We Had A Date With Monkeys In Sandakan

As promised by Mr Dunhill Red.... Brought me to Sandakan for our 1st year wedding anniversary trip~

Finally, it is over. Tomorrow, I'll be back to reality world... No more travelling for me until next week... ngek ngek ngek~ Where to? Secret~ :p

A lot of people actually asked us... Why Sandakan?! Even myself asked Mr Dunhill Red the same question as well... However, after this trip.... we had no regret choosing Sandakan as our destination... Why? Let me tell you why....

Let's start with a little bit of Sandakan's history...... ;)

Sunset at Sandakan

Sandakan is the second largest city in Sabah and it is also the formal capital for Sabah. Most people staying here are Chinese and mostly know how to speak Cantonese very well. That was really a surprise to me.... So, Sandakan also called as "Little Hong Kong". 

Is this really look like Hong Kong? Maybe the old buildings... I think...

ACCOMODATION

As usual, did some research before booked the hotel..... This time we chose the best hotel in town - Four Points by Sheraton. Even the receptionist said so and he was like really proud of it :p No doubt, it is the best hotel in town.... And most importantly, it suits my requirement..... Nice and cheap..... ;)

With RM230, We got a free upgrade to the seaview luxury room..... Syioks!!!!!

Sea view from the room

Harbour view

Night harbour view

The other side of sea view from the room

Nice infinity swimming pool

TRANSPORTATION

This time, we flew to Sandakan by using the rebate tickets.. Mr Dunhill Red purchased the economy standby ticket for the way up and business standby for the way back. However the economy class was full for the flight going to Sandakan. We had no choice but to upgrade our flight ticket to business class then... So, this time... Again, we flew glamorously.... :p

Mr Dunhill Red was checking in at the counter

Mr Dunhill Red and me at our favorite row 4 seats again ;) 

My favorite business class cheezy omelette and nasi lemak.. Please take note.. Only business class meal, my favorite.. haha! :p

Not to forget... My favorite MAS cheesecake~

Flight to Sandakan took 2hours 45mins... After touched down at Sandakan, the first thing we did was renting a car... The car rental there is a little bit expensive than Langkawi. With RM100, we can get Nissan Latio at Langkawi for 1 day. But, with RM125, we can only get a Proton Saga at Sandakan.. So, we rented the car for 2 full days... which is from 2nd July 2013, 12noon until 4th July 2013, 12noon... Total how much? Do your own math~ :p

The car rental booth where we rented the car from

The Proton Saga that we drove around for 2 days

WHERE AND WHAT TO EAT

Those who been to Sandakan are very well known that it is a place famous for seafood~ So, how could we miss that?! After enquired the receptionist, he introduced us to the seafood restaurant in the fishing village at Jalan Buli Sim Sim. At day time, there are four floating restaurant open and only two restaurant open for night time.

We chose this restaurant to dine in

Coconut water (RM4)

Fried baby squid in black soya souce (RM18)

Scallops in oyster souce (RM15) 

Steam clams in spicy and sour lime souce (RM20)

Cheese prawn (RM25)

Mr Dunhill Red had two big bottles of beers that costs RM30. With all the food and drinks, we paid RM115 for the dinner... If it is without Mr Dunhill Red's beers,  our meal was only RM85. Not sure is that really cheap. But, by looking at the scallops for RM15, I personally think that it was real cheap~ 

Mr Dunhill Red at the fishing village

Another must-try restaurant is the English Tea House & Restaurant~ They serve very nice scones... Nice food, nice environment.. Over looking the Sandakan harbour sea view~ But, service and food serve very slow.... We were having the royale tea set and the set lunch, just like "fine dining" due to it took them 1hour for our food to be served ^^" However, if you have time, the food does worth the wait~

The game in the garden

Pictures taken while waiting for our food to be served

Set lunch comes with soup of the day, one out of the three choices of main course, and dessert of the day (RM15)

Royal tea set with choices of coffee or tea, unlimited refill (Rm38) It comes with the fruits, cakes, three types of sandwiches and two scones... I think it was quite expensive~ But, the scones are really nice...

WHAT AND WHERE TO SEE

Due to it was just a 3days 2nights trip, we can only managed to get one full day to go for sigh-seeing. More preferred a relaxing trip actually.... So, in order not to rush ourselves on the day trip. We actually took an effort and drove all the way to the places where we planned to go on a day before... just to get ourselves familiar with the area.

The next day, we got up at 7am and came out from the hotel at 8am, just to catch the orang utan feeding time at 10am. When on the way to the Sepilok Orang Utan Rehabitation Centre, we had our breakfast at one of the restaurant at the road side. The ride took about 40mins from the hotel.

Everything was ready to go!

Main entrance

We are here!!!

There are two feeding time for the orang utan. The first session is at 10am while the second session is at 3pm. Due to we had another session of monkey feeding to catch up, so we chose the 10am session. 

The entrance ticket for this Sepilok rehabilitation is RM5 per person for Malaysian ( I have no idea for the foreigner's price ) and they do charge RM10 for taking the shooting device in irregardless it is a camera, video cam or iphone and so on. As long as you wanted to use it to take photo then you have to pay. Or else, just keep your device in your beg and just watch :p

After enter the entrance only...... We spotted this....

Orang Utan!!!!!

He was swinging from tree to tree... And all the tourists were liked the people who just came out from "kampung", took their cameras and keep shooting.... The orang utan was not scare of the crowd at all. While the orang utan was swinging from tree to tree, something dropped on one of the tourist's head. Went closer and checked it out... We found out that it was a frog that its color look like the leaf color. Interesting..... 

After that, we just followed the crowd and walked thru the walkway.... Until one of the platform......

Check out the crowd

Everybody was waiting patiently and quietly... Few mins later, we saw this..... 

They were coming for their food.....

After the feeding session, we were heading to our next destination..... Labuk Bay Proboscis Monkey Sanctuary... The highlight of our trip~

Please take note that the way to Labuk Bay is actually a bit distance from the Sepilok... We went thru a way like this.. I guess a lot of them were actually think that they were lost but in fact they were on the right track.... Because we had the same thinking as well~

Finally, we were here..... The ticket for entrance is a little bit expensive than Sepilok. It is Rm15 per person and the camera fee is RM10. 

At platform B to catch the 1130am feeding session

Please take note that we need to take off our shoes when enter the platform. I knew about this before I went there... Read a lot reviews about this place but was wondering why.... And now I know why....... 

Once entered, I saw this....... 

Monkeys were all around.... But don't worry... They all are very tame.. Then I spotted this.... Baby monkeys... 

This gold baby is around 1-2weeks old

This gold head baby started to turn color and it is around 2months old

When I walked toward the end of platform, I saw this.... the highlight of the trip - Big-nosed monkey / Proboscis monkey... Or Mr Dunhill Red's "brother" :p hahaha.... been joking with him about this..... 

They were all around the outside compound. The weird thing is....they won't even jump inside. I am still wondering why.... O.o

At 1130am sharp, we heard a signal.... Then, we started to see a lot of big-nosed monkeys ran out..... Yes! It's the feeding time!

After around 10mins, we heard another signal.. This time was another type of signal... Then we saw all the black monkeys ran for their food..... Funny huh~ They understand their own signal ^^" 

We spotted this scene.... The small monkey wanted to eat but the big monkey pushed the small monkey away. So pitiful~ The small monkey just sat from far and looked at the big monkey was enjoying the food... *Helpless*

After eating.... what they do? 

Doing nothing~

Checking out own "little brother" ??!!

Sitting in style~

OR

Taking a nap!!!!!!! Hahahaha.... 

PROLONGED

It is always nice to near to the nature... Even if it is just a few days~ Anyway, The trip was ended... We checked out the room at around 10am and took the 1135am flight back to KUL.

Nice photo taken before heading to airport

After this trip, with no regret, Sandakan will be in my short-trip destination list then ;)