Sandakan with a population of 480,000 is Sabah's second city and is dotted with religious relics, colonial mansions and haunting memories of WWII. Sandakan was the former capital of British North Borneo until 1946. The town prospered in the early days due to its port with visiting traders from about the world. Of great interest to Australians is the Sandakan Memorial Park. Located 11km from the city, the memorial park is situated on the original site of the J...

The proboscis monkeys are one of the strangest and most endangered primates in the world so a visit to the Labuk Bay Proboscis Monkey Sanctuary located in the centre of the mangrove forest of Semawang about 38 kilometres from Sandakan is yet another highlight of this trip. The monkeys are native only to Borneo and only about 7000 proboscis monkeys remain in the wild as of today and 2000 of them are in Sabah. Their number has decreased significantly over the yea...