Kota Kinabalu

I love the idea of going somewhere called Kota Kinabalu. It sounds like a totally made up dream world, and as we discovered when we arrived for our weekend afloat, the portion of it that we went to really is.

            Having braved the AirAsia flight over to Borneo we made a quick five minutes taxi dash from one of the more basic airports that we have visited in the past few years, and arrived at the Pacific Sutera Harbour and Marina almost as quickly as soon as we had gotten out of the car park and onto the main roads.

We navigated our way around the marina, through the country club that we were temporary members of for the weekend, past the two hotels that back onto the marina and over to the high security pier where our home for the weekend was moored up.

            Having arrived at the marine, we didn’t leave again for the rest of the weekend. We ventured out to some different bars and restaurants, but we didn’t leave the area for the next day and a half, not until we had to go back to the airport, and it was fabulous.

            After arriving late and missing any chance to eat, we had a couple of drinks and a supper of crisps and peanuts on the deck of the boat. The next morning I was up at six with the early sunrise creeping in around the blinds and a serious hunger developing. I headed out almost straight away in search of breakfast, which I found at the country club with a fabulous view down over the marina and out to the surrounding islands in the distance. I wasted a good three hours here, eating eggs and topping up on coffee and juice before Nick sent me over a message to say that he was alive and coming in search of food too.

            The rest of the day passed in a glorious flurry of swimming pools, lounging, napping, reading and resting. It was very unproductive.

On Saturday evening, to make up for the fact that we weren’t actually staying in the hotel that I had booked as Nick’s birthday present we went to one of the very posh hotels for an utterly glorious Italian dinner. After drinks on the deck taking in the sunset we filled the rest of our evening with a four course dinner, plus a lot of extra nibbles and a lovely bottle of red wine. It was perhaps one of the best dinners that we’ve had in Asia, certainly in anywhere remotely Malaysian, and was a really lovely way to round off the birthday fun.

Sunday morning followed a similar routine from Saturday, an early breakfast for me followed by an extended coffee and juice session before Nick emerged for the day. Then there was just time for a little sun before we had to make our way to the airport.

            It would be fun to go back to Borneo with a bit more time so that we could go to the orangutan preservation parks, but for a short day and a half outing, it wasn’t half bad. Now it’s back to work for a short four day week before we get to make the most of our surprise extra public holiday with a long weekend in Bali. Our favourite!