103~ Our First Getaway

~: Mountain Top Paradise :~

Our first ever getaway as a couple was during our vacation to Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia with Our BFF's. We had gone together with a bunch of them and their family and enjoyed a short 4 days and 5 nights in the city above the sky. We took the RBA morning flight and reached there at noon to which later we had waited for our pick up shauffer from the hotel for some time. We stayed at the Ceylen Hotel and Resort, a miracle hotel we thought; since we had found it on the last minute when most hotels where already fully booked during the period of our stay and the room rates where ridiculously cheap for a four stars hotel with great service. They were a few years established but only in the rural areas where the Mountain was accomodating for hikers and the mounts visitors, and now had recently franchised out to the town. And luckily we were one of the first guests there, so you can imagine the spick and span impressions everywhere, we totally loved our stay.

As soon as we reached the hotel that evening, we rested for a bit and started walking around the mall, which the hotel was situated nearby. We walked around, got some fast food and bought some essentials like snacks and water for preparation. We had planned to stay over at the resort in the mountains if it was possible to transfer between the two without any trouble and thankfully enough, it was possible. So the morning after we early birds packed our stuff and left from the hotel at 7.30am. We hired a van and a driver to send us to the resort up in the mountains and during our journey; there were occasional showers and alternate sunshine with a lot of fogs and cloudy winds, which was probably when the phrase ‘land above the sky’ first really stood the most of its meaning hehe. Meandering around the cliffs was a bit scary with the unfriendly weather and we held on to eachother tight. Around us was a lot of vegetation and small rural houses with a few sheep and cows here and there. There were also many other resort stops along the way.

When we reached our resort, it was nearly noon. It was situated in between the valley hills view and the mountain peak view which we chose to our room to face. As soon as we checked in and settled down, we took in the cool mountain atmosphere and looked around in amazement. We could see the peak just outside our veranda. The room was charming and homey with a KK cultured theme, there were these cute Sabah patterned robes which we felt were great and breakfast service in the mornings were definitely a bonus. As happy as we were with our room, nothing could ever captivate us more than the peak mountain view of the Kota Kinabalu grande. We couldn’t stop taking it in- we had our lunch in the veranda facing it and kept the doors open most of the time. It was certainly a site that takes your breath away all the time and we were deliriously happy and subdued in our serenity being together.

HarmonyUs Sovereigns at Mount Kinabalu, KK, Malaysia

Later we tracked around the area taking lots of pictures and further appreciated the countryside by visiting a nearby farm. That night we enjoyed a put together feast by the kitchen chef for dinner and retreated to our rooms to get enough rest for our second day in KK. The next day, we got up early to appreciate the dawn of the mountain tops and it was another whole different elevated beautiful feeling all together. An experience you would have to live out yourself to really know. With the clouds that surrounded you, you’d feel like you were floating with the birds that were chirping their tunes to you in the cool dew dawn; feeling royally treated by nature. We absolutely loved it. After breakfast, we took a van ride to the hot springs where we soaked ourselves in the earthed naturally warmed waters and also visited the nearby forest tracks. There was a butterfly farm too, which we glimpsed on nearby. We returned to the resort to take the rest of the day off playing in the garden hill top and later on enjoyed a massage therapy session also provided by the hotel. We thought it would be a lovely treat to add to our already great vacation.

For our third day, we returned to the hotel in the city and spent the day shopping, sipping coffee at cafes and dining at the infamous secret recipe restaurant. And on our last day, we continued our shopping and took some time to visit a beautiful bay resort overlooking some islands near the seashore. We headed off to the airport just before the late afternoon came, checked in our luggage at the departure hall and shortly parted of from KK and our first ever getaway together.

It was our first ever HarmonyUs Sovereign getaway and it was simply perfect. We are thankful that we didn’t have any trouble with anything and we are absolutely happy with it because we totally loved the whole trip. We couldn’t have had a better time together in KK where all we can bring back home was the best memories spent together that could never ever be forgotten by either of Us :)