Sandakan

Sandakan is a city in eastern Sabah on the coast of the Sulu sea. It was founded in the 1870s as a trading outpost, grew during the timber boom to become the largest city in Sabah and became the capital of former British North Borneo. Completely destroyed in WW II it was rebuilt and is nowadays the second largest city in Sabah. Sandakan itself has no particular tourist attractions, but is a good base from which to explore the surrounding area and to access the nearby tourist attractions: the Sepilok Orang Utan rehabilitation centre, Labuk bay, the Turtle islands park and the Kinabatangan river wildlife conservation area.