Sungai Bandong

Another day for doing absolutely nothing! We decided yesterday that although we were supposed to check out today, we'd stay another night and just relax on the beach and at the pool. A little bit of confusion with the front desk trying to explain to people with limited English that we weren't checking out, but had already paid for an extra night via Expedia. But we got through eventually!

Breakfast again at the hotel restaurant (again completely empty aside from one other table). For whatever reason the tide seems much later today - I know it only shifts by an hour a day, but it seems to be a lot higher than it was 23 hours ago. There were also a few small waves coming in, obviously the current offshore was quite different and not getting as much protection from the reef or something.

Spent some time swimming in the water which although clean still isn't very clear. There are saltwater crocodiles on Borneo although supposedly not around here, but it's still hard to put them out of your mind! Especially with our trip to the Top End so recently in our minds. Back to the pool for a while where I finished LA Confidential and swam around for a bit.

Went into the town for a bite of lunch as we didn't feel like re-visiting the hotel restaurant. We shared a chicken & cheese martabak and a egg & onion roti canai, along with a pair of watermelon & mango juices. Much better value, only about 23 ringgit all up! For dessert we had an ice cream in a bun, which is exactly what you think it is. A scoop of ice cream, served in a bread roll. Interesting combo, but tasty!

Back to the hotel where we spent a little bit of time in the lobby using the internet (there's no in-room wifi, and I can only get a 2G mobile data connection while Shandos can't get data at all). It's oddly disconcerting having only very limited access, but it's definitely a good thing to tune out for a while. Internet urges sated, it was back to the beach and pool for the afternoon!

Didn't stay at the beach for long as it was low tide by now, and the beach isn't as nice at low tide. I found an enormous shard of glass in the sand (the size of an iPhone), and then after I'd put that in the rubbish bin I nearly stepped on a gigantic jellyfish. This thing was at least the size of a basketball, if not larger! No idea whether it was still alive or not, I don't know enough about jellyfish to even tell? You could also see right out at the water's edge a lot of little shoots coming up through the sand, which to me was a telltale sign that the beach was originally a mangrove swamp and had been cleared out for the hotel. The sand that far out felt quite muddy, the water was murky, and after my two unwanted discoveries we headed for the safety of the pool.

Stayed in the pool for quite a while until around sunset (nearly 7pm)! Overall the hotel wasn't as busy as the previous day, though a large tour group of Chinese showed up in the late afternoon and started spitting and yelling everywhere as Chinese are wont to do (I later found out they were from Taiwan, whoops). Went back to the shopping area for dinner and realised that underneath Escobar where we'd been the last two nights was another place called Reggae Beach Bar with exactly the same menu, only the prices were 20% cheaper. Go figure!

Had a beer here and then went to the food court for dinner - I had mi hoon (a fried noodle dish with spaghetti-like noodles), while Shandos had a char kway teoh. Back to the hotel around 8:30pm as a storm was brewing, happy with our nice little break and looking forward to continuing our journey.Read more