28Jul

Food writers, bloggers attending Sandakan Food Festival

SANDAKAN: As the final ingredients are put in place for the first Sandakan Food Festival (SFF) 2017, the local food and tourism community are excited about the confirmation of important food writers and bloggers travelling to the town of Sandakan. According to the festival coordinator, Anton Ngui, considerable effort had been put into organising the first multi-cultural and largest Sandakan food platform by the Sandakan Tourism Association (STAN). “Two seasoned travel and food bloggers from China who feature strongly on the Sina.com blog platform will be visiting. “From Shanghai, Newpepsibear is a highly popular travel and food blogger, with a quarter of million followers on his Sina and Weibo accounts. With over 100 million hits on his blog since its inception, Newpepsibear is also a travel column contributor to the United States National Tourism office as well as the Sendai City (Japan) Tourism Office. “Summerdejia is a social media influencer on Sina blog and Weibo, but she also publishes her own cook book, a true food lover. With nearly 300,000 following on her blog and 80,000 followers on her Weibo account, her blog has garnered more than 35 million hits since its creation. Summerdejia hails from Beijing, China,” Anton said. From Singapore, there will be a team from Sethlui.com. Seth has a wealth of experience in the food and beverages industry, an ex-bartender as well as owner of numerous food and beverages businesses over the years. Seth is a now a food retail entrepreneur and consultant, and his site is an important part of his brand. His blog sees around 600,000 unique visitors a month, with over 1.5 million impressions and is one of the highest traffic food blogs in Singapore. Further food specialists and writers are expected to confirm their attendance at the SFF in the coming weeks, as the team at STAN continues to bring the best of Sandakan to the international audience.   Source: TheBorneoPost
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24Jul

Sandakan Attracts Tourists with its History and Natural Heritage

EARLY morning flights from Kota Kinabalu to Sabah’s east coast town of Sandakan are usually full with many of the passengers comprising tourists. If they are lucky, they will have a breathtaking aerial view of Mount Kinabalu and the highlands surrounding it. That is just a taste of things to come because the Lower Kinabatangan region is the gateway to some of Sabah’s renowned natural attractions, including the proboscis monkey, Bornean pygmy elephants and the orang utan. Sepilok, about 30km from Sandakan town, is where the well-known orang utan rehabilitation centre is located. Here, the primates can be seen in their natural environment, a forest reserve. Sepilok is also home to the sun bear conservation centre as well as the rainforest discovery centre where visitors can literally walk between jungle treetops. For the more adventurous, an hour’s boat ride from Sandakan town to the Sulu Sea are three islands — Pulau Selinga, Pulau Bakungan Kecil and Pulau Gulisan — that collectively make up Sabah’s turtle islands. The turtles are said to land almost every night to lay their eggs on these islands. In fact, Malaysia’s first turtle hatchery was set up at Pulau Selingan in 1966. As the first administrative centre of North Borneo (the former name for Sabah),
Sandakan has a number of historical landmarks, some dating back to the late 1800s. Among them are Masjid Jamek and the Sam Sing Kung temple in the downtown area as well as the St Michael All Angels church nearby. Another historical landmark is the house where author Agnes Newton Keith lived prior to World War 2. Keith wrote about her experiences in her book, Land Below the Wind, that has since become a tagline for Sabah. Sandakan Kapitan Cina or community leader James Leong has witnessed the transformation of his town over the years. “Whatever the changes, Sandakan will always have that small-town feel. Here, everyone knows each other.” Source: TheStar
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