the hotel, however, took a long time to finalize. my first choice was shangri-la tanjung aru. when we came 5 years ago, we took a drive to tanjung aru and i really liked the beach and the location. but i couldn't get myself to finalize the purchase. somehow the reviews weren't as good and kept pointing to the sister hotel, shangri-la rasa ria. but rasa ria was costs more and was further away. i know i can always adjust the schedule to ease the burden of the location but the price can't be adjusted. then one fine day, as i was browsing the various hotel sites, rasa ria's price went lower than tanjung aru. so i quickly booked and breathed a sigh a relief. airfare and hotel done!
itinerary wasn't difficult to finalize. i read the old KK entries of what i wanted to do if i came again and ticked off everything on the list. but of course, we can only plan. a couple of months before the trip, hubby had to undergo a knee reconstruction and i had to let go the main outing, which is the island hopping. we were quite disappointed because the boys would have loved the boat ride and the trip on manukan (we decided on one island instead of actually 'hopping'). so a new outing had to be googled and planned.
our flight out from KLIA was mid-morning. i love mid-morning flights because i can settle a load of laundry, which is so crucial before a trip. because of the duration of the flight, we got in just after check-in time, which is also good as the risk of waiting for the room would lessen. i even had time to pack in the morning, which is not long as all my clothes are organized anyway hah!
as usual, we didn't tell the boys and they were busy playing the guessing game - where are we going, what's with the clothes, why is the suitcase outside, why is there a van outside the house. they were over the moon when we finally got to the airport and were doing the dance of joy when we boarded the plane.
the boys loved having the ability to choose the movies and tv shows on the plane and didn't look for their iPods once. they also loved the child meal and the activity books they got.
we got into the kota kinabalu international airport about 3pm and the rental car we booked was already waiting. hubby settled the admin work and we left within 10minutes. the hotel was 45minutes away and we took a nice drive as the boys were totally knocked out.
the boys were all gasping as we drove into the hotel compound. it reminded us of club med, the green and the long drive. amir said the same, macam club med lah hotel ni. the security at the entrance had a list of guests checking in and cleared us to proceed. when we got to the lobby, the bellboy and the registration staff knew we were coming and had everything all prepared. checking in took about 10 minutes, with cold towel, welcome drinks and welcome gongs. the boys absolutely loved that. thank you shangri-la.
we got a real nice room, on the ground floor, easy for us to walk to the beach and pool and near the gym for hubby. absolutely love it. i thought there's an L-shape sofa in the room for amir and asyraf to sleep but the sofa in the room was big enough for three boys to sleep on.
we quickly changed and brought the boys down to the beach and pool before they started tearing down the room. they loved the beach and the slides at the kiddie pool. we spent over an hour at the pool before the lifeguard asked everyone to leave as it was getting dark.
once we got back to the room, the boys' tummies were grumbling so we left for dinner at the nearby gayang seafood restaurant. i planned to have dinner at jesselton point but the boy's tummies had the final say. waiting for food was a torture but the food was so delicious, we forgotten the waiting time. highly recommend this place but be ready to wait for the food.
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