Be careful what you wish for

3.3.16
So today we said goodbye to Danny at Borneo Tribal Lodge which was sad and moved to Basaga Holiday Residence.
Borneo Tribal Lodge was great but we wanted somewhere with outside space and a pool for our last few nights before our 2 night jungle adventure and a last day of luxury before the long journey back to Turkey.

At first sight Basaga looked nice, surrounded by garden which I always like, with a smart restaurant bar area, and of course the pool, even though it was full of leaves- it wasn’t as though anyone was going to be going swimming in between monsoon storms anyway.

The staff waved us in the general direction of our room and left us to lug cases across, through the bar area, where we had to ask someone for directions. Then round like a back concrete alley of doors, with flagstones and gravel, not easy with cases, and through our door into the courtyard and into our small double room.
The room smelled damp and the high walled courtyard had nowhere to sit.

Danny had kindly organised Ronni, a taxi driver to take us there, its quite a way out of town. John said let’s do a national park as it wasn’t raining, so Ronni had dropped us at Basaga and waited while we checked in dumped our bags. Ronni drove us and by 11 am we were at Kuba National Park, about 30 minutes away.

We spoke to Ronni about coming back, and about getting to Permai Rainforest and Bako and he gave us all his prices.
We decided he’s the worst salesperson as he said we could get a bus back a shuttle to Permai and buses are on the hour to Bako !! He gave us his card in case we miss the bus later.

At Park HQ we paid our 20 rm each, and had to leave a passport number and sign.
We started with the waterfall trail which is about an hour when you finally get to the start point after a steep road climb.

The steep road climb is obviously an initiation as it was a cinch compared to the mud, little streams, tree roots, spider webs, rocks etc…

When we got near the waterfall the steps at the very last stage had broken, 2 guys were there fixing it but said they didn’t think they would get it done today.
John decided to brave it and despite losing his footing a bit he got to the next platform and continued and took a photo for me.

I’m gutted I didn’t see it, but I saw some of it

We had to turn back and go back almost to the start of the waterfall trail and then took the white trail which eventually leads back to the start point, it was very tough going.
The humidity was unbelievable, we both looked like drowned rats and I had a huge 80’s style perm but we thoroughly enjoyed the challenge and walked for 3 and a half hours.

We sat with some other tourists, while waiting for the bus back to Kuching, a  group of German girls, a guy from UK and a girl from Vancouver. Was nice to chat about where we’re all from, where we’ve all been etc, until they spotted a leach on their umbrella. It was incredibly hard to remove and quite a lot of squealing involved. One of the girls told us she got one on her stomach  during the walk.
Glad I didn’t know that at the start.

The bus journey was all OK, and as we got dropped back by the river we had to go for frozen drinks. The lady knows our order now. One high cholesterol no cream, one OK.

We decided to walk back to Basaga, it took 30 minutes and was nice to see the area beyond where we had been staying.
At reception I asked about the missing courtyard furniture.
She said actually none of the courtyard rooms have furniture. Its a concept.
I said I wasn’t happy about the damp either and she said she would try and upgrade us tomorrow, the problem is its rainy season so it gets damp.

While I was in the shower, a slow trickle affair, which is outside in the furnitureless courtyard, (something else she described as a concept)  I heard John drop something followed by a really loud meow!
There was a cat hiding by the side of the wardrobe. It wouldn’t come out, just crying really loudly.
John persuaded it out with his umbrella and then it got under the bed.So then he used a cupboard drawer to jack the bed up to poke the cat and get it out.
He got it out, and after hiding in our shower as the bloody ugly courtyard walls were so high, like a prison…, eventually he got it out the doorway.

Then the rain started hammering down and the toilet and basin area had a metal roof, we’ve had 4 nights of monsoon on metal roofs and John was less than pleased.
Then we discovered there’s no WiFi signal.
John was livid, and went off to reception. After discussing with the manager they said the WiFi doesn’t work in those rooms and offered a refund.

John came straight back and started packing while I found somewhere else to stay.
Thankfully we still have internet on our phones from the sim cards we bought in Penang.
Money in hand, another taxi and off to the the Grand Margherita.
As we pulled up Porters appeared, check in was just perfect.
Its dead posh, newly refurbished and John is still finding things, and trying them all.

We haven’t seen much of it yet as it was 8 pm by the time we got here and went straight off for food, almost opposite in a nice little bistro.
We did hear a Phillipino group singing Simply the Best in the bar though.

I had 3 different types of sausage, with a jacket potato with no jacket, probably another concept, and John had an Indonesian rice dish.

There’s a pool somewhere here, but I think the weather might be more suited to the bowling alley in the mall next door.
We’re very blessed to have the view of the cat statue too.

It’s nice to be in the centre of town actually.
I’m not a big fan of tall hotel blocks, but I am feeling very comfy and surrounded by luxury, no smell of damp and no metal roof.

Lovely.

Night night x