By Callum Taylor
Sandakan might have been a very comfortable stop for the night, but both Marta and I were excited to get back into nature. We had been on transport non-stop nearly since the Togians. Reading online about what we could see in Sukau sounded like the place would literally be a breath of fresh air
Sukau might have been renowned for its abundance of wildlife, but the fact that near Sandakan there are a number of sanctuaries means that far fewer tourists venture here than you would expect. Therefore, finding useful information online for independent travel turned out to be quite difficult. Joining a tour wasn’t hard, but we prefer to arrange things ourselves to have a bit of freedom.
Sandakan central. Photo: Marta Pascual Juanola
After a short walk around the centre to see the city in the daylight, we (me) got furiously researching to plan our next few days. There was apparantly a daily public minibus to Sukau which we had seen earlier, but it didn’t leave until the afternoon. Fortunately, we found a man by the name of Mr Choy online who does the trip every day in his van and offers to take passengers for the same price as the public minibus. Calling a man named Mr Choy in a foreign country to transport you to a secluded jungle location with their white van is always a good idea. Luckily we did call him right away though as he was just about to leave. 15 minutes later after rushing to pack and check out, Choy had us on the road.
Choy turned out to be a super friendly guy who spoke very good English. We shared the car with about 10 other very devout-looking muslim men. Say what you may about people with strong religious beliefs, but they all became our friends for life when they shared their fried bananas for lunch with us.
Marta amused by the fried banana. Photo: Callum Taylor
Sukau
When we arrived in Sukau it was quite surprising how small the town was. Located right on a riverbank, no more than 200 or so people must have lived there. As we had no accommodation booked Choy dropped us off at one of the local B&Bs which looked fine to us. It was pretty basic, but for life in the jungle this was all we needed.
Upon checking in we were shown a list of activities on offer in the area and booked ourselves in for an evening river cruise. It was now early in the afternoon so this gave us a couple of hours to explore the area. After about 30 minutes though we had walked from one end of Sukau to the other. Not even one McDonalds or department store, why were we here?
Where are the pubs and clubs? Photo: Marta Pascual Juanola
By late afternoon we were itching to get on the water. We were the only tourists around it seemed so we had the boat to ourselves. Cashed up middle aged white people pay thousands to stay with others at the fancy lodges further down the river, we paid spare change in comparison for a private hotel and cruise.
At first it seemed like none of the animals wanted to make an appearance. We cruised along the riverbank without any birds or monkeys in sight. Every rustle in the trees capturing our attention before we realised it was just the wind.
After around half an hour Marta was the first to spot something. Up in the highest trees she found a big family of proboscis monkeys. These are the terrifyingly ugly long nosed monkeys which are famous from Borneo. There must have been at least ten of them all swinging through the jungle. Once they noticed us however they fled. The 30 seconds we had watching them though was a much better monkey experience than having a rabid macaque try to steal everything you own in Balinese monkey jungles.
A very ugly proboscis monkey. Photo: Marta Pascual Juanola
Finding these proboscis monkeys seemed to set off a chain reaction of wildlife sightings. Hornbill birds flew overhead with their huge colourful beaks. Other varieties of monkeys sat in trees overlooking the water. A python was even spotted curled up on a cluster of branches. Macaques were also abundant here, affectionately known to locals as the ‘jungle mafia’. It was awesome to see all these animals in their own environment.
Boofhead. Photo: Marta Pascual Juanola
The sun had set now as we headed back to shore. Our B&B also offered night and morning cruises, so we decided to go with each of those for the following day. One cruise definitely wasn’t enough.
By now we were starving and despite being able to eat at our accommodation, we decided to try out the only restaurant in town. Luckily for us, it was all the way at the other end of town. Walking along a narrow road in pitch black darkness with a river full of crocodiles only so many metres away is quite an adrenaline rush.
The restaurant turned out to be surprisingly good. It overhung the river and for being such a quiet village there were quite a few people there. Huge mountains of fried rice were served up to us which we both struggled to finish. Marta made friends with some local cats who I’m sure wanted her for her and not for her rice. After recovering from the meal we stumbled out and half-walked half-rolled back to our room to get some sleep.
Imagine a million crocodiles inside this river and walking next to it at night. Photo: Marta Pascual Juanola
The next day I unfortunately woke up as the first one to get sick during the trip. Marta will say I was fine but in reality I was on the verge of death with a runny nose and sore throat. With nobody to bring me back to health I started digging my grave. Fortunately it was time for our morning cruise so dying would have to wait.
The morning was less animal-rich than the previous evening, but the scenery was just as spectacular. The jungle was shrouded in mist which was only broken when rays of sunshine pierced gaps through the branches. Not many better ways than this to start your day.
Me on my deathbed with a creepily spectacular view. Photo: Marta Pascual Juanola
After returning to our room we had the rest of the day to again relax and recover in hope I would survive another 24 hours. We went for another walk around town, this time nearly being run down by stampeding macaques. Lunch at the local restaurant left us again feeling like balloons as we waited until nightfall for our final cruise.
Centre of town. Photo: Callum Taylor
Seemingly just after all our sweat had evaporated from our clothes our cruise guide picked us up and off we went. Sailing down the river in darkness knowing crocodiles surround your small boat is quite a surreal feeling. Only a couple of torches guided us between the logs which dotted the water.
Within minutes we arrived at a unique location. Dozens and dozens of small birds were flying in all directions. Kind of like how people drive in Indonesia. Behind the cloud of birds though was a very expensive sought after local delicacy, Birds nest. We had seen birds nest flavoured drinks around before, but according to our guide they were imitation flavours. This was the real deal. What we could see in front of us would cost thousands of dollars. I have no idea why it was so special, whether it was the species of bird or the location or the material of the nest. It made no sense but ok.
For the next hour we spotted the odd kingfisher hiding amongst the low lying branches. How our guide found them with his torch I have no idea. It was a shame that we were unable to take any photos because of the darkness. A crocodile head made an appearance just as we returned to shore so getting out of the boat was a bit of Russian roulette.
Since we were still bursting at our seams from lunch we opted to call it a night and went to bed. This was our last night in Sukau, we would return to Sandakan the next day. Fortunately Mr Choy runs the same service in the reverse direction, leaving early in the morning. We set our alarms for some awful time before 10am and drifted off to sleep.
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