Gayana Marine Resort, Sabah - Day 1
Yippee! It's another short weekend getaway and this time we are going to Gayana Marine Resort located in Gaya Island. We took a Grab ride from our place to Jesselton Point (Grab fare - RM 8). We registered our name, scanned our temperature at Gayana Sales & Reservations office located in Jesselton Point and waited for our boat to depart at 12pm. Before departure, resort staff sprayed our hands with hand sanitizer. Finally our boat departed at 12.10pm and it's a slow 25 minutes boat ride.
Upon arrival at Gayana Marine Resort, we were warmly welcomed by one of the resort staff playing traditional music on an array of gong-like instruments. They served us a welcome calamansi drink, one of the best thirst quenchers but it's just too sour for me that I couldn't finish it. All the resort staff follow SOP by wearing a face mask. They arranged a "giant fish feeding session" before they escort us to our room. So all the guests gathered around the pond and before we start feeding the giant groupers, the staff showed us how it's done.
We checked in at 1.15pm and our room comes with a private balcony which is facing the forest. Resort staff did remind us to keep the door locked at all times due to the mischievous monkeys. They can be aggressive at times. We walked around the resort and ended up at Macac Restaurant for tea break. We ordered coconut drink, curry puffs and ice cream. Coconut drink and ice cream is the best option for cooling down on a hot Saturday afternoon. However, I was disappointed with their curry puffs because it tasted a bit burnt. It's hard and over cooked. Not to mention it's not cheap! Would you pay RM 16 for 3 pieces of over cooked curry puffs? We didn't want to make a big fuss about it and just ate it.
While we're having our tea break, I saw a monkey stealing food from a group of guests sitting on the restaurant table! The monkey was so daring as he snatched the food from their plate and left the guests aghast. Same thing happened to a kid which was left alone by their parents with her food. Her fries was being snatched by a monkey. It happened so fast that the resort staff couldn't do anything about it since it's an open-air restaurant.
After our tea break we went to the Auditorium, waited for the 3.30pm video and guide tour. We waited for more than half an hour and to our disappointment none of the staff showed up! So we left the Auditorium and my partner went for his massage while I walked around the resort. I bumped into one of the resort staff, a Caucasian man and asked him about the video and guide tour which was supposed to take place at 3.30pm. I told him we didn't see any staff around and surprisingly he answered me "that's interesting". Instead of rectifying the problem and apologizing for their mistake, he asked me to join their next day session at 9am! Ended up we didn't get to watch the video and guide tour because we prefer to have our breakfast at 9am. We didn't want to be disappointed again for the second time.
My partner went for a quick shore snorkeling after his massage while I keep an eye on him since he's the only one snorkeling at that time. Visibility is too low that day and water is murky. Guess it's not a good time for snorkeling.
We decided to go for BBQ dinner for 2 person which consists of seabass fillet, sirloin steak, chicken & beef satays, chicken wings, prawns, chicken & beef sausages, Macac signature salad, potato salad, corn on cob, flame grilled vegetables, coleslaw, assorted sauces and condiments. Tasty food but the portion is rather small. So my partner ordered a plate of pan seared seabass with creamed spinach. He enjoyed that dish very much.
There's nothing much you can do at night so we went back to our room and watch TV instead. I slept early that night and woke up at 4am trying to capture the Milky Way with light pollution. My photos turned out to be very faint. I was alone at the balcony overlooking the forest and I heard grunting sound! The sound really creeps me out! So without hesitation, I quickly packed my photography gear and head back to our room...
Beautiful place. I think I needed a head and shoulder massage too.
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