Singapore, Borneo & Kuala Lumpur

In September 2019 we took a family holiday to the Far East, having never been to Singapore this would be the highlight of the start of the holiday and we left wishing we had spent more time there.

We chose a city central 4* hotel that is on the Travel Counsellors best sellers list, a its always good to experience a hotel that we recommend on a regular basis and scores highly. The rooms booked were standard lead in rooms, recently refurbished, compact but absolutely perfect for a short city stopover.

On our first morning we had a super buffet breakfast, the choice was immense and we found ourselves fascinated by a robot in the restaurant that cooked omelettes and scrambled eggs!! The early start continued with a full city tour of Singapore, taking in the Marina area and the the "Merlion", followed by a trip to the beautiful Botanical gardens, on to China Town & finally a visit to Little India, where we took advantages of the local street food being sold, which was delicious!

Our city hotel also had the advantage of a great pool area, and as the weather was hot & sunny, it was great at the end of a busy day to return for a swim.

Charlotte, our daughter had on her wishlist to visit the Gardens By The Bay, specifically to see the "Super Trees", we did this late one afternoon, and followed it with a visit to the Marina Bay Hotel, and their cocktail bar at the top of the hotel "Ce La Vie", this had a great vibe & was very much enjoyed by our 2 grown up children!! The views of the sunset, city, gardens & Super Trees lit up were fantastic.

A short internal flight from Singapore took us to Kota Kinabalu on Borneo, and this was to be our opportunity for some rest and relaxation, plus another highlight which was to see the Orangutans of Borneo!

The 5* resort hotel did not disappoint, it catered for couples with an adults only wing, and families with rooms that catered and offered more for families. There were a good choice of restaurants, a wonderful buffet breakfast served every morning, and a lovely beach that was never over crowded. At the hotel we enjoyed a dawn rainforest walk to see the sunrise over Mount Kinabalu, and breakfast at "The Lookout", also seeing many creatures & animals on the way up. As Charlotte celebrated her 22nd Birthday in resort, the hotel booked us both in for a complimentary spa treatment each, which we thought was a lovely gesture.

Our full day to Sandakan meant a very early 5.00 am start to catch a short flight to the other side of the island, from here our friendly guide Tam, met us with a driver, and 4 wheel drive air conditioned vehicle. We firstly visited the Sun Bears and the Probiscus monkeys, followed by an excellent lunch in a local restaurant. In the afternoon we did a canopy walk through the rain forest and were lucky enough to see orangutans in their natural environment high up in the tree canopy. Our final stop of the day was Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre, to see more orangutans. Tam forewarned us that at that time of year given that their was an abundance of food in the rain forest, the orangutans had no need to come to feed, and that very morning none had been seen. However, on that afternoon they did not disappoint us and there were lots to be seen, including a huge male that is very rarely seen, and a mother with her baby! It was a truly magical encounter, and we felt very honoured to have seen these splendid creatures so close up.

Again on the final day Charlotte was spoilt even more by the hotel for her birthday, receiving a cake in the room, another cake in the Japanese restaurant were we had dinner, and she was presented with a gorgeous bouquet of flowers, and serenaded at dinner by the hotel band. The hotel were so attentive, staff in all departments were friendly and professional, and we would return without a shadow of a doubt to this beautiful place.

The final leg of the journey was a short stopover in Kuala Lumpur to break up the homeward journey, having visited here previously on this occasion we did only a little sightseeing. On the last visit The Petronas Towers were closed, therefore we took the opportunity to book to go up the Towers, to learn about how they came about, and also to take advantage of the super views across the city, before going out for dinner on our final night of the holiday.

This was a fabulous family trip and we would most certainly do another visit to Singapore and Borneo in the future.