Is this Paradise?
In search of paradise, the beach at the Shangri-la. The Abdul Rahman Park across the sea. Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia
After being disappointed with Manukan island and the natural beach, we refreshed ourselves in the Hyatt pool, a 5 star hotel. Following that, we decided that we’d try another beach further out of town that might be more popular with the locals and then check out the Shangri-la.
Taking the mini buses in Kota Kinabalu depends, not on a schedule, but when the van carrying 8–10 people or the bus carrying 20 people, is full. We again slept in as was normal on this part of the trip and had to wait close to an hour on the bus before it left. We weren’t the first on the bus either so I suspect some others waited a very long time. The bad part was that we picked a big bus when we could have gotten a small mini van. At the time, we had been told this bus and didn’t even know where in the terminal the other bus was parked. The bus terminal, a dirt patch at the end of town with some sun shading is really just a large parking lot and the only way to know what bus to take is to ask someone. Unfortunately for us, we got pointed to the big bus. Later, on our way out of Kota Kinabalu, we were told 5 different numbers that pass the airport.
Anyways, the beach is near the Shangri-la hotel, another 5 star, that we went to first. It has a pretty big and impressive pool that we really wanted to swim in. It was pretty busy and I missed some chances to get towels and blend which didn’t impress Yuki and we ended up leaving and going to the Tunjung Aru Beach beside it. Yuki wasn’t very happy with me but we were on an empty beach that went on for kilometres. It was sort of weird being on a long empty beach and she eventually forgave me.
The Shangri-la hotel. In many ways this place seemed to be what I had in mind as a tropical holiday. I think a lot of people think of places like this with palm trees and turquoise water. The hotel is fantastic and we had fun there, even if we didn’t stay the night. Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia
The water was also very clear, the surf smooth, and the sand incredibly fine. I went out 50 feet or more before I was waist deep. Out there, I saw some white jelly fish so I came back in. We splashed around in the shallows and Yuki covered me in sand until it hardened and caked on. It’s kinda cool and weird to me to be able to go around the world to all these beaches that are in essence, just sand, but that one can do the same things at only in different ways or with different feels. When we were leaving, we saw some locals wade out and start fishing for shell-fish I think.
There were these tiny crabs everywhere making sand balls around their holes in a line and I felt like I was destroying their hard work when I walked over them. Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia
We decided to go back to the Shangri-la because if we didn’t, we would regret it. This time we were more mentally prepared and took 2 chairs immediately behind a group of Asians that had two used towels. We put our stuff down, and acting naturally, went into the pool as fast as we could. The hotel has a shallow kid’s pool and then under a bridge it leads to an adult pool with an infinity edge. That was pretty cool to see and Yuki insisted on a photo with it because it was our first one. The cool thing about the pool is that it’s oval shaped and has an island in the centre that’s the deepest part. All around the edge, and the edge of the island are benches or ledges that anyone over 4 feet should be able to stand on. I used this opportunity to practice treading water and was able to do so in two different ways for a period of time.
Spot Yukes!
The pool also has 3 slides, two of which we went down together (the third was out of service) and a sort of water park where a giant bucket of water almost soaked Yuki. We were going to stay for the sunset but it was an hour and a half away so we decided to leave because I wasn’t sure if the bus would run after dark. We got pens from the front desk as souvenirs which is good because all that journal writing means that we kept running out. If you ever travel, I suggest you take a journal and get a pen from every airplane ride you take because they’re free and in abundance. If you keep a balance of 3 or 4 pens then you’ll probably be good until the next plane ride.
The bus didn’t come and we started walking back along it’s route and it was a long time before we finally got one. We should have seen it pass us before it returned so I was surprise when it finally showed up but was glad that we’d be on our way back into town.
♪ Grey skies won’t dim my love for you…♫. Kota Kinabalu Malaysia
With the National park that I was expecting to spend 2–3 days at a wash, we actually ended up spending a full day shopping around for notebooks. True, we were sleeping in pretty late, but still. We went to several malls to look at notebooks before we finally got some. The journal I’d gotten at grad from Yuki’s Aunt was running out and ran out right after Mt. Kinabalu but by the time I’d written that up we were in Thailand and I ended up getting another one I preferred there.
