We spent our last three nights in Borneo at the Gaya Island Resort. We wanted to end with a beach resort, but it wasn’t really the kind of beach resort I prefer.

We landed at the airport in Kota Kinabalu a short 45 minutes after takeoff from Lahad Datu. Another short trip in a taxi had us at the pier. A boat from the resort picked us up and we were at the resort in less than fifteen minutes. And that is what I didn’t like about it. When I go to a beach resort, I want to be further out, and harder to get to. And I really don’t want to see the mainland and the port from my room. But that is how it was.

The room was nice. The pool was nice. But it just didn’t really feel very beachy to me. We checked out the turtle rescue program, and saw the sun rise from our deck. The best part about the resort was the spa.

There wasn’t much beach, and there was quite a bit of floating debris (plastic) and warnings of jelly fish. We spent our days relaxing and saving up energy for the long trip home. I did swim in the South China Sea, something I’d not done before.

I can’t say I’d recommend this resort, unless eating and swimming in a pool is your idea of a beach resort. My sister and I both had a very good massage though. Our favorite part of the trip was the Borneo Rainforest Lodge and seeing the orangutans in the wild, being very far into the forest. And that was what I didn’t like about the beach resort. It was too close in. But this trip was mainly about seeing the wildlife, so that was great. The Malaysian people were all very nice. We saw quite a few cats, and it seems to be a cat culture. We saw a few skinny dogs, but not that many. I would do things a bit differently if I had to do it over again, but that is the case on almost every trip.