Tuesday morning, 2 September, and it was our 29th wedding anniversary. Woo hoo – congrats to us! We opened our cards and then headed down to breakfast.

And I had an egg disaster – asked for two hard boiled eggs – and when they arrived they were completely raw despite the shells being hot! Damn….it was finally sorted out but by now Richard had finished his egg florentine breakfast so we weren’t impressed as we would have preferred to eat at the same time. Funnily enough at that moment in time the server asked us to do an online review of the service…just for the hotel’s purposes not for wider sharing…so we were very honest. Hoping the feedback would work!

We spent a lovely day by the pool bobbing on large bean bags before having a snack lunch before returning to our room to relax and get ready for dinner.

We headed down to reception at 6pm and met with our butler for the night…who walked us to the beach and to our private cabana…just in time for the sunset.

We had champagne cocktails which was followed by an amuse bouche, the wine service then followed along with sparkling water for the table. Then we had our scallops starter followed by lobster bisque…. I don’t like lobster bisque so Richard ate two bowls full LOL.

Then to the main which was steak for me and sea bass for Richard followed by a special cheesecake and a chocolate Happy Anniversary plate. All delicious although very rich and decadent. We had enjoyed this special experience…felt very spoilt! We lingered after we had finished eating and our butler decided to bring us two additional glasses of complimentary champagne. How nice!

Our butler was very young and was doing an apprenticeship with Shangri La so had worked his way through housekeeping and into service. He was a delight! Clearly got a good work ethic as he had a couple of days off coming up and he was going to work for his dad in his construction company.

We returned to our room absolutely stuffed full (and bitten to death by the sand fleas) so returned to the air conditioned comfort of our room for pontoonies. It had been a lovely day – I had high expectations when we had booked this ‘dine by design special experience’ – and am pleased to say that our expectations were met! Was very romantic and special – not sure how we are going to top it for our 30th next year (although have ideas LOL).

Wednesday we were up late – to breakfast – and our eggs were perfect this time but we realised that if you ordered the eggs how you wanted them cooked they also delivered the full cooked breakfast which we didn’t want….so our fault this time…serves us right for not checking it out properly!!

After breakfast we headed back to the room to chill out and then at 12.30 we headed down to reception to pick up our car which was taking us to the Mari Mari cultural village. The driver sent us a text to let us know he was there at 12.30 but he wasn’t…. We spoke to him again and it turns out he was at the wrong reception to the hotel – we were in the Ocean Wing and he was at the Garden Wing. Never mind – eventually we met up – and we took off. His driving was a bit erratic to start with, clearly indicators were optional equipment rather than essential, but we survived and arrived at the village.

On arrival we got our tickets and waited for our names to be called. We took the opportunity to use the bathroom facilities which were very modern (Western style) and very clean. So a good start.

We were called and joined the rest of our group – only the transfer had been private this time… We walked across the rope bridge (which was a bit wobbly) and then checked out the variety of longhouses showing how different tribes lived. Some were communal facilities and others completely segregated on gender grounds. All were originally headhunters so lots of skulls around and our guide admitted that most of them were alcoholics as they make (and consume) a lot of rice wine LOL! The final longhouse belonged to a tribe with Islamic heritage so no alcoholics there….

Throughout the tour we were shown different skills – how to make rice wine, and honey (with bees that don’t sting bizarrely), bamboo cooking, cloth and rope making, fire making etc. Richard tried everything but I declined as my stomach was complaining…so I had to run off to find bathroom facilities during the tour….which were western again but not so clean!

We ended the tour at a cultural show with dancers / singers etc and it was pretty good. This was then followed by an inclusive lunch – by now both of us were feeling a bit crook with the heat and humidity – so I had plain boiled rice and Richard just had water….

We left at 4.45 pm and started the long crawl home in the solid traffic. The traffic here is dreadful and it took us three and a half hours to do 35 kms! Nose to tail and in the dark… Back to the hotel we were worn out so had a quiet night in front of the TV.

Thursday we had a leisurely start and there was a staff change in the restaurant so we received better service…and, finally, managed to get both our orders right and were served at the same time LOL.

After breakfast we headed to the pool and enjoyed a day bobbing – it was blisteringly hot – so a lot of the time was spent in the shade. Returning to our room around 4.30 pm we enjoyed a bottle of wine and a huge bubble bath on our balcony (which was organised for us by reception).

Later on we showered and headed out for dinner in the main buffet restaurant which was very busy…but we didn’t want to pay the full buffet price which we thought was very expensive as we weren’t very hungry and would only have eaten a few dishes…so went a la carte instead as we were trying out all the different restaurants the hotel had on offer.

Friday we had a late start before going to breakfast – and, it was absolutely great! The server had picked up on our irritated feedback and made sure we had the best experience checking up on us throughout the service. Lovely!

We spent another pool bobbing day before it started to rain! So we went back to our room and chilled out on the day bed on our balcony reading books before going out to dinner at the a la carte Chinese restaurant which was very nice although bizarrely named The Eighth! Afterwards we headed back to our room for a movie night.

Saturday we headed down to the pool again and there were kids around! Although the Ocean Wing is designed for adults there were a few families staying here but this was the first time they had decided to come to ‘our’ pool! So our quiet and relaxation was spoilt by some screaming entitled brats – one particularly young girl would not be told anything by her father and she promptly took herself off in a strop to return to her room alone. She was about five years old going on twenty! Her mother was completely frustrated by the whole situation…. Eventually Dad gave in and gave her whatever she wanted, but it was frustrating to witness. Guess tantrums will always win the argument then! But at least it stopped her from screaming at the top of her voice!

Later on we headed down to the Italian restaurant (the same one that we have our a la carte breakfast in) and grabbed an inside table as it was pouring with rain. Here is a screenshot from the hotel’s website….obviously showing outside dining option.

Sunday we were up early for breakfast and said goodbye to Sue (who had taken special care of us post our complaint LOL). We did our final check and packed, room vacated and bill paid by 8.30 am. The taxi was early and drove us straight to the airport (which seemed very familiar this time)….

We got checked in and very quickly got through security to wait for our flight to return to Kuala Lumpur.

The flight was straightforward enough and they served good food…

So that ends the Borneo section of our Malaysian adventure. Come back soon for another part. Bye for now.

Jan