English Tea House & Restaurant, Sandakan.

Fancy a place to have a nice tea break session chilling, catching up with friends and family while taking a break from the hustle bustle of a city life? This is the place to be. Apart from serving fine teas from around the world, they also serve a variety of cakes and pastries along with a la carte selections of traditional English specialties and of course local Asian favorites,  they do not sell pork though.

 a place where you can also have a game of lawn croquet and its free for both adults and children

This place is able to accomodate up to 250 guests and its a perfect location to held a large garden parties, weddings and other business or personal events. They also do provide a range of wedding anniversaries and birthday packages that can be held in one of their gazebos which also opens for public when there's not function on anytime of the day.

my lil cousin who is so happy with her soft drink 

 they do serve juices too, and its fresh :) not packaged or anything close to that

a very rich chocolate filled dessert with a cherry on top!

 New york cheese cake, which is simply oh so delicious.

Tuna  Club sandwich , they do serve a varieties of Western delights and the portion is usually huge too, you can share it with another person definitely .

 Their home made burger, look at the thickness of the meat patty and the portion of the potato wedges!

and of course, a varieties of tea sets. 

This set is the most expensive tea sets among all that is available there which is the Royal Tea Set.

 

If you ask me personally what do I think about the price of the food and beverages here, I can honestly tell you that the price is actually quite reasonable for a coffee house / a restaurant but not for all the items. What I meant by reasonable is because they're charging the food at a higher cost but the portion is huge, service is considered top notch and the food quality is definitely there. It all depends on what you're looking for.

Been there twice and it's still my favorite place and I'm pretty sure its the same for the locals and tourists there too as they always have customers patronizing this place despite of its price.

Experience the lush, tropical greenery and cool breezes while you enjoy spectacular views of the town and bay. Relax with a cocktail in hand, socialize with friends and family under a gazebo or enjoy a wide selection of beverages at the long bar.

Award winning restaurant :) 

If you would like to know more about this place, do check them out at this link :) 

English Tea House , Kota Kinabalu

p/s: I don't know if some of you are aware of this restaurant in KK which is located near Jesselton but honestly, that branch can't beat the original branch that is located in Sandakan in my personal opinion. You really got to just try this place in order to notice the differences :)

Agnes Keith House or " Newlands" , Sandakan.

In 1934, she married Henry G. Keith, known as Harry. Keith, was an Englishman working as Conservator of Forests and Director of Agriculture for the government of North Borneo under the Chartered Company, and was also Honorary Curator of the Sandakan (State) Museum. He had worked in Borneo since 1925, and was based in Sandakan. Agnes spent an idyllic five years at Sandakan, sometimes accompanying her husband on trips into the interior of the country. Harry persuaded her to write about her experiences and enter it in the 1939 Atlantic Monthly Non-fiction Prize contest. 

It all began when Harry was ordered back to Borneo when war was declared on 3rd September 1939 from Canada. Almost a year later their first child, Henry George Newton Keith, known as George, was born in Sandakan on 5 April 1940. 

The Japanese invading forces landed in Sandakan on 19 January 1942. For the first few months of occupation, the Keiths were allowed to stay in their own home. On 12 May Agnes and George were imprisoned on Pulau Berhala near Sandakan, in a building that had once been the Government Quarantine Station, along with other Western women and children. Harry was imprisoned nearby. After eight months Agnes and George were sent to Kuching, Sarawak by a small steamer on 12 January 1943 and arrived on January 20 and imprisoned in Batu Lintang, Kuching. Harry later arrived at the camp and the camp was finally liberated on 11 September 1945 by the 9th Australian Army Division under the command of brigadier T.C. Eastick. All three members of the Keith family had survived their internment. In later years, Agnes and Harry had one other child a daughter, Jean Allison Keith, born on August 30, 1947, in Sandakan.

During the war times, although punishable by death if discovered, many inmates of the camp, both civilian and POW, kept diaries and notes about their imprisonment and thus all the information was used in her books and some pictures or old notes can now be found in this historical site. I found it rather interesting that they showed all kinds of equipments and furnitures used by the Keith's family in their house such as the fridge that mentioned they are the ones who introduced the first ice cream to the natives in Sabah, the doll that she made for her child during war to keep and hide all of her notes about their imprisonment which later was turned into famous books of hers, the settings of her house displays was kept like how it was before.

After the war the Keiths returned to Sandakan to find the house destroyed thus they built a new house in 1946-47 on the original footprint and in a similar style to the original. They named this house Newlands and lived there until they left Sabah in 1952. After nearly 50 years of gradual deterioration, first under tenants and then as an empty shell, the house was restored by Sabah Museum in collaboration with the Federal Department of Museums and Antiquities in 2001. The house is a rare survival of post-war colonial wooden architecture that was opened to the public in 2004 and is a popular tourist attraction. It contains displays on Agnes and Harry Keith as well as information about colonial life in Sandakan in the first half of the twentieth century, and is commonly referred to as the Agnes Keith House.

In this house you're also expected to see many old interesting historical images and there was also a theater room inside the house. One very interesting thing can be found in the bedroom of this house would be a book about Agnes's claiming she had seen something ( a presence of a local native woman ) around the house and one of the image shows that it was in the room when she was just awake and another one was at the staircase of her house. Too bad we're not allow to take any pictures when touring inside the house so be sure to have a lookout when you're actually there.

Apart from that, the Keith's was said to have planted a lot of Orchids back in those days around their house gardens and there were varieties of them. Nowadays, what's left are just those few that are still available in front of their house. 

 Outside the house

This place is definately worth a visit if you're interested and would like to understand more about the whole story of the Keiths family. English Tea House Restaurant is located just right beside the Agnes Keith House.

Address:
Agnes Keith House
Jalan Istana,
90000 Sandakan, Sabah.

Operation hours: 9 am to 5 pm daily

Admission fees:

Sandakan - Good Taste Restaurant

like I said, this shop is famous and was featured in seriously a lot of magazines and newspapers that the articles are enough to fill up the four faces of the wall and I have never seen any restaurants / cafes featured in so many before , this place is proven to be really that good :)

Their unique seafood dishes features dishes like fish slices kut teh and prawn teh which comes in two types of soup. A strong pepper soup which is the dark color soup as shown above and the lighter in taste yet sweet soup which is the white soup as shown below. Personally, I liked both of it, but I love the lighter one the most, it complements the sliced fishes really well.

Another dish that is a must try is this super soft, easy to peel off skin called "Nai Mang" according to the chinese . I am not sure what is the name of this fish in english but I know its a poisonous kind of fish but it is alright to take it in small quantity , and surprisingly it is very good!

                                                  

Equator Coffee , Sandakan

They serve drinks too of course, all kinds of coffees and hot chocolates, teas and more!

Sandakan - My Rabbit Year Celebration.

Again,

it has been almost a week since my last post!

Was really busy with my assignments and I'm glad all the reading paid off.

Yesterday had my economics presentation and my lecturer's expectation was really high this time.

After our presentation she said my group was really good and that she's impressed, 

and we have also set a new standard of work for the other groups in the future. Teehee, good luck!

And that means,

I have to start cracking head for my Dissertation which I've been saying I needed to start doing but just couldn't find the time to do so :( sigh.

Anyways,

I'm just going to update what happened during Chinese New Year this year because I have limited time.

This year's Chinese New Year was just back to how it was 3-4 years ago I guess.

Long gone the days, since my house actually have open house, it's getting tiring for my mum.

 So she decided not to held an open house anymore and then our new years was spent overseas, or in Sandakan.

Last year I was at Beijing with my family, how fast time flies :/

This year's was spent back at Sandakan,

 uncle's place, went there for 4 days 3 nights,

and it was raining cats and dogs, floods everywhere!

Just some pictures from the trip that I made into collages,

few of the new decorations in the house... love em!

Uncle's house has more toys now compared to before! 

courtesy from the last trip to Hong Kong Disneyland.

First night's dinner, got to love that herbal chicken :D so tasty.

First day's best breakfast - the famous siew kut and
Second day's fish noodle was not bad too.
Dinner we had pork knuckles, octopus, prawns , abalones , crabs and pork stew , vege (:
I love home cooked dishes!

checked into D'Northstar Hotel and realized that it was a very good place to stay at. 

Just newly opened, about a week before we were there and it was really nice.

The room was big enough and everything inside was of course still new and was modern looking.

I did not take pictures of the room in general though.

The staffs were all friendly, every time they see you coming at the door or before you leave they'll all greet you.

Even those at the front desks,

 and there's once I came back to the hotel with my dad

and it was pouring heavily, we did not have an umbrella with us, 

the bell man saw me and ran after me to escort with an umbrella to the car , very attentive staff!

  

had our tea break before uncle's open house on the 3rd day we're there

@ Brew Cottage, located at Prime Square, just behind the hotel we stayed at.

Awesome food and beverages! at really reasonable price!

When we saw the bill, we all couldn't believe the price,

it was only RM50+ for all , and to top it off , no tax at all! 

 Ordered 2 glasses of Hot Chocolate, 1 Apple latte , 1 Nut Cocoa (MUST TRY!), 1 Ice blended Passionfruit , 1 plate of cocktail sausages with crumbs , 1 bolognese spaghetti and Beef burger set

Everything was good, seriously. Even the owner was being very nice, came talking to us and personally stood by the door to greet us goodbye even when the shop was packed.

I will and must go back there next time!

that night was the open house at uncle's place..

Thus,
ends the update for my trip in Sandakan.
More to come during this weekend!

Till Then!