Unfortunately this isn’t the end of my waiting; the lines at the airport are absolutely ridiculous!!! More fool me for not checking in online. I’m flying Silk Air so no ability to jump the line L After what seems like ages I’m through and have 30 minutes in the lounge (nowhere near as nice as the Qantas one) with Anna before we meet Kate and head to the gate).
Somehow I end up with a middle seat….honestly what did I do wrong today! The ladies on my row are traveling together and want to swap seats with me – no issues here!!!! Flight was nice and easy tried to get a bit of shut-eye.
Quick taxi ride from the airport to the city; Anna and my room isn’t ready yet so we dumb our bags in Kate’s room then head out for a walk. Our lunch stop was sitting by the water – nice and relaxing. I’m surprised how many places are closed, but then again it is a major holiday in Malaysia.
Anna and I had an awful time getting into our room – first room had mould everywhere so we were out of there pretty quickly!! Second room was dirty….not a good start to our holiday. Requested housekeeping to come and clean; no need to stay around for this. Instead we enjoyed the “wine flight” downstairs. Now we are talking.
Wondering around the markets (clothes and food) before watching an amazing sunset over dinner. Very hard to beat this!
Friday morning the alarm went at 4.50am – FAR TOO EARLY WHEN ON HOLIDAY!! But we are off to Sandakan for the day to see the Orang-utan’s so up we get. Our flight is at 7am but for some reason we are collected at 5.35am. Very easy flight over to the other side of the island.
We had signed up for a ½ day tour so was collected at the airport and taken out to Sepilok Orang Utan Sanctuary. After a much needed coffee it’s time for a video before we go into the forest to hopefully see some Orang-utan’s. There are twice daily feedings which the public can come and see; it’s hit and miss if the Orang-utan’s decide to come out. We were VERY lucky and saw at least 8. What absolutely amazing creatures they are!!! I snapped away on my camera like there was no tomorrow…..it’s going to take months to go through them all! And of course the photos won’t do it justice. I absolutely loved this and would recommend it to anyone, although as I said its hit and miss if any show. We stayed for the whole 2 hours, even though it was unbelievably hot. Nothing was going to make me move.
Right, now I can go back to KK town – nothing I see this afternoon is going to come even close to this. After a very average lunch in Sandakan town we leave the tour. Walked around the town, which was far from pleasant. The majority of the shops closed due to the holidays. Lots of groups of “ young” just hanging around smoking…..so time to get out of here. We hired a taxi and headed out to the Rainforest; not sure I would head there normally but it definitely beat hanging around the town.
Of course because we were all so keen to get back to KK town our flight was delayed by ½ hour….bloody typical!! Finally back to the hotel at 9.30pm – a very long day!
Saturday morning after a leisurely breakfast we taxi out to the Shangri-la Rasa Ria Resport – aah paradise!! We choose this resort as there is a smaller orang-utan sanctuary. Again Anna and my room isn’t available; they outdo themselves by sending us to have high-tea until it is. A very nice touch!
We spent an hour at the orang-utan sanctuary and was very fortunate to see a very cheeky baby orang-utan! Another amazing experience.
Two nights here just isn’t enough! It’s absolutely beautiful and super relaxing. It’s a struggle to leave on Monday to take the flight back to Singapore.
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