"Sandakan" Sandakan by Wojtek_R

When we first arrived in Sandakan, it looked pretty grim, we dubbed the city Beirut, you can tell from the picture why...

however we were pleasantly surprised by how vibrant the city was and how nice the people are.

View from Hotel Sandakan

....yes these buildings have all seen their better days...

Can you believe me if I say that there is hardly any tourists here?

Sandakan is a great jumping off point for a lot of Sabah activities.

There are numerous daily long distance busses to Kota Kinabalu, Kinabalu NP, Poring, and many tour agencies offereing all kinds of tours from Sepilok to Kinabatangan River, and to Turtle Islands NP.

To get to Sepilok you can take of these public buses, thats assuming the driver will show up...ours didnt for an hour and we had to take a cab not to miss the orangutan feedings...