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.