33. & 34. Day / 4th winter trip

I do not want to make a grumbling impression here - but we are extremely unhappy with our stay at the Shangri-La Rasa Ria. If I would not have had prepaid, we would have left today.

What made us so extremely dissatisfied? Above all two points:
1.) Although the location of the hotel is fantastically beautiful to look at - but what helps the best beach and the most beautiful sea, if one can not swim due to jellyfish, sea urchins and strong current? With a view of the sea and waves only to be able to swim in the far-too-warm water of a pool is like to sit in a 3* Michelin restaurant and only to be able to eat old bread.
2.) There are millions of sandflies everywhere (therefore a tractor plows the beach daily). Whose blood is to their liking should avoided this hotel like a plague! And our blood is probably for sandflies like honey for bears, like cheese for mouses... We were, after two days, completely bitten and it was itching terribly. And these sandflies were really everywhere, at any time, whether by the pool, on the balcony, in the restaurant. The hotel knew the problem exactly, providing 'anti-sandfly-spray', which unfortunately didn't help as it was 'eco' and DEET-free.

These two points, unfortunately, spoil a beach holiday completely

Other minor points would probably not have been noticed otherwise - but if you are bugged already ...

E.g. we love music by the pool/beach, best with a good DJ - but at the Shangri-La there was just a sad mood, or no mood at all. The breakfast, which was offered for 'Ocean Wing' guests at the Italian restaurant 'Oceano', was not what we expected.




Although the selection included cooking-stations for egg dishes, pizza (pizza for breakfast???),


noodle soup


and pancakes


was very good, but in terms of quality not on the expected 'Shangri-La-level'. In addition, I wrote already, one must constantly look for sandflies, inside and outside.


I can only recommend this hotel to those who are looking for total relax, have no problem with sandflies and like to swim in the pool anyway.

So what did we do the two days? The 33rd day of travel we spent with our friends at the pool, played UNO. But when we had fun in the pool (no, not THAT kind of fun, even no singing was involved), we immediately got a look of reproach from the guest who lay around the pool, mostly reading. It reminded us more of a rest home.

I was looking for the well-air-conditioned gym, which, unfortunately, for a hotel of this size and class was only average.




In the evening we went to the cocktail hour with pre-dinner-snacks at the club lounge and, later on, to the 'Café-Terrace', where a seafood buffet was served.


For a charge of US $ 40/person this was outstanding - as long as you accessed early. The good food, e.g. crab,


quickly ran out and then was replaced by simpler (or more cost-effective) dishes.

After dinner there's not exactly a lot going on at the Rasa Ria, except one likes the ancient live-music at the lobby bar. So we moved back to the room, playing UNO with our friends.

On the 34th day we had to say 'good-bye' to our friends, who had to fly via KUL and IST back home to ODS, by Malindo and the Turks.

So we met again for last breakfast,


expelled the sandflies, and lay down at the pool.


Thankfully the hotel agreed on a free-of-charge late-check-out at 14:45.

I ordered an UBER which came very quickly and brought our friends to the airport at just US $ 8 (cash payment possible).

After we had hidden in the room from the sandflies, we went shortly after 7 for dinner - the 'pre-dinner-snacks' we left to the other guests. That particular evening the selection was extremely limited, both, the Italian restaurant and the buffet restaurant by the pool (with 7 cooking stations) were closed.

The choice was Japanese, Indian or Café. Probably you can already imagine - 'Indian' was the choice.

As a starter again the excellent non-veg tandoor platter (fish, chicken, lamb),


as main courses, the delicious dark lentils (Dal), the paneer (cream-cheese) - dish in spinach gravy, Murgh Korma (chicken in a yoghurt-nut-gravy) and one portion of Naan.


Unfortunately, my choice wasn't as good as the other day, both, the paneer as well as the chicken were quite boring, not as spicy as expected. Dal with Naan, however, was, as always, very delicious - and got us full.

After dinner we strolled through the hotel park and back to the room - there was not much more to do.