The last part of our trip was to the south eastern coast of Borneo. We were supposed to fly to some place called Palu Luang, which is a pirate city. From there were wanted to get to the Danium Valley Preserve. This proved to be rather difficult. There was no transportation running and it would have been very expensive on our own. We met a Greek woman who had been working in the Phillapines with Doctors without Border. She clued us in to a bus that was leaving soon to Sandakan. This was our other choice when we were deciding where to visit last. Sandakan has the Sepilok Forest preserve where oragatangs come to learn and eat. We hopped the bus and had a great time.
Sandakan is the second largest city in Sabah. It is also where the Sandakan death marches occurred during WWII. Now, it is a gritty, yet enjoyable city on the sea. We spent New Years here. It was interesting because alcohol was available, but not really common. We couldn’t drink on the street and it was not sold at any of the festivities. We ended up hanging out at our favorite Chinese café and spending the night there, making friends with the local men. Sandakan also had a water village, sim sim. I had been eager to visit one the entire trip and was very pleased. Sandakan was also very near to the Sepilock Orangutan Refuge. We took a day trip there and saw some of the refuge inhabitants.
Rob found some Malaysian tobacco and interesting rolling papers. We tested them out and they were pretty nice... very smooth...
The hotel we stayed in was the cleanest hotel ever. It also had the nicest TV's and a movie collection to rival Blockbusters. Some of the signs in our room:
Haircut or beer?
The guys we met at the cafe on New Years Eve.
New Year's Eve Rob and Judy and Durian Friut
We got to walk through the reserve and were lucky enough to see some of the orangtang eating. WE actually got pretty close to them.
They were so cute!
The trail was flooded. We debated going around it, but decided to try it. I am so happy I didn't get a leech.
Running throw the water, trying to stay on the planks to avoid leeches. At one point we saw a snale swim past us.
Yeah, try to get out. My feet were feeling the strangest things. Mabye snakes hiding in the water...
