May 14, 2022: Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysian Borneo (Author: J)
The Shangri La’s location makes it a great base from which to explore the surrounding area, including Tunku Abdul Rahman Marine Park. But with only one full day at the hotel, we chose to relax and enjoy the resort’s amenities, rather than venturing out to explore.
We started our day with breakfast at Café Tatu, the resort’s buffet restaurant. The selection and quality of the food was amazing. Like Town at the Fullerton, Café Tatu had Western, Indian, Malay and Chinese options, but where the Fullerton had one or two selections in each category, Café Tatu had one or two tables of selections in each category. There were also several action stations, including an egg station and a teh tarik station. I feel confident in predicting that just about anybody will find something to like at the Café Tatu breakfast. We were sad that our early departure the next morning meant only one chance to sample the selections.
After breakfast, we went up to our room to put on our pool gear. The plan was for P and I to swim while D visited the spa for a massage. We arrived at the pool just as it was opening. P and I were some of the first to jump in. The pool area at the Shangri La is nicely situated overlooking the ocean and features a large pool, several slides, and a water play area. Every time that I book a hotel with a waterpark, I imagine P having a ball on the slides. Then we get to the hotel and I am reminded that P hates waterslides. He refused to even try the slides at the Shangri La, so I decided to give them a try myself. The slides were fun and offered mild thrills suitable for most anyone – except P, of course.
P and I spent most of our time in the pool swimming and playing with a beach ball that we purchased from the beach toy cart near the pool. The fun came to an end when I decided to get out of the pool to dip my toes in the ocean and take some beach pictures. My camera chose that moment to die. The lens jammed halfway between open and closed, the camera flashed an error message, and that was it. I thought that perhaps new batteries would help, so I ran back to the room for those. Unfortunately, the battery change had no impact, so I decided to shop for a new camera. I learned that the Shangri La does not sell them, but I was able to find a camera store in town with some affordable options in stock.
While I had been desperately trying to fix my camera, P had been swimming on his own. His patience for that was beginning to run out. We decided to head to lunch. As we were drying off, D returned from his massage. We headed to Coco Joes, the outdoor bar and grill, as a group. Coco Joes has mainly Western style food. P ordered pizza, D ordered shrimp, and I had the veggie burger. My burger was very enjoyable; it was topped with beet relish, jalapenos, and a creamy dressing, making for a nice combination of sweet, spicy and creamy flavors. Service was also excellent.
After a leisurely meal, we went up to the room to change. I was planning to call a Grab to go camera shopping. On a whim, I gave my camera another try before heading out. It turned on! Since the camera seemed to be in working order, I decided not to spend the time or money on a new camera. (This turned out to be a mistake because the camera lens repeatedly jammed throughout the rest of the trip and there was nowhere to buy a replacement once we left KK).
Good service at a hotel is often difficult to describe in words because it is often small, unobtrusive touches that make your overall experience great. But what happened next provides a very nice illustration of the level of service at the Shangri La. I checked my phone to find a What’s App message from the concierge. They had noticed that we had an early transfer to the airport the next morning and were reaching out to arrange a wakeup call and complimentary box breakfast. I was delighted to say yes to both offers and used the opportunity to let the concierge know how much we were enjoying the resort and how sad we were that we could not stay another day.
We did very little for the rest of the afternoon. P watched some soccer on TV while I repacked our suitcases and did some bird watching from our balcony. Eventually, we convinced P to leave the room to play some pool and air hockey in the game room. After that, we made a quick visit to the hotel’s clown fish discovery center, a sad room of barren tanks full of fish. Then, P headed back to the room for more TV while D and I took a walk along the beach. As we were watching the ocean, we were approached by a local who was excited to see foreign tourists back in KK. He told us a bit about his time studying in the US in the 70s, chatted with us about the US NBA basketball playoffs, and shared his insights into Malaysia’s government. (His opinions were of the sort that you would expect from that one uncle – you know the one — at Thanksgiving here in the US). He was very interested to hear where we were headed after KK but seemed almost disappointed when we told him we were heading to Sandakan the following morning. “Haven’t you seen orangutans in zoos?” he asked. Then, after a thoughtful pause, he said, “The problem with the wildlife here is that no one has trained it.” When we didn’t respond, he continued. “Have you been to Thailand? They teach the monkeys to dance there. That’s what we need here, but we don’t have the skill to train them.” “It’s not so much skill,” I replied. “They just give the animals a good beating.” Our new friend didn’t know how to respond. I was tempted to say more about how seeing animals in the wild was the main attraction for us, but I didn’t want to be too rude, and I really wasn’t sure if the dancing monkeys remark had been a joke. We transitioned back to the safer topic of basketball. Eventually, we made our excuses and headed back to the room to find P.
Our family has a vacation tradition of playing cards at the hotel bar before dinner and we attempted to continue that tradition at the Shangri La. For this particular trip, we had purchased a deck of cards with pictures of dachshunds, which meant that we could start each game with jokes about playing with wieners. Yes, we are very mature. Unfortunately, the lobby bar was closed – I assume due to staffing issues – and wind made it impossible to play cards at the beach bar. We gave up on the wieners and headed for an early dinner at Shang Palace, the resort’s Chinese option. Even though it was a Saturday night, the restaurant was mostly empty, save a few tables of guests there for peking duck (which requires preordering). We ordered a selection of items from the a la carte menu, including braised bean curd, mock chicken in sweet and sour sauce, and vegetables with fermented bean curd sauce. We wrapped up a nice meal by sharing a few desserts. This was one place where supply chain issues seemed to come into play because several items on the dessert menu were unavailable.
After dinner, we headed back to the room to relax; with a 4 a.m. wakeup call the next morning, an early bedtime was in order.
Travel Monkeys 