Weekend in Borneo

Matt and I got a rare treat over the weekend - a getaway without the kids! We love our maid Lea and she is terrific with the kids, often anticipating their needs exactly when I'm thinking of something, so we trusted that she would have no problems keeping them for two nights. Plus, I left about half a dozen phone numbers for her and alerted all my friends and neighbors that she'd be flying solo for the weekend. So while she and the boys camped out here, Mama and Daddy hopped a two-hour flight to Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia, on the island of Borneo. It's a gorgeous place!

We are normally budget hotel travelers since we're usually on the go nonstop during vacations and don't take advantage of the facilities, but this time we chose to splurge a bit and pick a resort with no reasons to leave. The Shangri-La Rasa Ria was the perfect place....tropical, beautiful, relaxing, and inviting. This is the main lobby where we sat on couches with iced tea and cold towels while they checked us in.

Live traditional music welcomes the guests all day by these talented guys on the big instruments. No idea what they're called but the music is calming and immediately makes you feel like you're on vacation.

Our home sweet home for two nights. I tipped them off that we were celebrating our anniversary (a little late, but who's counting?) so they left us a nice surprise. We were on the first floor so we could walk straight out the door, across a lawn, and right onto the beach.

We were also fortunate enough to be joined but the Denton family from Singapore! I never got a picture of all of us together, but we stole Blake away from Camille and their 2-year old son Pierce to go water skiing.

Matt had a great time on the wakeboard, skis, and slalom while I enjoyed the scenery from the boat.

Unfortunately we weren't able to do any watersports in the cove in front of the hotel because of jellyfish everywhere! The boat driver took the guys into the mouth of a river to ski since it was free of jellyfish but we saw hundreds of these guys in the water. Matt and I sailed several times in the little Hobie cats and it was fascinating to watch these float around (and good reason not to tip the thing over!).

We spent our first evening in one of these gazebos watching the sun go down over the water.

The happy vacationers! We usually miss this special time of day because it inevitably coincides with bedtime.

Going...

...going....

....gone!

A look back at the resort in the twilight. It was really well done with beautiful landscaping and a huge powdery beach in front.

We met up with Camille for dinner (Pierce was in bed and Blake was unfortunately sick) at the Japanese teppanyaki restaurant. Love how they give everyone aprons to protect against the wild cooking.

On Saturday we went straight to the 400-acre nature reserve. I was hoping to see some true Borneo wildlife and while we weren't able to just wander around or anything, we did the most exciting part - got up close and personal with some young orangutans in rehabilitation at the reserve. They stay in this reserve until they're older and more equipped to fend for themselves in the wild, then get transferred to a halfway house before release into the jungle.

On our way up the trail we saw some huge white butterflies.

At the orangutan feeding area, a ranger called out for them and spread some fruit out for them to dine on. There are six juvenile orangutans in the reserve and we got to see three of the little guys.

The first guy dug right in and enjoyed everything before the next two rushed him off.

One little guy was begging the ranger for a drink from a bottle!

This guy was scooping a specially mixed formula from a hole in the tree. I saw a can of enfamil in the orangutan kitchen so I guess they still get powdered milk. He would dip his hand in, watch it drip out a bit, then suck it off his fingers.

Yummm....what a sweet face!

After they had all had their fill, they played around in the vines for a while then slowly wandered back into the thick jungle. It was a real treat to watch them from just a few yards away!

Here's one guy having a ball swinging from vine to vine.

Afterward we spent the rest of this gorgeous afternoon on the beach and at the pool. The weather was perfect for us. The temperature and climate are exactly like Singapore at the moment but we got a delicious breeze off the ocean all day that made it completely enjoyable to be outside all day.

I spent several hours in this chair enjoying the warm sun, cool water, and a good book. On the left side of the pool you can see the water slides in the kiddy area. Ben would have loved it so we kept thinking of how much fun it would have been to have the kids with us, but it was so wonderful to not wear a watch or be concerned with naptimes or mealtimes. It's not often we get to wake up when we want, eat whenever we choose (and without interruptions!), and completely relax without worrying about anyone else.

Saturday night we enjoyed a terrific dinner at Coast, their flagship restaurant right on the beach.

After we had both gorged ourselves on our meals and declared we couldn't eat another bite, the staff surprised us with a dessert sampler. I thought it was the dessert demonstration tray but the ENTIRE thing was for us. Before I even thought of taking a picture, I had already inhaled half of the chocolate fondant cake and Matt had polished off the fruit tart. We also had (clockwise from the bottom left above the cake) creme brulee, espresso soup (sounds gross, but think melted espresso ice cream), vanilla panna cotta, several little cookies and cakes, ice cream and sorbet, watermelon something, and lemon tart. We shamelessly ate almost everything!

This morning we ran across this interesting fruit at breakfast. It's aptly named snake fruit and had a nice, crunchy texture but not a lot of taste. Still worth the picture though.

After breakfast we packed up and headed to the airport to come home to our babies! It was a great day to leave because it was pretty hazy so we didn't feel like we were missing a great day at the beach. In this picture you can just barely make out Mt. Kota Kinabalu, elevation around 13,400 feet.
Both kids were napping when we got in so we had to wait a while longer to see their beautiful faces, but there were 4 very happy people in this house all afternoon. We love our kids to pieces but a little time away as a couple was much needed and greatly appreciated. Hopefully we won't wait three more years before we get to do it again!