Day 41: North to the beach

After so many busy days in a row, we'd decided that it was time for a mini beach break! Surprisingly, we hadn't been to the beach since Bali and had only swum briefly a couple of times at the pool in Jakarta. So it was high time for one. The night before we'd found a hotel, booked two nights, and found a cheap bus that would take us there.

So we packed up, breakfasted at an Indian restaurant around the corner (we had roti canai, not curry!) and walked off to find the shuttle bus leaving the Pullman Hotel at 10:15am. Arrived at 10am to be informed that it doesn't leave from there anymore, maybe try the Hilton? So we walked quickly to the Hilton, and they told us it left from the Grand Margherita Hotel. So we walked over there, and thankfully the shuttle bus was actually there! By now it was 10:15, so we jumped on board and off we went.

The bus ride (well it was actually just a crappy old Toyota Hiace van) took about 45 minutes heading north. We were heading to a small place called Damai Beach, on a peninsula jutting out into the sea north of Kuching. The ride itself was fairly uneventful, although the gloomy skies turned to rain not long after we hit the road.

We arrived at the hotel at about 11:30 during a heavy downpour and checked in. Check in time here isn't until 3pm (!!) so we decided to have an early lunch while we waited for our room. The hotel/resort itself is huge, probably around 250 rooms, but appeared to be very empty. We had lunch in the cavernous restaurant (with 3 occupied tables), neither of our first choices available from the menu. The food was okay, but expensive for what it was - I guess staying at a resort means you're stuck paying their prices!

The rain eased off to a light sprinkle by 12:30 when we finished, and our room was thankfully ready by now! So we wandered in. The reviews of the hotel online specifically mentioned that the rooms weren't that great and they were right - probably 10 years old, shoddily constructed and without a lick of maintenance done since. Things like light sockets hanging out of the ceiling, a mouldy water trail coming out of the air con vent, very poor finishing on the paintwork, lights not working. Oh well, it was cheap, and we weren't planning on spending much time in the room anyway.

Sat on the balcony for a little while before heading down to the pool in the drizzle. Had good swim and sat under a beach umbrella for a while before wandering around and exploring the resort. From what I can see, there's three main wings to the building and two of them are completely unoccupied. And the wing that is occupied is maybe 1/2 full. There's 4 restaurants/bars here but only one of them actually opens at the moment.

Checked out the beach which was quite nice, and had a chat to the lady running the dive shop. Prices quite high even by Australian standards so we decided to skip. Late afternoon we walked into "town" which is basically a small shopping village with a restaurant, a bar, some handicraft type shops, a 7-11 and a hawker style food court. Drinks at the bar were pretty expensive (18RMY / $6 AUD for a can of Tiger beer), so we had one each and then headed for the food court where we indulged in burgers and a plate of fries. This was more like it - total cost was 14 RMY / $4.75 ish AUD for the lot.

Thought we'd defeat the high alcohol prices at the bar and the resort by getting drinks from 7-11 and smuggling it back into the hotel (there are signs everywhere saying OUTSIDE FOOD & DRINK PROHIBITED, CORKAGE WILL BE CHARGED), but it was apparently the only 7-11 in Malaysia that didn't sell alcohol! Maybe they've got an "understanding" with the local resorts, or maybe they're a Muslim business and don't want to sell it.

Defeated, we wandered back to the hotel and chilled out on our balcony until bed. I'd started reading LA Confidential again after giving up partway through it last year, so I made some good progress on that. We don't have wifi in our room which is both a blessing and a curse. Hoping for good weather tomorrow!Read more