Shangri-La Rasa Ria and Fireflies...

So we're in Kota Kinabalu this week. This is located on the east island of Malaysia and we're tagging along with Blaine this week as he had a couple of days worth of business over here. (It was a really great excuse for us to tagalong...this school break of the kids' is S-U-P-E-R long!)

We're staying at the Shangri-La Rasa Ria...which is just spectacular. The rooms are well-kept, the grounds are meticulous and the vast majority of the staff are wonderful. We've been spending most of our days poolside as Blaine has spent the last two days working. There is a waterslide for the kids and a large pool that doesn't have you on top of everyone even at the peak of business. (Although, I don't think it's overly busy here this week - which is nice.)

While this is not an all-inclusive, there have been a bunch of nice added touches...like they bring you ice cold water poolside and cold towels and watermelon and popsicles. (I'll tell you more about the popsicles on Friday - saving that one for Fab 5 Friday Funnies this week.) Anyways...here's some pics of the resort!

We did sign up to go look at fireflies last night. Now, I should really ask more about these excursions when we sign up for them. I assumed we would be walking around the grounds looking for fireflies like we do in the States...maybe putting a few in a jar to watch their asses light up...you know, that sort of thing. So, at 7 p.m. we went to the lobby to meet up with our guide - who then directs us to a van and says we have about a 10 minute drive to get to the place. Okay...we all load up and drive 10 minutes out to the middle of nowhere. I mean I saw a few wild dogs, a couple of shacks with some guys drinking beer out front and then we continued driving into the darkness.(It had all the makings of a bad movie!) When we stopped, 3 guys met us and took us down to a boat. Really!?! We're going out on a boat (without life jackets and with my husband who doesn't swim) in the pitch black??! But, yes...we did. And it was - COOL! We took the boat out on the river where we saw thousands of fireflies in the mangrove trees. Our guide was really personable...gave us just enough information on the fireflies, caught a few for everyone to hold in their hands and then chatted about Malaysia and soccer and all sorts of stuff my boys found interesting. A fun little excursion!

Tomorrow we're off to see the orangutans...which I'm rather excited about!! And Blaine has tomorrow off! Woot! Woot! Later peeps!