Bus was due to arrive at 10.30am to transfer us to Sandakan for the next few days. Bus never turned up so we had to grab a taxi instead, only £4 in a taxi so wasn’t that bad to get dropped off outside the hostel. As we waited for the taxi we took some photos outside sepilok. Sanctuary
As we arrived at the hostel no one was answering the buzzer, lucky a young guy came along to let us in and give us our key to the room, then he left again. Hostel was very odd, there was no reception just several floors with two bedrooms on each. Becky was suspicious about the situation, I didn’t really care as it was a bed for the night. Since our room wasnt ready we decided to take a walk towards Crystal Quest office to book our Turtle island tour for tomorrow. The office was only 2.5km away so we decided to walk rather than spend £1 on the taxi. As we were walking up the hill flashbacks of Cambodia came rushing back to me. It was a Saturday and around lunch time. What if the office is closed on weekends!!! Becky confirmed that the office was open via Google maps. I asked her to double check few minutes later as well I didn’t believe her……now it was closed….how can it be open one minute then closed the next!? It was across the road by that point so we went across anyway. Turns out it shuts at 12pm on Saturdays and we arrived there at 12.15pm.Luckily they let us in anyway (should have just got the taxi but we got on the tour anyway!)
Our next job was to find a cafe and chill out for a bit, give us some time to sort out a river cruise which we are planning in the next few days. Walking along the waterfront there was a few restaurants but not much that we would feel comfortable eating in. There was a mall round the corner from out hostel so McDonald’s it is. I was craving a milkshake and they didn’t have any! Typical!I did settle for a McFlurry party…..intended for sharing, basically like 3 McFlurrys in one, with sickening amount of chocolate on top. I couldn’t finish it my eyes were bigger than my belly.
Back at the hostel Becky was still not sure of the whole situation regarding where we were staying, she just didn’t feel comfortable. We were sat on the bed looking at tours and hotels for the next stage of the trip and random guy walks into our room just to check the windows!!!?? Didn’t knock or anything just straight in towards the window. I questioned Becky right away as she booked this hostel. It was booked via booking.com and not the usual Hostelworld. I checked the reviews on Hostelworld and it had 1 review only!!!!! There were two hostels left and she booked the one with only 1 review and the other had 100+, something didn’t add up here. Turns on booking.com there was over 100 reviews….all of them really positive and good….can’t be the right place surely.
We checked how much it was to stay a the other hostel (3 doors down) which looked much better than the one we were already in. After a short visit we choose to move hostel instead of staying in a place were we didn’t feel comfortable. What a decision that was, maybe the best so far. I was back in charge of booking hostels from now on again 😂
This new hostel was celebrating Chinese New year with a free meal and free beer tonight so we were all over that! Not much else to do in Sandakan to be honest its more of a base to travel to other hotspots. We sat in the roof top terrace for a few hours, Becky falling asleep on the hammock and I looked into the Thailand Islands and also played FM.
Before our Chinese New Year celebrations began we walked over to the 7/11 to grab a few beers and snacks. As we walked backed Becky received a text from the old hostel asking why we had left. Becky politely put we had booked on tours and no longer needing the room.
During our meal we chatted to some Dutch couples who had just booked a flight to a remote island which is meant to be unbelievable only find out its closed until March! Chatting the night away we headed off to bed before our overnight stay on Turtle island tomorrow……well we thought so anyway until we realised there was a karaoke stall on the street outside and we had no chance of sleeping! I just don’t get it, karaoke would be good if you could actually sing but 99.9% of what we’ve heard so far just can’t sing.
South East Asia 2019 