Recently we just have a great trip bringing my parents to Lahad Datu and Sandakan. Although I have been there for a couples of time, this is the 1st time we tour around Sandakan to have a more thorough picture of how it is.Sandakan used to be the capital of Sabah before its internatioanal port moved to KK. It's well knowned as " The land below the wind" by Agnes Keith, who used to stay there before world war 2. Its development stagnant until recently..... we saw a lot of new developments - new shoplot and township especially, neat and organised. What surprised us is that there is a coffee shop which serve like star bucks, though the name is different, Tawau not even have that. big hypermarket like servey and giant are there. Personally i like the most its cleanliness and serenity. most of the main road is covered with greenery.... although it is beside the see but thanks to the trees... it's all the way cosy. Less illegal immigrants too. Although its population is less than Tawau's by paper... the town, hypermarket and pasar (hey i like the wet market, new one, big and clean - NOT WET - can call it non-wet wet market) all crowded with ppl. We bought a lot of kili-kalak useful gadget from the unique Japanese Store (nearly "pokkak"), one claypot with detailed workmanship only cost RM5.99... Taw with lao ya workmanship costs RM 25++.....heheheThere are a few tourist points which are not far from the town eg. Agnes Keith House (only "amor lang" wanna visit), English Tea house (very british, if u r rich it can be a romantic place), Sepiluk with orang utan, crocodile farm...Our timing of visit is not so good - public holiday. Ppl there maybe already earned enough, most of the new and traditional shop not open. so we missed out the famous goodies and delicasies - also bak kut teh and seafood.We contacted a friend, the previous church member and her family. Her mother brought us to visit crocodile farm which has very very very gigantic dragon fish. (Kch's croc. farm bigger, but this one cleaner). Actually we went there in a short notice, so we did not meet up with other ex-hope kk and kl members.We like Sandakan a lot. This is a good land. Thus, we are thinking of mobilising a mission trip there this year. Our hearts are pumping joyfully as we tour around this land. Hope our ppl will feel the same as they spy the land together with us. Frankly it is not impossible to mobilise our ppl to work in Sandakan and pioneer the church there. However, they can be great helper, not the leader. The harvest is ripe... along the main road, there are so many churches.... some names are not heard of.... mostly traditional churches.
Good Day!JNF
