The little town of Sandakan is nothing to write home about, dusty streets, old crubly buildings and a smelly market. We pulled up late in the hot afternoon, staggering limping with cramps and aching from our recent climb and literally fell into bed. The landlord of the rather grand Mayfair Hotel took the weeks prize for most mad person in the universe as he bellowed his fifth request for my passport (it was in his hand), neither of us minded, this place had a DVD player in every room, air con, free tea and coffee and a collection of 250 films to watch. I was a little worried by his filing system though, pride of place at the top were drawers labled 'Van Damme' 'Steven Siegal' Arnold Swartzennegger', 'Bruce Willis', Tom Cruise' and 'Sylvester Stallone'. Cearly this guy had a particular liking for butch male action stars, I chose a few and let him get on with whatever it was he did when no-one else was around.

Agnes Keith's house

Sandakan was our rest stop, before we braved the wild Kinabatangan river and after our mountain climbing efforts. Amandas legs were so cramped up she was having a hard sitting down for the toilet, let alone clambering through the jungle on the look out for a colony of our closest ginger relatives. We spent a fun filled afternoon talking to the tourist information lady, first runner up for the weeks most mad person, then had a look in the towns only tourist attraction, a precise replica of the house American Author Agness Kieth used to live in (No, I'd never heard of her either but she lived in Sandakan before the war and wrote a book called 'The Land Below the Wind' all about it).

A good days rest

We also spent a day using the pool, sauna and steam room facilities of a nearby posh hotel for a treat. I figured if that didn't make us ready to face the jungle then nothing would. Keith and Angela (who we'd met in Kota Kinabalu) stopped off to say hello on their way back from the South, then sped away again, leaving us feeling a little sedentary. A quick phone call later and we were booked onto our tour, 'Uncle Tan' was going to take us into the wild jungles of Borneo where the men are real men and the ginger live in the trees. Packing all our essentials into a day sack (not plastic toilet seat covers this time) we had one more night staying up watching DVD's and left Sandakan for good without even a backwards glance.