Day 28 - Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) to Melbourne (Australia)
Our flight ticket allowed us to use the Malaysia Airlines lounge, so after an early start we were able to have a reasonable breakfast (nothing special, but at least the coffees weren't made in a machine), before our uneventful flight home.
Our next trip isn't too far away, but we will have to endure more of Melbourne's cold winter weather than we'd like before escaping again!
Day 27 - Kuala Lumpur
The only task for today was to change hotels as the city is an hour from the airport and we had an early flight home the next morning.
We had been looking forward to breakfast as the buffet was one of the highlights of our previous stay at Traders Hotel many years ago, but we ended up being a bit disappointed. It was crowded, the food wasn't very hot, and M couldn't bring himself to try the Rendang Paru, which translates to beef lung rendang!
After a final visit to the Club Lounge we checked out at 12pm, and made our way to the Sami Sami airport hotel (yes, Grab again). We arrived a bit early for check-in so we had some lunch, before finally making our way up to our room. We explored the departures area of the airport to see if we could have dinner somewhere other than the hotel restaurant, finding a Malaysian restaurant where we later had the final rendang of our trip.
Day 26 - Bandar Seri Bagawan (Brunei) to Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia)
Royal Brunei Air flies directly to Melbourne and this would have been a much easier way to get home but as it was an overnight flight we decided to take the long way home via Kuala Lumpur. Our flight was very early so there was little traffic, meaning we arrived a bit early and we were pretty much the first people there (and of course the flight then left late).
After landing we took a Grab (where would we be without Grab) to the Traders Hotel, where we managed a free upgrade to a club room, meaning access to the Club Lounge with a great view over KLCC Park, free afternoon tea with scones, jam and cream, and complimentary drinks and nibbles during happy hour until 7pm. After afternoon tea we took a walk to the KLCC Centre, a giant shopping mall crammed with both locals and tourists, including lots of children visiting the Lego exhibition.
Day 25 - Bandar Seri Begawan
We hadn't really timed our visit to Brunei very well, as our only full day there was a Friday, the Islamic holy day, which meant many attractions and places of interest were closed.
We decided to book a morning city tour to ensure we saw the key sites before leaving, so at 9am we were collected and joined four South Korean ladies who were spending a week in Brunei.
Our tour guide had very good English (it is taught in school) and she was very good at explaining how this tiny, but extremely wealthy, country operates. Some of what she told us sounded a little like propaganda, as she was continually praising the Sultan and how he looked after his people.
We visited a local market, followed by a Chinese temple then a stop at the magnificent Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque, which tourists couldn't enter on a Friday. The mosque has an enormous lagoon out the front complete with a full size replica of a 16th century Royal Barge. It was very hot so we all scurried back to the cool of the van once we'd had a good look.
From there we visited the government handicraft training centre where the seven main art forms of Brunei were taught and showcased (nearly everyone in Brunei works for the generous government/Sultan). There were things like leatherwork, weaving and metalwork, but strangely no ceramics.
We then visited the outside of the Istana Darussalam, the old wooden palace where the current Sultan of Brunei was born, before visiting the Istana Nurul Iman, the Sultan's current palace and the world's largest private residence of a monarch. We stood outside the gates and peered in, before jumping back into our van to escape the heat.
We finished off our tour by visiting the impressive Jame' Asr Hassanil Bolkiah Mosque, complete with an incongruous private escalator to take the Sultan to the top floor.
After returning to the hotel around 11:40am we thought we'd get something in the hotel café, but as it was Friday this meant everything had to be closed between 12 and 2 for midday prayer. Strangely though we could still get room service during this time.
That afternoon M went for a walk into town, walking along the waterfront across from the floating village (which had been rebuilt by the Sultan after a fire), then visiting the food market where families were spending their afternoon.
Day 24 - Gaya Island (Malaysia) to Bandar Seri Begawan (Brunei)
After breakfast we reluctantly packed up and left our lovely bungalow on the hill to get the 11am boat back to the mainland. The boat ride was very smooth and comfortable, and along the way we stopped at another resort to pick up more passengers.
From the port we caught a Grab to the airport, but we were a bit early so had to wait for about an hour for check in to open, followed by another 3 hours until our plane took off for the 40 minute flight to Brunei. There wasn't even enough time for the seat belt sign to be turned off as the flight was so short.
Exiting the airport at Brunei it was immediately apparent that we were in a much wealthier country. Everything was clean and well kept and the cars all looked new. It was a short trip to our hotel in the city centre of the capital, Bandar Seri Begawan, where we settled in and ate a nice Indian meal at the hotel restaurant.
Days 22 and 23 - Gaya Island
Two very similar days while we relaxed on the island. After a good nights' sleep in our quiet and peaceful bungalow we walked down for breakfast in the Longhouse. Along with the decent breakfast buffet, M tried some freshly cooked Malaysian stir fried noodles, while K stuck with traditional breakfast fare like eggs and pancakes.
On the first day K treated herself to an hour long facial while M explored. Each day, we relaxed with drinks on our balcony, enjoying the stunning views across the bay. On our walks we found more monitor lizards and a few monkeys, but overall the resort was peaceful and quiet.
Unfortunately the Indian restaurant by the beach was closed for renovations, but dinner at the Longhouse was always excellent. We had satay and rendang one night for dinner but changed it up to have some black pepper beef the next night.
It was a refreshing couple of days and just what we needed before leaving Borneo to start our circuitous journey home.
Day 21 - Kota Kinabalu to Gaya Island
Off to Gaya Island today, the large island we could see from our hotel room, just 6km from the coast. We took the complimentary 12.30pm boat provided as part of our accommodation package at the Bunga Raya Island Resort. It was a smooth boat ride, although the amount of rubbish in the water was surprising. We shared the trip with a Danish couple, who said they loved Queen Mary and that she had "made their King strong".
We arrived a little early for check in so we had some lunch, then sat by the pool until our room was ready. We were taken by buggy to a lovely room up the hill behind the resort, with a beautiful view over the bay and a spacious veranda. We were told to be careful of the monkeys as they even know how to knock on the door.
K took advantage of the free weaving class where she was the only participant, and learnt to make a grasshopper from bamboo leaves. While K was doing that M went exploring, finding a giant monitor lizard (it was giant even though it doesn't look like it in the photo) which walked down the beach and into the water for a swim.
We went down to the restaurant for happy hour to have some cocktails before a very nice dinner of satay sticks (yet again) and rendang.
Day 20 - Kota Kinabalu
After breakfast we walked to the Gaya Street Sunday market, which was only 10 minutes away. It was quite hot but a bit better than at the festival yesterday.
K bought a couple of KK souvenirs for Myles, he's still young enough to be OK with wearing a "I Love KK" t-shirt!
In the afternoon M did a bit of exploring along the waterfront. The streets were quiet, probably due to a combination of it being Sunday, the cultural festival being on at KDCC, and the heat.
Before sunset we headed down to the same cocktail bar as yesterday and scored a good table by the water, but it wasn't long before it became very busy with groups and couples.
Day 19 - Kota Kinabalu
After breakfast we took a Grab to the KDCA Cultural Village at Hongkod Koissan, not sure of what we'd find. It was a 20 minute drive and when we arrived the Harvest Festival was well underway. It was busy so we followed the crowd to the main hall where people were standing outside the doors manned by police. We managed to bluff our way in, K tagged onto the tail of a group, then M followed a few minutes later telling the guard "my wife is in there". We took a seat where we watched some song and dance performances followed by a parade of women representing their town/region in a beauty contest, all of them dressed and made up identically.
After the parade it was lunch so we followed everyone outside and wandered around various stalls selling traditional Sabah clothes, accessories and souvenirs. The crowd was predominantly local, there were very few people like us. We wandered through the buildings and tents, may people were dressed in traditional clothing and performing dances, while others sat around eating their lunch. Some of the stalls had indigenous music, instruments and produce, often with their beauty contest representative posing for photos with the public. The food area had a lot of stalls, cooking all sorts of meats, like black pepper lamb, satay, and pigs on a spit. It was starting to get really hot and it was becoming quite overwhelming so we decided we'd seen enough and grabbed a car back to the air conditioning of our hotel.
In the evening we walked across the road to the waterside restaurants, with a view of the islands and the planes coming in to land flying quite low directly overhead. We started at one bar where the happy hour drinks were mostly ice, so we moved on to a much better and more popular cocktail bar where we could order our dinner from the Malaysian restaurant next door. There was a cover band playing and it was quite amusing watching the young couples enjoying the boomer music, singing along with every word while swaying their arms in the air, they knew the songs better than we did!
Day 18 - Jakarta to Kota Kinabalu (Borneo / Malaysia)
It was time to say goodbye to the family as they flew back to Bali for the last few days of their holiday. We were flying back to Borneo (for the third time this trip!), heading for Malaysia on the northern part of the island.
We landed in Kota Kinabalu which is quite different from Indonesian Borneo. KK is more modern and popular with tourists, and as we were checking in the clerk told us we'd arrived in time for the annual Kaamatan Harvest Festival, the biggest cultural festival of the year, which was starting the next day - something we had no idea about before arriving!
Our hotel was across the road from a market and a number of waterside restaurants, and our room had a lovely water view taking in the bay and the nearby islands. M went to change some money at a nearby shopping centre, while K relaxed in the room. We had heard it was worth viewing the sunset from the hotel rooftop so we headed up for a drink.
Once the sun had set we stayed at the hotel for a tasty Malaysian dinner (including more satay!). Strangely, we were seated well away from the other diners as we wanted a drink with our meal, but it worked out well as it was nice and quiet and we had a waiter to ourselves.
