Sandakan

The monsoon hit this morning! Although the hotel's weather sign said "no rain all day", it rained on and off all day. Seriously - I would have taken the notice down in embarrassment by lunchtime...

Pavilion at the Teahouse

I started with breakfast on the waterfront, and then asked at the desk for a map and directions to Agnes Keith House. They looked at me in horror and said "oh no, you should get a cab. It's not safe." I looked on the map and it was only a short distance, albeit uphill. Ignoring their advice (remembering that Malaysian girls have thus far proven to be unadventurous, especially the girl next to me on the bus yesterday who was too scared to go get a seat on her own even though there were loads available), I set off down the street. Expecting to be mugged at every corner, I instead found that I was on the Sandakan Heritage Trail. Not safe indeed... perhaps a little slippery on the historical 100 steps but otherwise safe as houses (as Nan would say).

Very colonial!

It wasn't that hot but the humidity was about 800% so I arrived at the house bathed in sweat and silently thanked whoever had thought to install air conditioning. Agnes Keith was a writer who wrote "Land Below The Wind" (about Sabah) among other books, and she was quite the Borneo pioneer I think. I bought the book in KK but won't read it until I get home. Next door to the house is an English Teahouse, where I sat in my own pavilion and had scones and tea and enjoyed the great view of the harbour. Looking around I found a big cage and to my surprise it held a huge peacock. After seeing the freedom enjoyed by the peacocks at the Melbourne Zoo, I felt a little sorry for it!

Walking back into town I quickly discovered that Old Sandakan is the poor part of town. Most of the shops sell rubbish, some have gold and textiles but most sell the kind of stuff that the Reject Shop would reject. I wanted to go to the Australian War Memorial so, feeling very proud of myself, I found a minibus and paid my 2 ringgit fare. Pretty quickly I realised that the memorial park was in the middle of nowhere, and I became very thankful for Google Maps on my iPhone.

The memorial is extremely sad and I can't believe how awful the POW camp in Sandakan was. I've (purposely) avoided knowledge of the POW camps so I don't know whether it's better or worse than others, but the soldiers were all forced to march over 250km to Ranau on three trips later named the "Death Marches". Of the 2500 who went, six survived. Their anecdotes are heartbreaking.

I caught a bus to a shopping area, then back to the hotel. The second bus driver was extremely excited to have me on his bus (?) and got me to sit up front with him, much to the amusement of the other passengers. I got into it and went the whole ocker Aussie on him, thumbs up & G'day's all round. In the end I had to pull out ol' faithful, my alcoholic husband who is always waiting for me in the hotel. Sometimes he's looking after the kids but mostly he's sleeping because he had too many beers last night. Next time - I'm wearing a ring on the trip!

Rafi, Jeffrey and Nazmi and our meal

Nazmi, Rafi and their mate Jeffrey picked me up for dinner again and took me to Ikan Bakar Mama Resepi (Mama's recipe grilled fish) where we had another veritable feast. I ordered "sunburn fish", which I have Googled and found no reference to so I have no idea what it was. Apart from delicious. The boys made me eat Malay-style... with my hands. It was fairly amusing I think - if you don't believe me, try eating rice and fish and sauce with your fingers. See how you go.

We then went to the Old City restaurant (believe it or not, New City restaurant is right next door) and had cold drinks. It's nice going out with Muslim boys as there is no alcohol involved!! I'd much prefer an iced lychee drink.