I booked to stay five nights at the Shangri-La Rasa Ria relatively last-minute when Mr A and I agreed to meet up with his mum and to try to see orangutans before both became extinct. Shangri-La has two hotels in the Malaysian State of Sabah, on the island of Borneo; both near the city of Kota Kinabalu.  I chose the Shangri-La Rasa Ria over the Shangri-La Tanjung Aru because of its location on a private, pristine sandy bay on the South China Sea, and its closeness to the natural world of jungle and fauna.

But Rasa Ria is a lot further from Kota Kinabalu airport than Tanjung Aru is.  We landed close to sunset during Ramadan and encountered terrible traffic jams because  it seems than Sabahans love to pull over at roadside restaurants and stalls to pick up food for the sunset breaking of fast, called “Iftar”.  This caused our journey to take 2.5 hours, which we found terribly boring on the back of our 16 hour journey from London.  But during quieter times it’s only half an hour (we had 2 pre-dawn trips to the airport and one back to the hotel after 9pm).

There’s nothing of interest to see on the route, but when you get to the resort you drive across their beautifully manicured golf course and then along a short jungle-lined road to the hotel, which actually has two entrances and lobbies. One is for their Garden Wing (the original hotel) and 200m further on is one for the Ocean Wing, where we were staying. The Ocean wing is a relatively recent addition and looks like a mirror image of the Garden Wing in size and architectural style, but it has bigger, slightly more expensive rooms and some facilities only accessible by Ocean Wing guests.  All guests of either wing have free use of the pools and things at the Garden Wing. The whole place faces the beach and has plenty of garden areas, so neither wing is closer to the garden or to the ocean.  In fact both wings are only about 150m from the beach, but the beach is enormously wide and you have to walk about 400m further to actually get to the water. Flip-flops or other light footwear are advised for walking across 400m of hot sand in the middle of the day!

 

 

 

 

 

Our Ocean Wing Premier Room (king), no.1816, was about 25m from reception, on the ground floor, and was a good size, with a super-king bed, sofa, dining and writing tables, a TV and a free mini-bar and fresh fruit which were replenished daily. Behind the TV wall was a dressing area, drawers and wardrobe, which led into the bathroom which had twin basins, a toilet and a spacious shower room.

Outside some sliding glass doors was a large covered private terrace with a large day bed and a very large stone-tiled bath. The bath, especially when filled with water, must have weighed a couple of tons, but I saw that every room in the ocean Wing, even on the 1st or 2nd floors, had this, so their floors must be pretty strong!  Guests can request a free “Bath Indulgence” during their stay, but this only seemed to involve someone running the bath for you; there was no bubble-bath, rose petals or anything at all added, which was a little disappointing.

The strangest thing about the bath though was a complete lack of privacy screening. Immediately beyond our ground floor terrace was the Ocean Wing pool area, and while there were electronically controlled screens which came down over the edges of the bath, ours didn’t work, and we would still have had the problem of getting undressed to enter the bath.  I popped round to reception to query this situation and it appeared no-one had ever thought about it, or complained before me.  So I just went ahead with my bath and thought to myself “if anyone sees me and complains, it’s their problem”!

Shangri-La Rasa Ria is a much larger hotel than I usually feel comfortable in, but overcrowding was only an issue at breakfast time, when we had to wait a few minutes for a table to become free. Our visit coincided with a Chinese holiday and it seems Chinese guests spend a long time over breakfast, eating gargantuan amounts.  The Garden Wing pools and lawns were busier than the calmer and more exclusive Ocean Wing pool and neighbouring pool-sized ‘jacuzzi’, and the beach was all but deserted, so we never had a problem finding two shaded sun loungers together.

Friendly staff from the pool-side bar area brought drinks and delicious food to us on the loungers on request (try the satay!).  Apart from an occasional scream from a young kid it was generally a calm and relaxing place to spend the hot days. But I feel the need to note that I was the only guest at the pool or beach wearing Vilebrequin!

 

 

 

 

Each evening between 5pm and 6pm Ocean Wing guests are served drinks (wine, beer, water or juices) and canapés on the lawns between the pool area and the beach. There was usually a band playing gentle well-known tunes and it was a great opportunity to get to meet our fellow guests and to swap tales of activities and adventures.  We also had a chance to talk to a couple of the hotel’s chefs.  Do beware though that the hot weather and free-flowing booze can make one a little tipsy!

Shangri-La Rasa Ria has five restaurants but we only tried three of them. My favourite was Oceano, an Italian restaurant with a genuine Italian head chef. Quality was pretty high and I appreciated the chef’s creativity in transforming local produce into traditional and novel Italian dishes.  The home-made pasta was very good, with rich sauces (I loved the lamb ragu), but my favourite was a foie gras dish with hazelnuts from Piedmont and berries.  It was nothing like I was expecting; a light and fresh dish. I also suggest you try their barrel-aged Negroni before your meal; warming and luxurious tasting. 8.5/10    Oceano is also where breakfast is served each morning. At breakfast there are several live food stations (crepes, hotcakes, waffles, and lots of Asian dishes), a ‘continental’ style buffet and a la carte hot dishes.  I mentioned earlier that breakfast was pretty busy with lots of ravenous Chinese and sometimes food items ran out, so we learned to come a little earlier each day. You can choose to eat in- or out-side. The former is cooler, the latter lets you marvel at the beautifully coloured little birds which come looking for scraps.  7/10

We also ate at their Japanese-style restaurant, Kozan-Teppanyaki, where you sit at a counter watching the chef cook on the hot Teppan, which is always good fun. Our set meal was enjoyable, but prep and cooking weren’t up to the higher standards you would see in Japan. 7/10 I would argue our cuttle fish was over-cooked (and therefore rubbery).   As an alternative to the set meals arid the Teppan you can order a la carte at normal tables.

And we had a good Indian meal at “Naan – flavours of India” which was recently declared the best in Sabah.  I just ordered a thali which was very well put together, delicious, and very good value. 8.5/10

Next door to the Garden Wing is the Dalit Bay Golf Club and that’s where you’ll also find the hotel’s spa, called “The Spa” and complimentary buggies or cars will take you there from reception and back.  The golf course is beautifully laid out and well-maintained and the main challenge is that 16 of the 18 holes have water in play.  I got a “twilight” rate of MYR200 (c£40) which included the loan of quality Titleist clubs, a buggy and water.  Although the hot and humid conditions were taxing, I thoroughly enjoyed the 12 holes I managed before the light faded. And I only put one ball in the water!

I had one massage in the spa, which was good, clean, and tranquil.

 

 

 

 

My favourite facility at Shangri-La Rasa Ria was the Nature Reserve and centre.  A tranquil spot towards the right side of the bay (looking from the land) it had a learning area and a couple of small fish ponds which attracted hungry monitor lizards. From the nature centre you could go off on various walks, hikes, jungle walks, etc into the surrounding reserve of mangrove and tropical forest.  We went on a night jungle walk with night vision ‘goggles’ which was enjoyable in spite of the heat and humidity and in spite of not seeing any of the local mammals. But we did see a green viper resting in a small tree, some scorpions, spiders and insects.  If you go on one of these walks be sure to wear insect repellent!  And even when walking at that end of the beach during the day you should protect yourself from the sand flies which hang around near the mangroves. My calfs took quite a mauling!

Overall I enjoyed my short stay at the Shangri-La Rasa Ria on the island of Borneo. I would rate it as 4 star. Facilities in the Ocean Wing are relatively new and clean, food is good and the staff are all very friendly and helpful.  Mr A had booked rooms in the Garden Wing for his relatives when they visited us, so we got to see a couple of rooms in that Wing which seemed nice, but they had stains on their carpets and were showing their age.  Overall 8/10

However, I found check-out quite stressful because I’m the sort to check bills carefully (Asperger’s) and this hotel itemises and prints its bills in a very confusing manner. So I had to go through it line by line, checking off all the food & beverage receipts I’d collected during the stay, which was quite a challenge due to the daft way they recorded things.  I was disappointed to see a daily tourism tax and a daily room ‘service charge’, especially after I’d left a decent tip for our housekeeper in the room. So the final bill ended up being just a little less than that first presented to me and I was left wondering if the time, stress and argument was worth it.  But it’s never good to end a holiday with ill-feeling, and I implore Shangri-La to make its bills easier to read and understand.  Apart from that I would be quite happy to return, but if I was planning to take some domestic flights during the stay, like this time, I would probably prefer to stay at Shangri-La Tanjung Aru which is closer to the airport at Kota Kinabalu.