29. Day / 4th winter trip

I must now disappoint all those who are hoping for the next days to explore the surrounding areas, expeditions to the hinterland.

I had promised V. that this time I would include some days at the beach. Since I know myself, that if a car waits outside the door, nothing and no one can hold me at a beach for more than 2 hours, so I decided to go for an island, a small one, on which one can hardly leave the resort.

And so I came across Gaya Island. Although the island is only a few kilometers off the shore of Borneo, the transport to the mainland is however expensive and also time-limited. Three hotels are on the island, but they are not connected.

The Gaya Island Resort, according to TA, is the best of the three hotels, however, the reviews are diverse, some complain about the condition of the pool, others complain about the prices of food & drinks.


At night everything looked very nice, well-kept. Today's morning and daylight brought a few minor restrictions. E.g. The silicone joints in the shower would have to be renewed, also the furniture show - despite renovation in the last half year - minor wear. The pool is newly renovated, but the view from the cheaper 'Canopy-Villas' is into unkempt jungle, not particularly nice.

The breakfast included in our room are was of maximum of 3*-standard, there are neither mangos nor any freshly squeezed juices,


the coffee you must prepare yourself at the small machine, a long queue was building up sometimes .

Our 'Kinabalu-Villa' was located at the top of the mountain, which makes it a bit difficult to get there, especially at the temperatures and humidity. So you plan ahead, so you can go directly to the beach after breakfast without having to go back up.

We decided against the beach chairs at the pool, laid down at the beach.


An employee arranged three sun beds in the sun, mine remained in the shade.

There were enough towels (without towels card such as on Hawaii) and also chilled water.


So we were laying for 2 ½ hours at the beach, read, listened to music and wandered the beach strip.


From the beach in front of the lobby-area we had a nice view of our villa.


While over Kota Kinabalu all morning thick rain clouds were hanging, we had sunshine until 1:00 pm, only then the clouds came over the island. We had enough of sun, went up to our villa.

Our friends appeared at our Villa to a have a small lunch consisting fruits and cheese brought from the mainland. I took a escaped lunch, went down again, past the library,


to the gym with a great view of the sea.




The selection of equipment was limited, very - but better I hadn't expected from a beach resort on an island. So I checked what was available, adjusted my workout program.

To make matters worse, the air conditioning did not run when I arrived, I think they switched it of for power saving reasons, the room was extremely hot. I managed to turn on one of the air conditioners, but the other one failed. One device could not cool down the huge room with glass all around, bottom to ceiling. I called the reception but also the mechanics could not make the second one work. So I had 1 ½ hours of workout at 'sauna conditions' - we could call it 'added value'.

Me, sometimes a bit stupid, had tortured my legs, forgetting that our villa was high up the hill and I would, after the torture, have to walk up again - which hurt.

After the 'sauna workout' and the walk I was dead. After I had my lunch, namely a protein shake, I dozed away within seconds. Unfortunately, the monkeys did not let me sleep for long, suddenly the sliding door to our Villa was opened and a monkey stood in the doorway. I managed to chase him locked the door firmly. Outside on the balcony, the monkey found a few fruits leftover from lunch, ate them and rested afterwards.


Our friends were less fortunate, were surprised by two monkeys while laying on the balcony - got a scratch on the arm.

Once again dozed away and, when I awoke, realized it was time for dinner, our friends were already waiting in the restaurant. When I looked at V. I was confirmed that I was pretty clever to have preferred the shadow over the sun - because she was completely 'red'.

Down for dinner, again without rain. We had decided again for 'buffet', at least one can take from what one likes, leave the rest. There was a special 'Seafood' evening, grilled fish and a wok station, where one could choose Rock Lobster, Prawns, Mussels (but also beef, lamb, duck and chicken) in three variants (sour, sweet or spicy).

And again I was amazed by the comments on the prices in TA. What can one can expect at US $ 30/person including taxes and tip at a 5* resort on an island???

Saturated it went up again to the villa.