A treasure hunt can give you a different reason to look at your own town. In Sandakan, a recent event sent 124 participants through local landmarks, heritage sites and wildlife attractions instead of keeping the day to a single destination.
The Hunt & Explore: Explore Sandakan, Discover Heritage 2026 programme included forty media practitioners and influencers among its participants, according to Dakwat Rakyat’s report published on 11 October.
The route mixed history with nature
The report describes eleven locations across the programme. Among those named are Agnes Keith House, St Michael and All Angels Church, Puh Jih Shih Temple, Sandakan’s Jamek Mosque and the local market.
The Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre, Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre and Rainforest Discovery Centre also feature in the reported itinerary. That combination gives the event a wider view of Sandakan than a route made up solely of buildings or wildlife stops.
For readers unfamiliar with the area, the names are starting points for discovering different parts of the town and its surroundings. The report does not establish that the whole route should be copied as a self-guided trip in one day.
A bigger edition is an ambition for next year
Tourism Malaysia Sabah deputy director Khairul Amir Anuar expressed hope that Treasure Hunt 2.0 could reach a larger scale in 2027, including participants from Peninsular Malaysia and overseas.
That is a stated ambition rather than an announced booking window. Dates, entry arrangements and a final route for the proposed next edition were not provided in the report.
The immediate story is the range of places brought into one shared activity. For someone who knows Sandakan through only one attraction, the mix of a historic house, places of worship, a market and conservation centres offers several more directions to explore—starting with learning what each place means to the people who call the area home.
Sources & further reading
Prepared with AI assistance from linked reporting. The cover is an AI-generated editorial illustration. Spotted something we should correct?