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.