Sabah Weekend Getaway Day 3

This would be the last post on my Sabah trip, which I should have written it ages ago *guilty* If you have missed out the entries on Day 1 and Day 2, click here and here :)

On the third day, Jess and I left Sukau and continued our journey to Sandakan. What's the first thing that comes into your mind when this place is mentioned? Temples, seafood or is it the famous orangutans? If you still remember your geography well, your answer should be the last one. Hehe.

To the West of Sandakan town lies Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Center, and that was our first destination for the day. The Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Center was founded in year 1964 for the purpose of rehabilitating orphaned baby orangutans by providing medical care for them as well as dozens of other wildlife species.

For your information, some of the orangutans that are being taken care of at the center include Mariko, Sogo Sogo, Atama, CID, Mimi, Eyos and many more. Each rehabilitated individual has their diet supplemented by daily feedings of milk and bananas. Only bananas are given to the orangutans so that they would get bored of them and start looking for food on their own (I guess orangutans are similar to us humans eh?)

From here, one has to walk for about 10 - 15 minutes to reach the main platform.

RM2 for those under 18 and RM15 for adults (applicable to MyKad holders)
Also, use of cameras or camcorders will be charged RM10.

The rehabilitation process consists of five steps - admission, quarantine, nursery, outward bound school and lastly, survival training. Since the center was estabalished, more than 100 orangutans have been successfully released.

Very the emo.

A picture with Mariko!

We were at the center to witness the orangutans feeding session which was held at 10am. Check out this video below! IT's A MUST!

Everyone kept their mouth shut because noisy environments will scare off the orangutans. All you can hear is the camera's shutter sound from my surroundings.

The gigantic one is called CID and he's approximately 24 years old now.
Can be considered as the tai lou among all orangutans there.

On an unrelated note, throughout this 3-day trip, I noticed most of the foreign tourists own a Canon DSLR instead of other brands.


After visiting Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Center, we headed to the town for foot reflexology at this shop called Hing Loong before having our lunch at Sandakan Hotel. The masseurs/masseuses there are visually-impaired individuals; as for their skills, you have to ask Jess.



We were supposed to check out the bazaar nearby but it was raining so by the time we got there, almost all stalls were closed. On second thought, I think we were late because we spent quite some time in a souvenir shop choosing items =/ Explored the town on foot as well.



Next destination was Simsim Water Village. The residents of this fishing village are mostly Malays and as can be seen from the pictures, they painted their houses with bright colours, but with good combination of course, otherwise my reaction would be O_O. All in all, this village reminded me of Pasir Penambang, one of the fishing villages back in my hometown.

Dare to walk on this? Jess was having a hard time :p

Forgot what this is called but it's used to catch crabs.

Let me sidetrack for a while yeah? Generally, 8 out of the 10 people whom I've just met will ask/think/comment that I am (look like) a Malay or at least, mixed. And if you've listened to me speaking in BM before, you might probably notice that I speak in this slang where most Chinese do not have, and that also partially contributes to the reason why I'm always being mistaken as a Malay (some say Sabahan/Sarawakian!)

So I told myself, "Let's see how many people will actually see me as a Chinese on their first sight/impression?" The answer was quite disappointing. At this village itself, none thought I'm a Chinese T_T

Case #1: I was chatting away with this Malay dude who was fishing to find out more on what he was up to; what kind of fish can be caught there? What type of baits are being used? etc. FYI, I didn't introduce myself in the first place and half way through our conversation, this came in:

Him: Nama apa...?
Me: Jacquelyn
Him: Jacquelyn...? Eh ku ingat you orang Melayu. Cakap pun macam satu.
Me: .....

Ini bukanlah hasil tangkapan tetapi umpan.

Case #2: I went into this local souvenir shop operated by local. The owner was inside the house but he sent his one of his kids to entertain the potential buyer (me). 2 minutes later, the kid was shouting to his dad, reporting to him about the situation in the shop. This was what I heard.

Kid: "Perempuan, Melayu, tengok-tengok jer"

And so I didn't bother to clarify. Who knows I might get discounts right? Hehe.

What instrument is this? Anyone?

Last destination before we left for airport was the Sandakan Memorial Park. It is to commemorate those who suffered and died in the infamous Death March. What can be found at the park? Memorial cairns, generator and boiler, commemorative pavilion and the Sandakan memorial.

This granite memorial is located within the original boundary of the POW camp.

The trip to the memorial park was short as we needed to rush to the airport, only to find out that our flight got delayed -_-"

One last picture of the trip!

More photos in Facebook! :)