#39 - A Nostalgic Return to the Island of Borneo

After leaving the island of Java, we happily walked down the memory lane that is the island of Borneo, where we had lived as a family for 5 1/2 years (2008-2013).  We flew to the northeast corner of the island to Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia, a city where we had spent many fun family vacations. After a few days in Kota Kinabalu, Tera and Anna took a service trip to Cambodia with Jen and Emily Kelly and a good friend of ours from Brunei, Linda Franks, and the rest of the crew went to Brunei to spend a few days. Tera, Anna, Jen & Emily joined us again in Brunei just in time for an overnight trip to the rainforests of Temburong National park, and then we parted ways with the Kellys. They headed back to Bali and we continued on in Brunei for a weekend visit to our old house and neighborhood in Panaga.  It was so fun to reawaken old memories and make some fun new memories along the way.

 
Highlights:

1. Returning to the Nexus Resort in Kota Kinabalu
2. Downtown city day in Bandar
3. The luxurious Empire Hotel
4. Ulu Ulu Temburong Resort
5. Panaga memories

Lowlights:

1. Scuba Diving in 5 ft visibility waters of Kota Kinabalu
2. Waning activities at the Nexus

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Highlights:

1. Returning to the Nexus Resort in Kota Kinabalu – We spent a few nights at the Nexus Karumbunai resort about 30 km northeast of KK, and it was the first of places for the kids to exclaim, “I remember this!”  We did batik painting, played on the life-size chessboard, swam in the pool, ate at the buffet, spent an afternoon at the spa, soaked in the sunrise & sunset walks on the beach, and played Jenga and Pool and Scrabble and Mancala.  When we lived in Brunei, this was a resort that we would vacation to often – a great place to play in the pools and beach and relax and play together as a family. It was great to do it again.
2. Downtown city day in Bandar – In the capital of Brunei, we spent a sightseeing day, visiting the Golden Mosque and renting some quad-bike trolleys to ride along the river. We walked along the boardwalk paths of the water village “Kampung Ayer.” We took a boat ride through the scenic waterways to the mangrove forests in search of Proboscis monkeys. Not much seemed to have changed in the "big city" of downtown Bandar Seri Begawan.
3. The luxurious Empire Hotel – The following day we checked in to the Empire hotel for a day and a half.  Once again, the kids exclaimed time after time, “I remember this!”  The grand lobby, the lagoon swimming pool, the swim up bar with the coconut Mango bomb cocktail drinks, the amazing views and sunsets . . .  We spent a few hours in the gym area playing pool, ping pong, bowling and basketball, and took in a movie at the Empire Theatre.  Once Tera and Anna joined us, we all took high tea for dinner in the lobby, a charming tradition for us. 
4. Ulu Ulu Temburong Resort – Our last days together with the Kellys were spent in the rainforests of Brunei in the Temburong district. We took the public water taxi service from Bandar to Temburong, through the 50 km of mangrove forest, crossing into Malaysia and back again into Brunei waters. Then we took the iconic local outboard longboat ride up the river to the national park, upstream speeding through rapids and still water.  We went kayaking in the river, played more pool (who knew we hit so many 8 balls on this Southeast Asia trip), went tubing through the small rapids (downstream this time), and hiked into the forest to a waterfall and natural fish spa swimming hole. The laughter and giggles and hoots and hollers from the kids being nibbled on their toes by the fish was priceless. The nighttime nature hike caught me a glimpse of a tarantula the size of my outstretched hand. The sunrise climb to the aluminum scaffolding overlook towers was a first for us (we’d done the scaffold walk many times before, but never at sunrise). The trip was fantastic and a fun way to end our month of traveling with our dear friends.
5. Panaga memories – I could make quite a long list of all the things we did in Panaga that we loved, but visiting the kids' old schools, and the Panaga recreation club (with it's spectacular beach sunsets & delicious restaurant food), and our old house ranked among our favorite. We saw quite a few people who we remembered from our time there, and reminiscing about old times and how things have changed (or not) is always great. Rounding the corner and realizing that nothing had changed in our family house & garden of 5+ years brought such a wave of nostalgia. We could totally picture still living there! We knocked on the door, and the current residents let us look around, even reminding us of the square of concrete that we had all put handprints in when we built some extensions there back in 2009. 

 
Lowlights:

1. Scuba Diving in 5 ft visibility waters of Kota Kinabalu – With so many freshly certified divers, we decided to do another day of diving upon arriving in KK. There were things we really enjoyed seeing (octopus, sting rays, puffer fish, coral, etc) . . . . but the visibility was downright awful. Add to that a dive guide who seemed to have better things to do than be diving with us (like playing with bubbles he was trapping in a plastic cup), and it made for a less than stellar day. To pour salt on the wound, we had made deposits for the three youngest girls to dive, but at the last minute they decided to stay back and play in the pool, and we lost the deposits . . . . Good thing there was great company above the water, the weather was beautiful and the water warm.
2. Waning activities from the Nexus - While we greatly anticipated, and still really enjoyed, our return to the Nexus, some of our favorite activities had gone away. Water-skiing, which was highly valued memory, was gone. The tandem bikes were gone. The catamaran sailing vessel was gone. One of the pools was now only for adults. It was a bit of a downer to not be able to relive those memories, but change is something we all go through - even hotels like the Nexus.