to eat and relax here. And in the market even the rabbits have a fan! :-)

Cool rabbits!

For some reason I forgot to bring my thermals on this trip, perhaps it was the knowledge that Malaysia is generally over 30 degrees, I don’t know, but for some reason although I was always planning to climb the mountain and knew it would be cold up there I still didn’t bring them. Anyway fortunately Sandakan had it all, I managed to pick up a pair of leggings which I actually think are better quality than my Primark ones so may even make it home with me, as well as a long sleeve t-shirt for just over £1 (this might not make it home with me) and a thinsulate pair of gloves for £2.30, bargain I think. I didn’t manage to find a woolly hat but figured with my hoodie and rain coat I’ll probably be ok. So I was set, set for diving and then set for mountain climbing.

Agnes Keith House

This afternoon the three of us took a cab ride up the hill to the Agnes Keith House/Museum just on the way out of town. Agnes Keith was an American woman who came to the town in the 1930s, she wrote several books about her experiences most famously ‘The Land Below The Wind’ about Sabah, unfortunately we got there too late to be able to go in the museum but were able to walk around the outside and peer in a couple of windows. Despite Agnes Keith complaining about Sandakan being ‘too British’ there does remain right next door an old English Tea House. It was in a beautiful setting, perched high above the rest of the town looking out over the sea towards the Turtle Islands National Park. The main tea house is very colonial inside and out, it has a yummy looking cake cabinet right next to an old gramophone and telescope, very quaint and very English feeling. In the garden we choose a table under a gazebo which had some fantastic old time music playing in it and were served by the waitresses all dressed up in tea house type uniforms. So of course we had to have English tea and it wouldn’t be the same without some English scones........it was yum! The scones with cream and jam came out on a little cake stand and we sat there enjoying our tea for a good hour or more, it was a lovely little treat.