History
Sandakan is a captivating town with its very own charm, friendly
people and many fabulous places to eat seafood. Sandakan has also
its own intriguing history and traces its roots back to the early
1870s, when William Clarke Cowie, a Scottish adventurer and engineer
was trading guns and ammunition with the Sultan of Sulu so that he
could protect his territories from the Spanish. In return, the
Sultan granted Cowie permission to settle on Pulau Timbang in the
Sandakan Bay, where there was a small Suluk village. Cowie called
his base Sandakan, deriving the word from Suluk “sanda” and the
suffix “kan”, and Sandakan translates roughly into ‘the place that
was pawned’. Cowie’s settlement soon became known as “Kampung
Jerman” because a lot of Germans called at his trading post.
In 1879 the settlement was relocated to Buli Sim-Sim, which at that
time was a narrow, uninhabited coastal fringe of jungle and
mangroves. However, Cowie found that the natural harbour was one of
the most beautiful in the world, and he renamed his new settlement
“Elopura”, meaning ‘Beautiful Harbour’. But eventually the name
Sandakan prevailed, and in 1883 the British North Borneo Chartered
Company (BNBCC) moved its capital in North Borneo from Kudat to
Sandakan. The trading post developed into a striving little town,
but all business came to an abrupt end when the Japanese invaded
Borneo during WWII. To liberate the town Allied bombers nearly
flattened Sandakan towards the end of the war, and in retaliation
the Japanese burnt whatever had survived the bombings. Sandakan
virtually ceased to exist in June 1945.
After WWII, and faced with the impossibly expensive task of
rebuilding Sabah, the BNBCC relinquished its rights to the British
Crown, and in 1946 under colonial administration Sabah’s capital was
moved to Jesselton (now Kota Kinabalu).
Nevertheless Sandakan was rebuilt and became Sabah’s first and
foremost port for the export of timber. Thus, after the war Sandakan
grew bigger and stronger, and prospered with revenge! During its
heydays, it is said that Sandakan had the greatest concentration of
millionaires in the world! This prosperity naturally led to an
influx of people from all over the world, from China over India to
Arabia and Europe, from Indonesia to the Philippines and even to
Japan. However, the seemingly inexhaustible supply of tropical
timber dwindled fast and today most natural resources are depleted,
with the reminders in protected reserves for plants and animals.
Sandakan developed much of the former jungle into palm plantations,
but due to the jungle reserves and vast conservation areas of one of
the world’s oldest rainforest it is famous now as the gateway to
Sabah’s unique and rich flora & fauna.
Places of Interest in Sandakan
Being the former capital of Sabah (then North Borneo), Sandakan is
rich in historical monuments and other places of interest. Maybe the
most famous, and a very important reminder for that matter, is the
Australian WWII Memorial. It is dedicated to some 2700 Australian POW who
died at the Sandakan POW camp and in the ensuing death marches
through the jungles of Sabah. It is located on Jalan Labuk Utara,
Mile 8, and travel agents in Sandakan offer regular tours there.
Alternatively, you can take a taxi to visit this site of quiet
remembrance. Another site that links pre-war times with colonial
times is the former House of Agnes Keith, and her husband, Harry
Keith. Harry Keith was the forest curator in British North Borneo ,
and his American wife, Agnes, followed him to Sabah. Here, she wrote
with much emotion and insight three books, the most famous being
“The Land Below the Wind”. The Keith’s suffered imprisonment during
WWII, and Agnes’ second book “Three Came Home” details their and the
Sabah’s people war experience. The house is currently being
renovated and will open as a museum soon. Adjacent to the Agnes
Keith House, also located on Bukit Istana and with a wonderful view
over Sandakan Town and Bay is the
English Tea House. Visit this
place for an authentic ‘colonial’ tea-time, or some elegant dining.
Sandakan has an important Chinese population, and there are several
nice temples that can be visited, such as the century-old Tham Kung
Temple on Mile 1½ Jalan Utara. The special feature about this temple
is the ’preservation of a temple within a temple’. The original
shrine was lifted and transferred to within the new temple in an
effort to conserve it, a first in Malaysia. Then there is the Sam
Sing Kung Temple, or the ‘Three Saints’ Temple’ at the edge of the
town padang. The three saints are Kwan Woon Cheung, the saint of
righteousness; the goddess Tin Hou, worshipped by fishermen; and the
Emperor Min Cheong, worshipped by those who seek success in
examinations. Before school exams you will find hopeful students at
this temple, which was built by four Chinese communities: the Hakka,
Cantonese, Hainanese and Teochew.
A popular temple that is on the regular city tour is the Puh Jih
Shih Buddha Temple, erected on a 100-meter high hilltop above Tanah
Merah, and with a breathtaking view over Sandakan Bay. The interior
is an extravaganza in red and gold, with writhing dragons and gilded
Buddha’s. The temple protects the Sandakan people and brings health
and wealth.
Other places of worship include the Masjid Jamek, which belongs to
the earliest buildings of Sandakan and was constructed in the 1890s
by Indian fabric peddlers of Muslim faith. During WWII it served as
a hiding place for Muslims, and occasionally European officials, and
thus it came periodically under fire during that period of Sabah’s
history. The quaint Mosque is situated on Jalan Enam, next to the Hotel Sandakan.
St Michaels & All Angels Church, one of
Sabah’s first and only granite churches can be found on Elton Hill.
The beautiful building, reminiscent of an English countryside
church, was completed in 1913, after twenty years of construction
work. The stones for the church came from a granite quarry at Buli
Sim-Sim.
Other places of interest in Sandakan town area are the Japanese
Cemetery along Jalan Istana, with a monument to those Japanese
soldiers who fought and died in Sabah during WWII, and the Japanese
women who worked here and died in Sandakan; the Crocodile Farm and
the Forestry Headquarters at Labuk Road; the
Labuk Bay Proboscis
Sanctuary within the Yet Hing Oil Palm Plantation; the world
renown
Sepilok Orang
Utan Rehabilitation Centre in Sepilok; and the
Sandakan Golf.
If you stroll through Sandakan you will find it an intriguing town
full of the colours and scents of Asia. It is a truly bustling town
and at times you have to push your way through crowds and
merchandise that spill over into the sidewalk from the many shops,
especially along Pryer Street, the road opposite the Central Market.
Here you find bargain clothing, cheap watches, jewellers, birds
nests, Indonesian cigarettes, cobblers, preserved ducks and other
exotic foods, and much what could be collected under the term
‘colonial ware’ in a happy profusion. The shops are intercepted with
restaurants that serve all sorts of delicious foods, from 'coto
Makassar' over Indian ‘roti canai’ to Chinese fried noodles. The
Sandakan Central Market is where you find perhaps the most amazing
and largest variety of seafood in Sabah, along with vegetables,
spices and oils, cheap clothing and Indonesian sarongs. The busiest
time is on Sunday, when it is tamu in Sandakan! In the harbour
behind the market you find the wooden vessels of Suluk fishermen,
and those of barter traders from the Philippines. In the large you
can see Berhala Island, which has its history of its own: the now
quiet and largely forested island with its characteristic, abrupt
red cliffs once housed the leper colony of Sandakan, and during WWII
the Japanese interned civilians and POW on the island before sending
them off to camps in Kuching, Sarawak.
In the evening, Sandakan offers a variety of night markets and food
stalls popping up everywhere and selling local charcoal grilled
specialities, from freshly caught fish and squid to chicken wings
and 'Western Burgers', all served with a hot chilly sauce. Local
restaurants and coffee shops are open until late, serving Chinese
and Malay cuisine at its best, in convivial and unpretentious
company. But the town gets quiet rather early in the evening; people
in Sandakan get up early in the morning!
How to Get to Sandakan &
Accommodation
By air (several daily flights, 45 mins)
or by car or overland bus (ca 5 hours, 230 km); there are plenty of
simple but clean hotels in and around Sandakan, and also within
walking distance from the Sepilok Orang Utan Rehabilitation Centre.
The Sandakan Hotel centrally located in the city is our preferred
hotel and the Sabah Hotel, on a hill above Sandakan offers 4-star
comfort inclusive of swimming pool and great buffet meals.
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Buli Sim-Sim - where it all began
The Australian War Memorial
View over Sandakan from the Puu Jih
Shih Temple
A proboscis monkey
Sepilok Orang Utan Centre
Market scene in Sandakan |