Kota Kinabalu

Most of the country of Malaysia is located on a peninsula shared by Thailand and Singapore, but there are two states, Sabah and Sarawak that share the island of Borneo with Indonesia and Brunei. We figured we couldn't really say we'd lived in Malaysia for three years without going to the island part of it, so for spring break this year, we flew to Kota Kinabalu, the capital of Sabah.  It's technically a domestic flight, but it takes about two and a half hours, and they asked to see our passports when we got there.  Our plan was to stay at the Shangri La resort on the coast next to the city. We stayed at the Shangri La in Penang for spring break the year before and really liked it. It's a very family friendly resort chain, with established family rooms, a water park, and kid friendly menus.  We had several friends who had stayed there, both with and without kids, and raved about it, so we figured we were in for a good time. Also, since ISKL's break is different from all the local schools, it was off season, so it wasn't too expensive to get rooms with club access which covered breakfast and dinner.  We arrived in the evening, just as the sun was setting and the food and cocktails were being served in the club.

Elena, of course, wanted to go immediately to the water slides, but things looked pretty shut down for the evening, so we promised her that we would go first thing in the morning.

We discovered that we had a beautiful sunset view from the porch off our room.

The next morning, Jeff took Elena to the pool right after breakfast. Viv and I wandered over in our own good time.

The water slides didn't open until 9:00, but Elena was happy to swim and read until then.

Whoever designed the place was a genius, because they put the ice cream shop right next to the water slides, and the girls figured out on day one that it opened at 10:30, so our first morning was swimming, reading, water slides, and ice cream.  They put out menus around lunch time, but I'm not a huge fan of trying to eat on a meal on a pool lounge chair, so we packed ourselves up and went in search of restaurant options.  We found a restaurant with covered sofas right on the beach, perfect! 

There was enough space for more than four people, but when people lounge to eat their chicken satay, you need a lot of space.

Our second day was a bit rainy, but that didn't deter Elena from practicing with her new full face snorkel mask.

And our new favorite lunch spot was covered, so we were fine there.

The sun obliging came back for post lunch ice cream.

Elena's cheeks got a little rosy the first day, so we invested in a new hat that could get wet and covered her face well. It was such a nice hat that I decided to buy one for myself too. It wasn't a cool enough style for Vivi (although I think it looks kind of like a Jane Austen hat), but she wasn't above borrowing mine for shell hunting.

When the sun go too strong, it was our sign to go back to the room, clean up, and head over to the club for snacks and sunset.  We also started bringing our Uno deck and had some pretty intense matches.

Even with a rainy day, the sunsets were lovely.

And the club had cake!

The hotel did a turn down service in the evening while we were at dinner, and they left us bookmarks, which was perfect for us. Each day there was a different quote from a book about Shangri La. The quotes cracked the girls up, and so we brought them all home. 

After a few days, we were ready to venture out from our beach paradise. There are several islands off the coast of Kota Kinabalu, so we got a boat for a couple hours to take us around. It was a great deal, because there was a guy to drive the boat and another guy who came ashore with us and showed us where the good snorkeling spots were.

Mostly we were just happy to be out on a boat again.

The first island we approached looked beautiful from the distance, but the driver slowed the boat down and pointed over the side to show us that the water was FULL of pink jellyfish. This was not where we were going to get off.

The first island we stopped at is one of the biggest and most popular, Sapi.

There were several good snorkeling areas that were roped off with buoys. 

One of our special snorkel masks broke, so we only have three. I let my three adventurers go in first, and I got some pictures.

While Elena had loved practicing in the pool, she was a little alarmed that the fish were right there! So she came out pretty quickly. I took Vivi's mask and went back with her for another try. Once she got used to the fish, it was fine, and she really liked it.

At the next island, we did the same thing. The three of them went first.

And this time, Elena was totally assured as my escort when it was my turn.

After all the snorkeling, we still had some boat time left, so we sailed around and looked at more islands. It was lovely.

We got back to the hotel in time for lunch at our favorite spot and some shell inventory.

And that was basically our routine for the rest of the vacation. Pool, slides and ice cream in the morning.

Lunch, shells, and lounging in the afternoon.

And club and sunset in the evening.

Maybe it wasn't the most exciting routine, but we are creatures of habit, and we love being outside. Everyone got at least one book finished, we played games, swam, and ate well. You can't ask much more of that from a vacation.