The town of Sandakan, once claimed to have the greatest concentration of millionaires anywhere in the world its heyday as a timber centre, began on its present site in 1879, after an earlier settlement accidentally burnt down. The region had been known for centuries for its pearls, camphor, bees’ wax, sea cucumbers and edible birds’ nests, attracting traders from the nearby Sulu Sultanate and from as far as China.

A group of English businessmen, who bought the rights to the northern tip of Borneo from the Sultans of Brunei and Sulu, formally established British North Borneo in 1881. Sandakan was made its capital in 1884, and remained so until its total devastation by allied bombing at the end of World War II, when the capital was transferred to what is now Kota Kinabalu.

Sandakan, lying on a narrow strip of land between steep hills and the waters of the Sulu Sea, bears little evidence of its early history as a result of war-time bombing. Traces of the colonial period can be seen in the quaint stone church, St. Michael’s and All Angels, begun in 1893 and looking like a typical English country church.

Another link with the past can be found in Agnes Keith’s house, lived in by the Curator of Forests, Harry Keith and his American wife from the 1930s until the Japanese Occupation in 1942.

Agnes Keith’s book on life in pre-war Sandakan popularized the old seafarer’s name for Sabah in its title, “Land Below the Wind” (referring to Sabah’s location just below the typhoon belt). Their two-storied wooden bungalow, built on a ridge overlooking the town, was destroyed during the war but reconstructed faithfully when the Keith’s returned in 1946.

Puu Jih Shih Buddhist temple
Sandakan’s oldest temple, built in the 1880s and dedicated to the Goddess of Mercy, is an inconspicuous building set on hillside above the town, with the nearby Sam Sing Kung temple popular during school exams since one of its deities is believed to assist those attempting to pass exams. For an unrivalled panoramic view of Sandakan Bay and a look at its newest temple, a visit should be made to the extravagantly ornate Puu Jih Shih Buddhist temple, on the hilltop above Tanah Merah south of Sandakan town centre. Built and decorated in 1987 at a cost of around US$2 million, the temple is a blaze of red and gold, with writhing dragons, gilded Buddhas, hundreds of gleaming lamps and the fragrance of burning incense.

Sandakan Mosque
Sandakan’s Muslim community is served by starkly simple Sandakan Mosque, built on the edges of the bay next to Kampung Buli Sim Sim, where the town of Sandakan began in 1879. Perched on stilts above the sea, the neat wooden houses of this large village are reached by plant walkways, their wide verandas decorated with pot plants. Flowery sarong and fishing nets are hung up to dry, and wooden boats bob at the “front door”. A wander along the walkways or “jambatan” gives a glimpse of the lifestyle of these friendly fisherfolk.

Australian Memorial
The Australian Memorial, on the site of what was a prisoner-of-war camp now in Taman Rimba, off Labuk Road, commemorates Allied soldiers who lost their lives during the Japanese Occupation. Some 2,400 men, most of them Australians, left this camp on the infamous “death march” towards the end of the war, only six of them surviving to reach Ranau, near Mount Kinabalu, a year later. The tradegy of war is also commemorated in the small Japanese Cemetery in a corner of the cold cemetery on the hills overlooking Sandakan, where a memorial pays tribute to the Japanese soldiers who lost their lives during World War II.

No visitor to Sandakan should miss exploring the Central Market, where a fascinating mixture of people rub shoulders as they bargain for tropical fruit and vegetables, sarongs and seashells, spices ans sticky rice cakes. The fish market, Sabah’s largest, offers a stunning array of seafood.