Bungaraya Island Resort, Sabah - Day 1
Many of us are itching to travel again and staycation is the best compromise for now. So my partner booked a 3 days 2 nights stay at Bungaraya Island Resort located in Gaya Island. We decided to have our brunch at Pound located on the 1st Floor of Jesselton Mall since Jesselton Point is just beside the mall. We took a Grab ride from our home to Jesselton Mall (Grab fare - RM 8) and reached there around 11.15am.
The restaurant was quite empty when we arrived. I ordered nasi lemak ayam berempah (comes with coconut rice, sambal, fish cracker, pickled vegetables, egg and chicken), while my partner ordered nasi lemak daging rendang & sambal udang (comes with coconut rice, sambal, fish cracker, pickled vegetables, egg, beef and prawns). (Total bill RM 61.50)
Overall food was ok except for the pickled vegetables that has started to go bad. We informed the waiter and they wanted to change a new batch for us. Since both of us are not a big fan of pickled vegetables we told them it's all right. I feel the need to feedback to them so that other customers will not have the same bad experience as us. It's very important to maintain the freshness and quality of your food before serving it to your customers or else they will think twice in future before stepping into your restaurant.
We left the restaurant around 11.50pm and walked over to Jesselton Point. In less than 5 minutes we're there and patiently waiting for our boat to depart at 12.30pm. Finally our boat departed at 12.35pm and it's a slow 45 minutes boat ride. Before departure, resort staff sprayed our hand with hand sanitizer. Upon arrival at Bungaraya Island Resort, we were warmly welcomed by the resort staff and guess what? The same Caucasian guy who welcomed us at Gayana Marine Resort was there too. I guess he actually managed both the resorts.
They served us a welcome calamansi drink but it's just too sour for me. All the resort staff follow SOP by wearing a face mask. The Caucasian guy gave us a short briefing and reminded us to keep the door locked at all times due to mischievous monkeys. Later, one of the staff walked us to our room. Even though our room is quite a distance away from the beach, we can still hear the ocean waves crashing powerfully at night.
Our room is situated on a hillside so we need a little bit of momentum to go up the slope. They do have free buggy ride service but most of the time we decided to walk around the resort. Resort facilities include swimming pool, gym and spa. Sadly Echo Wellness Spa has closed down. There's a list of activities such as jungle tracking, sailing & paddle boarding, canopy walk, flying fox, kayaking, snorkeling, wine tasting and indoor activities such as board games, table pool and table card. Some activities are chargeable and some are free. You may refer to their website for the price list.
I love walking on the beach but not this beach because there's just too many sand flies. They attack people in swarms and once bitten the itching can be intense. It rained in the late afternoon and skies were filled with clouds with no sun. Since we only had brunch, we decided to have early dinner around 5.45pm. We ordered deep fried hybrid grouper (comes with local greens, young mango and Nam Jim sauce), salted egg prawn (deep fried prawns, salted egg, curry leaves and bird's eye chilies) and spinach (cooking option: garlic / superior sauce with century egg). Surprisingly food turned out to be good. However, service is very slow. We waited more than 40 minutes and not to mention we were their first customers of the night!
I wanted to try their dessert and ordered chocolate fondant (served with Haagen-Dazs chocolate ice cream). Guess what! I have to wait another half an hour for my dessert. Taste wise is good but a rather small portion. I was hoping for the chocolate fondant to be hot but it's not and it collapse when they try to unmold it. Basically they just served me a collapsed chocolate fondant. Not very happy with my dessert but luckily dinner taste good.
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