Day 17: KL and Home

Well the hotel was very very quiet considering it was right next door to the airport.  I was very surprised.  However, the sheets were noisy and they kept us awake.  We got up at 8, re-packed and then headed in the buggy to the airport for breakfast.  We didn't find much, just a pastry, but then we were wanting a proper lunch so that was ok.

Nasi Lemak

Nasi Bojari

As the airport has a viewing area, we thought we would have a look - Matt wanted to take some cool pics of flights landing and taking off with his new long lens, but the runways were a long way away, meaning you couldn't take a good photo or even see them that well.  Oh well, we headed into KL on the Ekspres train and then on to KLCC on the LRT to do some shopping.  First stop Isetan, to buy some mochi, a couple of t-shirts for Tom including a very smart Ducati one which was very reasonably priced.  Matt, having got burnt all through the holiday whenever he went swimming, bought himself a sun shirt which is what most of the men around here wear in the pool - a UV shirt made of swimsuit sort of material which stops you getting burnt in the pool.  Oh well, if we come to a hot country again he'll be sorted, although I'm not sure many Brits would want to wear one, poor Matt needs it though.

After that we headed to the restaurant floor and went to Madame Kwan's for a very lovely Malaysian last supper.  I had Nasi Lemak (the national dish of Malaysia) and Matt had Nasi Bojari, another favourite.  It was very delicious and a great ending to the holiday.  Oh and if you are wondering, Nasi Lemak: coconut rice, chicken curry, dried shrimp floss, hard boiled egg, a nice onion thing with those weird caramelised tiny fish in it, and a little pot of pickles.

Getting wet in the fountains

Wet boy!

With our bellies happy, we headed to the Sony shop and Matt almost bought another camera lens but faltered at the last hurdle.  We said hello and goodbye to the KLCC fountains (Tom got purposefully soaked in them) and then we headed to the Central Market, where we did some more shopping - this time souvenir shopping.  We didn't spend as much money as we thought this holiday, the food in particular was way cheaper than we were expecting, meaning that we ended up paying for the Rasa Ria in Ringgits and still had more than enough left over.  We could have bought up all of Central Market, but in the end we figured that we probably wouldn't use most of it, the clothes are great for Malaysia but not for Ingleton and our house is full of nick knacks as it is!

We had a sit down and a juice and decided to call it a day.  We headed back to the station and got the trains and buggy back to the hotel.

Swimming pool with a view?!

Then a lovely swim, jacuzzi and sauna before getting changed into fresh clothes and headed to the airport.  We checked in and then went to our lounge - wow!  It was lovely, hot food was made to order, we had a great view of the airplanes taking off for Tom.  How very relaxing.  Then to the airplane and a wonderful business class flight with flat beds.  It is going to be soooooooo hard to fly economy again I tell you, just the ability to lie down flat makes the flights so so so much better.  We were almost sorry when we arrived and although we didn't sleep for long, we didn't feel like we've been on a long haul flight.

We headed to the business class lounge and booked ourselves in for a shower.  Then found some nice comfy chairs to while away the wait...

Day 16: Rasa Ria to KL

Blue rice for breakfast!

So today was a travel day.  Not much to report I'm afraid.  We got up and had breakfast, shock and horror we got to the restaurant to find huge long queues, a lot of people arrived yesterday (pretty much all Chinese) and the restaurant couldn't cope.  We have always just walked in previously, today we probably had to wait a good 20 minutes before we got a seat.

My heart wasn't in for 'eating like a pig', so I took it a bit easier today, as did the other two, however, Matt still managed to work his way through some interesting food including blue rice?!  Tom had to go and get some too!

Last dip in the lovely pool

The boys then went down for a swim (Tom swam, Matt dangled his legs) whilst I finished the packing (forgot the toothbrush charger - oops!).   We then got a Grab taxi to the airport - really lovely chatty man.  The airport was brand new and huge.  No queues anywhere which meant it was a nice, pleasant experience.  Flight was pretty uneventful - almost zero leg room - Matt had trouble fitting in the seats and he isn't exactly tall.  Tom fell asleep (too many late nights).  We got to KL around 5pm and walked into our hotel (we are staying at the airport), checked in, went for a swim and then got the rather groovy electric buggy back to the airport terminal to find some tea, we went to the Malay food section full of airport workers, and very cheap - 3 meals and drinks came less to one meal at the RR, and it was freshly cooked and delicious.

Mt. Kinabalu from K.K. Airport

We then came back to the hotel, had to remind them to sort out Tom's bed again, had showers and got ready for bed.

Day 15: Rasa Ria

Jumping

So, another good night's sleep, followed by another amazing breakfast buffet.  The menu had changed from yesterday - but still the very wide array of dishes.  Think both me and Matt managed 4 courses each today, whilst Tom was carb loading and only managed 2!

After a lie down so our bodies could start digesting breakfast, we headed to the pool for a swim, this time wearing T-shirts as we all got a little burnt yesterday and rather than have burnt skin for the flight home we all decided to wear a T-shirt in the pool to help cover us up.  It's the thing to do here - once again we have the full range of beach wear going on here, from the full burkini to the skimpiest of bikinis.  Although there are a lot less burikins and a lot more skimpy bikinis going on here (still yet to see a member of staff in a headscarf here - very disappointing, obvious discrimination going on!)

Me falling off the slide!

After a good play, Tom and I went off to get some body boards to play in the sea whilst Matt headed back to the hotel for a bath, lie-down and me time.  The waves were a little bit better today, so Tom managed to ride quite a few waves and I even managed to get some myself.  We got back to the hotel room and had showers, put on normal clothes and headed back down to the pool to get our ice-cream lunch (it is as much as we can manage after breakfast).  Then we headed down to the Nature Interpretation Centre as Tom had his Nature Ranger experience.  He was the only one down for it, but he didn't mind and went off happily with Derron, his guide, once he had been properly dressed in a Nature Ranger Polo Shirt and Baseball cap - very smart.

Matt and I were a little at a loss, we couldn't really go back to our room - it hadn't been cleaned yet.  We tried to get a mocktail from the bar but it wasn't open yet, so we ended up in the very lovely lobby drinking a can of pop each whilst reading our books.  Not, I guess the best use of an hour's free time, but it was all we could think to do and it was hot, hot, hot.

Boy in slide

We went to collect Tom after the hour was up and had to wait, we figured he was having a good time - if they were late back.  When he got back, he was put through a quiz of the different animals of Borneo and did really really well.   I was impressed, he got more right than I did!  He was very hot and sweaty but I think he was happy and enjoyed his time.  When we asked him what he learnt, he couldn't remember anything, but as the day wore on all these facts about the animals of Borneo kept appearing.  He had learnt a lot without realising - the best way!

We took his trunks down with us and he happily got changed and jumped into the pool, it had been a hot, hot afternoon for him in the rain forest.  He then spent the next hour mainly underwater in the pool looning around.

Ranger Tom

Then, back to the room for down time, beer and crisps before getting ourselves ready for a nocturnal jungle walk.  Out came the long trousers, boots, socks etc in an attempt to not get bitten.  Tom demanded some table tennis before hand so we headed to the games room and sweated in the hot humid atmosphere of it (it is always hot and humid in the games room area) before heading back to the Nature Interpretation Area for the night hike.  We were having a good time, we were each given torches to shine around, hoping to see the reflection from an animal's eyes.  We found a scorpion, a lizard, 2 tiny frogs, a poisonous centipede and...then...a screaming boy!  He had got stung by a bee (the bee's sting was still in his hand - the ranger pulled it out!).  So that was that, we got taken to the medical centre and had to pay for a nurse to check him over and give him some medicine (anti histamine and calamine lotion).  The ranger did say to go back so she could finish the walk, but by the time we were finished it was almost 8pm and we hadn't eaten.  Tom was tired and said he wanted food, we couldn't argue, so we knocked the night walk on the head and went to the Indian again at Tom's request for curry.  Tom bolted his down in no time at all and perked up so I guess he was pretty hungry!

Very tired boy!

Once done, we got back to the room and Tom went to bed straight away, whilst we headed for the balcony.  What a rubbish way to end our stay here.  Hopefully Tom's enduring memory will be of the good things rather than the bad.  Maybe we should have ended our trip in Sandakan, as that is where all the good stuff happened.

Anyway, we think 2 full days in a resort like this is probably just about right for us, I have a feeling we would start going stir crazy if we were booked in for any longer as you can't get out of the resort, we are sort of prisoners here.  So, just the little task of packing, getting to the airport and flying to KL tomorrow.  Then a day in KL shopping before heading home.