Old Sandakan and the Sim Sim Water Village of Borneo

Far East movement: Surveying the skyline from the rooftops of the port of Sandakan (previous page) does not provide the most favorable impression of this historically important city: most buildings are old, in need of a paint job, or downright crumbling. We were told the reason for this is that in modern times, expanding businesses have found it easier to construct new centers farther inland, away from the eastern shores. However, less than a century ago, Sandakan was the premiere commercial and trading capital of Northeast Borneo. The city was so important, in fact, that our tour guide notes it was expanded over the ocean with landfill, by a distance of more than several city blocks over time, to make room for massive construction projects directed by the British. Prior to World War II, Sandakan had become the world’s largest exporter of hardwood, and it enjoyed modern developments such as telegraph services to London, as well as paved streets even before Hong Kong and Singapore had them.
Sadly, during the war, Sandakan's success was its downfall: it was a strategic target for the Japanese, who captured and converted a portion of the city into an infamously brutal prison camp for British and Australian POWs (thousands of Australians lost their lives here, and in fact, Australians still come to Sandakan as an alternative to Gallipoli, Turkey, to honor their fallen soldiers on ANZAC Day). Consequently, by the war's end, the Japanese occupation and subsequent Allied bombings had left Sandakan completely destroyed. After the war, a large Hong Kongese population, which had been moved here by the British, rebuilt the city in a primarily Chinese architectural design-which is why the town is still referred to this day as “Little Hong Kong” (the buildings here really do resemble old Hong Kong to us).
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We are Lan & Eric, two front-line clinicians who chose to hit "pause" on our medical careers to live out our dream of traveling all seven continents. Our videos coincide with our photo-journal, explorerswithoutborders.com/, where we have tried to record the many lessons, perspectives and inspiration we have found along the way.