My return to KK...

Three days and my solo adventure begins. Three days and I will arrive at Kota Kinabalu (KK) for my own mini vacation.

The view from our poolside seats at Sutera Harbour last visit.

In January, Ridley and I visited this tropical location for a few days and stayed at the Sutera Harbour. It was a beautiful hotel that faced the South China Sea. We loved the few days we were there and had a lot of misadventures. First when we arrived I had arranged a surprise for Ridley thanks to the help from his sister Bel. He thought we were staying at a hotel in the middle of town, when in actuality I had booked us a room at the Sutera Harbour months before and informed our driver of our location. Ridley had no idea about the surprise and as we got into our prebooked cab he took over and started to tell the driver where our hotel was. The driver, even though he knew it was a surprise, became confused and said. "I thought you were staying at Sutera Harbour?" Which Ridley replied. "No, no we are staying at (whichever hotel I told him I had booked)." The driver persisted, Ridley became a bit irritated and finally I stepped in and said, "NO! We are staying at Sutera Harbour, surprise!" So, after a few laughs and an explanation on how I was trying to surprise him we were on our way to our hotel.

Me in Kota Kinabalu last January expressing my surprise after finding
a post card featuring our hotel.

Once we arrived at the hotel, Ridley and I went to the front counter to check in. Since he was in charge of booking flights and I was in charge of booking hotels I began to speak with the frontdesk staff and get the keys to our room. I had booked the hotel on-line from Canada and was given a confirmation number, which I apparently forgot to print out. However, I thought to myself, I've never been asked for a confirmation number I am sure it will be ok. So, I went to the counter, gave the staff my name and asked for a room. She asked for the confirmation number. Uhm. Great. I told her, "I'm sorry I don't have it." She then proceeded to tell me she couldn't give me a room until I gave her the confirmation number. So, I told her, I don't have the confirmation number , so either we can get a room or we leave and we find another hotel. At which point Ridley looked a bit shocked and I was proud of myself for standing my ground. I explained that I wasn't sure what she wanted me to do, if I didn't have the confirmation number, I didn't have the conformation number, there wasn't anything I could do. As this was all unfolding, Ridley was patiently standing beside me, letting me handle it on my own, which I was thankful. In the end, she gave us a room, even upgraded us free of charge and our min-vacation began. Sigh. After all of that we began to enjoy our few days in KK.

We had even more misadventures during our time in KK, including me having such a bad sunburn we went to the mall, straight to the pharmacy to get some aloe gel and right outside the store we stood applying the cooling lotion to my lobster skin. By the end of this particular day I was beat, my skin was burnt and I was done for the day. It was maybe 6 p.m. and I was ready for bed. And of course it was our last night so we had planned a nice dinner out at a seafood restaurant.  Ridley being understanding, took me to a seafood market to get take-out instead. Thank-goodness. So, as we stood staring at the tanks of fresh, live seafood, Ridley began to speak with the restaurant staff, picking out what we wanted. I had no idea what was going on. All I knew is we were getting food and going back to the hotel so I could eat and go to bed. Some exciting travel partner I had cracked up to be. As we waited for our food we stared at the unique types of seafood making every attempt to figure out what they all were, the largest tiger prawn I have ever seen in my life jumped, okay maybe flopped, out of the tank and landed inches, okay maybe a foot but it felt like inches, from my feet. I screamed. I ran and grabbed Ridley by the arm. People stared. Sigh. Now, not only were people staring at me because I was some lobster faced white girl, I was the lobster faced white girl who screamed in the middle of the outdoor restaurant because some measly shrimp flopped on the floor. But we laughed. We laughed a lot after the shrimp was safely put back into it's tank. I will remember that story forever.

So in three days I will head back to KK where we had some of our best misadventures. 

Wish. Me. Luck.

The infamous shrimp.

The reenactment of my reaction to the big shrimp flop.