The next couple of days were spent by the side of the Kinabatangan river to explore the wildlife and birds. So exciting!
Where am I staying?
Myne Resort, literally in the middle of nowhere, and a beautiful resort at that. A lovely dining area where we were all hanging out and eating all our meals. The rooms were scattered around (mine was waaay up these flights of stairs), and big at that. The only thing – and completely understandable (in the middle of the forest, next to a river, in a place where it rains everyday) was the mold in the bathrooms – not good!!! I did give my constructive feedback before I left 😬.
Ratings?
- Grubbiness factor: very high due to mold in bathroom
- Bed: 8/10. Lovely – and I had a choice 🙂
- Shower: 0/10. See first point. I wasn’t impressed and spent as little time as needed in there.
What did I eat?
Breakfasts in the hotel were pretty extensive – as were all other meals. All meals were included – as we were so secluded we couldn’t just walk down the road to a restaurant. The breakfasts were a variation of the pic below – interesting to have French fries for breakfast! I basically stuck to beans on toast and that was it. The ‘local fruits’ were basically papaya (which I enjoyed) and watermelon (which I didn’t).
Lunches and dinners were the same – a buffet, with at least 2 veggie options that I could eat. With rice. One night we had coconut tofu which was quite nice. Lots of greens,raw salad and loads of garlic and ginger. Very tasty – at first I thought it was the garlic and ginger – and then it dawned on me after a couple of meals.. M S G. Oh no. I was pretty intolerant to it a few years ago, but bizarrely over the years, the tolerance was manageable – until now. Now it came back with a vengeance. I suspect it is the minimal doses I’ve been having over the past few weeks that have been building up. And because it was ‘bulk buffet catering’, I unfortunately couldn’t walk into the kitchen and demand an alternative.
I actually started feeling the effects – constructed throat, headache, nausea – seriously people, this was not in my head. So I basically stopped eating for a day, and ate very little the next and that helped immensely. Big shame since the food looked really good. STOP using MSG!
What did I do?
We stopped at the Sabah Tea Plantation, the only one in Sabah. We had a lovely guide from the plantation who walked us through the the whole tea making process, and we ended in the restaurant for a tasting session. Tea flavoured naturally with herbs and leaves. Pandan (my favourite), geranium (alright), lemongrass (sadly vile), and a few more for general wellbeing, including a natural viagra. Hehe. There were also amazing views of Mt Kinabalu. I Really enjoyed spending time in this place.
I did buy some packets of tea – some lose leaf and the pandan flavoured one. One of the girls bought some tea biscuits – which were actually quite horrible. Did not like them one bit.
So onward to the river the main reason why we were there. We would go out twice everyday to check out the wildlife. I loved it. On a boat, racing up and down the river, bird watching – amazing hornbills!! Monkey watching – we saw wild orangutans!!!! And Pygmy elephants!! It was truly excellent. The only time it wasn’t truly excellent was when it rained one day when we were on the boat. It was torrential – same as on the walk – but rain when you’re on a speeding boat is painful and prickly. I was so glad to be back in the resort! Not only did I see so much on the river, the resort was also a hotspot. Lots of giant moths, wild boars – I cannot complain. Not at all.
Back in the lap of nature, where I am happiest, and this place was no exception – dodgy bathroom and MSG laced food aside, this place was beautiful. I didn’t see as much wildlife as I have in other countries with the same environmental set up (Costa Rica, Madagascar), but it was still so very worth it.
PB Eats, PB Travels 