Palm Beach Resort – saskatoonie.com

December 8, 2022December 8, 2022

Palm Beach Labuan

Two Weeks In Paradise

Thursday November 24 was a travel day! We had our last breakfast at the Royale Chulan in Georgetown Penang and caught a Grab to the Penang airport. We are headed back to Labuan in East Malaysia. We were in Labuan earlier in our trip and really liked it.

We had two flights – Penang to Kuala Lumpur (a one hour flight) and then Kuala Lumpur to Labuan ( 2 1/2 hour flight ). We got to the Malaysian Airlines check-in and the gal tagged our checked bags as “hot transfer” items as our layover between flights is just over an hour. We had a bad feeling about that. We easily found our gate and settled in to wait. Our flight ended up delayed by almost an hour! Finally we got on board and took off. When we arrived in Kuala Lumpur we had approximately 15-20 minutes before our next flight took off. There was an attendant at the gate calling for us and they had a golf cart and driver waiting for us. They loaded us on the cart and zoomed off through the airport. As Gary said, we even had wind chill on the golf cart as the guy hustled us to the next gate. It was a long drive – we’d never have made it on foot! He dropped us at our gate and took off to save some other poor travellers! First ever golf cart ride at that speed in an airport!

The gates can be confusing in the Kuala Lumpur airport. We’ve witnessed and been part of several chaotic boarding calls as they change gates and then change back and load two planes at the same time at the same desk. For example in Kota Kinabalu airport, gate 6a and 6b use the same departure lounge making seating impossible for latecomers. We were worried they may already have started boarding our Labuan flight but once we checked with the desk they said there was a slight delay and they’d start boarding shortly. Turns out this flight was delayed at least 45 minutes. We finally arrived in Labuan around 6 pm. Sadly, despite being tagged as a hot transfer and even our second flight being delayed, our luggage didn’t make the flight. It was left in Kuala Lumpur! We spent sometime with the lost luggage gal filling out forms and as a result the Palm Beach driver and van (half full of people) had to wait for us making the other guests endure our pain. We actually know better to be prepared for the worst but once again we are caught with no deodorant or extra electrical plug adapter in our carry on. Malaysia uses these huge United Kingdom style plugs. To add to complexity the outlet is 220v and each outlet has a switch on it. We were better off than the other 2 guys at the luggage claim – they were travelling from Bangkok to Labuan and their luggage went to Japan by mistake! Supposedly, they wouldn’t see it for at least another 2 days if they were lucky!

We are staying at the Palm Beach Resort and Hotel for 13 nights. It’s sorta the resting part of our trip. No more running around and making tours happen for sightseeing. We get to spend our days either reading, soaking in the pool or walking along the beach and trees.

Today we walked about an 8 Km round trip down the beach. We walked by many families and groups parked at the beach enjoying the beautiful cooling breeze off the ocean. While it is quite hot, you would never know it along the beach in the shade of the huge trees. We stopped for mini donuts and a cold glass of lemon ice water at one little restaurant. We passed a group barbecuing under the big trees. On the way back towards the hotel we walked by the same group again and they all said hello again. They offered us a taste and we stopped to sample the food. We were offered chicken wings and chicken butt (they are all washed out and clean) nicely barbecued. Gary tried a chicken wing and Linda took a nibble. It was delicious. We declined the butts. Maybe someday. They were a very friendly group of work colleagues out for a Sunday barbecue at the beach. We of course got asked the usual questions like “where are you from sir?” The usual “Canada” reply. We are an anomaly and stick out like a sore thumb. While deep down we know this, we don’t feel out of place, not too much at least. Although Gary is wearing a bright orange shirt on this day, we don’t really feel like fish out of water, at least not too much.

The locals are so friendly here and the usual question is “why would you come to this tiny island?” They don’t know what they have here because it is all they know. If Labuan wasn’t so far from Canada and especially Saskatoon, the place would be flooded with snowbirds. It’s not easy to get here but once you do the price is right, the climate is amazing, and the people are welcoming.

November 10, 2022November 10, 2022

Leaving Labuan

See the picture above?

Why would we leave?

We had an amazing 8 days at Palm Beach Resort & Spa. We had some gorgeous days of sunshine and rain later in the day and a day or so of overcast rainy weather. We thoroughly enjoyed the resort, pool, and walks on the beach.

When you get to the bottom of this blog please click the link to see the last blog page you may have missed.

We did connect with Gary’s brother’s namesake and the three of us went for supper Saturday, November 5. He picked us up at the hotel and took us to a small local “authentic” Malaysian restaurant. We had Nasi Kerabu Ayam Berempah. It was blue rice covered with a curry sauce, fried chicken, fried coconut, some cabbage, green hot sauce and half a salted egg. It was pretty tasty, even better if you mixed it all together! The translation of “Nasi Kerabu Ayam Berempah” in English is “Spicy Chicken Kerabu Rice”. What is Kerabu Rice? It’s blue coloured rice. The blue colour of the rice comes from the petals of Clitoria Ternatea flowers, which are used as a natural food colouring in cooking the rice. The same natural colouring is also used in Thailand for rice and blue drinking water.

We learned a few helpful tips about eating at Malaysian roadside restaurants. When you grab your utensils, you place them in a cup of hot water to clean them. They could be dusty so this will make them clean. There is usually a sink in the restaurant area to wash your hands. A box of Kleenex serves as napkins.

David was amazed we ate all the hot sauce as he finds it too much!! We thought it was great. After supper we headed over to the Rusty Blade bar which is part of the Red Onion restaurant located at the golf course. We’d eaten in the Red Onion one night but didn’t realize there was a bar down the side of the building or along the edge of the pool. We enjoyed a few beer and good conversation! It poured rain most of the evening but it didn’t dampen our spirits and we had a great time. Thankfully by the time we headed home it had pretty much quit raining and made driving much easier.

Mr. T.K. Chai, the owner/manager of the resort sat and visited with us several mornings while we had breakfast.

It is always interesting to chat with some of the locals and learn more about their country and culture. One of our last days there we were chatting about the fruit that is available and we mentioned how we love the red fleshed dragonfruit. Turns out his brother grows it and he swears it is the best variety (Miri variety named after the town of Miri in Sarawak Malaysia just south of Brunei). He made a quick phone call and had his brother drop off 3 beautiful dragonfruit for us to enjoy.

Tuesday, Nov. 8 we packed up and caught the shuttle to the airport. Our flight to Kota Kinabalu was at 1:30 with boarding supposedly at 12:30. We got the shuttle to the airport at 10:45 and arrived at the airport. After figuring out where the check in counters were we drug our luggage over and put them thru the scanner only to have the lady tell us we couldn’t check in until after 11:40. She did mark our bags as security scanned so we didn’t have to do that part again. At 11:40 she called over to us where we were sitting waiting and said we could go thru. We got our boarding passes and then headed upstairs to the next security checkpoint and gates – only to be told they weren’t open until 12:30!! So we finally found an elevator and ended up down at a McDonalds and had some fries and a coffee. We finally got on the plane and left promptly at 1:30. It was a 35 minute flight. As soon as the seat belt light went off the 2 flight crew went into overdrive and served snacks and a drinks. Only a few minutes later they picked up all the garbage. Soon after they were seated for landing!! Better service than we get on any short haul flight at home. This flight cost us $56 CAD each for a one way fare.

We arrived at the Ming Garden hotel in Kota Kinabalu about 2:30 pm and got checked in. Our room is ok, downside is it overlooks a major freeway and is much nosier than our room in Labuan. It’s back to big city life and all the noise that comes with it. We unpacked and then caught a Grab to the El Centro Restaurant, a small Mexican restaurant. Tonight’s meal was a shared order of chicken fajitas and 2 buckets of beer (4 cans per bucket). The beer that we didn’t drink, we put in our backpack and brought them back to the hotel. Luckily there was a 7-11 right across the street from the restaurant so we picked up some large bottles of water, snacks and beer to take back to the hotel to have on hand. Sadly the bed isn’t that great as we found out when we got ready for bed. Gary felt like he had a spring stabbing him all night so he didn’t have that great a sleep. When we headed down for our breakfast this morning we asked for a different room – one with a better bed and not facing the busy street! They will move us but we have to wait for the guest to check out and the room to be made up. The breakfast buffet was ok but it is far busier. The fruit was totally gone when we got there although before we were done they finally brought out fresh watermelon and pineapple. It was some of the sweetest pineapple we’ve had so far. It’s a way different vibe here though, it is a large indoor hotel dining room compared to The Palm Beach where we sat on the outdoor patio looking at the ocean and greenery while eating! It may not be easy but we’ll adjust!

We have been in touch with a tour guide (friend of David) regarding some tour options. Gary has also been in touch with a dive centre that was recommended to see what options are available for him to dive.

We got our new room and it overlooks the river. The only traffic is motor boats. The bed seems better.

If you got to this point in our blog, thanks for reading! For some reason we got very low views recorded on the last blog post, if you missed it Please -> Click Here There is a video of breakfast buffet at the Palm Beach Resort and Spa.

November 3, 2022November 3, 2022

Beach Vibe

Welcome to Palm Beach Resort

With the internet so poor at the previous hotel we spent extra money on our cell phone data plan to upload videos. Overall the Tiara Hotel’s internet wifi gets a zero rating. The internet just didn’t work. Disappointing! Check out the tour of our new hotel room at the Palm Beach Resort below. Also, the internet works like a charm at the Palm Beach!

October 31st, we moved to the Palm Beach Resort at the north end of the island. We got to Palm Beach Resort about noon. We were fortunate that they had our room ready. We checked in to 2317 which is room 317 in the 2nd building. What are the odds of having the same room number at two different hotels in a row? More strange things to come in a bit.

We spent some time getting unpacked, logging in to wifi, and getting to know the place. We checked out the pool which was being cleaned and closed until 3 pm. We went for a walk on the beach instead. When we got back to our room we decided to take the hotel’s free shuttle bus to town. We went to the lobby to register in advance. The shuttle was scheduled to leave at 4:15 pm and return back to the hotel at 7 pm. Perfect timing for us to get Indian food once again at JJ Nazar restaurant.

While in the lobby with almost an hour to kill we decided to take in high tea. The future diabetic version available here is chocolate hi tea. We ordered tea and ended up with coffee, but given the time restraint we drank the coffee. The hi tea tray was a sight to see! Chicken satay (2), bruschetta (2), churros (4) with chocolate dipping sauce, cream filled chocolate cake (3), white cakes covered in chocolate and flaked coconut (2), chocolate cream tarts with a chocolate crust (2), chocolate dipped bars or fudge (2) and candied orange slices (4). All that for 39.90 MYR which is a mere $11.50. Peanuts compared to the cost of diabetes! It was so sweet, what seemed like a brilliant and economical idea almost made us feel sick.

Once we were done eating we paid the waiter and caught the shuttle to town. We enjoyed another great Indian supper but we definitely had an underlying blah, sickly sweet feeling. When Gary went to pay the bill he noticed a guy wearing red coveralls, the kind that look like Halliburton. He took a double take when he saw the guy’s name on his coveys – David Lawrence. Plain as day. He asked the guy if his name was really David and yes it was. A whole conversation ensued, the irony of meeting someone with your last name, written on his coveys and the name of your brother is beyond belief. We exchanged info and will see if we can get some tourist tips from Mr. Lawrence. Apparently he worked in tourism before starting work in the oil industry so was going to reach out to some of his former co-workers on our behalf.

As soon as we stepped out of the restaurant it started raining. We opened our umbrellas (a sound investment that has paid off many times). We have felt like Mary Poppins a few times when the wind picks up but so far these two bit umbrellas have not gone inside out! We walked back to the Financial Building, our pickup point for the ride home at 7 pm. We bought a few beer for our room as the location of our resort is a bit remote and there aren’t any shops nearby. It’s about a 15-20 minute ride from town back to the Palm Beach Resort and Spa. It rained on and off for the evening, a normal evening in Borneo during the rainy season. Keep in mind it doesn’t get below 25ºC here. As Canadians we are so conditioned to seeing grey stormy skies and wind and thinking it’s cool outdoors but in reality you walk out the door and get hit with a wall of humidity and heat whether it is cloudy or sunny! So far we have really enjoyed the weather, rain or shine. We have also enjoyed the the extremely friendly people here Labuan. They are very welcoming to foreigners. In fact, the waiter at the JJ Nazar Indian Restaurant gave us a warm welcome and had to shake our hands when he saw us return. We are so glad we came here.

November 3, 2022November 9, 2022

Peace at last

Breakfast at Palm Beach Resort

The Palm Beach Resort and Spa has been a good choice for us. The inclusive breakfast include in the room rate of $53 CAD per night price is perfect. The food here has been delicious. The meals that we have bought here have been super affordable. In fact, we likely could not make our own meals at home for any less. The added bonus is the staff are fantastic here. We are one of a few if not the only ones staying for more than one night. Most of the hotel business seems to be Malaysians on the weekend. We have seen a few business meetings, luncheons, and retreats here, but for the most part we have this place to ourselves. It’s great for us but not for the business of the hotel.

We were sitting at breakfast today and a man came over and asked us where we were from. Turns out he is the Manager of the Palm Beach as well as the Tiara Labuan Hotel and the Lazenda hotel in Labuan. We had a great conversation with him. He asked us for feedback and we asked him about things we wanted to know. He even mentioned that he saw us at the Tiara when we stayed there. It’s funny how we stick out here like a sore thumb. We don’t really feel like that but it seems to be. We had an interesting conversation with the grab driver one day, brown people want to be white and white people want a tan. He said many people even use skin bleaching lotions to look whiter. How sad is that, no one is happy with what they have!

After breakfast we spent a couple of hours at the pool. We snagged the only shady spot there otherwise it would have been unbearable. Since we were the only people at the pool, we had our choice of lounge chairs and social distancing. We had sunny blue skies today after the previous day of clouds and monsoon rain two days ago.

We got out of the mid day sun and spent some time in our room with a beer and a blog. Gary likes to watch a few favourite YouTube videos while Linda is looking at sewing things online.

The (non breakfast) meals we have eaten in the hotel have been really delicious at a price that is really economical. The options are the same for lunch or supper. Linda had a grilled cheese sandwich and it was good, the downside is that it was smothered in honey. Look at the plate, you can see the puddle.

Gary ordered fish and chips, we each had hot lemon tea for 38.60 MYR about $11.50 CAD. Another meal we ordered 2 Chicken Satay (chicken skewers), one plate of fries to share and 1 tiger beer each for 51.30 MYR about $14.80 CAD. Finally another meal Linda chose Sesame Honey Chicken, Gary had Curry BBQ Chicken with Rice, we each had a Tiger beer for a total of 46.40 MYR about $13.40 CAD.