I selected the Nexus Resort and Spa in Karambunai, which is a 6 star resort and costs 15,000 php (300 British Pounds) per night for a Villa with private garden and private beach.

We flew from Manila to Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia on Monday with Cebu Pacific, an excellent budget airline. We never use AirPhil Express since they totally screwed up on numerous occasions.

We arrived at the airport to meet Mai, our business assistant and a large, dark cloud was hanging over Manila.

The flight was delayed for an hour and a half due to a problem with the plane. Cebu Pacific quickly pulled another plane to use for us, which caused the delay. I do not mind. I would rather be safe than sorry and for a cancelled and substitute plane, it was very quick. Also, our terminal was right next to the smoking lounge where they served whiskey, so I was more than happy to sit drinking whiskey and smoking while the plane arrived.

Prior to flying, we had booked our villa a few days earlier and they had taken almost two days to reply to my emails. I was on the verge of cancelling but decided to give them the opportunity to redeem themselves.

It was a late afternoon flight, but due to the delay, we did not take off until the sun was already setting. As we neared Malaysia, I got some shots of the pink clouds, the colour caused by the setting sun.

We landed 30 minutes early in Kota Kinabalu and our pickup was delayed due to traffic. I was already getting pissed off, but again, we were early and they had traffic. We were picked up and they profusely apologized for the inconvenience. It was not a major issue.

We arrived at the resort and were met by the manageress and other staff with a drink for us. I paid in full for the villa in cash for our entire stay. In total this was over $1200 for 4 nights and 5 days.

The manageress immediately redeemed the resort by offering extra upgrades and discounts for free. We were very happy. We went outside to the restaurant on the wooden boarded beach front. It was absolutely amazing.

We were then taken away in a van to our villa where again we were stunned at the size and style of the villa. It was nothing less than amazing.

The staff had laid our chocolates and fresh fruit for us. A very nice touch.

We settled in and began our stress free holiday.

Day 1

Our first full day. We decided to head for the city of Korta Kinabalu. To do this, we first got the shuttle to the main resort and then the bus to the city. The bus was run by the resort and I was absolutely amazed to see that the bus used 1 1/2 seat spaces for each seat. I am 6 foot 2 inches tall and on every bus I have ever used, my knees are jammed against the seat in front. On this bus, I could cross my legs and still had half a foot between my knees and the seat in front. I was absolutely amazed.

We wandered around the city, had a few drinks and bought some gifts, then went back to catch the bus back to the resort.

However, we read the times wrong and ended up at the pick up point an hour early. We went to a restaurant next to the pickup point and it had a group of Muslims (Malaysia is an Islamic country) who stared at us for a long time. However, I am a white guy with two brown chicks lol!

The bus arrived and we went back to the resort.

Day 2

We woke up early and went for breakfast at the beach front breakfast buffet. After having breakfast, we returned to our villa and went swimming in the sea.

We had planned our days so that we could do all we wanted. Today we were going to do water sports and painting.

In the morning, I sat outside and typed up some work. It had been raining a little and so I dragged the sun lounger into the sun to dry. Ian laid on the sun lounger when it had dried and listened to her iPod.

Later, we went to the main resort and booked the package so that Ian and I could be on one jet ski while Mai had her own jet ski.

The main resort consists of an absolutely huge building which contains all the main offices, shops, restaurants etc.

The wildlife is amazing and I managed to get some great shots which you can see below.

We were driven to the water park where Ian and Mai began painting. I went to look at the mangroves to see if I could get some photos or video of wildlife.

I was horrified to see a toxic dump in the mangroves which included tires, oil barrels, broken chairs, plastic bags and every other kind of garbage you could imagine. I quickly became annoyed and notified the management of the garbage. They explained that the high tide every evening brought in garbage and they cleaned it every month. Fair enough, but there were plastic bags in the mangrove trees as well as the toxic dump in the mangrove roots. I entirely understand that the garbage may wash in, but most of it was from the cafe and was absolutely obvious to anyone, including staff.

They immediately dispatched a team to clean it up, but there was just so much, they could not do it all. I walked around the back of the water park and found even more garbage. It is impossible that they could have not known about this. The resort had recently won an eco award so naturally, I was very annoyed.

I walked along the beach front and again it was a disgrace with garbage strewn all over. I took two videos, one of the mangroves and one of the beach front to show the manager.

Ian and Mai finished their painting and we asked to have the jet skis prepped ready for us to go out on them. To our horror, they explained that the entire resort only had one jet ski, yet when we booked, we had checked no less than three times that we would be able to go out together. I talked to the person whom we booked the package with at the main resort and they claimed they had told us that they only had one jet ski. Bullshit. Why on earth would such a large resort have only one jet ski? It was entirely insane. I cancelled the whole package, paid for the painting and asked to be taken back to the villa.

Check out the videos (above) and tell me if you think this looks like a 6 star premium resort who has won an eco award in a comment at the bottom of this post.

We went back to our villa, opened our 4 litre box of wine and got drunk in our private pool.

I decided that we would go to the resorts main pool which was close by and had a pool bar where we could get drunk and order food.

After drinking a lot and eating, we went home just as the sun was setting and got some great photos.

I woke up around 10pm and got up for a bit. Ian got up soon and had bites all over her that were swollen, burning and itchy. She went to bed again, but woke up in excruciating pain.

Day 3

I woke up to the sound of Ian in excruciating pain. Her bites had swollen up to the point that her elbow (where one of the bites was) was red, shiny and you could not see her elbow bone. She called reception who sent us to the resort doctors. The doctor was surprised at how quickly the bites had become swollen and prescribed 5 medicines, costing us 300RM (around 48 British Pounds/4500 Philippine Pesos).

I called the villa manager who came over and told me that her sister had stayed in this villa, used the same lounger and had the same bites and swelling. Yet, nothing had been done about it and this was a 6 star resort? WHAT THE FUCK! I checked for reviews online and found that other people had had the exact same problem. So, we knew that the resort management were aware of this and had done fuck all about it. Now I was pissed off. Ian was swollen on her wrists, elbows, shoulder blade, legs and knees. Everywhere that had touched the sun lounger.

The fact that Ian was in a lot of pain really pissed me off. I composed myself before I talked to the management. I never wanted to seem overly angry and both Ian and Mai were agreeing with my point of view on this issue. The management absolutely knew that this had happened time and time again, but they tried to fob it off as being Ians high temperature, but my temperature is always higher and I always get bitten more than anyone else wherever we go. They then tried to say it was yellow flies, but it clearly wasn’t as yellow fly bites do not swell like this, the managers sister stayed in the exact same villa and got bitten when she used the same sun lounger. The management told me that they accept absolutely no liability for insect bites, even if they came from bugs in their sun lounger. I entirely understand how they can claim that if the bugs were not in the sun lounger, but knowing that there was a history of bites from bugs in their sun lounger and not bugs in the air, it is compounding evidence.

The managers all came to our villa and checked Ian. They said that they were doing an investigation. They asked me to email them a formal complaint. The water park manager came over and I showed him the video of garbage at the water park and he entirely agreed that it was completely unacceptable.

Most of the day was a waste as Ian was in bed, drowsy by the medication and in pain.

Later in the day, we called the Spa and asked them to come to the villa. Ian had a manicure and pedicure, Mai had a pedicure and foot massage and I had a deep muscle massage.

Day 4

Our final day at the villa. We went for breakfast in the morning as Ian was feeling a bit better. She hadn’t taken her medication yet so was not too drowsy.

After breakfast, we went for a swim in the sea again.

We went back inside the villa, ordered wine and beer and went for a swim in our pool.

At 3pm, we were collected by a very nice van and drove us to the airport.

Here is the view of the villa from the private garden next to our private beach.

We checked in, went through security and found the smoking lounge which was an absolute fucking hell hole, and that is a severe understatement. As soon as I saw it I said “it’s worse than the Baghdad airport smoking lounge after the war” which was probably not a wise joke for a white guy to crack in an Islamic country.

The plane was delayed by over 2 hours. When it finally arrived, we boarded the plane and promptly took off.

As soon as the seatbelt sign was turned off and the stewardesses pushed their beautiful trolleys along the isle, we ordered food, drinks and a few cans of beer. Nothing beats drinking at 38,000 foot in a cabin pressured at 8,000 foot! A lot of people were using large notes to pay for their drinks and the stewardesses quickly ran out of change. I offered to change some money for them as I had around 9,000 pesos in 100 peso notes. Later, they came back and asked if I could change 100 dollars. I quickly thought “we are not in any countries jurisdiction, banking laws likely do not apply here and nor does currency sales regulations. Where else is this guy gonna get 100 dollars changed.”. So, I offered to sell this yank some pesos at a rate lower than the exchange rate. I would then have the 100 dollars changed at the bureau de change, giving me more than I sold the yank. Forever the businessman, even when drunk at 38,000 foot!

Apart from the water park and the bugs in the sun lounger, this was a freaking awesome and relaxing holiday.

Tomorrow morning I am going to Batangas, the same location that my favourite local coffee is grown. We will be staying on the beach, drinking, smoking and playing games in the sun.

I will return home late in the evening of Sunday the 27th.

After just two nights, I will be leaving early again on Wednesday 30th at stupid o’clock in the morning and heading to the airport to go to Hong Kong for the night. We have a full day planned in Hong Kong, going to every location that we want to see.

I will be making a full post covering both our weekend in Batangas and our two days in Hong Kong.

Although I will be working while away, I will mostly be out and about. Heck, in Batangas, I will be sat on the beach doing my work via mobile internet!

While I will be having a great time away, I unfortunately still have to be logging onto my pc to check my sites and do a little work.

However, a flight to the UK will cost around £2000 for myself and my girlfriend, but a weekend in Hong Kong will cost just £500 for us both. Plus, when I return to the Philippines from Hong Kong, I will be able to enter using my British passport which will give me a new visa.

At the moment, I simply can not afford the extra £1500 it would cost to fly to the UK, not to mention the spending money we would need for a week.

I will be flying back to the uk at some point, but just not yet. I am sorry for any disappointment, but god damn it it would take a whole day to get to the UK and you know how much I hate travelling anywhere!

In just 7 days, I will be on a British Airways flight between Heathrow and Hong Kong, en route to Manila.

I have spent the previous week saying goodbye to most of my friends. The remaining friends are yet to contact me or reply. Funny how some things show who your real friends are.

Well, I guess this is it. The countdown is upon me and I am rushing to get everything completed before I have to leave for the airport.