Day 3 - Kota Kinabalu

Slept well until a massive fireworks display started at midnight - it is Malaysia Day today, so lots of celebrations everywhere :-). Up early as we were scheduled to play golf at 8am and the course was about 1 hour away from town.
Had a quick breakfast then headed off in our not so luxury hire car! It worked, which is all that mattered, including the alarm which went off numerous times before we got underway, hope the rest of the guests wanted a 6am wake up call - lol :-)
Forgot to take our map but managed to find our way out to Dalit Bay Golf and Country Club. It had rained overnight (as usual) so there was heavy dew on the ground when we arrived. Another amazing and very beautiful golf course. Completely different from yesterday, more resort style, but in very good condition. I actually played well today and had 31 points, Sean hit the ball beautifully but was still struggling with his putting woes, which knocked his score down.
I am very glad that I bought the 2 wet weather rain gloves with me. After my second shot yesterday the club started slipping, so I put the wet weather gloves on and have had perfect grip since. The humidity is so high that everything gets wet in minutes, and these gloves work best when wet.




I maybe acclimatised a bit today because I didn't feel so hot today. In fact, the sky was blue nearly all day with very little cloud cover, but it did not seem to be as hot. We had a chat to the General Manager after the game (an ex-Aussie from Perth who has been living in Asia for 14 yrs), and he said that the difference in temperature was from the different grass and subsoil. You could see Mt Kinabalu today (pic above)
















We had lunch at the club afterwards then drove up to the Shangri-La Resort to go on the Orangutan tour. We climbed up the hill to the feeding platform and had about an hour to watch them. There were 2 x 3yr olds playing and feeding. It was sooooooo humid up in the canopy but well worth all the sweat just to see them.












We drove back to our hotel and headed straight fora cool swim and drink by the pool for an hour or so - very relaxing people watching :)












Time for another shower and change - you can only wear every set of clothes once because you soak through them all so fast ! Went for a Drive through town hoping to find a nice restaurant for dinner, but it was still packed with people celebrating Malaysia Day. We gave up and came back to the Magellan resort and had Satay and pizza.




Everything over here is so cheap, especially food and drink. Would be a great place for an affordable family holiday if that is what anyone was after :-) and the people are all so friendly.
Time for bed and sweet dreams after such a fabulous day.
Happy Fathers Day to Keith and Mike tomorrow xxx
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Location:Jalan Singkat Sutera,Kota Kinabalu,Malaysia

Day 2 - Kota Kinabalu

Slept like babies :-)
Up at 7am and had breakfast in the club lounge - very nice too. Downstairs to get a taxi to Sabah Golf & Country Club. Taxi driver was awesome, he would not even let us pay him when we arrived as he offered to come back when we had finished to take us back to the hotel. There was no guarantee that we would call him back or anything - very trusting!. I have to say that the Malay people are amongst the friendliest I have ever met, nothing is too much trouble and they always have a smile for you :-)
Met our wonderful caddie, he only spoke limited English but it is amazing how well you can communicate, just like when we were in Mission Hills. I can honestly say that I did not know it was humanly possible to sweat as much as I did today. The humidity is intense, and when the sun is out too then it is almost unbearable. Lucky there are always clouds which help keep things bearable. You just have to remember to keep drinking water to counteract it. It rains most nights here so we have been told, just like the storm last night, the days are hot and humid but mostly dry.












The golf course was absolutely beautiful. There was actually a group from the PGA going round doing yardage measurements (they use metres here like us) for a PGA event starting next week. It was quite hilly and there was lots of water and interesting bunkers. The caddie knew exactly where to guide us and after a couple of holes could pick the right clubs etc., We both played ok, Sean had a bit of trouble getting used to green speeds - they we so fast downhill, but deceptively slow uphill, quite hard to get used to, and I had my usual some good some bad moments, on the whole though I hit the ball quite well :-)








We had lunch at the club after our game, I had beef with ginger and onions, Sean had chicken and cashew. Our lovely taxi driver picked us up as promised and we returned to our hotel. We arranged our hire car for tomorrow, then headed down to the pool for a leisurely swim and drink at the pool bar. I had a fresh coconut - yum! The afternoon showers came in about 5pm so time to return to our room for a shower and change, drinks and canapés in the lounge then out to dinner.








Walked over to the other resort, around the marina. Had the buffet meal which was ok, not as good as the other meals we have had here, but you can't win them all :-)
Hit the wall again, early start tomorrow, we are driving 1 hour to play golf then we are seeing the Orang-utans' - can't wait.
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Location:Jalan Singkat Sutera,Kota Kinabalu,Malaysia

Leaving on a jet plane .....

Left home at 9pm for our 11:20pm Malaysian Airlines flight to KL. The security area was packed full of people, but I was selected to go through one of the new body scanners which was sooooo fast! 

Flight left early, settled in to watch a movie then dozed on and off for a few hours. They woke us all up to give us the most disgusting breakfast, fake eggs and green beans! I just had the croissant which was ok.

Arrived in KL nearly an hour early, had a couple of hours to kill before next flight to Kota Kinabalu. Plenty of cafes open so a nice coffee and some toast and a chance to put my knee up for a while - I wore TED stockings but it is a bit swollen but not sore.

On smaller plane for next leg - 2.5hrs. They served a yummy breakfast, prawn and anchovy curry, I loved it, needless to say Sean didn't! We also got orange cake and a Hershey bar :-)

Flying into Kota Kinabalu was beautiful, very picturesque from the air, and also warm and humid.

Taxi to our hotel. Whisked up to the 11th floor to the Pacific Club check-in which was very efficient. Our suite is beautiful and we have the most amazing marina and golf course views. (I have some good pics on my camera but don't have an adaptor for iPad mini, will sort it out later, so just iPhone pics for now).

The hotel also delivered us flowers to help celebrate our anniversary which was lovely.

Had a much needed shower then headed out to play 9 holes of the 27 that are attached to this resort. Amazing water views from every hole, absolutely beautiful. Again, the iPhone pics don't do it justice but that is all I can add for now. Greens a lot slower than RQ but we did feel right at home with the planes taking off above us :-)

Had a nice cool drink afterwards, was certainly humid but there was a nice breeze. Back for shower them to club lounge for drinks and canapés and to watch sunset!

Dinner in restaurant, one of 5 I think in this resort, very nice Malaysian Curry. Watched spectacular lightening show - this pic is actually pitch black sky with sheet lightening :-)

Hit the wall now, off to bed xx