28. Day / 4th winter trip

Kuching and surroundings we had seen - and, fortunately, our trip continued, moving on to another location.

For breakfast we were greeted with gray, rainy weather, the worst so far on Borneo.


Just after 11 we checked out, packed everything in the rental car and drove to the airport, where we met the rental car guy in front of the departure hall. Everything went super quick, just gave him the keys and said 'goodbye'.


Top car rental service.

In to Premium-Flex priority-check-in of AirAsia, I put our suitcases on the balance.


Then the shock, somehow I had forgotten to book and pay the extra charge for 10 kg of overweight baggage per person (20 kg/person are included in the premium flex rate of AirAsia, but we had 30.5, each). So the check-in agent wanted to charge US$ 380 for the additional 21 kg, far more than the tickets for 2 persons including premium flex surcharge had cost.

I began to discuss and finally the staff suggested to pack 11 kg in the suitcases of our friends, since their two pieces only weighed 13 and 16 kilograms, to put the other 10 kg into our hand carried luggage. Luckily in front of the check-in there was a luggage scale.

So unpacked, packaged, weighed, unpacked, packed and weighed until we came close to the required result. An the end every suitcase weighed exactly 20.4 kg, plus we had a lot of things to carry through security control. Sometimes it's an advantage to arrive at the airport early.

Again passport control including meaningless stamp, fingerprints scan and off to Gate 2,


where we still had to wait a while.


The plane arrived 45 minutes before our departure,


boarding took place exactly 25 minutes before the scheduled departure. Also in Malaysia, it is strictly controlled that Premium Flex passengers enter first enter - very useful with the amount of our carried on that day.

We had originally reserved 1A and 1C, hoping 1B would remain empty. But as the plane was booked up to the last seat, we switched to 1A and 1B - not a big issue for such a short flight.

The weather became much better and we had a punctual departure. The pre-ordered food included in the Premium Flex tariff and a cup of water was served as we reached travel altitude.

I had chosen a Malaysian rice dish,


V. went for the Sate wrap.

While the rice dish was slightly spicy and quite edible, the wrap was just sweet.

Read and dozed (as far as this was possible with a very noisy child behind us), until, after 80 minutes of flight, we docked at Kota Kinabalu airport.

Out and, what a miracle, through passport control with fingerprint scan. With another meaningless stamp in the passport down to the baggage claim. We took our luggage and headed outside, searched for a taxi.

At 42 Ringgit we were offered the ride to the Jesselton Point Jetty in a large van. Since we had read in TA that the prices for drinks and snacks at our next hotel should be steep, we asked the driver to stop at a well-stocked supermarket and a fruit stand.


At the supermarket and the neighboring fruit stand we bought wine, Coke Zero, low-fat milk, snacks and fruits, drove on to the Jetty.


Arrived there I was looking for the arrival desk of our hotel, 'Gaya Island Resort' on Palau Gaya.


We delivered our luggage outside


and went inside for check-in.


The check-in process took quite a while, but we had anyway 1 ½ hours before the departure of the next boat - we did not get anything to drink during the whole waiting time.

We were informed about the deposit to be paid and also that we would have to pay a daily fee for the Gaya National Park (Day 1 US $ 8/person, then US $ 5/person per day).

So we left the reception and walked around, checking out the historic ferry terminal,


appeared punctual back for our transfer. The boat trip to the island usually costs US $ 18/person and way, but when booking via Agoda this was included in the total price (unlike all other booking platforms).


We were the only passengers on the 18 o'clock boat,


enjoyed the view back to the disappearing Kota Kinabalu


and drove through quite some waves to our resort.


Over a pier to the reception with a wonderful view of the sea.


We had booked two 'Kinabalu Villas', which represented the middle category, built higher on the hill, with sea view.

After a mini-welcome drink and handing over the Wi-Fi hotspot


as well as an explanation of the facilities we walked via the pool area


to our villas high on the hill. It was actually quite a walk, especially daytime when hot & humid, wouldn't recommend these villas or elder or unfit people.

It already became dark, everything made a very good impression (especially for Malaysia) - I hoped this impression wouldn't change in daylight.

Each Villa consists of 4 room, 2 on the lower level, 2 on the upper. We got an upper floor room, with a great balcony including sun lounger and bench, a nice bedroom,


dressing room and large bathroom with shower, bathtub and two sinks.






After unpacking and relaxing on the terrace for a few minutes we went down to the main restaurant.

(in addition there is a Japanese restaurant, a 'fine dining' fish restaurant and 'private dining' on the beach)

We selected the standard buffet dinner, with some live-cooking stations, which prepared meat and seafood on request.












The food was not great, but quite edible. At a price of US $ 30/person more than adequate.

Still some desserts




and back up to our room where we were drinking and talking with our friends on the balcony under the stars.