Being stuck at a hotel in the middle of nowhere with an afternoon flight has one, generally positive, side effect: you end up getting a lazy day. True, I hate these days normally, but Filipino cities have taken too much out of me, so it was a day to just stretch my bones and do much of nothing.
With no restaurant nearby serving anything Filipino and Kris enjoying a lie-in, it was two 7-Eleven trips for snack foods. She'll smile when she reads this, but she is a fast food junkie. Anything fried or in a bag is fair game. Steamed rolls with adobo pork, or even a hot dog with Filipino sausage gets scarfed up pretty quickly.
We called a hotel taxi as there were no actual taxis in the town and were dropped of at the airport two hours early. At this airport this seemed like a total waste of time (since the check-in opened late and they were letting on board twenty minutes before the flight), but actually all the procedures, the double security screening (which was very lax anyways with a door open to the outside from the "safe zone"), paying the departure tax and immigration control took a long time. So with a peace of mind I was actually glad to be there early.
We spend the remaining pesos on some decent food (Filipino friend pierogi or as Kris prefers empenadas), beer and some trinkets. My souvenir out of the Philippines are three local cigars, hopefully smokeable. And off we went.
HELLO BORNEO! HELLO SABAH, WESTERN MALAYSIA!
Even the missus noticed that we are in a slightly better off country. The airport looks so much nicer, everything is ways cleaner here that the dirt filled streets in the Philippines. People seem calmer, nicer somehow, more trustworthy. The last one will come out in the wash (although on my last trip to Malaysia I didn't have any unpleasant experiences with scammers). The culture is Muslim, with a lot of women walking around wearing headscarves. But no burkas, which is a good thing because it would be a pity to hide all these female faces.
Our taxi to the hotel ended up costing quite a bit more than expected. A fair price, just the hotel was 20km out of the airport. And here comes time to review Tune Hotels in general a second time around.
We checked in to 1 Borneo Tune hotel and nipped out for dinner in the near mall. 1Borneo is a huge, sprawling mall in the north part of town. Such Asian gems as bubble tea or K-TV (karaoke TV) are present here, along with such perennial favorites like Starbucks and McDonald's. For our dinner we picked something reminiscent of Viking in Poland: a huge array of dishes ready to be served. Krysia went for Penang style noodles, myself, some seafood dish of course. This time she was a definite winner, her noodles were scrumptuous, while mine barely contained any seafood at all. We booked transport to the airport for tomorrow at 5 in the morning. One thing that strikes you right away: Malaysia is significantly more expensive than the Philippines. Taxis / transport is more expensive than Poland, yet alone alcohol (which makes sense for a Muslim country). A thought I had was: we didn't drink enough in the Philippines.
With no restaurant nearby serving anything Filipino and Kris enjoying a lie-in, it was two 7-Eleven trips for snack foods. She'll smile when she reads this, but she is a fast food junkie. Anything fried or in a bag is fair game. Steamed rolls with adobo pork, or even a hot dog with Filipino sausage gets scarfed up pretty quickly.
We called a hotel taxi as there were no actual taxis in the town and were dropped of at the airport two hours early. At this airport this seemed like a total waste of time (since the check-in opened late and they were letting on board twenty minutes before the flight), but actually all the procedures, the double security screening (which was very lax anyways with a door open to the outside from the "safe zone"), paying the departure tax and immigration control took a long time. So with a peace of mind I was actually glad to be there early.
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| Waiting for dinner with a cup of papaya juice |
HELLO BORNEO! HELLO SABAH, WESTERN MALAYSIA!
Even the missus noticed that we are in a slightly better off country. The airport looks so much nicer, everything is ways cleaner here that the dirt filled streets in the Philippines. People seem calmer, nicer somehow, more trustworthy. The last one will come out in the wash (although on my last trip to Malaysia I didn't have any unpleasant experiences with scammers). The culture is Muslim, with a lot of women walking around wearing headscarves. But no burkas, which is a good thing because it would be a pity to hide all these female faces.
Our taxi to the hotel ended up costing quite a bit more than expected. A fair price, just the hotel was 20km out of the airport. And here comes time to review Tune Hotels in general a second time around.
TUNE HOTELS - economical hotels based mostly in SE Asia. The reason for their economical price is mostly their remote locations from airports as well as general lack of amenities provided, and very expensive transport to town.
We checked in to 1 Borneo Tune hotel and nipped out for dinner in the near mall. 1Borneo is a huge, sprawling mall in the north part of town. Such Asian gems as bubble tea or K-TV (karaoke TV) are present here, along with such perennial favorites like Starbucks and McDonald's. For our dinner we picked something reminiscent of Viking in Poland: a huge array of dishes ready to be served. Krysia went for Penang style noodles, myself, some seafood dish of course. This time she was a definite winner, her noodles were scrumptuous, while mine barely contained any seafood at all. We booked transport to the airport for tomorrow at 5 in the morning. One thing that strikes you right away: Malaysia is significantly more expensive than the Philippines. Taxis / transport is more expensive than Poland, yet alone alcohol (which makes sense for a Muslim country). A thought I had was: we didn't drink enough in the Philippines.
Off to bed now, for we get an early start tomorrow.
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