Sandakan is the main city on Sabah's east coast, facing Sandakan Bay and the Sulu Sea. It is less polished than Kota Kinabalu, but it has more edge and a stronger sense of history: old trading links, Chinese temples, wartime memory and the feeling of a port that still looks outward.
The city was capital of British North Borneo until 1946. Its hardest chapter came at the end of World War II, when Allied prisoners were held here before the Sandakan Death Marches to Ranau. Sandakan Memorial Park is the place to understand that story.
For many travellers, Sandakan is also the practical base for wildlife trips in eastern Sabah. Sepilok, Labuk Bay, the Kinabatangan River and the Gomantong Caves are all reached from here, so the city works well as a rough but useful gateway to orangutans, proboscis monkeys, swiftlet caves and river wildlife.