Day Five - Sandakan

We always realised that there would be mistakes made on this trip, our first holiday off the sunbed. The first one surfaced when packing for the seven days away from the Rasa Ria. The two rucksacks we had brought were far from adequate and we had to buy a new large one from the hotel shop. Toiletries come in such large bottles these days and consumed far too much space - must buy smaller bottles next time.

As ever KK Tours were there bang on time to take us to the airport for the 40 minute flight and their young lady took us right through to departures. At the departure gate was half-a-plane load of young men with identical haircuts and white shirts, we later found out they were cadets entering their national service.

A domestic flight into Sandakan meant no immigration to pass through and as ever the luggage carousel was the only time delay. We walked out onto the front of their airport to meet our first hiccup, no driver/guide was waiting for us. There was no initial panic, but 10 minutes later when we were the only couple still waiting thoughts turned to what do we do now?

The mobile phone was useless getting some obscure message back. My thoughts were to ask a policeman, Ann’s was to ask a mobile phone shop to make the call. Almost from nowhere a Good Samaritan appeared and asked if we had a problem. We told him the situation and within ten minutes our ride had arrived. Evidently a bit of paperwork had gone astray. Safely inside the minibus and on our way to Sepilok Nature Resort the previous half-hour was quickly forgotten.


The chalet at Sepilok was clean and tidy with all the basic facilities including air conditioning. Naturally enough it was tipping it down on arrival. The chalets and restaurant overlook a river that provides a picturesque setting. Arrival at three in the afternoon through to dinner at seven leaves four hours with very little to do. So a cool beer watching the river go by might have been perfect but no alcohol is served. With the rain having stopped we walked across to the Jungle Lodge where they sold tins of Calsberg. The sale of alcohol was about the only redeeming feature of the Jungle, that certainly lacked the quality of the Nature Resort.


A better than expected meal ended with a first meeting with a couple of 60-plus ladies with stories to burn. Jules and Jan became very good company for the next couple of days.