Day Seven - Sunday 30th October: Sandakan

 

Unfortunately our direct flight to Sandakan had been replaced by two short flights on two compact planes. It turned out to be quite an enjoyable journey!

The first flight was 55 minutes and delivered us into the smallest arrivals and departure halls ever at Lahad Datu, which the lovely air hostess guided us through.

The airport consisted of two rooms - an Arrivals room which you exited and then entered the next room which was the Departure 'Lounge' 

An early morning Airport breakfast : don't we love it!

On the second plane she greeted us again and, as there was a total of 12 people aboard (five of whom were us) she invited me to  sit wherever I wanted as I hadn't been allocated a window seat. 

Due to the size of the plane and the length of the trip -35 minutes- we were flying beneath the clouds with a clear view of the landscape and rivers. Flying over the wild jungle and green mountains and valleys we noticed lots of plantations planted with palm trees for palm oil. The farmers have replaced other crops with these as one tree can produce 30 tons of palm oil per year and so they are very profitable and require minimum maintenance.

Dean, our new guide, met us in Sandakan. He was keen to show us everything that Sandakan had to offer despite the fact that we had been up since 5am!

Sandakan is well-known for the POW camps created by the Japanese to contain Australian and British soldiers between 1941 and 1945. They, and many of the locals, were treated barbarically and only 6 men survived from the 2,500 men imprisoned there. Some of them died on a march through the jungle to Ranau to build an airfield which was never completed.

The memorial chapel which had boards
 describing all aspects of the Sandakan POW camp.
It was very confronting reading the
details of the atrocities and the hardships endured.

The garden contained many
beautiful tropical flowers

 We visited the Memorial Park created by the RSL, and others, to honor the men and describe their brutal treatment by the Japanese. Inadequate food,  no medical care, torture and when they were to weak to walk they were left to die...... the horrors of war.

The gardens were beautiful and contemplative and the Memorial was simple and moving.

We were somewhat taken aback by a young girl dressed for a party with a bunch of balloons and pink high heels being photographed for a fashion shoot in the gardens. Seemed very inappropriate.

Then we jumped on the bus and did a quick whizz around the market area and shops and bought some essential items:  batteries for Jan`s camera and – of course! – more tonic water. And nibbles to accompany the G&Ts!

Just purchasing the essentials!

All of the markets we visited had durian

                                                                        and I was on a mission to try durian ice cream:

                                                                   unfortunately we didn't succeed, but maybe next time!

An impressive temple perched so high on a hill

The plant in the pot on the left was
one of the plants that Dean
suggested had vipers!

Next stop was the beautiful hilltop Puu Jih Shih Buddhist temple: cool and peaceful. Lovely views over the ocean and a cool breeze. Dean casually mentioned that we should take care when we reached a row of pot plants along the front of the temple as they might contain vipers! 

Bright colours and lots of gold
was the order of the day

A very content buddha!

Not sure who this is but he's scary!

Thousands of small golden buddhas decorated the walls and a couple of dazzling larger buddhas were contained in the temple. 

There was a huge high temple-like building being built nearby : apparently this will be used to store the ashes of those followers who are cremated.

For a complete change of pace next we found ourselves sitting on the huge verandah at the English Teahouse at a property high in the hills owned by Agnes Keith , an englishwoman who had settled there some time ago. (Not sure why she is famous: Note to self - look her up!)

Scones, sandwiches and high teas were on the menu: delightful! And the sea breeze was lovely too.

 

Finally we arrived  at the Sepilok Nature Resort – all of the buildings wooden and eco-friendly, situated around small lakes with lush tropical gardens.

The 'rooms' were small wooden houses and delightful

The entrance had small pieces of fabric hanging to add colour .....and a view to die for

We were all set for orangutans the next morning and discovered that the Rehab Centre for them was next door!

It had been a hot humid and busy day so we settled into our spacious rooms (turned on the AC!) had a G&T and headed for bed after a light dinner (for some). Delicious vegetarian pizza for a couple of us: seems a bit incongruous given the location but freshly made with a thin base covered in pumpkin puree, parmesan and eggplant, topped by chopped lettuce. Unusual but we loved it.