Sandakan City & Wildlife Daily Tours

By 0500hrs, pick up from your hotel in Kota Kinabalu and transfer to airport to board a plane for Sandakan, where you can visit the Sepilok Forest Reserve. Upon arrival in Sandakan Airport, meet and transfer to the Sepilok Orang Utan Rehabilitation Centre where you will have a chance to see orang utans up close in their natural habitat and also witness the feeding of the orphaned orang utans at 1000hrs at the feeding platform by the Park rangers. There will be a short video presentation before the feeding time. Walk along the boardwalk leading to the feeding platform while enjoying the serenity of the forest reserve around you. Next visit to Sun Bear Rehabilitation Centre. Transfer for lunch will be at a local restaurant.

After lunch, proceed for a short tour of historic Sandakan, which founder William Clarke Cowie called, which in Tausug (Sulu) means “the place that was pawned”, but it soon came to be known as “Kampung German” after the large number of Germans who also set up posts there.

Sandakan was one of Sabah’s earliest settlements where it was 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. 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! Visit also the Sandakan market, the Observation Pavillion, a Chinese temple and a water village before returning to Sandakan Airport for your return flight to Kota Kinabalu. Upon arrival in Kota Kinabalu airport, meet and transfer to your hotel in Kota Kinabalu by 1930hrs.