The view of Sandakan and Sandakan Bay from the Tea House.
Agnes Keith's House
Agnes Keith was an American author, married to an English forestry official, who wrote about her experiences living in Borneo. Her original house was destroyed in WWII, but the house was rebuilt and now serves as a very interesting museum.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agnes_Newton_Keith
http://www.sabah.org.my/bi/know_sabah/agnes_keith.asp
Sandakan Memorial Park
Sandakan and the rest of what is now Sabah was captured by the Japanese during World War II. The Japanese built a POW camp for, mostly Australian, captured allied troops. The prisoners suffered very difficult conditions during their time in Sandakan.
The park contained a small museum. The museum detailed the story of the "death march" of prisoners from this spot in Sandakan to a different camp not too far from Kota Kinabalu. Of course, I have heard of the Bataan Death March, but this was the first time that I have ever learned about this death march. Out of all of the Australian POWs originally housed in the camp only six soldiers, who were fortunate enough to escape, survived this ordeal!
These two links contain the details of this interesting, yet horrifying, story. Lest we forget!
http://sandakan-deathmarch.com/
http://www.sandakan-deathmarch.com/pic/070708/
I was a little disappointed that I couldn't use my explosives in the park.
After the tour I still had a bit more time to explore Sandakan on my own. Here is a street tailor working with an old-time foot-powered sewing machine.
These guys worked at the store across the street from my hotel. It took them quite a while to guess where I was from.
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