Goodbye's to Hong Kong. All good things come to an end....

Last morning with the family and then off to HK airport for a mid day flight. 24 hours door to door return home with a nice surprise of being picked up by my beautiful wife in Boston!

It has been a wonderful 3 weeks and whilst sad it is over at least I have the excitement of being with my girls in Newport. I am just hoping Clara remembers her Yé Yé! Thanks to all for for such a good time.





PS New kitchen still in full construction mode - but still think we can finish it by the end of May, fingers crossed!

Arrived Hong Kong...and last dinner

An uneventful flight back to Hong Kong - and an early evening dinner for Al, Ros and me while Shevaun stayed in with a well travelled and tired Clara.

We went to Yee Tung Heen at the Excelsior which serves up delicious Cantonese dishes, especially the Peking Duck. There is also a bar at ToTT’s and Roof Terrace which has great views of Victoria Harbour and the stunning city skyline...but we were too tired to go there and returned home!

An exhausted Ros flying back from Borneo!

Time to leave Malaysia

Sad to go has a been a great time to chill out with Alastair, Shevaun, Clara and Rosalind. We just had time for another swim before leaving for the airport to return to Hong Kong.

I put together the following short video clip of our time in Saba with Clara.

Last dinner - a Teriyaki special!

After been told there was no room at the Teriyaki restaurant we thought we would go by and double check......lucky Leachy.....there was a cancellation. First rate dinner. I had to arrange poppadoms for the girls as they really had their mind on an Indian restaurant next door! As a joke I also told one of the waitresses that it was Shevauns's birthday....imagine the surprise at the end of the meal when a birthday cake arrived accompanied by all the staff. The only problem was they walked right passed us to another table...busted!

Last sunset....

Lucky for us a fantastic sunset

Chill out Saturday at the pool

Last full day at the Hotel so spent it chilling with Clara. Alastair and Ros also got another sail in, and I ran the beach.



Clara dunk!

Catamaran Sailing

An easy day by the pool in very hot and humid weather. In the afternoon the wind came up and we took a Hobbie Cat out. Great fun and Alastair forced a man overboard procedure by diving off the boat into the jelly fish infested seas!

Another nice dinner in, on our balcony, after feeding Clara by the pool

Orang Utan feeding

The Hotel has its own Nature Reserve, and they have about 6 young orphan Orang Utan's which they are preparing to return to the wild. We all went to the 10.00am feeding - it was very good the Ranger came out with some food and stated calling the Orang Utan's and gradually one by one they came swinging in from the trees to get their food. Wonderful sight - but a long way to go before being released - they loved holding onto the Ranger!



Arriving for breakfast

A visit to Mount Kinabalu - 13,434 feet/4,095 mtres

I wanted to do a hike and today was the day. The others decided to enjoy the pool and so I was alone. I left at 7.00am after a las carte breakfast of course, and after a 2 hour drive arrived at the Kinabalu Headquarters after a brief stop at a local market on the way.

The climb to the top and back is normally a two day one night trip so not having time I decided to go close to the Laban Resthouse just above 10,000 feet (3000mtres). I was told I needed a permit AND a guide as no one was allowed up/down the mountain with out one. At the point a very nice German lady called Barbara told me I could go with her husband Stefan as they had a guide...a result...nearly! I was told I needed to have a guide to come down with as I was not overnighting. I got to the Head Ranger and he kindly agreed to let me descend by myself as long as he know the guide! All was well we set off around 11.00am together with another Hungarian hiker called Laci who live in Scotland.

I went up for 3 3/4 hours getting above 10,000 feet and returned in 2 1/4 hours. It was for the most part a track in the shade and views only became available right at the end - wished I was going the whole way! Oh and I left my camera in the car but luckily Stefan and Barbara lent me their and will be sending me photos in due course.


A local market




Back to the Hotel well exercised by 7.00pm for dinner on our balcony with Ali, Shev and Ros while Clara slept in the bedroom.

Alastair managed to get 9 holes of golf in earlier in the day.

At Mount Kinabalu, Saba Borneo

Where is Burneo and some facts...

For those that want to know:

Borneo is the third largest island in the world. The island is divided between three countries: Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei.

"A" is Borneo

The Hotel and Flowers

This is certainly a nice Hotel resort, and the service is great - they seem to all know your name, maybe its because they know they have important guests with Mandarin connections! It turns out the food and beverage manager worked with Shevaun at the Mandarin! We are staying the Ocean Wing v the Garden End. Our end is apparently newer - the business class v economy......our pool can only be used by guests from our end....so there!

We had a nice day round the pool on our arrival yesterday and had a very good buffet dinner at Tepi Laut one or their 7 restaurants.

Today we relaxed around the pool and had dinner at the Ocean restaurant right on the beach...oh and breakfast is great, a la carte included. Not looking forward to the bill on Sunday?








The gardens are very healthy and green (it rains briefly everyday at around 6.00pm for half an hour) and there are an abundance of beautiful flowers.

Arrived Shangri-La Kota Kinaballu, Malaysia

The Leach family, minus my Newport girls (: arrived safely at the Rasa Ria Resort - not too shabby!





Video of room and view...