Reaching Sandakan by boat from Zamboanga City is roughly a 14-hour trip across the timid Sulu Sea that separates the two islands, bypassing the famous Turtle Islands. While there’s always this nagging fear of an Abu Sayyaf pumpboat chasing passenger ships, this apprehension was not even a figment of imagination two decades ago.
Sandakan, the second largest township in Sabah, sits on the northeastern region of Borneo. Its name in the Suluk language means “the place that was pawned.” The municipality, was the landing point for illegal Filipino immigrants, had around 158,000 in population (2010).
As early as 1995, the coastal town was already home to a five-star hotel and other billeting establishments. In terms of tourist arrivals, as of 2016, the place, though overtaken by Sarawak in terms of growth, remains an attraction due to its Sepilok Orang Utan Rehabilitation Center, which was established in 1964. (‘Orangutan’ is translated as ‘man of the forest.’)
The Center, which is actually a sanctuary of rescued orangutans (Pongo), ranks as one of Malaysia’s top tourism draws. Situated inside the Kabili-Sepilok Forest Reserve, it covers an area of 4,294 hectares of virgin forests. Before entering the sanctuary where orangutans are fed, the visitors are briefed in a building that houses a canteen, a souvenir shop, and a mini-museum that exhibits orangutan posters and displays of torn visitors’ handbags.
Reaching the sanctuary, a short distance from the road where tourist buses are parked, is a short walk. A wooden bridge that connects the visitors to the feeding pedestal serves as observation post. Feeding, which is done by forest ranger in their iconic uniform, takes place at 10:00 AM, while another happens at 3:00 PM.
Seeing the orangutans come down from the trees rappelling on hemp cords is a sight to behold. On the ground, as if on a drill, they surprisingly wait for the rangers to pass before forming a single file behind them. Food rations consist of bananas and liquid milk infused with multivitamins and medicine. Feeding time is at times nasty and disorderly, especially when the aggressive southern pig-tailed macaque (Macaca nemistrina) starts pestering the orangutans.
For visitors coming from Kota Kinabalu, reaching the sanctuary takes about five hours.
Another important tourist draw in Sandakan is the Kinabatangan River, locally known as Sungai Kinabatangan, the second longest in Malaysia. It stretches, an online post says, “560 kilometers from its headwaters in the mountains of southwest Sabah, to its outlet at the Sulu Sea, east of Sandakan.”
To get to the heart of the river, which is through the Mermaid Channel, is by speedboat ride from a jetty. With its unspoiled mangroves, Kinabatangan River, which got its name from the land mass sandwiching it, “is known for its remarkable wildlife and fascinating habitats such as limestone caves at Gomantong Hill, dry land dipterocarp forests, riverine forest, freshwater swamp forest, oxbow lakes and salty mangrove swamps near the coast.”
Aside from the otters that frolick on the edge of the riverbanks and the fishermen angling using the hook and line, the main attraction in the riverine area is the indigenous proboscis monkeys (Nasalis larvatus), which has an over-sized nose that seems to interfere with eating.
Of course, as an added attraction are the Asian elephants (Elephas maximus), Sumatran rhinoceros (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis), the endemic Borneo river shark (Glyphis fowlerae), and the saltwater crocodiles (Crocodylus porosus), southeast Asia’s largest reptile, which we were not able to see given the limited time we had.
Travel inside Sandakan, meanwhile, is a struggle in the absence of public transports that resemble the Filipino jeepney. There was an attempt in earlier years to bring in the iconic Sarao to serve as public conveyance but the strong opposition from taxi groups, with the support of powerful politicians close to the Office of the Prime Minister, promptly quashed the intention. Jeepneys, though, are still allowed but only for private cargo transport.
At night, Sandakan is not the place where you can find nocturnal hangouts. There are no innocuous as drinking lounges, go-go bars, and beer gardens. Muslim culture bans any form of sex-oriented and flesh-baring entertainments. To get a drink or two, the foreigners, as visitors, are allowed to gulp few bottles inside the hotels where they stayed. Downing few bottles of beer is literally an expensive exercise given the high taxes imposed on alcoholic drinks.
There are places, though, that carry memories of wonderful evening dines. Not too far away from Sandakan Bay Hotel where we stayed, a restaurant on a mountaintop served stewed fresh red grouper (Epinephelus morio), tiger shrimps (Penaeus monodon), and blue crabs (Callinectes sapidus). From the mesa where the food house is situated, you can have a stunning view of the log ponds below and the setting sun from afar.
Before it was burned down for some mysterious reason years ago, Sandakan used to host a community of Filipino migrants, many of them remnants from the defunct logging years when their family breadwinners, recruited to work in timber concessions, cut trees for export.
On the other hand, the second-generation Pinoys, many of them married to local maidens, retain the Filipino traits, speaking mostly in Ilocano, Ilonggo, and Cebuano. They still talk about the good old days, and the experiences they now face in a foreign land they call home. Most of them, though, yearn for the time when peace will return to Mindanao.
In retrospect, the last time we were in Sandakan was in 1995 while on our way to attend the ASEAN Travel Fair in Kuching City, which is part of Sarawak, Malaysia.
