Spending the Nights (and Day) in KK

On our first night at Kota Kinabalu, after checking-in, we immediately had to take a bath because it was so humid and we just had to freshen up. We just ordered room service.


After eating, we decided to go down to the beach and Grace ordered us a bottle of Chardonnay.


The plan was to to drink by the beach but the mosquitos were killing us so we took the bottle up to our room and continued drinking there while watching Australia. I love Hugh but Australia is such a bore. Just when I thought it was ending, the movie just continues on and on....Let's just say that Grace fell asleep while watching it, here she is still with her eyeglasses on but already asleep haha! She will definitely kill me if she knew I posted this one.


After a few more minutes I decided to sleep as well. Okay, we can blame that one on the wine and not on Hugh. The next day, we had buffet breakfast at Shang's Café Tatu.


We then went for a swim. Do you see that lone person in the pool? That's Grace who missed the waters in NY. It's her first swim after almost two years.


But I was feeling a bit woozy, still because of the wine the night before, so I just decided to sit back and relax by the pool. It was only then that I realized how fun it was to just sit by the pool haha. I always thought of why other people just lounge by the pool and don't take a swim, but that time I found it so fun and at the same time peaceful just sitting there, listening to my Ipod and watching people. Grace went up to our room to wash up but I decided to stay. And then I saw this..



The hotel provides different activities for their guests, and on our first day they had water exercise in the morning. Grace and I signed up for the cooking demonstration in the afternoon but we weren't able to come back for that since we went to the city center (but I'm getting ahead of my story). Anyway, after I washed up, Grace and I decided to go to the city center because I told her we can eat in Sedco Complex where they serve fresh seafood, the one where we ate in the last time I went there. The cab from Shangrila to the city center is fixed at RM15. Unfortunately, the place was closed during lunch hours. So we rode another cab to the Waterfront (good thing I still remember some of the places in KK) and had our lunch there.


Shout out to Anna, I wore the gift that you gave me. :)

As in my first trip there, we met a lot of Filipinos. One of them is the server in the restaurant at the Waterfront Esplanade. Funny 'cause when he found out we were Filipinos he gave us that kind of "Why am I trying so hard to speak in English when you are Pinoys" face haha. Most of the other patrons that were eating were Caucasians and they all ordered beers in the middle of a hot day. I can't imagine drinking beer and then feeling hot because of the alcohol in that humid weather. After eating, we crossed the street to Warisan Mall and did a little bit of shopping. I scored a pair of Vincci shoes for just RM42 so that's just less than 600 pesos! Test rode it yesterday at work and got a lot of compliments.

We got back to the hotel a little after 4pm, so late for the 3pm cooking demo we signed for. So we tried to take a nap before heading out for happy hour at the hotel's Sunset Bar. We watched the sunset during happy hour and ordered a bucket of Stella Artois (4 cans) and some chicken wings.




It was already dark when we left Sunset Bar. We had a long conversation about work and career choices. I must have blabbed on and on to Grace about my frustrations while she also blabbed on and on about her frustrations. This vacation was really about us reconnecting again and be able to rant and rant about everything haha.